This is a review and detailed measurements of the KRK Classic 5 powered studio monitor. I purchased it from Amazon when it was on sale for $134. It normally costs US $149.50 including Prime shipping.
The Classic 5 has quite a sturdy and solid build distinguished by the bright yellow woofer cone:
I like it! Back panel shows the usual controls and connectivity:
Different than many of its competitors, the Classic 5 uses class AB amplification. As a result after a few minutes of use, I could tell the top back panel becoming warm.
The controls with rubberized finish feel good.
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 an anechoic chamber. In a nutshell, the measurements show the actual sound coming out of the speaker independent of the room.
I performed over 800 measurement which resulted in error rate of less than 1% throughout the range.
Temperature was 60 degrees F. Measurement location is at sea level so you compute the pressure.
Measurements are compliant with latest speaker research into what can predict the speaker preference and is standardized in CEA/CTA-2034 ANSI specifications. Likewise listening tests are performed per research that shows mono listening is much more revealing of differences between speakers than stereo or multichannel.
Reference axis was the tweeter center.
KRK Classic 5 Measurements
Acoustic measurements can be grouped in a way that can be perceptually analyzed to determine how good a speaker is and how it can be used in a room. This so called spinorama shows us just about everything we need to know about the speaker with respect to tonality and some flaws:
The on-axis response starts off well but then we have some sudden glitches followed by exaggerated level above 4 kHz. The glitches seem to be caused by the port resonances mixing with the woofer:
Directivity has some errors during the crossover region causing a dip in the upper mid-range:
Putting the two together, we get:
Rather bright and not very even.
CSD/waterfall shows some of the resonances we saw in frequency response:
Lack of a waveguide shows large directivity change in the response of the tweeter:
As you see, its beam narrows quite a bit so how much you toe it in will determine how bright it is. The same happens if you shift left and right.
Distortion is fairly under control at 86 dBSPL, but not 96:
Level of distortion exceeds the fundamental signal below 50 Hz so filter that if you can:
Speaker Listening Tests
Typical of other bright speakers the first few seconds sounds good but quickly becomes too much of a good thing. So out came the equalization tools to tame that:
I worked from right to left. A shelving filter helped but the sound remained bright somehow. I then dialed in that little resonance removal notch at 2.6 kHz. That increased clarity but some brightness remained. I then remembered about the distortion exceeding 100% below 50 Hz so put a high pass filter there. Once there, performance improved substantially. This is a speaker with good bass capabilities with almost no dynamic limit in desktop use. As a result, I could turn up the volume as much as I wanted which always pleases me.
Conclusions
While the build quality is pretty good, the Classic 5 has some design flaws the worst of which is the elevated highs. It seems purposeful to sell more speakers this way. Equalization was very effective to transform this monitor into a capable monitor with much better power handling than most of its competitors.
Overall, I can NOT recommend the KRK Classic 5 out of box. If you can apply EQ to it, then I will recommend it. After all, the EQ solves its tonality issues but nothing brings more power to a monitor that gets that right but distorts easily!
------------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.
Appreciate any donations using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/
The Classic 5 has quite a sturdy and solid build distinguished by the bright yellow woofer cone:
I like it! Back panel shows the usual controls and connectivity:
Different than many of its competitors, the Classic 5 uses class AB amplification. As a result after a few minutes of use, I could tell the top back panel becoming warm.
The controls with rubberized finish feel good.
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 an anechoic chamber. In a nutshell, the measurements show the actual sound coming out of the speaker independent of the room.
I performed over 800 measurement which resulted in error rate of less than 1% throughout the range.
Temperature was 60 degrees F. Measurement location is at sea level so you compute the pressure.
Measurements are compliant with latest speaker research into what can predict the speaker preference and is standardized in CEA/CTA-2034 ANSI specifications. Likewise listening tests are performed per research that shows mono listening is much more revealing of differences between speakers than stereo or multichannel.
Reference axis was the tweeter center.
KRK Classic 5 Measurements
Acoustic measurements can be grouped in a way that can be perceptually analyzed to determine how good a speaker is and how it can be used in a room. This so called spinorama shows us just about everything we need to know about the speaker with respect to tonality and some flaws:
The on-axis response starts off well but then we have some sudden glitches followed by exaggerated level above 4 kHz. The glitches seem to be caused by the port resonances mixing with the woofer:
Directivity has some errors during the crossover region causing a dip in the upper mid-range:
Putting the two together, we get:
Rather bright and not very even.
CSD/waterfall shows some of the resonances we saw in frequency response:
Lack of a waveguide shows large directivity change in the response of the tweeter:
As you see, its beam narrows quite a bit so how much you toe it in will determine how bright it is. The same happens if you shift left and right.
Distortion is fairly under control at 86 dBSPL, but not 96:
Level of distortion exceeds the fundamental signal below 50 Hz so filter that if you can:
Speaker Listening Tests
Typical of other bright speakers the first few seconds sounds good but quickly becomes too much of a good thing. So out came the equalization tools to tame that:
I worked from right to left. A shelving filter helped but the sound remained bright somehow. I then dialed in that little resonance removal notch at 2.6 kHz. That increased clarity but some brightness remained. I then remembered about the distortion exceeding 100% below 50 Hz so put a high pass filter there. Once there, performance improved substantially. This is a speaker with good bass capabilities with almost no dynamic limit in desktop use. As a result, I could turn up the volume as much as I wanted which always pleases me.
Conclusions
While the build quality is pretty good, the Classic 5 has some design flaws the worst of which is the elevated highs. It seems purposeful to sell more speakers this way. Equalization was very effective to transform this monitor into a capable monitor with much better power handling than most of its competitors.
Overall, I can NOT recommend the KRK Classic 5 out of box. If you can apply EQ to it, then I will recommend it. After all, the EQ solves its tonality issues but nothing brings more power to a monitor that gets that right but distorts easily!
------------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.
Appreciate any donations using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/
