Neumann KH 150 Monitor Review

[TimVG]

This is enabled as standard in the options panel

View attachment 251460

Aha, did not know! Thank you.

 

[SlothRock]

You know, I thought buying a sub would make my interest in new monitors disappear. Turns, out adding the sub made even more curious how much of an improvement KH 150's or 310's would make

 

[amirm]

You can't compare CSD waterfalls from multiple sources. I can make my waterfalls look perfect or terrible with just changing one parameter. A sign that a CSD waterfall is poorly done is above: everywhere there is a peak, there is going to be resonance. Yet your black and white waterfalls don't show any of it.

 

[Pjetrof]

Maybe a dumb question.
could i use an ipad, prescription to qobuz, and this speaker to play music?

 

[sajgre]

Maybe a dumb question.
could i use an ipad, prescription to qobuz, and this speaker to play music?

You can use that with any speaker. With actives like Neuman you only need Chromecast, a streamer and volume control (it can be a part of the streamer). Wiim mini (or new pro) come to mind.

 

[tuga]

You can't compare CSD waterfalls from multiple sources. I can make my waterfalls look perfect or terrible with just changing one parameter. A sign that a CSD waterfall is poorly done is above: everywhere there is a peak, there is going to be resonance. Yet your black and white waterfalls don't show any of it.

I know that. That’s why I posted all waterfalls from the same source

 

[neunoir]

Maybe a dumb question.
could i use an ipad, prescription to qobuz, and this speaker to play music?

Yes you can. I have this setup since last week in my living room and I'm very happy so far.

Neumann KH 150 + Bluesound Node (will try the Wiim Pro when available in EU as well).
Connect the Neumanns with digital coax cables to one another and it works (also auto-on, standby).

 

[neunoir]

You know, I thought buying a sub would make my interest in new monitors disappear. Turns, out adding the sub made even more curious how much of an improvement KH 150's or 310's would make

hehe I recognize this.
I got the KH 150s last week. Very happy, but the KH 750 being available makes me very curious about the total effect as well.
Even though bass is plenty for my taste, I do remember the low frequencies from my old B&W 801 speakers and I'm curious what the addition of the KH 750 would do.

 

[SlothRock]

hehe I recognize this.
I got the KH 150s last week. Very happy, but the KH 750 being available makes me very curious about the total effect as well.
Even though bass is plenty for my taste, I do remember the low frequencies from my old B&W 801 speakers and I'm curious what the addition of the KH 750 would do.

Ya, you will notice a difference 100%. I’m sure the 150’s have better bass than my 120’s did without a sub but, regardless, they will never be able to get as low as a sub can. Integrated well into the system and you’ll get a true full range presentation. Makes a big difference

 

[changer]

Makes a big difference

Though on the verge of getting OT, could you describe the difference how you perceive it? Background is I am running speakers with very similar bass response (almost same f3 and 6th order assisted tuning as well). I make ample use of room correction, otherwise they sound too muddy to my taste due to too excessive bass 50-100 Hz, but with RC enabled, very fast and punchy (this horse here drinks from another well). I would like to develope an idea of what I am missing out on without a sub to augment sub bass response down to Red Book low end.

 

[dfuller]

everywhere there is a peak, there is going to be resonance

Bossman, I'm pretty sure this isn't accurate.

 

[SlothRock]

Though on the verge of getting OT, could you describe the difference how you perceive it? Background is I am running speakers with very similar bass response (almost same f3 and 6th order assisted tuning as well). I make ample use of room correction, otherwise they sound too muddy to my taste due to too excessive bass 50-100 Hz, but with RC enabled, very fast and punchy (this horse here drinks from another well). I would like to develope an idea of what I am missing out on without a sub to augment sub bass response down to Red Book low end.

Keep in mind this is going to be coming from somebody who is an audiophile vs. a sound engineer. I just happen to like high quality, non voodoo audio so studio monitors are my jam for sure.

What speakers are you running right now? I can only speak to my KH 120's but, for me, the differences were very obvious. The KH 120's had good mid-bass and they even had great sounding "bump" to that mid-bass but pretty much everything in the sub-bass wouldn't really come out. I had thought the reproduction was "good enough" until I got the sub going and measured by the MA 1. Every frequency comes through effortlessly now and there is nothing in the sub bass that I'm currently missing. It actually took away some of the "bump" from the monitors, but that's because a lot of that has now move to the sub and integrates much better with the full sound signature. It can be extremely subtle in some songs and then shake the house in others lol

 

[teashea]

Another review with teardown.

https://en-de.neumann.com/product_files/11571/download

Is there an English translation of this?

 

[DJBonoBobo]

Is there an English translation of this?

Yes, here is the english version of the full review from Sound & Recording:

https://de-de.neumann.com/product_files/11572/download

 

[teashea]

I don't think they are very suitable for far-field listening. These are small bookshelf speakers. If you have a small room, sure. But otherwise, I don't think so.

I am brand new here on this forus. Seems like a great place. Science instead of snake oil.

This is a very good point. These speakers are monitors. They are intended for nearfield studio work. The are not in any way intended for use as hi fidelity speakers for a midfield listening system.

I own TES Productions - a music production company. In my studio I presently have a pair of KH120's with a 750 sub and a pair of Neuman 310's. I am going to purchase a pair of KH150 the first week of January.

I will be using them as part of a second recording/tracking system with a new generation Audient 4816SE console (the first one sold by Audient). The 150's will be 1.5 meters from my head.

After I have a change to use them for a while I will post my comments here - including a compartion with the 120's/750 and the 310's.

 

[teashea]

Yes, here is the english version of the full review from Sound & Recording:

https://de-de.neumann.com/product_files/11572/download

Thank you very much

 

[fuzzychaos]

I am brand new here on this forus. Seems like a great place. Science instead of snake oil.

This is a very good point. These speakers are monitors. They are intended for nearfield studio work. The are not in any way intended for use as hi fidelity speakers for a midfield listening system.

I own TES Productions - a music production company. In my studio I presently have a pair of KH120's with a 750 sub and a pair of Neuman 310's. I am going to purchase a pair of KH150 the first week of January.

I will be using them as part of a second recording/tracking system with a new generation Audient 4816SE console (the first one sold by Audient). The 150's will be 1.5 meters from my head.

After I have a change to use them for a while I will post my comments here - including a compartion with the 120's/750 and the 310's. View attachment 252344View attachment 252345View attachment 252346View attachment 252346

They work great at about 12’ (3.6m) away for hi-fi ( they say on their site that home listening is one of the areas in which the KH 150 work, it’s the sofa logo ). Of course it depends on what far field means in that context. Their site says up to a max of 18’, but that may be stretching it a bit. They perform and sound better than several of the passive speakers I have owned, many that were more per pair than the KH 150. Even when listening to mixes back in the day, I would often listen to “near field” monitors at a distance of 10’ or more, and in some studios the monitors were at that distance just because how they were positioned near the giant consoles.

Bottom line, they work fine at a distance and I’m not sure why so many think they wouldn’t. Are they perfect? No, no speaker is or ever will be.

 

[teashea]

This KH150 is ruler flat, thanks to dsp.

If I would screw a purifi 6,5 inch midwoofer in a stiff cabinet, with a bliesma midrange and tweeter, and use dsp (from a hypex plate amp FA253) to set crossovers and levels, measure and flatten the response, would it be possible to get the same ruler flat output?

Or do these companies have more intricate dsp to optimize the frequency response?

The reason why I ask this is that the man behind grimm once said that you could only achieve real high end results with meticulous adjusting a dsp within controlled circumstances and that this would be a different category than the dsp measurements at home, with umik/rew for example. Agree?

O think it is important to remembr the engineerting resources that Neumann has poured into the design of these speakers. No one is going to match them but something they build in their garage. There is so much more involved than would appear. Watch the series of intro videos by Neumann on these. It is clear that Neumann did a tremendous amount of intense acoutic engineering here.

 

[teashea]

Hofmann's Iron Law
three parameters that cannot all be had at the same time. They are low-bass reproduction, small (enclosure) size, and high (output) sensitivity." Hofmann stated that designers could pick two of these three parameters, but in doing so, it would compromise the third parameter.

DSP can get around ONE of those limitations, but at the expense of another.

While they may be usable to some degree in a mid-farfield setting, please remember that these are studio monitors designed optimally for nearfield use. You can use your Ferrari SF90 to go down the block to buy groceries, but it isn't going to excell at that mission.

 

[teashea]

The KH80 is tuned much higher and so can deliver more spl. The KH150 is tuned very low for such a small woofer, and so it goes less loud. That is Hofmann's Iron Law in speaker design. It's the woofer that limits that in this case. Even if the woofer in the 150 is a 6" woofer and in the KH80 a 4", this is still into play. And 88dB is already very loud in a nearfield situation, so that should be no issue. For far field listening, these are not fit, like said before,. Then you better get the bigger models.

Neumann has carefully limited the excursion of the woofer to prevent distortion. If they had chose to, they could have made them louder at the expense of increased distortion. They made the correct choice, for my purposes at least.