KRK Classic 5 Review (Studio Monitor)

[JRAudio]

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:

View attachment 103329

I like it! Back panel shows the usual controls and connectivity:

View attachment 103330

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:

View attachment 103333

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:

View attachment 103334

Directivity has some errors during the crossover region causing a dip in the upper mid-range:

View attachment 103335

Putting the two together, we get:

View attachment 103336

Rather bright and not very even.

CSD/waterfall shows some of the resonances we saw in frequency response:
View attachment 103337

Lack of a waveguide shows large directivity change in the response of the tweeter:

View attachment 103338

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.

View attachment 103339

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Distortion is fairly under control at 86 dBSPL, but not 96:

View attachment 103341

Level of distortion exceeds the fundamental signal below 50 Hz so filter that if you can:
View attachment 103342

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:

View attachment 103343

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!

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Great, that you have checked the above 30 kHz behavior. Thanks.

 

[Zerohour]

Did you measure the -2db hf switch and see did it fix the speaker?

I'd be more interested as to whether the -2db treble setting improved your subjective listening and how it compared to your EQ adjustments. That would hopefully not be too time consuming.

Alternatively, they appear reasonably flat 30 degrees off axis.

if the -2db treble setting is good enough compared to EQ and there's no hiss, I might actually get this vs the Kali LP6 (plus the LP6 price is inflated here, so a pair of these KRK is actually usd$100 cheaper)

 

[3125b]

Never heard the Classics, but the Rokit 5 G3 sure sound bad.
At the similar price point, in Europe anyway, the T5V seem like the much better choice.

 

[YSC]

Never heard the Classics, but the Rokit 5 G3 sure sound bad.
At the similar price point, in Europe anyway, the T5V seem like the much better choice.

the new G4 looks great though

https://mikesgig.com/krk-rokit-5-g4-white-noise-monitor-review

and from this review it seems the Classic 5 isn't far behind the T5V with a much smaller footprint?

 

[pavuol]

Also, the price gap between these and Rokits being so small, one have to wonder sometimes what is the intention for keeping so many product lines (in general, not considering KRK brand only).

Nevertheless maybe these have purpose designwise, appealing the "fengshui (or something)" crowd out there..

 

[Pawelekdabek]

the new G4 looks great though

https://mikesgig.com/krk-rokit-5-g4-white-noise-monitor-review

and from this review it seems the Classic 5 isn't far behind the T5V with a much smaller footprint?

This is suspiciously flat response, is it from manufacturer measurements?

 

[imagidominc]

Why?

Why....what? Because they sound decent but could sound better with eq?

 

[YSC]

This is suspiciously flat response, is it from manufacturer measurements?

can be, I have no idea on how much water is in that.
But this in room response looked really flat for the G4 also, whereas the G3 have similar HF shelf
http://digitalstereophony.blogspot.com/2019/05/krk-rokit-5-rp5g4-is-it-really.html

 

[Robbo99999]

Not too bad really this speaker for the little money that it's selling for. It looks like it would have been possible to remove the brightness of the speaker by relying on the -2dB HF Trim Switch on the back of the speaker, although that's 1dB short of the High Shelf Filter than Amir used, so might not have gotten it all the way there. Not too bad this speaker, although I've not compared it in detail to other speakers in it's class & value range.

 

[Robbo99999]

I wonder if the EQ adjustments available on the back panel would do 90% of the job needed: -1 dB LF and -2 dB HF. The score seems awfully harsh given the subjective comments post-EQ.

I would wager the -2 dB HF Switch would get you most of the way there, but I would think the -1dB LF Switch would probably just introduce negatives like noticeably less bass whilst not really doing anything to combat the distortion significantly.....it's my intuition that the 30Hz High Pass Filter that Amir used would be the best way of removing distortion whilst retaining good subjective bass level.

 

[YSC]

Not too bad really this speaker for the little money that it's selling for. It looks like it would have been possible to remove the brightness of the speaker by relying on the -2dB HF Trim Switch on the back of the speaker, although that's 1dB short of the High Shelf Filter than Amir used, so might not have gotten it all the way there. Not too bad this speaker, although I've not compared it in detail to other speakers in it's class & value range.

Completely agree, but when I checked Thomann pricing, the latest DSP coupled G4 cost like $15 more for each speaker it seems the DSP one is the way to go

 

[Zerohour]

Completely agree, but when I checked Thomann pricing, the latest DSP coupled G4 cost like $15 more for each speaker it seems the DSP one is the way to go

Is the Rokit 5 G4 the same speaker as this but with DSP? seems like quite a deal. While I would've liked tuning on the unit itself instead of using an app, but if it works fine or you can tune, save and forget, why not.

 

[wwenze]

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.

Class AB without a heatsink at the back feels like a time bomb.

On the bright side, we won't have cold garage ruining the bass response.

 

[Francis Vaughan]

Did you measure the -2db hf switch and see did it fix the speaker?

What is ridiculous is that the manufacturer provides no clue as to what the switch is supposed to do. I looked in the various brochures, on-line info and manuals. Nowhere do they provide a specification for the effect of the switches. The DSP version of the speaker does provide info, as it provides actual parameters to be tweaked. But this speaker - nothing. So what in the heck do they expect their customers to do? The only advice is to tweak the settings until you like them.
If the settings had sensible documentation one could reason usefully. As it is - all they say is is that "flat" should measure flat. As Amir discovered, it isn't flat. So they get an instant fail there anyway. It would be have been so simple for them to design the high end compensation to provide useful correction. They could have even left a demo setting, just like TVs. It would have added zero to the BOM. Just taken a bit more thought.

 

[makinao]

This looks suspiciously like a G3. Maybe KRK had a big surplus of bodies and just rebadged them.

 

[RobS]

Interesting this has a Class AB 50W plate amp at such a low price. Normally at this price point you'd see Class D.

 

[samwell7]

Never heard the Classics, but the Rokit 5 G3 sure sound bad.
At the similar price point, in Europe anyway, the T5V seem like the much better choice.

I'm pretty sure the classic 5 is the Rokit 5 G3 (classic because the G4 is out)

 

[dasdoing]

the classic is the g3.....not 100% sure, but why would they make a new speaker with old tecnology and design?

 

[YSC]

the classic is the g3.....not 100% sure, but why would they make a new speaker with old tecnology and design?

Spare parts and for those prefer heritage design..

subjectively the narrow dorectivity and listening window helps in rolling down the treble away from axis and make the sound easier

 

[ernestcarl]

I think I'm now seeing a similar pattern in the resonances seen from the front port of my own monitors (and other ported designs):

I thought it was just reflection interference from the surface of the back of the horn, but it does seem more likely to be caused by cabinet or port noise.