• WANTED: Happy members who like to discuss audio and other topics related to our interest. Desire to learn and share knowledge of science required. There are many reviews of audio hardware and expert members to help answer your questions. Click here to have your audio equipment measured for free!

Kali IN-5 Studio Monitor Review

This is interesting. I have a midbass issue, and I just plugged your Full Range figures into IIEQ Pro (a 10-band equalizer I use with SoundSource on a Mac). It seems to do good things. But it mostly cuts things at about 150 Hz, no? I don't see a 10 Hz cut here. Or is there some other software you're also using that has a Full Range setting on top of this?

Oh, and the overall gain is just left at 0.00 db?
The broad cut around 150 Hz is addressing the mid bass hump in my room response, which I mentioned earlier. Maybe your mid bass issue is similar which is why it sounds good to you, but I would definitely run your own measurements and corrections rather than apply ones specific to my setup.

The 10 Hz cut is the default LF roll-off corner frequency added by REW when generating filters if the Speaker Type is set to Full Range. 80 Hz is the default roll-off for Bass Limited speakers. But I now realize that I only had REW set to generate filters 20 Hz-20 kHz so a filter at 10 Hz wouldn't be created anyway.
 
If some lower frequency (not sure which) is cut off, why should these not sound identical to in8 v2.
The only factor I can immediately identify is the cabinet size.
Drivers the same, wattage the same.
The bass driver being between 5 inch and 8 inch results in less distortion as it only deals with lower midrange.
And an attached sub can do the rest.
Power limiters yes are different.
Have the crossovers been designed differently between these two models?
 
Have the crossovers been designed differently between these two models?
The TI combination DSP+Class-D chips driving the woofers are different, with the IN-5 requiring more woofer EQ and thus more amp power than the more sensitive, lower F3 IN-8 driver. Other than DSP programming, there is no crossover design per se AFAIK -- and it's possible the PCB layouts are identical assuming the one chip that is different has the same pinout. According to the published specs, the IN-8 has lower overall distortion -- probably the result of having to drive the IN-5 woofer harder to achieve the specified bass extension. Max. AC power draw for both models is the same according their back panels, so I think we can safely assume they use the same SMPS.
 
The TI combination DSP+Class-D chips driving the woofers are different, with the IN-5 requiring more woofer EQ and thus more amp power than the more sensitive, lower F3 IN-8 driver. Other than DSP programming, there is no crossover design per se AFAIK -- and it's possible the PCB layouts are identical assuming the one chip that is different has the same pinout. According to the published specs, the IN-8 has lower overall distortion -- probably the result of having to drive the IN-5 woofer harder to achieve the specified bass extension. Max. AC power draw for both models is the same according their back panels, so I think we can safely assume they use the same SMPS.
If I am using a sub such as svs sb2000 pro crossovered with in5, why should it sound different than in8 v2 with the svs sb2000 pro.
I was thinking it would be mid bass only.
 
If I am using a sub such as svs sb2000 pro crossovered with in5, why should it sound different than in8 v2 with the svs sb2000 pro.
I was thinking it would be mid bass only.
That seems to be a sensible surmise -- perhaps a slight difference in distortion between the 80Hz high-pass from the sub and the 300Hz crossover to the midrange driver, otherwise pretty much the same.
 
Last edited:
Do they measure the same above 80Hz?
No. See the graphs at the start of this thread vs here: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...econd-wave-3-way-studio-monitor-review.24586/

You'd expect differences through the bass-mid crossover region (centred at 280 Hz) due to the different bass driver sizes, and cabinet size differences have scope to affect the response right up the the highest frequencies.

How significant the differences are and what may be preferable is a whole different question that I'm currently pondering for myself as I'm weighing up which to try. I'd be using with a subwoofer and high-pass filtering the Kali's but as your question alludes to there is more to this than just the region the sub would cover.

(Edit: for context I own a pair of LP6 v2s that I currently use as rear surrounds but I've not heard either In-5 or In-8 models.)
 
Last edited:
Back
Top Bottom