Kali IN-5 announcement

[stevenswall]

Quite curious to see how these measure.

I've got some Eve SC208s in my bedroom that are a bit too large and ugly. Would like to replace them with something smaller and possibly coaxial. Thinking about maybe the Gen 8030C, AE1 Actives or these. The Elac Navis or KEF R3 (+amp) would be nice but quite out of budget.

8030c will probably be about as bass limited as these, which I think are good for the size. The Navis has port chuffing on some songs before I can hear the drivers distort, and though the Navis sounds good without notable nasties, the IN-5 sounds perhaps a bit more uncolored. Budget wide, I think the IN-5 is it.

 

[sharock]

8030c will probably be about as bass limited as these, which I think are good for the size. The Navis has port chuffing on some songs before I can hear the drivers distort, and though the Navis sounds good without notable nasties, the IN-5 sounds perhaps a bit more uncolored. Budget wide, I think the IN-5 is it.

Thanks. So even though this has a dedicated 5" woofer and the 8030C is 2-way, they are similar in bass performance? I notice Kali quote 39Hz extension and conveniently leave off the -10dB! Ideally, I'd also get some room correction, but again how far do you go on a casual listening area like the bedroom.

 

[stevenswall]

Thanks. So even though this has a dedicated 5" woofer and the 8030C is 2-way, they are similar in bass performance? I notice Kali quote 39Hz extension and conveniently leave off the -10dB! Ideally, I'd also get some room correction, but again how far do you go on a casual listening area like the bedroom.

Amir should have measurements at some point for the IN-5 that would tell you more about the bass extension, but these are the specs I'm looking at. By "About as bass limited" I mean that I don't think the Genelecs will go any deeper if that's a concern. Both a sold as relatively flat speakers, and the biggest different for me would be the coaxial driver vs not because I move vertically when using speakers. (Yoga, floor for video games, couch for movies.

Kali is
±3 dB 47 Hz - 21 kHz

Genelec is
± 2 dB 54 Hz - 20 kHz

Haven't heard that particular Genelec, but looking at the 104dB rating for the Genelec and the 115 rating for the Kali IN-5, I wonder if both are playing pink noise above a certain frequency? More headroom would allow for more EQ, which might actually put the IN-5 as notably better bass wise than the 8030.

 

[Dansi]

So I brought them outside and same sound same story. Bowing my head changed the sound in same fashion. Straight head sounds dull. Maybe something wrong with my pair?

I hope Kali In 8 second wave will be also heard while being tested in frequency response. I hope this could be fixed with DSP update. Kali In 8 were very good but the higher mids-lower highs "problem". And just for the record I dont like hyped v shaped monitors or with harsh mids/highs.

 

[ernestcarl]

Could be. If it's both monitors, then unlikely.

Both Amir and Erin will have their own review sample to measure so we'll see how your observation correlates with the data soon enough.

 

[stevenswall]

So I brought them outside and same sound same story. Bowing my head changed the sound in same fashion. Straight head sounds dull. Maybe something wrong with my pair?

I hope Kali In 8 second wave will be also heard while being tested in frequency response. I hope this could be fixed with DSP update. Kali In 8 were very good but the higher mids-lower highs "problem". And just for the record I dont like hyped v shaped monitors or with harsh mids/highs.

If they don't sound to your liking at this point, I think you've done everything you can to make sure it's not the room. Send them back if you don't like them. Bugs me that we didn't figure out what it was since it seems the highs get less clear when I angle my head.

I wonder if you are used to something about the Adam's and dynamic tweeters with different dispersion and frequency response just sound different to you.

 

[Dansi]

If they don't sound to your liking at this point, I think you've done everything you can to make sure it's not the room. Send them back if you don't like them. Bugs me that we didn't figure out what it was since it seems the highs get less clear when I angle my head.

I wonder if you are used to something about the Adam's and dynamic tweeters with different dispersion and frequency response just sound different to you.

I can say that I heard lot of latest monitors and in accoustically treated studio so I can compare and also rely on other listeners immidiate opinion. I think I dont love Adam´s tweeter as it is differrent than "typical" tweeter.

 

[benny1201]

Kali messaged me last week and are going to send me a pair to review. Think they said it would be about a month.

Any news on the in-5? Looking forward to your review.

 

[hardisj]

Any news on the in-5? Looking forward to your review.

Yep. My review pair are set to arrive Friday. Not sure when I’ll get the time to start the review but they're on their way to me.

 

[More Dynamics Please]

Yep. My review pair are set to arrive Friday. Not sure when I’ll get the time to start the review but they're on their way to me.

An active 3-way concentric speaker without hiss for $350 might be considered enough of a breakthrough by many to deserve prioritizing to the head of the speaker test queue.

 

[stevenswall]

An active 3-way concentric speaker without hiss for $350 might be considered enough of a breakthrough by many to deserve prioritizing to the head of the speaker test queue.

I agree. They are excellent, give people a chance for a proper three way concentric, the hiss is very low, virtually silent from a foot away if you turn the gain down a bit even if your RCA cables have a little noise, and they seem to have lots of headroom.

Now we just need a good xlr surround sound processor for a budget surround system with these and some subs.

Can't wait for Kali to make something even bigger now... Like a 10" woofer version with excellent extension and even larger waveguide to compete with tower speakers.

 

[Ziltoe]

An entertaining review [not meant disparagingly] until @hardisj comes with his review

 

[More Dynamics Please]

^ It's just an incredible waste of time to spend more than half an hour watching a video that contains a few seconds of semi-useful information. The biggest flaw to me is that he was comparing his dialed in Adams to the IN-5s right out of the box without bothering to set the dip switches to match the speaker's location. I'm sorry but this is the last video I'm going to watch that's posted on this forum.

 

[More Dynamics Please]

It will be interesting to see how IN-5 performance compares with the Elac Uni-Fi 2.0 UB52. Other than the IN-5 being active and the Uni-Fi being passive they share a basic configuration featuring 5.25" bass driver and 4" mid with concentric 1" dome in similar size ported cabinet. Even before the IN-5 test begins it clearly wins on cost while the Uni-Fi wins on esthetic appearance. Overall audio performance will be the tie-breaker.

 

[magic44ken]

KEF Q150 is another to compare to the In-5. Are there any comparison between Q150 and Elac Uni-Fi 2.0?

 

[More Dynamics Please]

KEF speakers in the price range of the 3-way IN-5/UniFi are all 2-way. To get a 3-way KEF requires moving up to a minimum of the much more expensive R3.

 

[stevenswall]

It will be interesting to see how IN-5 performance compares with the Elac Uni-Fi 2.0 UB52. Other than the IN-5 being active and the Uni-Fi being passive they share a basic configuration featuring 5.25" bass driver and 4" mid with concentric 1" dome in similar size ported cabinet. Even before the IN-5 test begins it clearly wins on cost while the Uni-Fi wins on esthetic appearance. Overall audio performance will be the tie-breaker.

The Elac Navis would be a more apples to apples comparison. RCA is trash relative to XLR, passive is trash compared to active, no room correction and wonky frequency response is trash compared with even slightly corrected stuff with the IN-5, though the Elac Unifi is cheaper.

I'll bet it beats the Navis though, though I could see the Navis having a bit more bass and midbass if people like tilted sound. (I've heard both in my home.)

 

[stevenswall]

KEF speakers in the price range of the 3-way IN-5/UniFi are all 2-way. To get a 3-way KEF requires moving up to a minimum of the much more expensive R3.

KEF needs to make an active three way.

 

[thewas]

passive is trash compared to active

That might be true in some cases, but cannot be generalised, there exist also active loudspeakers which are poorer than passive ones.

 

[hardisj]

testing has started
testing is done