• 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

AudioJester

Addicted to Fun and Learning
Forum Donor
Joined
Jan 7, 2020
Messages
915
Likes
1,215
I thought 2nd meant there was a previous version. Hmmmnn… oh well

Stupid me searched out second wave and I think I paid more believing they were an upgraded version. Having said that, last year when I got them, they were the last pair in the country.

I use IN5 and KH120 in desktop setups. To me they are the wrong tye of speaker if listening more than 3m away.
 

ernestcarl

Major Contributor
Joined
Sep 4, 2019
Messages
3,106
Likes
2,313
Location
Canada
I use IN5 and KH120 in desktop setups. To me they are the wrong tye of speaker if listening more than 3m away.

The LSR305s I mentioned only incidentally "double duty" as far-field rear surrounds in my front desk's changeable 1.0/2.0/2.1/5.1/7.1 "Frankenstein" setup -- and mainly used to upmix stereo content to MCH. In actuality, they mainly are used as the surrounds (at ~1.4 m distance) for my couch MLP located near the rear end wall of the same room. They do not have the headroom required for loud listening volumes nor have the cleanness for the application of some necessary boosting EQ without incurring more distortion than wanted -- so only subtractive PEQs are used -- and which is why I am leaning more on the larger IN-8 v2, if ever, instead. However, at my usual not so loud "home cinema" listening SPL levels, they work perfectly all right. But the main issue being so far a distance away in such tight corners right against the rear wall means the desk MLP (rear side surround) response is never going to be optimal no matter what type of monitor I feasibly am able to install in there.

1658450945354.jpeg


----------
EDIT: made some EQ adj. shown in the two graphs below, mainly reducing the rear surrounds' direct sound response level with EQ to prevent them from sticking out too much from the rest of the other channels.

1658519984053.png 1658519991642.png

This broad level adjustment based on the full frequency response ~vs~ direct (windowed) response is something that's best confirmed perceptually with actual A/B listening.

----------
I've tried swapping the LSRs for the S8s in the rears and predictably got a better response above 400 Hz -- less of that giant up-down swing -- due to their narrower directivity -- maybe helped by their larger size as well, I suppose. However, the valleys below 400 Hz were essentially more or less similar in the end.

The differences is also very much visible in "time" by zooming in the wavelet spectrograms:

1658451892068.jpeg 1658451899686.jpeg 1658451905050.jpeg

Not something one can just EQ away with DSP, unfortunately.
 

Attachments

  • 1658450972936.jpeg
    1658450972936.jpeg
    172.7 KB · Views: 55
  • 1658450986602.jpeg
    1658450986602.jpeg
    98.5 KB · Views: 67
Last edited:

More Dynamics Please

Addicted to Fun and Learning
Joined
Nov 18, 2020
Messages
562
Likes
752
Location
USA
I think Iam wrong, the second wave is just a branding. Looks like thereis only 1 version of the IN5.
Right, when Kali introduced the all-new IN-5 as part of its 2nd wave line of speakers -- which also includes improved v2 versions of the IN-8, LP-6 and LP-8 -- there simply wasn't any 1st wave IN-5 to improve upon.
 

Querkle

Member
Joined
Feb 20, 2022
Messages
42
Likes
15
looking to grab a pair of these in a couple days when im back in Canada, managed to sell my KRK V6S4 2 days before i go, how are people getting on with these? they seem to be unbeatable for the price and im very happy how good they are looking
 

Jbyrd

New Member
Joined
Oct 3, 2022
Messages
2
Likes
0
Erin said the high end was a bit rolled around 7K. How does setting the 6-7 dip switches for 2800 to +2 affect the 7k roll off? Maybe this was covered elsewhere in the post?


kali-2dbboost.JPG
 

charliepratt

New Member
Joined
Nov 12, 2022
Messages
1
Likes
0
Hi all, new here. I’m doing some composing and mixing in a small room - 11x13’. I like to sometimes rehearse guitar fairly loudly against backing tracks as well. Are the IN-5s enough? Or should I look at the IN-8s?

@hardisj
 

auricom

Member
Joined
Dec 2, 2022
Messages
30
Likes
16
Location
Finland
I’m looking for smaller active speakers to not annoy my neighbours as much. I have Adam A8X’s and don’t use them at the moment.
Found these Kali’s and they are interesting because of 3-way design. Before I got my Adam’s I considered 3-way KRK RP10-3 and M-Audio M3-8, but then found too good deal to refuse. That was many years ago. So to make it simpler I guess I’ll go with smaller 3-way speakers this time.
Would IN-5 cause less noise than like IN-8, because woofer is much smaller, or is it still too loud, because cabinet is still quite large? For smaller size I’m also considering IK Multimedia iLoud MTM, but I guess it’s safe to say those are smaller but not as good, also cost more, but they should be better for neighbours of course. Those are also not real 3-way.
My room is mostly untreated and it connects to whole small apartment. It will be for casual music listening only, PC near-field.
 
Last edited:

abrxxx

Member
Joined
Nov 29, 2022
Messages
17
Likes
8
I’m looking for smaller active speakers to not annoy my neighbours as much. I have Adam A8X’s and don’t use them at the moment.
Found these Kali’s and they are interesting because of 3-way design. Before I got my Adam’s I considered 3-way KRK RP10-3 and M-Audio M3-8, but then found too good deal to refuse. That was many years ago. So to make it simpler I guess I’ll go with smaller 3-way speakers this time.
Would IN-5 cause less noise than like IN-8, because woofer is much smaller, or is it still too loud, because cabinet is still quite large? For smaller size I’m also considering IK Multimedia iLoud MTM, but I guess it’s safe to say those are smaller but not as good, also cost more, but they should be better for neighbours of course. Those are also not real 3-way.
My room is mostly untreated and it connects to whole small apartment. It will be for casual music listening only, PC near-field.
I would have though that turning up the volume would annoy your neighbours whether its IN5s, IN8s, or Adam A8X :) Everyone seems to remark on how much bass the IN5s produce, which is presumably what will annoy your next door people...

Although this does remind me of when I lived in an apartment, and I discovered (with passives) that my stereo Marantz amp had WAY more bass than my Denon AVR, so much so that I couldn't use it without driving them crazy!
 

bathroomskank

Member
Joined
Feb 6, 2022
Messages
39
Likes
4
Location
France
Hi,

this is what I get from my left speaker at 139 Hz :

It is not comming from the stand but the speaker itself. I'll have to ask for an exchange, am I right ?

Thanks
 

chang

Active Member
Joined
Apr 6, 2022
Messages
152
Likes
44
Now if I was selecting an amplifier to power a passive loudspeaker, here's how I would do it. I would test the loudspeaker to see at what voltage it reached 10% THD. I would select an amplifier to provide this much voltage by reverse calculation of "power" specification, and verify that the amplifier could provide the peak current requirements. For peak current capabilities of an amplifier (when not directly specified), reverse calculate the RMS voltage with the lowest rated impedance, then multiply that number by 1.4 to get peak voltage. Peak voltage across the lowest rated impedance yields peak current capability. Of course there are other factors to consider when selecting an amplifier, but this will ensure that the amplifier doesn't clip or shut down before full output is achieved.
Oh good, I just picked up some Revel M16's... mind calculating the amp power needed haha :)
 

oversky

Active Member
Joined
Apr 22, 2021
Messages
182
Likes
178
Hi,

this is what I get from my left speaker at 139 Hz :

It is not comming from the stand but the speaker itself. I'll have to ask for an exchange, am I right ?

Thanks
Kali has good customer support.
Although I do not buy their product yet,
their answers to my questions really help.
 

chang

Active Member
Joined
Apr 6, 2022
Messages
152
Likes
44
Kali has good customer support.
Although I do not buy their product yet,
their answers to my questions really help.
I agree. I've spoken with them already and they've been great
 

elbenderman

Member
Joined
Mar 7, 2023
Messages
14
Likes
7
How do people still feel about these? I need a set for mixing and mastering. Going back and forth between these and the KH120A. Obviously a big difference in price here.
 

stevenswall

Major Contributor
Forum Donor
Joined
Dec 10, 2019
Messages
1,366
Likes
1,075
Location
Orem, UT
How do people still feel about these? I need a set for mixing and mastering. Going back and forth between these and the KH120A. Obviously a big difference in price here.

Get Kali's until you can afford Genelec The Ones. The most irregular parts of even good speakers are the ceiling and floor reflections. The Ones fixed this. Anything without an ideal coaxial driver, room correction, non-parallel cabinet walls, flared ports, and a waveguide that can cover nearly the entire front end of the speaker is making a compromise. It might sound excellent in the sweet spot, but why pay for a "could do better" report card?

Price to performance wise for nearfield out to an Atmos setup I don't think you could do better than Kali coincident/coaxial monitors.

If you are only using them nearfield for your mastering and can take care of desk reflections and do some corrective EQ and don't need the placement correction on the Kali's or to worry about the ceiling or floor reflections, go for the Neumann. For me they are in a weird spot where I'd be fine with the Kali's from a price to performance perspective, and when I want something better they aren't quite there.

That being said I'm the kind of person who tries to start nearfield but then I end up adding speakers and making surround sound systems, putting speakers in my kitchen, etc. and the flexibility of coaxials is excellent for that.

Oh, and if you're going apples to apples price wise, get an IN-8 pair with a WS12 sub... measure the bass peaks from the listening position and take them down and you'll actually be able to check the bass without having to rely on headphones.

Best of luck.
 

thewas

Master Contributor
Forum Donor
Joined
Jan 15, 2020
Messages
6,755
Likes
16,209
Get Kali's until you can afford Genelec The Ones. The most irregular parts of even good speakers are the ceiling and floor reflections. The Ones fixed this. Anything without an ideal coaxial driver, room correction, non-parallel cabinet walls, flared ports, and a waveguide that can cover nearly the entire front end of the speaker is making a compromise.
While myself I also like good coaxial designs such generalisations are simply wrong.

First, every loudspeaker, even the Genelec Ones, is a compromise and has its shortcomings.

Second, the vertical crossover directivity lobing of a non coaxial design is not as audible as many think in many typical applications. For example I would also go for a coaxial design for desktop monitoring due to close and loud table surface reflection but for typical living room high distance listening I would prefer a non coaxial design with wide horizontal and narrow vertical dispersion.
 

elbenderman

Member
Joined
Mar 7, 2023
Messages
14
Likes
7
Get Kali's until you can afford Genelec The Ones. The most irregular parts of even good speakers are the ceiling and floor reflections. The Ones fixed this. Anything without an ideal coaxial driver, room correction, non-parallel cabinet walls, flared ports, and a waveguide that can cover nearly the entire front end of the speaker is making a compromise. It might sound excellent in the sweet spot, but why pay for a "could do better" report card?
Price to performance wise for nearfield out to an Atmos setup I don't think you could do better than Kali coincident/coaxial monitors.

If you are only using them nearfield for your mastering and can take care of desk reflections and do some corrective EQ and don't need the placement correction on the Kali's or to worry about the ceiling or floor reflections, go for the Neumann. For me they are in a weird spot where I'd be fine with the Kali's from a price to performance perspective, and when I want something better they aren't quite there.

That being said I'm the kind of person who tries to start nearfield but then I end up adding speakers and making surround sound systems, putting speakers in my kitchen, etc. and the flexibility of coaxials is excellent for that.

Oh, and if you're going apples to apples price wise, get an IN-8 pair with a WS12 sub... measure the bass peaks from the listening position and take them down and you'll actually be able to check the bass without having to rely on headphones.

Best of luck.
Interesting. My room is far far from ideal. It is small and in an apartment so I can’t use a sub. I also don’t want to spent money treating a room in a space I will likely be leaving in a year.

At best my monitors will be on metal stands with pads. They will be within a foot of a wall, and one will likely be in a corner. I will only be using them nearfield but likely will just need to deal with reflections the best I can and use headphones and other speakers to supplement what I am hearing.

With this is mind, it kind of sounds like the beauty of the Neumann’s will be lost on me. Or rather, due to the limitations of my space, the difference between, say, an IN-5 and HS7 versus the KH120As would be less noticeable than if I was in a better room.

I guess at the end of the day, that is my question. I know the Neumann’s are clearer and more transparent, but the difference may meet diminishing returns anyway (460 a speaker for the Kali vs 825 a speaker for the Neumann’s), especially when I will be forced to mix in ideal rooms for the foreseeable future.

The worst part is that there are no nearby stores where I can audition the speakers.
 

ernestcarl

Major Contributor
Joined
Sep 4, 2019
Messages
3,106
Likes
2,313
Location
Canada
I also don’t want to spent money treating a room in a space I will likely be leaving in a year.

Acoustic panels can be transported (some more easily than usual others) or brought with you when you move, and there is no need to permanently fix them. You don’t even have to spend a lot if you go DIY.
 

WTree

Member
Joined
Apr 6, 2023
Messages
15
Likes
5
Location
Germany
If I understand this right all the improvements that are there in IN-8 V2 (low noise amplifiers, better drivers etc) are already in IN-5. Am I right? I am considering buying IN-5 and just do not want to buy when there is a V2 is around the corner.
 

abrxxx

Member
Joined
Nov 29, 2022
Messages
17
Likes
8
If I understand this right all the improvements that are there in IN-8 V2 (low noise amplifiers, better drivers etc) are already in IN-5. Am I right? I am considering buying IN-5 and just do not want to buy when there is a V2 is around the corner.
Yes. IN-5 is "V2" or "second wave" internally.
 

WTree

Member
Joined
Apr 6, 2023
Messages
15
Likes
5
Location
Germany
Yes. IN-5 is "V2" or "second wave" internally.
That is great! Now I can chose between IN-5 and IN-8. Do you have some guidance for me which will work better for a distance of 2.5m from speakers in a 3m X 5m room?
 
Top Bottom