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Kali Audio IN-8 Studio Monitor Review

As I said, I have the tiny Neumann in another smaller room for HT only (btw they are very good with subs for movies). LP is around 2 meters there.
If I put the Neumann in my main listening room, on stands at 3 meters they sound like a toy.
 
That's what I'm saying, studio monitors are for direct sound/nearfield. If you want to have the direct sound experience from your sofa the KH 80 for instance aren't going to make it.
Any other similar sized hifi speaker (like the old Audioplan Kontrapunkt) then wouldn't make it either, regardless of their highend price.
 
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As I said, I have the tiny Neumann in another smaller room for HT only (btw they are very good with subs for movies). LP is around 2 meters there.
If I put the Neumann in my main listening room, on stands at 3 meters they sound like a toy.
and? nobody said studio monitors can replace full range floor-standers. doesn't change the fact that there is no problem using them as 'hi-fi' speakers in the appropriate environment.
 
If you want to have the direct sound experience from your sofa

Why would you want that? As explained in @Floyd Toole's book, studies show most listeners prefer some amount of reflection (especially side reflections) and reverberation.

If I put the Neumann in my main listening room, on stands at 3 meters they sound like a toy.

Have you considered visual bias might come into play here? These speakers look very small. If you're not blind when listening to them, you might convince yourself they sound small just because they look like it.
 
As I said, I have the tiny Neumann in another smaller room for HT only (btw they are very good with subs for movies). LP is around 2 meters there.
If I put the Neumann in my main listening room, on stands at 3 meters they sound like a toy.
That's because they are TINY. For 3 meter you need 8 inches or perhaps 6.5inches that are designed superbly. And you will be benefited by a sub then you can happily use a pair of 6.5 inch speakers. It's irrelevant to whether it's studio speakers or not.
 
As I said, I have the tiny Neumann in another smaller room for HT only (btw they are very good with subs for movies). LP is around 2 meters there.
If I put the Neumann in my main listening room, on stands at 3 meters they sound like a toy.
Add a sub and that may change. In general I disagree with you regarding sound quality per se, but I agree that such a small speaker cannot play loud enough for serious listening. I once placed my similar sized Genelec 8020a on top of the K&H O300D and played bass heavy music at low SPL. My colleague thought that the sub was not switched off ...
 
As I said, I have the tiny Neumann in another smaller room for HT only (btw they are very good with subs for movies). LP is around 2 meters there.
If I put the Neumann in my main listening room, on stands at 3 meters they sound like a toy.
As said this has nothing to with Hifi vs. monitor but with driver sizes and directivity, you can't expect from a tiny 4" monitor to the have the same directivity and max SPL as a 8" Hifi loudspeaker and of course also the opposite.
Maximum listening distance is just a function of the loudspeaker directivity, room reverbation and maximum SPL desired.
 
As I said, I have the tiny Neumann in another smaller room for HT only (btw they are very good with subs for movies). LP is around 2 meters there.
If I put the Neumann in my main listening room, on stands at 3 meters they sound like a toy.

The Neumann is a 4-inch monitor... what hifi speaker of the same size has enough SPL output for 3 meters? It doesn't exist as far as I know.

It's really just a question of output while not losing quality. Find me a hifi speaker that has comparable quality of measurements, SPL(113db @ 1m) to a Genelec 8351B without being much larger, more expensive, or both. Devialet Phantom is the only one I can think of offhand, and it has its own weirdness and compromises due to being designed for wireless operation first and foremost.

I would be happy to buy a hifi speaker but it seems like the studio monitor companies are beating them across the board in both price : performance and size : performance. The latter matters to me because I just don't want to deal with 100lb+ floorstanders as someone who moves every few years.
 
So, while we're all obsessing about the IN-8 here, I cannot wait to see what their 7 series competitor is like.

I'm going to buy some high end studio monitor this year and an looking at HEDD Type 07, Output/Barefoot collab, or this new Kali thing. I love JBL and would stick with them, but their 7 series is too expensive for me. I think Kali will be either cheaper or if the same price, a better value offering.
 
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I am always using MMM to room EQ my speakers, so here is the MMM response of both my Kali IN-8 in my not very big room vs. the ASR Klippel measurements:

View attachment 48388

As it can be seen the resemblance is not bad at all above the modal region (around 500 Hz).

Here also my quick'n'dirty sound power estimation measurement (also MMM but in a closer radius in all directions around the loudspeaker) vs. the Klippel measurement:

View attachment 48389

Imho not too shabby either considering these measurements take less than a minute, imho not a bad quick'n'dirty check of the overall responses.
Sorry I missed this... These two measurements should correlate. Not a coincidence.
 
IN-8s are in my living room, distance about 2.75m from listening position, 2 JBL subs, they sound just fine thanks. So did the LP-6 that they replaced.

I've just seen that the IN-8 are specified for a listening distance of 2.8 meters...

update: reading full specs it seems that is the maximum distance

Screenshot 2020-02-03 at 08.51.06.png
 
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I've just seen that the IN-8 are specified for a listening distance of 2.8 meters...

update: reading full specs it seems that is the maximum distance

View attachment 48482

Obviously depending on how loud you prefer to listen. Personally I don't need 114db (or 85db continuous) in my living room so 3-3.5m would work fine with the IN-8 too.
 
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Obviously depending on how loud you prefer to listen. Personally I don't need 114db (or 85db continuous) in my living room so 3-3.5m would work fine with the IN-8 too.
For movies one should want to achieve ~105dB peaks, as that is what movies are mastered to. Music is typically a lot more compressed, I usually am using <10% the wattage for music that I use for movies (-8dB on my volume for movies and usually -20dB or even lower for music).
 
For movies one should want to achieve ~105dB peaks, as that is what movies are mastered to. Music is typically a lot more compressed, I usually am using <10% the wattage for music that I use for movies (-8dB on my volume for movies and usually -20dB or even lower for music).

Yep. And my system is music only.
 
The difference between music and movies, doesn't really exist. There is no spoon... ;)

We can enjoy music in multichannel music formats, not just sacd (5.1), but also at the same formats we enjoy in moves.

DVD audio titles are more than just a few, with all the common dolby formats, and even BD audio exists, with Dolby Atmos, and of course non immersive older formats.

Live music events, in every possible kind of music (from classic to zz top and Moby) are available with multichannel audio and high quality video, at BD's.

I enjoy BB King and Eric Clapton and other artists at the crossroads festival, with dolby true HD sound, and of course in Dolby Atmos the well known Roger waters "the wall", and many many other live events, or even studio recordings.

There is no difference...
 
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