Kanto TUK for PC desktop

[Windman]

Hi all, I just recently made an upgrade from the Kanto YU6 to the TUK series. The YU6 were used as my desktop speaker and did its job well, with the annoying exception of it entering sleep mode if no audio is detected within 15 minutes. With the YU6, there was no need to configure any settings in Windows sound mixer, everything was set to 100 and was within comfortable listening. Once I setup the TUKs, everything was deafening loud even at low speaker volume.

I face my speakers within 1-2 feet in an open medium area with minimal wall obstruction, after an hour session, I was already getting a migraine. Right now, all my programs have customized settings in the sound mixer, but I worry that for every new application that I use I will have to mess around with the sound settings. I am starting to worry that I may have bought a speaker that is not suitable for my listening area. I am still within the 30 day return window but I rather not deal with the YU6 entering sleep mode when I'm not listening to anything Using a preamp lowered the volume considerably but it still loud for my safe listening.

Should I return the TUKs and deal with the YU6 standby mode? I was also considering buying the Fluance ai40 as a representative already confirmed there is no auto standby but that would be downgrade in performance,

 

[pozz]

Why not get a pro monitor of similar size? Like a Genelec, Neumann, Kali or JBL.

 

[Hemi-Demon]

Few things, as I have a pair of these in my bedroom.

The TUK is quite a bit larger than the YU6. So set them back a bit from you customary desk position. If these are in your living room, disregard this point and the next point.

I would also recommend getting desk stands to align the middle of the speaker with your ear listening height (again disregard if you are using these for a living room or bedroom, etc.).

They are rear ported, so I would also make sure to have some breathing room from the wall to keep the bass a linear as possible.

The tweeter is pretty hot, so consider dropping it down a few db, in a system wide eq (preferable) or use the treble button on the remote. I bet this is the source of your perceived fatigue. Not everyone fancies the AMT tweeter.

If the the TUK is too too loud, max windows volume and just use the TUK remote volume when needed. Either you have the volume knob maxed and are using windows volume, or something is amiss with your remote. Are you using the internal dac, bluetooth, or the optical input?

The TUK will also go into sleep mode, if music is not noticed within 10 minutes. It will immediately activate when a signal is recognized though, which is sort or cool. So if you do not like this feature, your best bet is to return them, as there is no ability to disable this function.

 

[Berwhale]

How are the speakers connected to your PC?

 

[Windman]

How are the speakers connected to your PC?

Using RCA cables through an ifi Micro DSD Black USB DAC, it is set on zero amplification and direct line out, it is not on preamp

 

[Berwhale]

Have you tried plugging the speakers in using USB? You'll avoid a DA/AD conversion between your DAC and the DSP in the speakers.

 

[Windman]

Few things, as I have a pair of these in my bedroom.

The TUK is quite a bit larger than the YU6. So set them back a bit from you customary desk position. If these are in your living room, disregard this point and the next point.

I would also recommend getting desk stands to align the middle of the speaker with your ear listening height (again disregard if you are using these for a living room or bedroom, etc.).

They are rear ported, so I would also make sure to have some breathing room from the wall to keep the bass a linear as possible.

The tweeter is pretty hot, so consider dropping it down a few db, in a system wide eq (preferable) or use the treble button on the remote. I bet this is the source of your perceived fatigue. Not everyone fancies the AMT tweeter.

If the the TUK is too too loud, max windows volume and just use the TUK remote volume when needed. Either you have the volume knob maxed and are using windows volume, or something is amiss with your remote. Are you using the internal dac, bluetooth, or the optical input?

The TUK will also go into sleep mode, if music is not noticed within 10 minutes. It will immediately activate when a signal is recognized though, which is sort or cool. So if you do not like this feature, your best bet is to return them, as there is no ability to disable this function.

I am connecting to the speakers to my computer using a USB DAC with RCA cables, I never thought about adjusting the treble before, I will give that a shot if it makes any difference. You can disable the auto sleep mode by holding the bass reset for 5 seconds according to the manual, that feature is not available on the YU6.

 

[Windman]

Have you tried plugging the speakers in using USB? You'll avoid a DA/AD conversion between your DAC and the DSP in the speakers.

Yes, that was the first thing I did, it helped but not much.

 

[Berwhale]

Have you tried pressing the SUB button on the remote?

 

[Windman]

So I figured out my issue , a rather anti-climatic one , turning down the bass or treble only slightly helped. It was not until I placed my speakers an additional 3 feet further away from my desktop before all my headaches disappeared. Regretfully, these speakers are too loud for my working area , I could set up a new working area but that would be placing the TUKs farther away; reaching out to other family bedroom, an obvious no no as these speakers can literally be heard from the first floor, not to mention my parents already gave me an earful on messy wiring when I attempted to route RJ-45 ethernet cables through the house.

Looking back, I realize that using powered speakers for a small working area was a mistake, I should have aimed towards studio monitors instead, the volume level of the YU6 were already pushing through acceptable volume limit but still within usable level; a beginner mistake. So now, I need suggestions on studio monitors that do not have auto stand by feature, or at least can be disabled , budget around $400 CDN , preferably sold in pairs , 5.25 inch drivers due to space constraint. I am not a bass head so a separate subwoofer is not needed. Thanks all.

 

[onslash]

So I figured out my issue , a rather anti-climatic one , turning down the bass or treble only slightly helped. It was not until I placed my speakers an additional 3 feet further away from my desktop before all my headaches disappeared. Regretfully, these speakers are too loud for my working area , I could set up a new working area but that would be placing the TUKs farther away; reaching out to other family bedroom, an obvious no no as these speakers can literally be heard from the first floor, not to mention my parents already gave me an earful on messy wiring when I attempted to route RJ-45 ethernet cables through the house.

Looking back, I realize that using powered speakers for a small working area was a mistake, I should have aimed towards studio monitors instead, the volume level of the YU6 were already pushing through acceptable volume limit but still within usable level; a beginner mistake. So now, I need suggestions on studio monitors that do not have auto stand by feature, or at least can be disabled , budget around $400 CDN , preferably sold in pairs , 5.25 inch drivers due to space constraint. I am not a bass head so a separate subwoofer is not needed. Thanks all.

Just use equilizer apo to reduce the volume by 9 -12 dbs or until its not too loud

 

[sweetchaos]

I don't recommend either the Kanto TUK or YU6. See measurements to understand why.

Spoiler: YU6 measurements

Site

Spoiler: TUK measurements

Site

Fellow Canadian eh?

Prices in CAD below.
Those Kantos are expensive...$520/pair for YU6 and $1000/pair for TUKs, if judging by retail costs.
Sell/return to get as much as you can.

For endgame near-field listening, your goals should be:
-For $1300/pair...Neumann KH80
-For $1400/pair... Genelec 8030C
-For $1818/pair... Neumann KH 120

But for your $400/pair recommendation:
- JBL 305P MKII (it's $360/pair now, but was lower, if you're willing to wait until end of year, for christmas sales). Reviewed and recommended by Amir.
- Kali LP-6 ($400/pair now). Audioholics reviewed LP-8 (larger brother of LP-6) and measurements are decent.

 

[Windman]

Just use equilizer apo to reduce the volume by 9 -12 dbs or until its not too loud

I could do that but that would make the speakers operating system dependent and considering the price, it does not make sense to restrict its power. I think it would be better to return it and get cheaper set instead. Nifty tool though...

 

[Windman]

I don't recommend either the Kanto TUK or YU6. See measurements to understand why.

Spoiler: YU6 measurements

Site
View attachment 86555

Spoiler: TUK measurements

Site
View attachment 86556

Fellow Canadian eh?

Prices in CAD below.
Those Kantos are expensive...$520/pair for YU6 and $1000/pair for TUKs, if judging by retail costs.
Sell/return to get as much as you can.

For endgame near-field listening, your goals should be:
-For $1300/pair...Neumann KH80
-For $1400/pair... Genelec 8030C
-For $1818/pair... Neumann KH 120

But for your $400/pair recommendation:
- JBL 305P MKII (it's $360/pair now, but was lower, if you're willing to wait until end of year, for christmas sales). Reviewed and recommended by Amir.
- Kali LP-6 ($400/pair now). Audioholics reviewed LP-8 (larger brother of LP-6) and measurements are decent.

There's a Long &McQuade retail store in my area that I will be checking out soon, going to have to hard time adjusting to having a volume knob in the rear as opposed to the front though

 

[carewser]

Everyone has probably moved on from this thread since it's 2 months old but I just saw it now

There's a Long &McQuade retail store in my area that I will be checking out soon, going to have to hard time adjusting to having a volume knob in the rear as opposed to the front though

Yeah that's so stupid, why do they do that? I own a bunch of active speakers and only one set has the volume button on the back of it's sub, all the others have the volume button on the front where it belongs although thankfully that set also has a remote control

I'm also a canuck so there's a Long and McQuade store only a few blocks from me which is cool if i'm ever in the mood for a $3000 set of studio monitors but i'm pretty happy with my Audioengine A5+ speakers which many have said are similar to studio monitors at a fraction of the price (around $600/pair CAN with taxes). I was thrilled to pay $225 for a used pair in mint condition and the guy threw in a bluetooth adaptor

 

[pozz]

Yeah that's so stupid, why do they do that? I own a bunch of active speakers and only one set has the volume button on the back of it's sub, all the others have the volume button on the front where it belongs

They aren't volume knobs, usually. They are gain knobs that determine input sensitivity. Pro equipment assumes that you'll have external volume controller as part of the signal chain.

 

[Windman]

Everyone has probably moved on from this thread since it's 2 months old but I just saw it now


Yeah that's so stupid, why do they do that? I own a bunch of active speakers and only one set has the volume button on the back of it's sub, all the others have the volume button on the front where it belongs although thankfully that set also has a remote control

I'm also a canuck so there's a Long and McQuade store only a few blocks from me which is cool if i'm ever in the mood for a $3000 set of studio monitors but i'm pretty happy with my Audioengine A5+ speakers which many have said are similar to studio monitors at a fraction of the price (around $600/pair CAN with taxes). I was thrilled to pay $225 for a used pair in mint condition and the guy threw in a bluetooth adaptor

If its any consolation for your time, I do have an ending to my story. I ended up giving the TUKs another try and ultimately keeping it after through many trial and error. Its a slightly long story, but please bear with me. When I went to Long &McQuade, there were barely any studio monitor available, practically everything was sold out due to the pandemic. I had my eyes on the Yamaha HS5; which I eventually ordered off of Costco.

As stated by carewser, the volume knob on the rear is used to adjust gain and not supposed to be used as a traditional volume control, since I already had a DAC/Headphone that also had Preamp functionality, I did not need to buy another audio interface thankfully. I still found the gain knob located on the rear to annoying though. The speaker was tested for 50 days, (Costco has a 90 day return policy on most electronics, great membership benefits by the way) and while I enjoyed the clean flat response, I ran into deal breaker issues. First, I experienced a lot of listening fatigue, practically everything I watch/listen, Youtube videos and podcast mostly, became un-bearable because of the speaker were playing frequencies that exhausted my ear, even good recordings from Spotify sounded tiring. You are at the mercy of the content creator.

Secondly, the near field listening range is very limited, I usually place my speakers at the corner of my desk, 61 inches wide, I am literally within 2 feet of the speakers. So I am within close proximity, Unless I turn up the volume , I can't really hear much.

The culprit to my ordeal was not the high bass or treble but rather how Kanto adjusted their volume gain. I will like use a quote from this review as it speaks for itself.

https://www.themasterswitch.com/kanto-tuk-review

"It feels like it’s very hard to get any precision when adjusting the volume or the EQ. Each tap of the volume control results in a leap that’s larger than we would have liked; you’re going up an entire foot, as opposed to increasing the volume by inches."

Which explains why I had such a hard time calibrating these speakers, the solution I did was to increase the speaker volume to 80% and let my preamp handle the rest, and viola! No more migraines. Volume levels are now more manageable with bass and treble at neutral settings, no more sharp increase in volume. I have no idea why Kanto did this, if you are in large room this would probably not be an issue but I am cornered up a wall in a small area .While I would certainly like to try another brand, I decided that the speaker hunt had to end, 3 months is too long. And I am starting to suspect that every speaker on the market will have its own weird quirks that may or may not annoy us. For those that are considering these speakers, please take note of the volume issue.

 

[carewser]

You're right, it was a long story! I didn't actually say the gain button is on the back of some active speakers though, Pozz did. I looked on the back of my M-Audio sub and he's right, it's a gain button, although I don't know what the difference is between "gain" and "volume", I guess the term "gain" is just more common in pro audio

On a side note to BCer's here because I know i'm not the only one, Long and McQuade has locations in Nanaimo, Prince George, Courtenay and Kamloops but not Kelowna. WTF? Kelowna is at least twice the size of any of those cities

I don't know what you or the reviewer from the Master Switch are talking about because I just checked the volume on the Tuk's and the volume goes up/down very slowly using the remote, if anything, too slowly as it seems to be ~100 increment volume control. I can't hear any difference in volume each time I press the volume button and the little LED light flashes once. To get any real difference in volume you have to hold the volume button down for a second or two and watch the little LED flash a bunch of times. It sounds to me like you guys don't know how to use the remote. The problem I have with the Kanto's volume control is the same as with my M-Audio AV32.1's-the remote can adjust the volume but there's no indicator anywhere to let you know where the volume's at and that would be nice to know. By the way, I like the way Kanto makes the brightness on the LED adjustable, that's a cool little detail. I only have one other set of speakers that offer that-my Edifier S730's

 

[KantoLiving]

I don't know what you or the reviewer from the Master Switch are talking about because I just checked the volume on the Tuk's and the volume goes up/down very slowly using the remote, if anything, too slowly as it seems to be ~100 increment volume control.

Kanto rep here. The only time we get complaints about volume control is through USB - it's less smooth as we have to divide roughly 30 increments into Windows / MacOS's 100 volume increments, so it goes up by 2, 3, or 4 steps at a time. Reading this thread over it sounds like OP is using an external DAC so he shouldn't encounter this issue. I wonder if the DACs output is a super hot - putting out a significant Vrms that is surpassing the input sensitivity of the speakers. That may explain the migraines as the speakers would be clipping and would also explain the high jumps in volume.

@Windman I'm going to PM you and chat about your setup and get more info about the volume increments. I'd love to bring some relevant data to our engineers who are actually in the midst of trying to improve the way volume works on USB - might have them look into general volume control if I can determine what went wrong in your setup.

 

[Windman]

For those who are still interested , here is what I posted in response to the Kanto rep:

Previously, I was connecting the speakers to an iFi Micro iDSD Black label using the USB port input. I specifically used the preamp function because using it as fixed output made the volume really loud. The output voltage in fixed output is 2.2V, while preamp mode ranges from 2V- 5V
ifi Micro iDSD Black Label

I then acquired another iFi DAC within the months, the Neo iDSD and used it alongside my Micro iDSD, this time the preamp RCA output ranged from 3.2V to 3.9Volts. Fixed output is 2.2V
Neo iDSD

I tried different connections on multiple DACs , results summarized below

Micro iDSD
USB: Noticeable sharp audio jump after incrementing from 9 steps to 10
Optical: No change from above

Neo iDSD
USB/Optical: No change from the Micro, the only difference was that the volume output was significantly higher, probably due to increase of output voltage

Onboard sound on Computer RealTek Audio
This was most surprising, when I connected the TUKs directly to my desktop using the optical cable, volume was significantly quieter than both my external DACs. There was still the sharp audio increase present but not as noticeable given the greatly reduced output, the gain increment was the smoothest of the 3 DACs tested; I much prefer the volume output of this method, minus the poor capabilities of RealTek audio of course.

Built in TUK DAC/Bluetooth
Volume level was mostly the same between these two, I have noticed that the first increment gain sets the windows sound mixer to a value of 4, after which each incremental gain increases the output by 2. This was the roughest gain of all the methods tested. Either volume was too loud or too low, I sometimes listen to audio below the value of 4, especially with FLAC files which does get loud, and I rather not have to constantly play with volume sliders on the application I am using

Closing notes
It is possible that my iFi DACs are simply providing too much voltage output to the TUKs, using any USB based DACs, alongside Bluetooth has made the volume uncomfortably loud. As previously stated, I have to use my DACs in preamplifier mode to regulate the audio more specifically to my preference, otherwise I cannot use the TUKs at all. I could move place them further away from me though. As a side note, my previous speakers were the YU6, which had a much easier time integrating with my Micro iDSD. Volume level gain was much smoother, it is not too loud or too quiet, maybe the TUKs are simply more sensitive than the YU6?

I hope this helps your product engineers, this issue has plagued me for 3 months and I do hope a firmware update can resolve this.