Neumann KH 150 Monitor Review

[VTKZ]

what is long term for you ? i own them since 2023. Workin still perfectly

 

[Pearljam5000]

what is long term for you ? i own them since 2023. Workin still perfectly

That's long term for sure
Anything beyond a few months is fine
How are you liking the sound?

 

[VTKZ]

still completly happy. Sometimes i ask me if i need bigger speakers like a line array or Horns for my homecinema but than
i dont find one thing i didnt like about the neumanns. They deliver high / enough SPL ~105dB, you can watch 2-3 Movies without get tiring ears.
Music & Film Effetcs sounds clear, good recordings sound awesome, bad sounded bad.

I listened to a lot of other speakers (active & passive) and for that price i think its a no brainer.
Specially when you cut them off at 80-100Hz and using subs like me.
The MA1 & KH750 arent my cup of tea for me. To many bugs so i sold them after ~1 year of using the subs.

I use neumann speakers since around 10 years - own(ed) 80, 120, 150, 310, 750
and never had any complains.

 

[NeverBetter]

I came from HS8s and with the KH150 pair I haven't heard this kind of depth before. The clarity in the low end is impressive and so is the rest of the freq range.

 

[aschen]

Any long term users that can share their experience with KH150 so far?

Only had mine a few months but they get used every day.

Moved 250 lbs of high end speakers and amps to my closet and don't really miss them for now

 

[Pearljam5000]

Only had mine a few months but they get used every day.

Moved 250 lbs of high end speakers and amps to my closet and don't really miss them for now

They look very cool in white.
How usable are they without a sub?

 

[aschen]

They are in my open floor plan living room with 20ft ceilings that opens into my whole house. They sound good without a sub but definitely missing a bit of low end in that scenario. For big open rooms and moderate listening distances I think you need sub(s). I mean if you are going to spend $4000 on bookshelf speakers I say dont skimp the 800$ or so for a decent sub.


For an office, bedroom, or normalish room that has most of its walls, I think they will be fine as is. Especially since you have some EQ ability built in to set to taste.

 

[teashea]

Any long term users that can share their experience with KH150 so far?

I have two pairs of KH150's in my studio, in addition to five other pairs o Neumann monitors. I use them in very nearfield (1 to 1.2 meters). (See photos). I use them at mixing and mastering workstations.

All of this is my opinion. It should be considered as much less valuable than Amir's review and measurements........

The are superb. I want monitors that do not color the sound. I do not want them to sound pretty or sweet or lovely. I want them to tell me the truth of how the song sounds. KH150's do this. By using them in very nearfield, room reflections are minimized. More than 90% of the sound that I hear is directly from the monitors. The main studio room is about 20 x 45 Feet.

While I have a KH750 sub, I do not use it with the KH150's. For my productions (pop, country, jazz), there simply is no content below 40 Hz.

With these monitors, I do not have to guess what the bass or highs or mids really sound like. I know. It makes mixing and mastering a pleasure. (I use Neumann NDH 20's and 30's about ten percent of the time as a check).

I have had zero problems with any of my Neumann monitors.

I would be glad to answer any other questions.... best wishes.

 

[starfly]

Ok, as I was getting annoyed by a slight crackling sound in the tweeter in the KH120 II I had recently picked up and would have to deal with an exchange anyway, I decided to just splurge on a pair of KH150s, along with the KH750 which I had already gotten with the KH120 II initially. Perhaps a bit overkill for my office, but I'm also looking towards the future where I might have a bigger office to fill these with.

Using the MA-1 software, I took the 7 measurements as required:
Center listening position (the mid-point between my ears while seated in my office chair), Left 30cm, Right 30cm, Front 21cm, Back 26cm, Center Up 11cm, Center Down 11cm.

The speakers are equidistant from the listening position, but the overall triangle is not equilateral, as there is limited space behind me to push back my desk and chair to get to a perfect equilateral triangle. They're placed up on stands, angled down towards my ears/head.

I applied a flat curve (flat-ish, as you can't just simply instruct MA-1 to not apply the Neumann curve, you need to tweak filters to get it flat, so it's almost impossible to get it perfectly flat - very annoying you can't just turn off the curve altogether).

This was the result:

I then decided to confirm in REW with a UMIK-1 what the corrected vs. uncorrected response was. I took 7 measurements from the same positions as required in MA-1, both corrected and uncorrected, and averaged the response for each set of measurements in REW, with this as the result (no smoothing applied to the graphs):

Overall I'd say the MA-1 software did a good job smoothing out the low-end up to around 110hz or so, but then it does create a new problem around 130hz. This can likely only be corrected by optimizing placement of the KH750 sub. I have limited options in this room, so for now I think I'll leave it as is. Above 800hz or so it's mostly the same response, which is pretty flat in my room. My hearing is rolled off above 7khz or so, so this flat response compensates for that haha.

Question, does MA-1 also automatically detect and apply the correct phase settings for the KH750?

Otherwise this is a true end-game setup for my office and I won't replace this until something dies.

 

[VTKZ]

I think (nearly) everyone here would agree that you can’t go wrong with any Neumann product. They don’t release new products very often because they spend a lot of time developing something that truly works and measures perfectly.

That's just my opinion, but after visiting many hi-fi dealers and shows, I’ve noticed a pattern: all these so-called “high-end” hi-fi brands release new speakers every year, claiming to use exotic driver materials supposedly handpicked from deep in the jungle (irony intended). And then something “simple” like a Neumann or Genelec comes along—and they perform just as well, if not better, than 60–70% of that passive gear in terms of detail, imaging, depth, and flat, relaxed sound. And all that for much less money—plus you get built-in room correction.

Of course, there are other great active speaker concepts out there like GGNTKT, Dutch & Dutch, Bohne Audio, etc.—but they often cost at least twice as much for maybe 5–10% more performance. In my opinion, that’s not worth it.

That’s why I’m now focusing 100% on subwoofer integration instead of thinking about new speakers. Once you get the bass right, you’ve already won a lot. Bass is the most critical and difficult part of any room to get right. I use now 4 Subs and maybe i will build someday an Double Bass Array... maybe..

My next steps will be trying our Atmos with another pair of KH80. But first i need to rebuild my 4x Subwoofer because ive new cabinets. And than i start with my miniDSP trying to align them (or i pay for it and a Homecinema Installer will do that for me).
So, happy listening everyone !

Btw this are actual Measurements (uncorrected) and Subs not aligned, just Eq'd manual. Not a bad Start for a living room / Non-Studio Envirement imo

 

[Yotec]

Hi everybody! I’m struggling to understand the MA 1 alignment process as the instructions are kind of contradictory. I’ve created a setup and everything seems to be working fine, but as soon as I start a new measurement there’s a problem during the “Output signal level adaptation” step which is unable to be finished with the error “very low signal level detected. Please make sure the output channels of your audio interface are active and the monitors are connected”. That’s confusing because first — yes, everything is connected, and second — the software itself says that the monitors will be muted during this step, so I am not sure what is supposed to make sounds in the first place. Furthermore I don’t register any signals whatsoever during the process, so I assumed there might be something wrong with the audio interface setup, but everything seems to be fine (I’m using an SPDIF connection and choosing the “starting output channel: as SPDIF L). Any help?

 

[VTKZ]

Hi everybody! I’m struggling to understand the MA 1 alignment process as the instructions are kind of contradictory. I’ve created a setup and everything seems to be working fine, but as soon as I start a new measurement there’s a problem during the “Output signal level adaptation” step which is unable to be finished with the error “very low signal level detected. Please make sure the output channels of your audio interface are active and the monitors are connected”. That’s confusing because first — yes, everything is connected, and second — the software itself says that the monitors will be muted during this step, so I am not sure what is supposed to make sounds in the first place. Furthermore I don’t register any signals whatsoever during the process, so I assumed there might be something wrong with the audio interface setup, but everything seems to be fine (I’m using an SPDIF connection and choosing the “starting output channel: as SPDIF L). Any help?

I had the same problem many many times and dont figured out what exactly was the problem.
The main problem is that there are no in depth tutorials and explenations from neumann about the software.
The Service said that i need to use the same length cables, everything needs to be idendtical wired,
so you cant use different cables because the software detects the differences.
But even when i switched the cables to different ones, i had the same software problems.

I used the MA1 with 2x KH750 and my pair of 150s but had always points that go wrong + the cable mess with all this xlr cables.
I ordered so many different cables, i have now a complete box full of adapters, xlr cables and stuff.
Thats the reason why i sold it, too many bugs, too many errors.
Also not the possibility to daisy chain everything or connect everything just with LAN Cables.

From Genelec there are 30-60 min Webinars, Tutorials and explenations wich helps a lot to understand the process about their GLM System.
Neumann MA1 are 4 yrs old and are ~5min long.

Thats all you need to know, how important the software seems to be to neumann / sennheiser…

 

[Ktacos]

so you cant use different cables because the software detects the differences.

Lol no it can't they just totally made that up.

I sold my Neumann stuff and ma-1 mic as I got it early on and it just didn't work and the advertising was false. Actually managed to get sweetwater to change language on the product page because of how misleading it was, and neumann support was abysmal.

 

[starfly]

It was a bit finicky to get it going, as it wouldn’t always detect the subs or speakers, but in the end I got it all to work. Was using a Motu M4 audio interface. And it overall cost me less than getting an equivalent Genelec setup.

I will say, I don’t understand why they insist on using a network interface for it that uses ipv6. They should’ve also had USB. The networking piece makes it really finicky IMO as if your network isn’t configured for ipv6 you’re gonna have a hard time figuring out how to make it work, and that would go beyond the technical ability of many home studio users.

 

[teashea]

Hi everybody! I’m struggling to understand the MA 1 alignment process as the instructions are kind of contradictory. I’ve created a setup and everything seems to be working fine, but as soon as I start a new measurement there’s a problem during the “Output signal level adaptation” step which is unable to be finished with the error “very low signal level detected. Please make sure the output channels of your audio interface are active and the monitors are connected”. That’s confusing because first — yes, everything is connected, and second — the software itself says that the monitors will be muted during this step, so I am not sure what is supposed to make sounds in the first place. Furthermore I don’t register any signals whatsoever during the process, so I assumed there might be something wrong with the audio interface setup, but everything seems to be fine (I’m using an SPDIF connection and choosing the “starting output channel: as SPDIF L). Any help?

I have heard of this happening but sorry I do not know the solution....at least you are not alone. Best wishes.

 

[Yotec]

I don’t understand why they insist on using a network interface for it that uses ipv6

Huh, should it be ipv6? I must have overlooked that…

I have heard of this happening but sorry I do not know the solution....at least you are not alone. Best wishes.

Can you recall any particular threads maybe?

 

[mj30250]

Hi everybody! I’m struggling to understand the MA 1 alignment process as the instructions are kind of contradictory. I’ve created a setup and everything seems to be working fine, but as soon as I start a new measurement there’s a problem during the “Output signal level adaptation” step which is unable to be finished with the error “very low signal level detected. Please make sure the output channels of your audio interface are active and the monitors are connected”. That’s confusing because first — yes, everything is connected, and second — the software itself says that the monitors will be muted during this step, so I am not sure what is supposed to make sounds in the first place. Furthermore I don’t register any signals whatsoever during the process, so I assumed there might be something wrong with the audio interface setup, but everything seems to be fine (I’m using an SPDIF connection and choosing the “starting output channel: as SPDIF L). Any help?

I would get this error on occasion. The only way I "resolved" it was by resetting the audio interface and adjusting the knobs until MA-1 was happy. There seemed to be no consistent levels that would make it work all the time, which made it all the more frustrating.

MA-1 is fantastic when it works error-free, but the bugs can be a huge pain.

 

[Yotec]

I’ve just tried the analog outputs and they seem to work fine, so it seems to be a problem with digital outputs *sigh*

 

[DJBonoBobo]

Hi everybody! I’m struggling to understand the MA 1 alignment process as the instructions are kind of contradictory. I’ve created a setup and everything seems to be working fine, but as soon as I start a new measurement there’s a problem during the “Output signal level adaptation” step which is unable to be finished with the error “very low signal level detected. Please make sure the output channels of your audio interface are active and the monitors are connected”. That’s confusing because first — yes, everything is connected, and second — the software itself says that the monitors will be muted during this step, so I am not sure what is supposed to make sounds in the first place. Furthermore I don’t register any signals whatsoever during the process, so I assumed there might be something wrong with the audio interface setup, but everything seems to be fine (I’m using an SPDIF connection and choosing the “starting output channel: as SPDIF L). Any help?

The speakers themselves are muted by the MA1 software (inside the speakers) during this step, but they need to receive a signal that is loud enough. I don´t know what interface you are using, but the digital output volume has to be high enough.

 

[Yotec]

The speakers themselves are muted by the MA1 software (inside the speakers) during this step, but they need to receive a signal that is loud enough. I don´t know what interface you are using, but the digital output volume has to be high enough.

I am using the RME UCX and there’s no indication of any signal in the Total Mix software during this step, dead silent. That’s with a SPDIF connection. As if the software isn’t sending a signal at all. Weird.