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Neumann KH 310A Review (Powered Monitor)

respice finem

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I thought that was odd too, given it's a pretty standard analog crossever ir...I'm guessing they're referring to the decay, which is actually pretty good, throughout the fr...
The KH310A is a successor (and almost the same as) the 20ish years old Klein & Hummel O300, so don't expect today's latest stuff in it.
That said, it was state of the freakin' Art back then and is IMHO still close today.
Its analog-active crossover is low level, contrary to the high level analog-passive ones in passive speakers, and sits before the power amps. The disadvantage, if you want DSP, it has to be external, as you have to feed analog signal to the input.
The advantage: no latency, no ADC/DAC in the box needed (the analog input signal remains analog).
My guess is - marketing speak for a closed box bass system. Therefore lower group delay and so on.
Sure, there is no manufacturer (known to me) who would not have "marketing speak". At least Neumann delivers data to support it (mostly).
A closed box will have at least the advantage of not having port issues (by not having a port). It will be less "potent" in bass, but OK for putting it close to a wall. A 3-way design is likely to have less "crossover woes". All things that matter for the desired target market, which is studio pros.
 
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respice finem

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They do have a digital-input version too, but yes they should, generally. As more and more people are buying them for home setups, a black exterior would also be nice, and maybe a white version too. Alas, this is not likely to happen, because a) they still sell well (you don't slaughter your cash cows) and b) the parent company, Sennheiser, is in some trouble https://techcrunch.com/2021/05/07/s...MuXziRda3HmHXDVoJ0WH79k1WBLxmxPaO6Ox-G1vQjUAz
 

monkeyboy

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With regard to the transient response the CSD was one reason I went with these (more money than I wanted to spend) the decay plot was very clean
1620569246168.png
 

dfuller

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Some curiosity: What do we know about the KH310's drivers and assembly? I found a teardown on youtube
and noted a couple of things:

1. the internal power supply uses what appear to be overall good quality parts (Yageo caps), which is a good sign. Do we know what chip amps are used?
2. The woofer looks to be of excellent quality - nice cast frame, decent sized motor. Is it an in-house design or did they get someone else to make it for them? The surround is an interesting choice because it appears to be segmented. Maybe to break up a resonant mode in the surround?
3. Is the midrange sealed? Must be, because it doesn't appear to have a housing inside the main cabinet. Interesting choice vs ATC to add the waveguide to the cabinet instead of the mounting flange - maybe simplifies driver production?
4. The tweeter is definitely sealed and appears to have a larger magnet than the midrange - just goes to show how strong neo is compared to ferrite.
 
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hyperplanar

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Some curiosity: What do we know about the KH310's drivers and assembly? I found a teardown on youtube
and noted a couple of things:

1. the internal power supply uses what appear to be overall good quality parts (Yageo caps), which is a good sign. Do we know what chip amps are used?
2. The woofer looks to be of excellent quality - nice cast frame, decent sized motor. Is it an in-house design or did they get someone else to make it for them? The surround is an interesting choice because it appears to be segmented. Maybe to break up a resonant mode in the surround?
3. Is the midrange sealed? Must be, because it doesn't appear to have a housing inside the main cabinet. Interesting choice vs ATC to add the waveguide to the cabinet instead of the mounting flange - maybe simplifies driver production?
4. The tweeter is definitely sealed and appears to have a larger magnet than the midrange - just goes to show how strong neo is compared to ferrite.
The chip amps should be TDA7293s, and IIRC all of Neumann’s drivers are manufactured by Peerless. They aren’t off the shelf designs but there’s a lot of parts commonality like the baskets and cones with the rest of their lineup.
 

thewas

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thewas

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To work with the MA-1 without a subwoofer and to get auto-sleep, I guess.
Sure or also to get a linear phase crossover, but those are all not real big acoustic improvements.

What I would rather like to see in its successor is a rotatable mid/high unit for also standing mounting like the KH420 and bigger Focal have.
 

Frgirard

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Sure or also to get a linear phase crossover, but those are all not real big acoustic improvements.

What I would rather like to see in its successor is a rotatable mid/high unit for also standing mounting like the KH420 and bigger Focal have.

The rotatable mid/high is for a use on a console.
 

thewas

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The rotatable mid/high is for a use on a console.
The KH420 and Focal are delivered in a vertical orientation but you can rotate them to use on a console, but the KH310 gives you only the horizontal orientation to use on a console.
 
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