Neumann KH420 Review (Studio Monitor)

[thewas]

Anyone using the Neumann KH420 for home use? Why should I spend money on HIFi passive speakers when the proof and numbers are alreasy provided and Neumann seems to be transparent. Most “HiFi” speakers manufacturers wont provide testing as such?

A friend of mine used them for quite some time at his home, before he had its predecessors K+H O 410 and now has replaced them by a pair of Geithain 921K, all great loudspeakers also for home use.

 

[theron_day]

In an ideal world populated by fairies, pixes and unicorns frolicking freely in the sunlight fields then I’d agree, however, how many people can actually audition hifi if equipment in theif own homes?, I’d say a very small/insignificant percentage of buyers.

A buddy from Berkley has some KH120 that I can audition… not apples to apples but still. Also room acoustics very important too!

 

[HuubFranssen]

Anyone using the Neumann KH420 for home use? Why should I spend money on HIFi passive speakers when the proof and numbers are alreasy provided and Neumann seems to be transparent. Most “HiFi” speakers manufacturers wont provide testing as such?

I have them for 2 months now. Completely natural and logical sound. Can go extremely loud. My wife does not like the looks very much but because I’m so happy I am allowed to keep them. The streamer is an Atoll ST300 signature (it’s French), the XLR interlinks are Atlas Mavros (from the UK). The streaming platform I use is Roon.

 

[Pearljam5000]

 

[VoodooDetective]

Hey @amirm, thanks for the awesome review! Apologies if this has already been asked, but how do you compare these to the Revel Salon2?

I've got a Studio2, and am thinking of upgrading to either the Salon2 or two KH 420's and two KH 870's.

I'm looking for a full range set this time round. I'm hoping to audition after the holidays.

 

[Vintage57]

Hey @amirm, thanks for the awesome review! Apologies if this has already been asked, but how do you compare these to the Revel Salon2?

I've got a Studio2, and am thinking of upgrading to either the Salon2 or two KH 420's and two KH 870's.

I'm looking for a full range set this time round. I'm hoping to audition after the holidays.

I can't compare to the Salon2 but I can make a suggestion on the KH 870's.
I have a similar set up to one of the ones you are considering. I have two KH 420's and four KH 805's. The reason I chose the four subs vs the two stacked units is to better control room nodes. I have the four subs located near the four corners of the room. The mains go through the sub high pass and the subs are daisy chained.
The clean extended bass punch and clear imaging is nothing short of amazing.
You won't go wrong with Neumann
Good luck with your decision.

 

[dfuller]

Anybody know who makes the woofer? I know it's French made, but I'm unaware of any French driver manufacturers outside of Focal (who probably wouldn't make something like this for their competitor).


Edit: I think it's probably PHL Audio. The frame looks the same and they make a ton of 10" woofers.

 

[Waxx]

Anybody know who makes the woofer? I know it's French made, but I'm unaware of any French driver manufacturers outside of Focal (who probably wouldn't make something like this for their competitor).


Edit: I think it's probably PHL Audio. The frame looks the same and they make a ton of 10" woofers.

Probally Kartesian, they are the most known OEM high end driver builders outside Scanspeak and Seas in Europe and work for a lot of brands. Since short they also sell to the diy crowd. The drivers Neumann use won't be in their diy catalogue altough, they are mostly (and certainly for such a company) fully bespoke, and exclusive for the company.

Speaker Innovation | Kartesian | France

.Kartesian is dedicated to audio excellence. We engineer and produce innovative loudspeakers for the most demanding products design.

www.kartesian-acoustic.com

 

[Blockader]

Anybody know who makes the woofer? I know it's French made, but I'm unaware of any French driver manufacturers outside of Focal (who probably wouldn't make something like this for their competitor).


Edit: I think it's probably PHL Audio. The frame looks the same and they make a ton of 10" woofers.

It's a PHL audio woofer.(custom ordered). It's a modified PHL 3411 if I recall right.

 

[Ilkless]

Probally Kartesian, they are the most known OEM high end driver builders outside Scanspeak and Seas in Europe and work for a lot of brands. Since short they also sell to the diy crowd. The drivers Neumann use won't be in their diy catalogue altough, they are mostly (and certainly for such a company) fully bespoke, and exclusive for the company.

Speaker Innovation | Kartesian | France

.Kartesian is dedicated to audio excellence. We engineer and produce innovative loudspeakers for the most demanding products design.

www.kartesian-acoustic.com

Kartesian was founded well after the KH420 was released.

 

[Ra1zel]

Still the best measuring speaker on ASR.

 

[teashea]

It took me some time (and savings) to find a new replacement for my first bought 15Y old KRK Rokit 5 (Gen1) monitors.
First i was in doubt what monitors to buy. I don't prefer using subwoofers (due to crossover settings). therefore i narrowed down my options to the following;
- Focal Trio 11's (presumed huge soundstage, les linear than the Neumann KH 420's)
- KH 420's (presumed well balanced, extremely flat and natural, Body / high SPL, quality build and good reviews, (to) expensive for me)
- Genelec 8351B (presumed well balanced, extremely flat and natural, small in size, less body, (to) expensive for me)

There was no options for me to compare those monitors side by side so i had to base by choice on reading (all your) reviews and comments. (thank you all!)
Pricing had a heavy weight factor in my decision, so at first i leaned more to te Focal Trio 11's.
Then a store in the Netherlands offered me a set of new KH 420 monitors with a huge discount which made the price-difference between the Trio's and 420's 'only' EUR 600,-.
That made me re-evaluate and reconsider. Geert's flowchart (https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...h420-review-studio-monitor.33529/post-1184784) gave me the final push to buy the HK 420's. No i am not [yet] married .

If you are looking for awesome monitor speakers, you found them!
Althrough not required, i played them in for approx. 20hr. at medium level and different music genres before i gave my first verdict.
Every sound can be meticulously pinpointed to their location. Even in my chamfered untreated attic, they sound really balanced, deep, punchy, and open at low and high sound levels. With these monitors I can hear sounds and placements that i never heard before in music i quite often have listened to.
The sound stage is deep (at least deep enough for me) and against a reviewers comment; 'the sound flat and boring', in my eyes they are not.

The cabinet vibrations/'resonance' is less than i expected i.r.t. the SPL it can produce. I still want to place them on Iso-Puck 76's.
One thing that i noticed is that the class AB amplifiers produce heat. (of course logical, because they are class AB's), but more than i expected.
Those 60 Watts are transformed into heat, which is quite noticeable touching the 'Accelerated Heat Tunneling heat sink' on the back side of the speaker. It is a large radiator and it gets warm but you can still touch it normally with bare hands (should have measured the temperature).

Some final things i havent read in these reviews; the rotatable elliptical Mathematically Modelled Dispersion™ (MMD™) waveguide can be turned easily by unscrewing the four (Torx 25) screws. While fitting the turned MMD those speakers touch gently the well filled white damping material inside the speaker.
The cables for the Mid-speaker and tweeter are thick.
The monitor's Center of Gravity is roughly 1/3 from the bottom (from vertical perspective). Placing the speakers horizontally (on e.g. Iso-Puck 76's) requires some form of 'balancing' (in case your monitor stand surface isn't large enough despite my large sand-filled Nowsonic Top Stand Studio 90)

So far my short experience with the KH 420's. I'm really happy with my choise!
(And yes, there might be hope for you as well... it only took 5 days before my girlfriend started to accepte the large speakers in my studio)

Late to this topic but congratulations. Do you still like them?

 

[Ciobi69]

I don't know if it is the appropriate thread, but if someone made the change from passive speakers to those or any other speaker, in home use, Do you like them? How is the soundstage compared from what you had before? The horizontal radiation pattern is 55% circa, not Soo much, i am deciding if I should sell my expensive hi-fi stuff and get the Neumann used, thanks, (my brain tell me yes, but i am affectionate towards my other stuff)

 

[Vintage57]

I don't know if it is the appropriate thread, but if someone made the change from passive speakers to those , in home use, how the thing gone? Do you like them? How is the soundstage compared from what you had before? The horizontal radiation pattern is 55% circa, not Soo much, i am deciding if I should sell my expensive hi-fi stuff and get the Neumann used, thanks

To me it wasn’t about the price but about the performance. The KH420 is a game changer.
I sold my ATC SCM150ASLs that I had custom ordered in black oak with protective circuits.
Bought the Neumann’s 2 1/2 years ago and never looked back. The Neumann’s are 30% of the price of the ATC, but the sound, wow.

Try it, you will like it.

 

[dfuller]

I don't know if it is the appropriate thread, but if someone made the change from passive speakers to those or any other speaker, in home use, Do you like them? How is the soundstage compared from what you had before? The horizontal radiation pattern is 55% circa, not Soo much, i am deciding if I should sell my expensive hi-fi stuff and get the Neumann used, thanks, (my brain tell me yes, but i am affectionate towards my other stuff)

55 is plenty, I would not worry about it. That's pretty average for controlled directivity speakers.

 

[Pio]

I don't know if it is the appropriate thread, but if someone made the change from passive speakers to those or any other speaker, in home use, Do you like them? How is the soundstage compared from what you had before? The horizontal radiation pattern is 55% circa, not Soo much, i am deciding if I should sell my expensive hi-fi stuff and get the Neumann used, thanks, (my brain tell me yes, but i am affectionate towards my other stuff)

I have (way too many) passive speakers that I set aside and favoring the KH420's for the past 6 months or so. I can't say enough great things about them, I had been using the (amazing!!) JBL 4367's w/ a pair of Benchmark AHB2s (mono) - that combo does have more impact but that's mainly because of the compression driver in the JBLs. But the 420s 10" actually goes lower in my room than the 15" on the JBL.. go figure.

The 420's are brutally honest, if the recording is bad / narrow soundstage, etc they wont do those any favors - if the recording has space and is well done= WOW!
The investment isn't insignificant (you will need a pre that has balanced out, extra cost if your pre is single ended) you should go and listen to a pair. Are you in the NY area?

 

[Waxx]

People i sold the KH420's to as neutral advisor, sold their B&W 800D3 and their Dynaudio Evidence for it. The guy with the Dynaudio's did take 4 KH870 subs with it (to spread the subs in the room like Toole says) and both use an external dsp (minidsp flex and Xcilica 4080) with it

If you want a clean neutral sound it's probally the best arround. If you like a more euphonic speaker set i would take something else altough, but not for neutral.

 

[Ciobi69]

I have (way too many) passive speakers that I set aside and favoring the KH420's for the past 6 months or so. I can't say enough great things about them, I had been using the (amazing!!) JBL 4367's w/ a pair of Benchmark AHB2s (mono) - that combo does have more impact but that's mainly because of the compression driver in the JBLs. But the 420s 10" actually goes lower in my room than the 15" on the JBL.. go figure.

The 420's are brutally honest, if the recording is bad / narrow soundstage, etc they wont do those any favors - if the recording has space and is well done= WOW!
The investment isn't insignificant (you will need a pre that has balanced out, extra cost if your pre is single ended) you should go and listen to a pair. Are you in the NY area?

i live in italy, actually i got an AVR with dirac live but it has only the RCA input, could i use them with it? also thank you for your review, i read that a lot of people abandoned the passive hi-fi speaker road with those, and i am happy that you did like them!

 

[3125b]

actually i got an AVR with dirac live but it has only the RCA input, could i use them with it?

Yes as long as you don't use an IEC Class I device (with ground) in the chain. Then you'd have to find more questionable solutions like isolation transformers, but open a thread for that can of worms if you come to that point.

 

[Pio]

i live in italy, actually i got an AVR with dirac live but it has only the RCA input, could i use them with it? also thank you for your review, i read that a lot of people abandoned the passive hi-fi speaker road with those, and i am happy that you did like them!

You can use RCA out as long as you use a device to mate the connection to XLR. Many people use a passive converter, but I use a device like this Matchbox from Henry Engineering:

Henry Engineering THE MATCHBOX HD - Stereo Level Matching Interface/Amplifier

Buy Henry Engineering THE MATCHBOX HD - IHF-Pro Stereo Interface Amplifier Review Henry Engineering null

www.bhphotovideo.com