Neumann KH 310A Review (Powered Monitor)

[xykreinov]

What a set of Monitors, do all things correct:
3 way, with dome center and high - check
Analog crossovers and class AB Amplifiers - check
Switch Mode power supply - check
Balanced input to match my new dac2541 - check
No digital stuff or DSP - check
Now on my shortlist when I decide to update my Focal Alpha 80 set....

Wait- the 310 doesn't use DSP or digital crossovers? That's very impressive, considering the response. I prefer to do DSP externally, so that's definitely a plus for me.

 

[MarsianC#]

But also less maxSPL. As already noted somewhere else, this setup helps only with additional capability in bass. No advantage regarding SBIR.

Wait- the 310 doesn't use DSP or digital crossovers?

Never has been. KH80 DSP is the only one with DSP build in. K+H O500C had one too.

 

[SDX-LV]

Great! Always was a bit unfairly skeptical about the off-center woofer design, even if I understand the science behind it at lower frequencies. Three drawbacks about this speaker:

1. Class-A amps. This is just obsolete technology which should be replaced with Class-D as in all equivalent Genelecs.
2. No white version or at least some WAF or design considerations please
3. Price is fair, but I would choose something less perfect but cheaper, unless I need every dB of volume out of it Perhaps Dynaudio LYD-48?

 

[DJBonoBobo]

Although I agree in general there was a review where the KH80 was compared to the KH310 in a listening test and faired a little bit better as long as SPL was within its limit and the music did not contain very low bass. I think it was Sound & Recordings review of the KH80.

Indeed. From the review (translated by deepl):
"As a reference, a pair of KH 310s competed with competitors from their own company. The surprise was not long in coming. The KH 80 played absolutely equally to the much larger KH 310. Tonally, no difference could be seen, and regarding the spatial imaging and source location, one was even inclined to recognize some slight advantages with the KH 80. When the bass became louder or more powerful, the KH 310 could of course play its strengths, but it was always surprising what the KH 80 was capable of."
Source (german): https://www.soundandrecording.de/equipment/studiomonitore-neumann-kh-80-dsp-die-messdaten/

 

[F1308]

Wait- the 310 doesn't use DSP or digital crossovers? That's very impressive, considering the response. I prefer to do DSP externally, so that's definitely a plus for me.

For that you can go 310D instead of 310A...or so I think.
For a much higher price....

 

[Da cynics]

https://www.fidelity-online.de/neumann-kh-420-messungen/

 

[MZKM]

Do the preference score takes spl in to consideration ?

If you mean max SPL, as stated by others, it does not.
The “preference” score is about finding what frequency responses lead to the best sound. Meaning, what type of sound do we prefer.

If a luxury car company conducts a study to find out what seat shape and whatnot (like seat suspension, to “float” the seat) is the most comfortable to drivers, the top speed and 0-60 of the car are not going to be factors.

Max SPL is of course important though. Sadly, as Amir doesn’t want to risk damaging the speakers, he doesn’t do max SPL testing. In my Speaker Selector though, I do state the speaker’s sensitivity. Of course an 85dB speaker could get louder than an 89dB speaker if it can handle a ton of wattage, but knowing the sensitivity will at least be a decent data point for those with <100W amps.

 

[hyperplanar]

For that you can go 310D instead of 310A...or so I think.
For a much higher price....

Nope, the 310D is basically the same thing as the 310A but with a DAC module bolted on to feed the analog input.

 

[Andreas007]

Great! Always was a bit unfairly skeptical about the off-center woofer design, even if I understand the science behind it at lower frequencies. Three drawbacks about this speaker:

1. Class-A amps. This is just obsolete technology which should be replaced with Class-D as in all equivalent Genelecs.
2. No white version or at least some WAF or design considerations please
3. Price is fair, but I would choose something less perfect but cheaper, unless I need every dB of volume out of it Perhaps Dynaudio LYD-48?

In the Neumann KH120 FAQ you can find this statement:

„We use a class A/B design which has the best performance, particularly in the mid-to-high frequency region.“

Seems that they deliberately chose A/B amps at release time because there was no better alternative available?

 

[F1308]

Nope, the 310D is basically the same thing as the 310A but with a DAC module bolted on to feed the analog input.

I was suspicious...now I understand. Thank you !!!!

 

[AudioSceptic]

Conclusions
Neumann KH 310A shows the dedication of the design team to absolute objective perfection. Somehow the recipe here goes even beyond that producing a combine sound that delighted me and glued a smile on my face that has yet to disappear. Yes, $4,400 for a pair of these speakers is a lot of money. What you get though is design engineers perfecting the sound reproduction and not leaving you with the job of EQ to get there. Elimination of bass port (I think) has resulted in very clean low frequency response.

At the risk of stating the obvious, I am going to strongly recommend the Neumann KH 310A Active Monitor. I live for days like this when a company cares to give us the best sound reproduction we can get.

------------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.

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This is looking hard to beat for the money, especially considering you don't need any separate power amps. I see it's been around for some time now. <https://www.soundonsound.com/reviews/neumann-kh310a>. I'd love to see a version that looks more lounge-friendly, although the driver orientation makes that awkward.

 

[andreasmaaan]

All good questions. I think the Olive score is the hour hand in a clock. The minute hand is not there and we have to apply that judgement. With so much objective data, once the pandemic is behind us, I hope various groups of audiophiles get together and do some controlled testing to see what their subjective scores are.

Using a time analogy I am more inclined to consider the Olive preference score as the day rather than hour from my perspective.
It seems to miss a huge amoutnt of what is important to me in a fairly large room sitting between 11 and 21 feet from the speakers in the listening area, though the rearmost seats are normally only used watching a film.
Almost all of the good scoring speakers so far would be completely hopeless in here
Even these.

I like the time analogies, but I think they miss something. The more useful analogy is not time resolution (i.e. minutes vs hours or days), but geographic range. The Olive score is useful when comparing speakers in the same "place" in the market. It does not allow for even approximate comparisons between widely differing designs, but rather, it allows for reasonably precise comparisons between like designs.

In this respect, it may be best seen as a tool for manufacturers to compare speakers of similar cost/size/component quality against others in their class: If the speaker you've designed performs well relative to other speakers of similar size using similar design topology and similar-quality components (that is, presumably having similar SPL limitations, levels of nonlinearity, etc.), then you know you've designed a good speaker.

From the point of view of consumers who aren't able to interpret measurements, a poor Olive score can be used to rule a speaker out, so it can be useful in that respect. But it can't be used to do the inverse.

EDIT: notwithstanding the widely-discussed deficiencies of the model concerning the mathematical inconsistencies, questions about its applicability beyond non-conventional designs, etc..

 

[F1308]

This is looking hard to beat for the money, especially considering you don't need any separate power amps. I didn't realise it's been around this long though. <https://www.soundonsound.com/reviews/neumann-kh310a>

So we better wait for a soon to come replacement...?

 

[Kervel]

A limitation of the Olive preference rating is that it ignores SPL capabilities, which is extremely important for the user. One solution is to label each speaker, based on SPL, as near, mid or farfield. Within each category, Olive's rating should be much more useful.

 

[thewas]

From my engineering background I favour this.

So do I as it needs very good driver, crossover and baffle design to really minimise resonances instead of just attenuating them with an overall DSP EQ.

 

[SDX-LV]

So do I as it needs very good driver, crossover and baffle design to really minimise resonances instead of just attenuating them with an overall DSP EQ.

Yep, I would also prefer they keep the analog crossover, just update the amps to a more efficient ("sustainable") tech like class-D. Just comparing to Genelec, Adam and many others here.

 

[YSC]

and found either left hand or

Yep, I would also prefer they keep the analog crossover, just update the amps to a more efficient ("sustainable") tech like class-D. Just comparing to Genelec, Adam and many others here.

I bought the 8030C based on the same preference on all analog, I prefer dsp if I really wanted to and do it externally in my room to correct all stuffs, and by that a pair of speakers like 8030C could be a best start as it’s as flat as possibly achievable without any processing so I can do a lot more than further stressing a speaker which was brought to anechoic neutral by dsp by who knows what margin already! And the common room mode attenuation dip switches did helped a lot

 

[MZKM]

A limitation of the Olive preference rating is that it ignores SPL capabilities, which is extremely important for the user. One solution is to label each speaker, based on SPL, as near, mid or farfield. Within each category, Olive's rating should be much more useful.

Sadly though, Amir doesn’t do max SPL tests in fear of damaging the speakers.

 

[Kervel]

Sadly though, Amir doesn’t do max SPL tests in fear of damaging the speakers.

Sure, and for good reason. I think the goal really is to get a rough indication, to allow for something of an apples to apples within a class of speakers. Many manufacturers report max wattage the speaker accepts, which together with sensitivity gives an SPL indication.

 

[Dan1210]

Interesting! I nearly bought three of these for my cinema room build as lcr, i went with the klipsch kl650 in the end sunk into a baffle wall. Despite fairly thorough research on these speakers i missed that it had a port on the back which likely would not have worked for my baffle wall setup. Good to see they review so well.