Kali IN-UNF - new ultra nearfield speakers

[thewas]

Spherical shape is very nice regarding radiation see the famous investigations of Olson from 1951(!!)

Source: https://www.aes.org/e-lib/browse.cfm?elib=17816

on the other hand the internal volume has only one but very strong resonance due to the symmetry which usually needs enough damping material.

 

[fragzone]

This looks like the perfect product for me. Every time I take my swan m200mkiii+ off my desk I'm always tempted not to put them back on because of how nice it is to have some open space on it.

Staying tuned for impressions when they inevitably start hitting this thread!

 

[617]

Can this system be used with a bigger sub in addition to the woofer unit?

The spherical shape might be helpful acoustically, but it's not the reason we did it. It's spherical so that you can orient it as needed to hit your ears.

 

[KaliAudio_Official]

Can this system be used with a bigger sub in addition to the woofer unit?

Yep! We'd recommend an 80 Hz crossover coming from the sub.

 

[oversky]

Two questions.
1. Why happens if the two satellites do not place as the printout?
I mean wider or narrower distance between two satellites.
I have dual monitors on the desktop.
The second monitor may block one satellite.

2. Does UNF has cardioid directivity?
Two back-to-back woofers remind me of Kii Audio THREE.

 

[KaliAudio_Official]

Two questions.
1. Why happens if the two satellites do not place as the printout?
I mean wider or narrower distance between two satellites.
I have dual monitors on the desktop.
The second monitor may block one satellite.

2. Does UNF has cardioid directivity?
Two back-to-back woofers remind me of Kii Audio THREE.

Good questions! 1. It will sound less good. If all you're doing is enjoyment listening, I wouldn't worry about it too too much. If you're doing critical listening or mixing, it's very important that you use the spacing we've outlined. Your mixes are going to come out funny otherwise.

2. Nope. The woofers are side-firing. Those Kii THREEs are cool though. We're doing some comparison tests with some ...upcoming... products against them. The Kiis are VERY good.

 

[617]

Good questions! 1. It will sound less good. If all you're doing is enjoyment listening, I wouldn't worry about it too too much. If you're doing critical listening or mixing, it's very important that you use the spacing we've outlined. Your mixes are going to come out funny otherwise.

2. Nope. The woofers are side-firing. Those Kii THREEs are cool though. We're doing some comparison tests with some ...upcoming... products against them. The Kiis are VERY good.

Kali if you make a cardioid I will be very, very happy.

 

[arthurprs]

This is the first (proper) review I found. This channel has great content. Unfortunately, for me at least, it's in Polish and Youtube doesn't offer CC for Polish, but we can skip around and interpret his graphs.

 

[khanhncm]

Good questions! 1. It will sound less good. If all you're doing is enjoyment listening, I wouldn't worry about it too too much. If you're doing critical listening or mixing, it's very important that you use the spacing we've outlined. Your mixes are going to come out funny otherwise.

2. Nope. The woofers are side-firing. Those Kii THREEs are cool though. We're doing some comparison tests with some ...upcoming... products against them. The Kiis are VERY good.

Is there a new Kali's flagship from one of them? Better than IN8 ?

 

[oversky]

I'm using them like that. And obviously I'm as biased as they come, but I'm REALLY liking it. I honestly prefer to listen to the IN-UNFs than IN-8s. The imaging is quite good.

I wonder the size, the shape, and the directivity of this satellite, could make it a good center channel.

 

[arthurprs]

I finally got these. I'm fairly satisfied with the sound. Only two caveats, the bass is sometimes fairly localizable, depending on what's playing not at all and other times it's like the bass guitar is literally inside the bass module. The USB audio implementation is very finicky: doesn't work at all with Android or Linux; On Windows it only works if the system volume is 44%+, under that it's muted.

I'm considering returning them, will give a few more listens and give the shop a call.

 

[KaliAudio_Official]

I finally got these. I'm fairly satisfied with the sound. Only two caveats, the bass is sometimes fairly localizable, depending on what's playing not at all and other times it's like the bass guitar is literally inside the bass module. The USB audio implementation is very finicky: doesn't work at all with Android or Linux; On Windows it only works if the system volume is 44%+, under that it's muted.

I'm considering returning them, will give a few more listens and give the shop a call.

Do you mind sharing some details about your android, Linux, and Windows systems? We haven't run into any of the problems you pointed out. But we're far from having tested every device and OS out there.

 

[arthurprs]

Do you mind sharing some details about your android, Linux, and Windows systems? We haven't run into any of the problems you pointed out. But we're far from having tested every device and OS out there.

Yes, absolutely.

Linux
1 laptop (Asus M16 2022) (Arch Linux, kernel 6.1.6, pipewire 0.3.66): USB audio is recognized but no audio

Windows 11
1 laptop (Asus M16 2022): No audio when system volume is below 44%, otherwise seems to work well

Windows 10
2 laptops (Asus G14 2020, Lenovo Idepad 2017), both worked well (no weird volume behavior).

Android
Galaxy S10e running android 12: USB audio is recognized but no audio
Galaxy S20FE running android 13: USB audio is recognized but no audio

 

[arthurprs]

I don't think it's a coincidence that the USB audio doesn't work on any Linux/Android I've tried (I tried more Linux versions since I wrote the post above). Linux/Android share part of the Audio stack. Using it via 3.5mm is not ideal...

I'm not returning it as the return shipping costs 10% of the normal price (note to self: buy from a local store next time). I did some basic EQing based on REW measurements and the bass/low mids are significantly better now.

 

[Ellebob]

You could use a USB to optical adapter if you want to keep in digital domain into the Kal.

 

[Penelinfi]

That bass module reminds me of the Tandy mms10 - 2x paper mid-tweets, one 5" woofer facing downwards. For what it was, sounded ok back then. Probably measured terribly

 

[Spyart]

This is the first (proper) review I found. This channel has great content. Unfortunately, for me at least, it's in Polish and Youtube doesn't offer CC for Polish, but we can skip around and interpret his graphs.

Based on his measurements I guess we will get boomy bass, hollow low mids, and cardboardy 800hz region. I know it May be pretty much an interaction of sub and table.

 

[thewas]

Interesting also to see at 12:28 that the coaxial satellites must have a passive crossover, so it not a fully active implementation.

 

[MachOne]

Based on his measurements I guess we will get boomy bass, hollow low mids, and cardboardy 800hz region. I know it May be pretty much an interaction of sub and table.

I don't know how anyone can use speakers on a desk without significant measurement and custom DSP tuning. It's a very difficult placement.

 

[sphykik]

I spent a few days with these and am considering returning them. A few points of feedback:

The USB input sounds significantly better than the analog TRS inputs -- signal chain is Windows -> MOTU M4 -> Kali IN-UNF.

While there is no noise with the analog inputs, it sounds like a "blanket" or "dark veil" is thrown over the speakers and the channel balance skews heavily towards the left side. Switch back to the USB input and there is instant clarity and snares/vocals/etc. are dead center.

Unfortunately, ADC seems like an afterthought?

The other annoyance is that the gain knob makes no sense when using the USB input. Attenuation is digitally stepped, and one "click" is almost too loud with Windows volume maxed out. Anything above 2-3 steps is deafening, rendering the knob somewhat useless.

Otherwise, the speakers sound surprisingly good and I love the form factor, but I have to decide if I'm willing to live with the I/O limitations.