Kali LP-6 Review: Studio Monitor

[bennybbbx]

A 12 dB Q=6 positive notch filter is a bad choice as it will cause ringing, increase distortion and if you have such a narrow bass dip it shouldn't be filled also for other reasons.

The kali maybe have itself Bass EQ boost because wy i need such a steep peak filter on such a large speaker. maybe i should try the bass -2 db switch on kali and measure then. I use always measure smooth of 1/2 octave.

In the JBL 104 BT(on same stative and hear position) i need not so much Q. Only 4.5 and another parametric EQ with Q 6 but only 3 db. the JBl have a more tighter bass in compare base drum range (50-60 hz), but the kali go lower. i used before a low shelf filter with more Q. but i think it sound not so good as with peak filter and low shelf do more phase shifts, I then change to peak filter.

to see if my measure is ok in low bass i verify with my ears. i use this song

. this have a low shifting bass and i compare the level of the bass when low also with the base drum at sec 1 min and sony headphone that is in the morphit vst headphone correction.

Again it is not good to use such step positive filters, if you want to correct group delay please use FIR filters correcting just the phase but not the amplitude.

first i try the phase shift with mfreeform phase. then i try how it sound when i use a eq with narrow band. i hear no diffrence when hear a mono signal. but with stereo signal i hear diffrence. sound much better in reverb

in theory i read that group delay diffrences aroud 1.5 ms at around 1 khz or lower can not hear. but i always verify such theorie if this fit to my ears. I notice i hear lots changes in reverb and room on stereo signals when i use a multiband delay and add delay to a small band. this theory seem only fit to mono signals. without reverb i hear only diffrence around 1.8 ms.

here is the test video i do for this. i verify it is really delay and the original signal is not play because i use Dry/Wet Setting 100%.

the noise that come sometimes is because i use demo version of this. you can install the mdelayMB yourself as usable demo and try yourself with the settings. the other 2 bands use as delay 0 and no feedback too. the blue light on left corner is effect on if it is grey it is off. look also on the delay knob for the changes

MDelayMB

Unique six band delay with modulators

www.meldaproduction.com

you can also hear the examples that difffrent delay in diffrent frequencies can sound nice, but to hear this wish of course a speaker that have not a own group delay life.

 

[LTig]

[..] to see if my measure is ok in low bass i verify with my ears. i use this song

. this have a low shifting bass and i compare the level of the bass when low also with the base drum at sec 1 min and sony headphone that is in the morphit vst headphone correction.

Here is the spectrogram. There's actually not much amplitude below 40 Hz or so.

 

[bennybbbx]

Here is the spectrogram. There's actually not much amplitude below 40 Hz or so.
View attachment 172896

the left picture part peak amplitude is maybe from the beginning. but when see at 1:10 and later there can also see on 35 hz much level. maybe you can click at 1 min 30 and this show the left view too ?. or maybe you can choose a range. but a overal level is not usefull because there is not play low bass all the time. also around 2:15 can see some places where no bass is lower as 50 hz

 

[hexinho]

For how highly these speakers seem to be rated, why is the panther score seemingly low?

Not trying to be an ass, just genuinely curious. Am thinking of potentially getting a pair of this for my future living room!

 

[somebodyelse]

For how highly these speakers seem to be rated, why is the panther score seemingly low?

Not trying to be an ass, just genuinely curious. Am thinking of potentially getting a pair of this for my future living room!

See the conclusions in the review:

Had it not had so much distortion and a couple of response issues, I would have given it my highest ratings.

Some have complained about the hiss too, something they've apparently improved significantly in the v2.

 

[bennybbbx]

For how highly these speakers seem to be rated, why is the panther score seemingly low?

Not trying to be an ass, just genuinely curious. Am thinking of potentially getting a pair of this for my future living room!

The kali have a "special sound" and are not so realistic speakers.

I think a big problems happen because of the Bass Port. in the measure can see that the bass port at around 600 hz and 900 hz have very high level. the bass/mid system level is reduce in this level to compensate. this can see on this test in driver response from amirm in 1. post. when close the bass port get also better group delay.

here are my measure.

i put foam in it that is press. so maybe some noise still come from it. the 650 hz peak stay. or it is because it have a plastic in front. maybe this resonate at 650 hz.

group delay with closed port better only 650 hz valley stay

 

[dfuller]

The kali have a "special sound" and are not so realistic speakers.

I'm sorry, having heard them in person I'm calling BS. They sound lots like my Neumanns - which, by the way, are exceptionally accurate.

I think a big problems happen because of the Bass Port. in the measure can see that the bass port at around 600 hz and 900 hz have very high level. the bass/mid system level is reduce in this level to compensate. this can see on this test in driver response from amirm in 1. post. when close the bass port get also better group delay.

1. Of course the group delay is lower when sealed, the roll-off is half as steep. Please learn how a minimum phase high pass filter works.
2. Only the resonance at 1khz is even possibly audible.
3. If the resonance at 650hz stays after you plug the ports, it's something inside the cabinet.

For how highly these speakers seem to be rated, why is the panther score seemingly low?

Not trying to be an ass, just genuinely curious. Am thinking of potentially getting a pair of this for my future living room!

It's the second highest score Amir gives out - "it's pretty good, but not mind blowing" more or less.

It should do fine if you listen at moderate levels. They aren't high output monsters by any stretch of the imagination. If you want that, you're gonna have to pay a bit more.

 

[hexinho]

Thanks for the inputs, my future living room isn't big so I wouldn't need something meant for far field for sure. On the note of distortion, Amir has the following to say;

My speaker killer tracks were reproduced with almost no distortion. Some of which was because the deep bass was not reproduced loudly. Turning up the level way high caused a few ticks here and there which may be due to internal amplifier running out of juice. Thankfully it did not bottom out the woofer at all which was nice. I have tested monitors costing thousands of dollars which produce extreme amount of distortion when pressed. Not so with Kali LP-6.

On the same hand, the distortion charts don't seem to be received well; how can we reconcile this? Again, i'm really not knowledgeable about measurements but am hopefully picking things up along the way so apologies if I'm asking silly questions :x

 

[bennybbbx]

1. Of course the group delay is lower when sealed, the roll-off is half as steep. Please learn how a minimum phase high pass filter works.

I mean the group delay around 900 hz- 1 khz is much reduced and more equel when close port.

damping wool maybe can help to get the 600 hz problem away ?. i think i can not add because then the electronic is not cooled enough. for me the 600 hz problem is much hearable. i look on neumann tests. I find no neumann Port FR on this page. but with others speakers tests Port FR i find not such a Problem

 

[dfuller]

Thanks for the inputs, my future living room isn't big so I wouldn't need something meant for far field for sure. On the note of distortion, Amir has the following to say;



On the same hand, the distortion charts don't seem to be received well; how can we reconcile this? Again, i'm really not knowledgeable about measurements but am hopefully picking things up along the way so apologies if I'm asking silly questions :x

The distortion is almost all 2nd harmonic which is way, way less audible than higher order distortion.

 

[raistlin65]

Picked up a pair of LP-6s recently when Musician's Friend had them for $120 a piece for use in a small game/lounge room with a new PC build.

Had a tough time with noise at first. Was picking up GPU noise and mouse movements. The Atom amp/DAC was picking up noise even with optical.

Verified the ground was correct for the wall outlet (100 year old house). Tried a Motu M2 using balanced cables, that was even worse. The M2 picked up a ton of noise even through headphones.

Got a Furman power conditioner power strip for $35, and that solved the problem for the Atom. I'm thinking the Corsair RMX series power supply might have been causing the problem. Who knows?

 

[Xyrium]

I've used these tiny Humx plugs for as long as I can remember, simply to isolate components. They can't be run above 6A, but should work fine for each individual item in your system. I've measured less than 6A draw from an outlet that my PC is connected to, but yours may vary, depending on GPU, CPU, and ancillary component and application draw.

https://morleyproducts.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/humxinfo.pdf

 

[AnalogSteph]

Had a tough time with noise at first. Was picking up GPU noise and mouse movements. The Atom amp/DAC was picking up noise even with optical.

Verified the ground was correct for the wall outlet (100 year old house). Tried a Motu M2 using balanced cables, that was even worse. The M2 picked up a ton of noise even through headphones.

Got a Furman power conditioner power strip for $35, and that solved the problem for the Atom. I'm thinking the Corsair RMX series power supply might have been causing the problem. Who knows?

Tricky. Too many variables changed at once, not enough details. All very odd for sure. You'd think that little should be happening as long as all components are plugged into the same power strip.

Keep in mind that as long as the speakers are plugged into the Atom's pre out, there still is a ground loop going (mains - L speaker - preamp - R speaker - mains). Less critical because there isn't as much current going over the speaker mains connections, but it's still there. Since the LP-6s should be using SMPS, its effect should be felt as noise.

Was the M2 headphone out clean without speakers plugged into it? Other inexpensive audio interfaces have been suspected of being afflicted with Pin 1 Problems before.

What exactly got plugged into the new power strip?

Even if the wall outlet is properly earthed, there could still be an issue with L and N (bad connection or thin wire). Is mains voltage stable under load?

 

[raistlin65]

Tricky. Too many variables changed at once, not enough details. All very odd for sure. You'd think that little should be happening as long as all components are plugged into the same power strip.

Keep in mind that as long as the speakers are plugged into the Atom's pre out, there still is a ground loop going (mains - L speaker - preamp - R speaker - mains). Less critical because there isn't as much current going over the speaker mains connections, but it's still there. Since the LP-6s should be using SMPS, its effect should be felt as noise.

Was the M2 headphone out clean without speakers plugged into it? Other inexpensive audio interfaces have been suspected of being afflicted with Pin 1 Problems before.

What exactly got plugged into the new power strip?

Even if the wall outlet is properly earthed, there could still be an issue with L and N (bad connection or thin wire). Is mains voltage stable under load?

It was curious that the M2 had distortion, even with the headphone jack. And a Focusrite Scarlett Solo did not.

 

[agiletiger]

View attachment 96554

Is there a filter setting in the Topping D50s that would mimic these tweeks for these monitors?

 

[violao]

This is a review and detailed measurements of the Kali Audio LP-6 powered monitor (speaker). I purchased it for testing I think back in February or March. There has been a lot of requests to test it so I thought I do it before the year is over! The LP-6 costs US $149 on Amazon including Prime shipping.

The design of the LP-6 is understated with none of the plasticky look of its competitor (JBL 306P):

View attachment 96542

As you can see it is front ported. The back panel shows the various controls:

View attachment 96544

Measurements and listening tests were performed using the default settings you see above.

The LP-6 is bi-amped which I assume also means DSP crossover.

Measurements that you are about to see were performed using the Klippel Near-field Scanner (NFS). This is a robotic measurement system that analyzes the speaker all around and is able (using advanced mathematics and dual scan) to subtract room reflections (so where I measure it doesn't matter). It also measures the speaker at close distance ("near-field") which sharply reduces the impact of room noise. Both of these factors enable testing in ordinary rooms yet results that can be more accurate than anechoic chamber. In a nutshell, the measurements show the actual sound coming out of the speaker independent of the room.

All measurements are referenced to the tweeter axis. I could not find anything regarding this in the manual.

Temperature was around 60 degrees F which is on the cool side but I don't think there is an impact on the data.

Kali LP-6 Measurements
Acoustic measurements can be grouped in a way that can be perceptually analyzed to determine how good a speaker can be used. This so called spinorama shows us just about everything we need to know about the speaker with respect to tonality and some flaws:

View attachment 96545

Please don't be alarmed by the high SPL numbers. These are not real (NFS does not know about the amplification gain in the speaker). Actual level is pretty close to what I measure most speakers at.

Response is very good with some resonances around 1 kHz. There is also a bit of reduction in level/shelving in bass response.

Directivity which is a measure of how close radiation is relative to on-axis is very good. This makes it easy to EQ the sound in addition to the speaker being room friendly.

Early window is therefore similar to on-axis response:

View attachment 96546

Note that these are not necessarily the strongest reflections in near-field listening. And that, makes the following prediction of in-room response less accurate:

View attachment 96547

Still, other than noted issues, response is quite acceptable especially when we consider the price of this monitor.

Let's dig into the issue with disturbance around 1 kHz by looking at the near-field measurement of the woofer, port and tweeter:

View attachment 96548

Looks like our problem is that port resonance is too high and at a frequency where the woofer is already being rolled off. So as a result it causes those two bumps in the woofer response. The tweeter also has a rise above 10 kHz which seems to be diffraction based as it did not show up in off-axis response.

Distortion measurements don't paint a pretty picture despite statements to the contrary on Kali website:

View attachment 96549

View attachment 96550

The bright sign though is the fact that deep bass distortion is controlled and never gets above the fundamental signal itself as it often does in budget speakers.

Note: the above measurements have extended response to 30 kHz. This lets us see if the speaker has internal ADC/filtering which the KALI LP-6 seems to have. It also allows us to see the distortion products to higher frequency. LP-6's response stops at around 22 kHz so likely has an ADC running at 48 kHz sampling.

Note 2: I need to verify that the Klippel system did not limit the measurements on its own that way. When I test a passive speaker next, I will find out if this is so. Right now I don't think it is the limiting factor.

Directivity as noted is very good as seen in both beam width and contour graphs:

View attachment 96551

View attachment 96552

Vertical directivity gives more freedom than usual although I suggest you stay at or slightly below tweeter center:
View attachment 96553

Otherwise you get some accentuation of that resonance around 900 Hz.

Kali LP-6 Speaker Listing Tests
I have a very harsh test environment for larger monitors like the LP-6. I just drop them on my desk, with a half inch pad under it. I don't touch any of the controls and just listen. First impression of the LP-6 was quite good. Lots of detail, ability to get quite loud with some kind of soft compression that was much less noticeable in other monitors. I tried to improve the situation still, using equalization:
View attachment 96554

Starting on the right, the filter at 965 Hz reduced some of harshness and opened the sound a bit. Bass was shy so I dialed up the 70 Hz broad filter. That filled in the bass quite nicely with no increase in distortion.

My speaker killer tracks were reproduced with almost no distortion. Some of which was because the deep bass was not reproduced loudly. Turning up the level way high caused a few ticks here and there which may be due to internal amplifier running out of juice. Thankfully it did not bottom out the woofer at all which was nice. I have tested monitors costing thousands of dollars which produce extreme amount of distortion when pressed. Not so with Kali LP-6.

With the above EQ in place, the experience was very, very nice. I stat there listening to track after track and realizing once more how important accurate on and off-axis response is. The experience comes surprisingly close to other speakers so designed.

I tested for the audibility of hiss. Spectrally the noise is not as annoying as it is with some other active speakers. I measured with a ruler when the noise subsided and it was about 24 inches/60 centimeters. Even in my close in listening, it was not a problem. That said, I do wish that the noise was not there.

Conclusions
The Kali LP-6 despite its ridiculously low price produced excellent performance. Had it not had so much distortion and a couple of response issues, I would have given it my highest ratings. This is a wonderfully designed monitor which is going to perform better than any passive speaker system you can put together in its price class.

I am very pleased to put the Kali LP-6 on my recommendation list.
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As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.

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I just bought the V2 version of these monitors this past summer. They are everything that was promised and my mixes will certainly improve from relying mainly on my Sennheiser HD650 headphones. I could not be more pleased with the value for money.

 

[violao]

I think much of the horror in the 1K area comes from how flat the rest is. If you compare that to anything from Klipsch (OK many others too)... or view it with the amount of smoothing many manufacturers employ in their marketing... it's comparatively razor-flat.

On the other hand, the fact that they didn't just embrace a much higher price point than the JBL 306's and use amplification which eliminates the hum is a real disappointment. I'm sure there's some unit-specific variance (supposedly some people get noise-free JBLs too) but after trying dozens myself - that's harder than hitting the lottery. If Adam can do it with the TV7's at only $100 more, I'm less inclined to accept it in other brands.

To be fair however... "only $100 more" is actually a 66% increase in MSRP in this case! So I agree - for the price not worth complaining about either.

I just purchased the Kali LP-6 v.2 and they vanquished the noise issue. They are dead quiet.
I also looked real hard at the Adam TV7s. They are fine specimens in their price range too.

 

[Bruce Morgen]

Now on sale at zZounds until 1/1/23: zZounds Kali LP-6/LP-8 v2 Sale

 

[Slyman]

Anyone else experience woofer rattling with bass notes with these monitors?

 

[Robbo99999]

Anyone else experience woofer rattling with bass notes with these monitors?

(It's not your windows or speaker stand or something?) to rule that out