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Kali Audio IN-8v2 (Second Wave) 3-Way Studio Monitor Review
- Thread starter hardisj
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Interesting idea.
± 40 degrees horizontal is pretty narrow compared to most speakers measured so far, but on its side that becomes the vertical, which is plenty, and is vertically narrower than most horizontal MTM center speakers. That could leave you with a little less floor and ceiling reflection to contend with.
On the other hand, ± 30 degrees vertical becomes the horizontal. That is a little more than the 20 degrees I often see measured for horizontal MTM center speakers, excepting better designs using offset drivers and tweeters from Infinity, Emotiva, Revel, and the like. All in all I think this is fine.
On its side, what becomes the left and right dispersion isn't exactly the same in both directions due to one side having a woofer, but it should be close enough.
Use your preouts and you don't need to worry about an external amp for your center speaker.
84 dB at 3 meters is the loudest you can go before the limiter starts to shape the frequency response. That should be loud enough for most, but barely. If your system is at 4 meters, I would want something with more output than a linear 78 dB.
The only downsides I can see are wanting to EQ down that 4-5 kHz area, and potentially the audibility of the 160 Hz resonance. You probably want to cover up the LED.
At $400 it contends with the Infinity RC263 and Emotiva C2+. Physical dimensions may be a deciding factor.
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In my little setup this speaker would be 85 inches from my ears. I feel that's a little close, what do you guys think?
85 inch is about 7 feet or 2.1 m, not close at all, may probably even be far because these are near field monitors.
From what I have seen the horizontal and vertical directivity are nearly the same, which is not surprise given mid and tweeter is coaxial. Erin only gives vertical to +-40 degree where as horizontal is +-90 degree, so the vertical seems better. If vertical directivity shows up to +-90 degree I would assume vertical would be identical to horizontal.
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Look closer at the graphs.
not really, this design is meant for studios so the vertical directivity is very controlled (limited) so reflections from a desk or a control board / keyboard are limited. they would make a good a center speaker when they're placed vertically, the way they're meant to be used.
More Dynamics Please
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FWIW the IN series has a dip switch setting specifically for sitting horizontally on a console bridge, so Kali doesn't discourage horizontal use in a studio setting.
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When I measure my room, 30 degrees covers my seats nicely. Sitting upright is hard to do in most spaces, but probably not necessary with this speaker.
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Someone tell me why I shouldn't buy this instead of a horizontal center speaker. The latter would probably need an amp which makes it a less appealing option.
jirodreams
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Instead of starting a new thread, I thought I'd float this question here -
I'm looking at monitors for a 10x12 room, currently untreated (just moved in, building panels and bass traps as I get time over the next couple of months). My primary use is for recording/jamming and general listening - there's way more jamming in my life than mastering-ready music.
I'm also not necessarily at my desk half the time - guitar and bass push me to the middle of the room, I have pods of synths around the room so having good dispersion/off-axis performance seems like an important characteristic. I'd prefer to not need a subwoofer or active correction software running.
I could stretch my budget to ~$2k but the reviews of these are very interesting and I don't want to spend just to spend. I guess I'm asking, what would I be giving up with the IN-8s vs. something in the $2k/pair range like Focal Shape Twins (or even $3k/pair range like Barefoot Footprint02s - I have some rewards saved with Alto Music that would make them feasible).
I'm looking at monitors for a 10x12 room, currently untreated (just moved in, building panels and bass traps as I get time over the next couple of months). My primary use is for recording/jamming and general listening - there's way more jamming in my life than mastering-ready music.
I'm also not necessarily at my desk half the time - guitar and bass push me to the middle of the room, I have pods of synths around the room so having good dispersion/off-axis performance seems like an important characteristic. I'd prefer to not need a subwoofer or active correction software running.
I could stretch my budget to ~$2k but the reviews of these are very interesting and I don't want to spend just to spend. I guess I'm asking, what would I be giving up with the IN-8s vs. something in the $2k/pair range like Focal Shape Twins (or even $3k/pair range like Barefoot Footprint02s - I have some rewards saved with Alto Music that would make them feasible).
thewas
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Not really much, actually the IN-8 v2 have no large drawbacks and better off-axis performance than the Twins and 02s.
Skip the Footprints, IMO - they have a tiny sweet spot. The Twins are much wider dispersion overall than the IN-8s but not necessarily better because their frequency response is... Not great. I think at $2k/pr your best bet would be a used pair of Focal Solo6 Be's. The Kalis here are good, but their beamwidth is somewhat narrow at around +/-40 degrees (if I'm reading the graphs right) where the Focals are more like +/-70 degrees or so.
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The RCA jack must be enabled via a DIPswitch setting to work, so my guess would be that the RCA setting would disable the XLR and TRS jacks.
For Canadians...the day has arrived! 
Today, Kali IN-8v2 became available to purchase in Canada for CDN$1078/pair.
Long-mcquade is the first reseller to offer it, but I expect other resellers to follow.
Today, Kali IN-8v2 became available to purchase in Canada for CDN$1078/pair.
Long-mcquade is the first reseller to offer it, but I expect other resellers to follow.
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For Canadians...the day has arrived!
Today, Kali IN-8v2 became available to purchase in Canada for CDN$1078/pair.
Long-mcquade is the first reseller to offer it, but I expect other resellers to follow.
That's not too bad -- less that $60 USD more than we Yanks pay!
King_Pin
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I got mine from ZZsounds a while ago. Came out to $1134 with exchange so I'm happy to see that the pricing is pretty much in line.For Canadians...the day has arrived!
Today, Kali IN-8v2 became available to purchase in Canada for CDN$1078/pair.
Long-mcquade is the first reseller to offer it, but I expect other resellers to follow.
Nice. Curious to hear your thoughts about them.
Erin, first, thanks for the thorough reviews.
A question on the Instantaneous Compression Test:
Do you think the compression/limiting would show up at the 102 dB level if the 102 dB was the peak level when a music track is being played?
For example, if music content is peaking at 102 dB at 1 meter, it's probably ranging in the mid to upper 90's most of the time, based on my observations. Peaks will often correspond with the bass guitar and kick drum hits when I've looked at this.
In other words, it would be interesting to know when compression/limiting would kick in when playing music, since peaks are transient in music.
I guess this would be possible to test with music playing...like keep increasing the volume by x dB with a music track playing, and then determine the point at which the peak increase in dB at a specific point in a track no longer matches the overall volume increase in dB.
Curious to hear your and other's thoughts on determining the onset of compression/limiting when music is playing.
BTW, I own a pair of the LP-8, which are really good for $400/pair.
A question on the Instantaneous Compression Test:
Do you think the compression/limiting would show up at the 102 dB level if the 102 dB was the peak level when a music track is being played?
For example, if music content is peaking at 102 dB at 1 meter, it's probably ranging in the mid to upper 90's most of the time, based on my observations. Peaks will often correspond with the bass guitar and kick drum hits when I've looked at this.
In other words, it would be interesting to know when compression/limiting would kick in when playing music, since peaks are transient in music.
I guess this would be possible to test with music playing...like keep increasing the volume by x dB with a music track playing, and then determine the point at which the peak increase in dB at a specific point in a track no longer matches the overall volume increase in dB.
Curious to hear your and other's thoughts on determining the onset of compression/limiting when music is playing.
BTW, I own a pair of the LP-8, which are really good for $400/pair.
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