Neumann KH120 II Monitor Review

[CleanSound]

I got mine today. If you put your ears right next to the tweeter, there is hiss. I think that is normal, the amp is just not .000x THD+N.

I wish they used Purifi or Hypex in there.

 

[Pearljam5000]

I got mine today. If you put your ears right next to the tweeter, there is hiss. I think that is normal, the amp is just not .000x THD+N.

I wish they used Purifi or Hypex in there.

How's the sound overall ?

 

[chuckt62]

I got mine today. If you put your ears right next to the tweeter, there is hiss. I think that is normal, the amp is just not .000x THD+N.

I wish they used Purifi or Hypex in there.

Does it hiss while in standby, or just while idle before/after input?

 

[CleanSound]

How's the sound overall ?

Impeccable.

Because it's a DSP crossover, it's perfectly level matched, the imaging can't get any better. The LF extension is good for a little speaker of that size and that bass is tight. And obviously ruler flat neutral.

 

[CleanSound]

Does it hiss while in standby, or just while idle before/after input?

I just got them today, and it takes 90 mins of no signal before it goes into standby, so haven't got a chance to check. But in standby mode, the amp shuts down, so it has to be dead silent. The hissing is almost certainly from the amp and who the hell said you don't need .000x THD+N?

EDIT: Confirmed that when it's on standby mode, the electronics shuts down and hence zero hiss even when the ear is all the way inside the waveguide because it's essentially powered off.

 

[ed3lva]

As I have both KH80 and KH120ii I would grab the 120ii for fullrange use. It's not that big of an price hike but you get significant more level and can use the digital input.
Only when you buy the woofer now I would think about KH80 - they are actually a nice team with KH750. But when also used to listen with some distance in the room -> KH120ii.

Great. Thank you.

 

[CleanSound]

Just got these today, listening to it throughout the day. I noticed that every now and then, I would hear the music mute for maybe 1/8th of a second or I will hear a very faint pop or snap.

I run them with a SMSL SU-9u (connected via USB to a Windows 11 laptop) and I try to set the DPLL higher; I also increase the buffer length on foobar as well as the buffer size on the XMOS ASIO driver. I'm not sure if it helped or not, maybe?

Anyone else having this issue?

EDIT: Tried it with another laptop, don't think the issue occurs with a different laptop. So the issue must be with the original laptop, so I updated the ASIO driver for my DAC on the original laptop as well as adjusted Windows default output to 24 bits, then adjust the DPLL on the DAC depending on DSD vs PCM and updated the Neumann firmware. It seems to be ok now, I need to listen to it some more.

EDIT: The issue is 100% with the original laptop. Driver updates helped but issue persists. . .sometimes it's the hardware, something to do with the bus.

 

[LunaRay]

When you miss some loudness or clarity - yes.
I don't know the ilouds but belive they sound pretty good for their size?

loudness no
clarity - yes

but what I miss is weight of the sound

 

[staticV3]

loudness no
clarity - yes

but what I miss is weight of the sound

The Neumann should sound slightly more full-bodied than the MTM, due to slightly better bass response:


Please note though that the MTM was measured with LF Extension set to the default 50Hz.

 

[IamJF]

The also get MA1 and dial in a room curve. I also add a few dB low end cause my mixes translate better that way - but I stay linear at high frequencies. Some like a falling response which would give more weight to low frequencies. "Harman curve", ... there are also some standards for house curves.

 

[dominikz]

loudness no
clarity - yes

but what I miss is weight of the sound

Please note that both sound lacking "weight" and "clarity" might also be due to placement of loudspeakers and/or listening position in the room - in which case any loudspeaker put in the same place would suffer from the same issues.
I'd suggest to first get your hands on a calibrated measurement microphone and learn how to do in-room MMM measurements - that should help you diagnose the issue and see if it is indeed loudspeaker or room/placement related.
Here I wrote a bit about loudspeaker and subwoofer placement guidelines.
And here you can find short instructions how to do MMM with REW (and how to calculate bass response correction filters with REW).
If you still perceive the same issues after you optimize placement and bring down bass resonances with PEQ, then IMO it might make sense to look into a different loudspeaker (thought I'd personally probably add a subwoofer first).
Hope this helps, good luck!

 

[Drew456]

I have an interface with 2 electrical digital outputs (RME UCX II). Both send the same stereo signal to both subs. I can connect monitors either both to one of the subs or L to L and R to R.
AFAIK when using KH150s or 120IIs you can use a digital daisychain now so you don't need 2 digital outputs anymore. I think i have seen this in one of the manuals.

Although not mentioned in the manual, it's also possible to route the signal : from interface -> monitors -> sub/s, as suggested below:

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[CleanSound]

So I just spent the night listening to the KH 120 at far-ish field (manual say recommended max distance is 4m, I was at 2.75m).

These speakers are amazing (period). Not "amazing for the size," they are simply amazing.

I was going to get the KH 80 for near field, but I decided that I may repurpose them one day, so I went with the KH 120. They are not cheap, but after tonight, I see the value. If you are on the fence, get it.

 

[Drew456]

So I just spent the night listening to the KH 120

Glad you like 'em. So the short pop/mute issue no longer happens?

 

[CleanSound]

Yes, I made an edit to the original post. The issue is with the specific laptop, nothing to do with the speakers.

 

[mubix77]

Are the KH120s suitable for ultra near-field listening (70cm)?
I am looking to get a desktop setup. Leaning towards either the Genelec G Three/8331, Neumann KH80 or the KH120.
I'm living in an apartment with downstairs neighbors, so volume will always be limited.

 

[IamJF]

KH120ii - yes, for sure. Add MA1 in such a situation cause you have a lot of influence of the table and surrounding, some of it could probably be tamed.
Genelec 8331 would of course be very nice to have in such a situation ... but I never compared 1:1, maybe you find a dealer where you can do so.

 

[CleanSound]

Not sure if anyone has mentioned it but the KH 120 are all pair matched to at least .5 dB. Impressive.

 

[IamJF]

That's what you can do with DSP and a good quality control of every single speaker. You measure the speaker and adjust the DSP (normally gain for drivers, not sure if they also alter the frequency response specifically).
At least these speakers have VERY good stereo panorama.

 

[CleanSound]

That's what you can do with DSP and a good quality control of every single speaker. You measure the speaker and adjust the DSP (normally gain for drivers, not sure if they also alter the frequency response specifically).
At least these speakers have VERY good stereo panorama.

It is not clear how they pair match or get each speaker to the level of tolerance. But we do know that in a passive speaker, each driver and each part in the crossover has a tolerance that affects it overall response. Not sure how much cabinet tolerance affects overall response. But not sure if the DSP crossover needs to be calibrated specifically for each speaker.

I can tell you that these Naumann has remarkable imaging, I mean remarkable.