Neumann KH 310A Review (Powered Monitor)

[q3cpma]

Definitely, the price to performance ratio for the KH310s is easy to justify if you compare them with their direct competition which is mostly in the $6K range (~31% more expensive). But are the KH310s 1000% better than the JBL LSR308P MkII for example? Depends on the use case and bank account. As you say, if you're a studio engineer relying on these for income, then the answer becomes a clearer yes.


$3,500 is the median, $26.6K is the mean (average, thanks to very rich people), but the rest of what you say is correct -- 39% of Americans don't even have $400 in liquid cash for an emergency, let alone for a pair of speakers. While I know here at ASR we're all well-heeled audio gurus (or like to imagine ourselves that way), I just want to acknowledge that these speakers are outside the range of most people's life savings, which makes them expensive. And now I'll step off my soapbox.

Now, how many of these 39% wasted their money on shiny toys like a smartphone?

 

[q3cpma]

Looks like they both perform very well within their limits. JBL will fit in some installations where Neumann won't and JBL is less money and less headroom, just based on a quick look.

I doubt you can compare the 705p with the KH310A. Can do with the 708p, on the other hand. Same with the 8050/8350 from Genelec.

 

[Pearljam5000]

I doubt you can compare the 705p with the KH310A. Can do with the 708p, on the other hand. Same with the 8050/8350 from Genelec.

Is it fair to compare a 2-way monitor to a 3-way monitor?

 

[amirm]

When SPL is high enough, are you sure distortions you hear are coming from the speaker?

I don't have numbers. The level was tolerable at 1 meter or so.

 

[amirm]

Is it? What would be not a lot or about right for a pair of speakers like these?

??? I was making an absolute statement. Not everyone wants to spend $4,400 on speakers+amps.

 

[Mawclaw]

It is not extremely relevant to the actual speaker but I posted my measurements of the KH310 in my room on this thread. https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...can-in-room-response-realistically-get.12916/

I auditioned a fair amount of speakers from Genelec and Adam and decided I really liked the bass on the 310s and am also a sucker for the midrange dome. they are by far the best speakers I have owned and don't see myself getting rid of them.

If you look around you can usually find a pair for under 3k open box. I purchased mine from a distributor in Canada and paid import duties on them. This ended up being about 2850 all in.

Only cons I can list have been covered.
-Wish they had an auto-off switch. I "fixed" it with a smart plug thing that I can control from Alexa. This is bougie.
-Not the most attractive surface finish. I find the KH120s aluminum to me much more pleasant than the exterior of the KH310.
-I have never hit the limiter even with bass-heavy music. Does it exist?

 

[Pearljam5000]

It is not extremely relevant to the actual speaker but I posted my measurements of the KH310 in my room on this thread. https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...can-in-room-response-realistically-get.12916/

I auditioned a fair amount of speakers from Genelec and Adam and decided I really liked the bass on the 310s and am also a sucker for the midrange dome. they are by far the best speakers I have owned and don't see myself getting rid of them.

If you look around you can usually find a pair for under 3k open box. I purchased mine from a distributor in Canada and paid import duties on them. This ended up being about 2850 all in.

Only cons I can list have been covered.
-Wish they had an auto-off switch. I "fixed" it with a smart plug thing that I can control from Alexa. This is bougie.
-Not the most attractive surface finish. I find the KH120s aluminum to me much more pleasant than the exterior of the KH310.
-I have never hit the limiter even with bass-heavy music. Does it exist?

What model of Genelec did you compare it to?

 

[andreasmaaan]

Now, how many of these 39% wasted their money on shiny toys like a smartphone?

Please refrain from deriding poor people for "wasting" money on items that are in fact utterly normal, essential communications devices in 2020.

 

[q3cpma]

Please refrain from deriding poor people for "wasting" money on items that are in fact utterly normal, essential communications devices in 2020.

I won't, because your use of the word "essential" is laughable. But it's not like I have more to add.

 

[Mawclaw]

8331A - I really like them but couldn't justify the extra cost and needed sub.
8040B - Again, a great speaker but wasn't blown away like I was with the KH310s. I will say I am biased toward three-way and dome midranges.

 

[Bear123]

Please refrain from deriding poor people for "wasting" money on items that are in fact utterly normal, essential communications devices in 2020.

I understand his point. I bought my youngest daughter her first smart phone around the time she became a teenager, maybe a little before......$49 from Wal-mart and put it on a $25/month plan. It worked great for years. There are lots of broke people who have $1,000 smart phones that they rent from their carrier with their $300/month+ cell phone bills.

Broke is very commonly just a choice based on consumerism. I see it everyday with most of my coworkers, pretty much all of whom have six figure dual income households, and they are too broke to even pay attention.

 

[andreasmaaan]

Broke is very commonly just a choice based on consumerism.

Poverty is 99% brutal, intergenerational, structural disadvantage. But let's not get into it on this thread

 

[oivavoi]

Maybe this should be a different thread but is roughly true that good near-field monitors should work well in the far field too but one shouldn't expect the reverse?

I'm not so sure. It all depends on how much direct sound vs reflections you like in your soup, kind of. Most people tend to like a fair bit of reflections, as it makes the sound feel more enveloping. For this reason, near-field speakers often benefit from broader dispersion. And given that the direct sound dominates, one can often get away with a dispersion pattern which is not perfect. On the other hand it's usually important that drivers are not too far away from each other, so they integrate on a short distance.

For the far-field, however, one will in any case get more reflections. Hence it becomes more important with even dispersion. And when listening far away, it may sound good with narrower dispersion, as this will give you more direct sound relative to reflections. It's also less of a problem with drivers placed apart.

A personal example: I purchased the D&D 8Cs speakers, and expected to really love them. To my great surprise, however, I found that I preferred my old AVI DM10 actives, which are inferior on paper on most accounts. Why? After much experimentation I found out that it was about my listening distance. I mainly listen in the nearfield, and given that the 8Cs have a narrower dispersion than the AVIs, they became too "dry" for my taste. In the mid/farfield, however, it was no contest at all. The 8Cs had a homerun and then some. Their stereo image was much superior when listening at a distance, because their dispersion pattern is more even and narrow.

Broke is very commonly just a choice based on consumerism

Off-topic, but the above statement is not factually correct. We have 60 years of research and statistics which quite conclusively say otherwise.

 

[DWPress]

Nothing to contribute here about the Neumann - just a sense of validation with my latest speaker design. I'm not claiming I have the engineering prowess or ability to have accomplished a similar end result but there are very few speakers out there oriented this way on the horizontal axis. I knew about the potential lobing as well but necessity sometimes dictates form and the Neumanns were an inspiration so good to see this thread. They're even designed to fly like mine. However, mine are 180 liters and more meant for far field listening.

 

[Repeat1234]

I'm not so sure. It all depends on how much direct sound vs reflections you like in your soup, kind of. Most people tend to like a fair bit of reflections, as it makes the sound feel more enveloping. For this reason, near-field speakers often benefit from broader dispersion. And given that the direct sound dominates, one can often get away with a dispersion pattern which is not perfect. On the other hand it's usually important that drivers are not too far away from each other, so they integrate on a short distance.

For the far-field, however, one will in any case get more reflections. Hence it becomes more important with even dispersion. And when listening far away, it may sound good with narrower dispersion, as this will give you more direct sound relative to reflections. It's also less of a problem with drivers placed apart.

A personal example: I purchased the D&D 8Cs speakers, and expected to really love them. To my great surprise, however, I found that I preferred my old AVI DM10 actives, which are inferior on paper on most accounts. Why? After much experimentation I found out that it was about my listening distance. I mainly listen in the nearfield, and given that the 8Cs have a narrower dispersion than the AVIs, they became too "dry" for my taste. In the mid/farfield, however, it was no contest at all. The 8Cs had a homerun and then some. Their stereo image was much superior when listening at a distance, because their dispersion pattern is more even and narrow.



Off-topic, but the above statement is not factually correct. We have 60 years of research and statistics which quite conclusively say otherwise.

I am in a similar situation. I own some old AVIs (that I really like) and was/am looking to upgrade (possibly to the D&Ds) after ten years. Have you found anything that you enjoy more than your AVIs?

 

[yourmando]

This speaker is amazing and I’m going to buy one as a center channel, along with the kh 120 or kh 80d as front heights to complete my front sound stage.

KH 310A will be in the far field at ~15 ft mounted above my large screen, but I think it should work fine in that application because I’m crossing over to a 3 subwoofer bass managed array, giving me about 7db more SPL capability.

I’m debating the kh 80d vs kh 120a to use as front heights to complement the 310a center.

What would you guys advise?

The kh 80 has a slightly more perfect frequency response and and is linear phase, while the 120 has more output capability.

These will again be used farther field than intended at about 9ft (35 degrees elevation from MLP), but with the subwoofers I’ll have ~7db more headroom for both. So the question is mainly whether I’d be pushing the kh 80 to too much distortion too often.

The heights would be used most of the time as I’m enjoying Auro 3d up mixing on almost everything these days. But the levels of the heights would always be lower than the mains with upmixing. They would also be used for Atmos content, but that is a less frequent treat and high levels would be occasional and content dependent.

Thoughts on complementing with the kh 80d vs 120a for this application? Thanks!

 

[oivavoi]

I am in a similar situation. I own some old AVIs (that I really like) and was/am looking to upgrade (possibly to the D&Ds) after ten years. Have you found anything that you enjoy more than your AVIs?

Subjectively - not yet, honestly. But I cross them over to subs and do bass management, otherwise I find them too anemic in the bass. I find their main weakness to be the somewhat uneven dispersion, compared to other recent offerings. This is not much of an issue for me in the listening chair, but it's more of an issue for the far-field and "moving around in the living room" listening. Besides that I struggle to understand analytically why I like them so much, given that they would probably score low on the preference rating here for example... but they still manage to do some things very right.

Anyway, subjective anecdotal off-topic stuff over

 

[andreasmaaan]

Subjectively - not yet, honestly. But I cross them over to subs and do bass management, otherwise I find them too anemic in the bass. I find their main weakness to be the somewhat uneven dispersion, compared to other recent offerings. This is not much of an issue for me in the listening chair, but it's more of an issue for the far-field and "moving around in the living room" listening. Besides that I struggle to understand analytically why I like them so much, given that they would probably score low on the preference rating here for example... but they still manage to do some things very right.

Anyway, subjective anecdotal off-topic stuff over

Just before we go back on-topic, do you have measurements of the AVI's by any chance?

 

[oivavoi]

Just before we go back on-topic, do you have measurements of the AVI's by any chance?

I had in-room measurements a while back, but they disappeared when my old laptop broke down! No official measurements from AVI. From memory: somewhat scooped midrange, relatively wide and ok-ish dispersion horizontally, not so good dispersion vertically. What sets them apart is very steep filters (48 db/octave) and reportedly very good and low-distortion custom-made drivers from sinar baja. If I am to speculate about the reasons for my subjective reaction I would assume that the slightly scooped midrange provides an increased sence of clarity and presence, and the low distortion (due to the steep filters, the quality of the drivers and possibly other things) makes them sound smooth. Or I'm just habituated to the sound.

 

[andreasmaaan]

I had in-room measurements a while back, but they disappeared when my old laptop broke down! No official measurements from AVI. From memory: somewhat scooped midrange, relatively wide and ok-ish dispersion horizontally, not so good dispersion vertically. What sets them apart is very steep filters (48 db/octave) and reportedly very good and low-distortion custom-made drivers from sinar baja. If I am to speculate about the reasons for my subjective reaction I would assume that the slightly scooped midrange provides an increased sence of clarity and presence, and the low distortion (due to the steep filters, the quality of the drivers and possibly other things) makes them sound smooth. Or I'm just habituated to the sound.

Interesting, thanks

You'd actually expect the steep filters to give them better vertical dispersion than the 8C. Was there something specific that was wrong with the vertical dispersion, if you recall?