Did you test both sets at unity gain?
If so, was there a big difference in volume between the 2?

I was able to get them fairly close, but the GC guy wasn't really cool with me going behind the wall of speakers to adjust. The Yamahas were noticeably louder though and I had to put their volume around 9-10 to get them lower in level with the Kali's set to 12 O'clock.

I don't really have volume issues with the Kalis at home though and can hit the 85db mark without issue if I need. Honestly, the Yamahas seemed excessively louder, but maybe that's because they're meant to be in a room much larger than mine.

I must be missing something b/c my Kali 8s were very noticeablely lower in volume to all other speakers in the GC I tested mine. Even when I brought them home I had to make serious changes to how I listen to accommodate the low levels coming out of my LP 8s.

Very curious to me!

Yeah, I'm not sure? I did an SPL calibration with REW and the UMIK-1 mic in my room. I've kept the volume on the Kalis at 12 O'clock detent position and with my Clarett 8 PreX I can get some serious volume (but I stay in the 75-85db range). I'll try pushing the volume more today to see if anything sounds wonky, but so far I haven't had any problems.

You're not wrong in that they have less output compared to other speakers, but for my close quarters situation It's been fine. Do you have a room measurement mic you could do some tests with? Do you have another pair of monitors that you're comparing them to?

I got a pair of LP 6's for testing - not only were they very queit, even at the maximum setting, but one speaker was about 3dB quieter than the other... Room eq setting (DIP switches) caused some weird phasing problems. Got them for 2 weeks, gave'em back after 2 days.

Had a chance to listen to LP 6 along with: Dynaudio BM5 MKIII, Adam A7X and Presonus R65. Presonus smokes them all, absolutely wonderful monitors.

FWIW, my LP-6s have identical output and I'm running my ULN2 interface at around 55% and it's as loud as I need, and at their max setting and the ULN2 output creeping up they're louder than comfortable pleasure listening levels much less mixing. And I have the dip switches set for being a few feet from the wall and no phasing issues.

Granted, my room isn't large, it's on one side of a 12 x 18 ft room with a 10 ft ceiling, and no one would mistake it for a space that anyone sunk any money into, but very quiet mine aren't.

Not doubting you, just chiming in. Sounds like quality control. Which I've heard about anecdotally regarding the LP 8s but not really much for the 6s. I've heard of others returning them for generally not floating their boat (and self noise, which I also can't complain about) but not for lack of output or phasing. Were they fairly recently shipped? It may be that Kali couldn't properly handle the rush of orders after all the good online reviews and they dropped the ball during the crunch.

Any LP-8 owners here that can comment on the self noise / hiss? I've read several places that people aren't noticing it if they're back a few feet, but I'm not having that experience. If I'm mixing at talking volume it's pretty noticeable, even if I'm 5-6 feet back I can hear the hiss. No improvement if nothing's plugged in or trying different outlets.

Just got in a pair of Kali LP-6. Sound great. A bit of hiss audible even from ~3 feet away (slightly worse on one than the other. Tried with XLR and RCA... and with neither).

Also, the manual and the printed boundary EQ settings on the back disagree with each other. Anyone know which one is correct? @ Kali Audio

Some people say it's a grounding issue. Any confirmation? I have a slight hiss from my LSR305 that I have to listen for to really hear it.

I doubt that grounding has anything to do with the hiss issue. You can add hum and other interferences with less than ideal grounding situations. The consensus is that it's related to the Class D amp used, exact same chip as in the JBL series as the Kalis. I don't believe that anyone who has gotten either who had too much hiss solved it by doing anything, and I spent way too much time researching it before getting the LP-6s Threads talking about hiss and self powered speakers, seemingly mostly about the JBLs, although that's what I was looking for, go back for years.

Definitely not grounding. It's a completely different sound when you have a ground loop. It's just a minor hiss. I moved them back a little more and put the one with the slightly louder hiss on my left (where I hear about 1.5dB lower) and it isn't bothering me.

Kali confirmed via email that the hiss is normal and is the result of building the monitors to be inexpensive.

Also, the dip switch settings on the back of the monitors is correct. There is an error in the manual, so set them as the back of the monitor indicates.

So how’s everyone been liking their LPs?

After a lot of placement experimentation, I got my LP-8s locked in and have been pretty happy with the results, but it took some time. I had a project I recently did where I had to add some guitars and mix stuff down. They were really happy with the end result and I did it entirely on the LPs.

I still debate dropping some serious coin on “better” monitors, but again, I’ve had no complaints / requests to change mixes I’ve done with these speakers, so that’s gotta be a good sign!

How much treatment do you have and how big is your room?

11.8 X 11 X 7.8 ft

I spent a pretty penny on a GIK Acoustics setup - corner bass traps, cloud panels, floor standing traps, diffusers for the back wall, and standard absorption panels for the front wall.

Nice. I wonder if those plastic enclosures resonant and produce a sound in and of itself. Do some measurements with and without Moongel.

Happy with the LP6 here. The hiss on mine is hardly audible from 4 feet if the room is very quiet. One of the speakers turned off 2 times so far in the 6 weeks or so that I've had them, and then turned back on. I also think that they don't perform well at very low volumes. You need to it up to moderate listening levels. Apart from that, i have no complaints so far.

I like the dynamics, the organic quality of the sound with detailed mids and lows and a nice 3d soundstage. Mix translation seems to have improved with these. When I cross-reference in car i hear an improvement.

I haven't yet tried these for composing. They don't have that hyped sound that makes you feel good about rough mixes before you fix most of the tones and dynamics. I think for composing music, a bit of hype helps.
They also need space,about 5 feet or so of separation.

I hope these last. I don't think I'll be going for other companies in the future
These have just the right sound for my ears and I hear the support is nice. I certainly hope that is the case.

[Regarding your earlier observation about the HS8, I agree from my previous brief experience listening to the HS8 that they have a brighter sound that the LP6.]

Considering I have the LP-8s, I understand why hiss is more of a problem for me when comparing to the LP-6s. I’ve gotten used to it at this point, but I’d really like to see a MKII that takes it down.

I keep mine about 67” apart since for me if I go wider than that, my stereo field starts to sound weird. The only issue I have with these when composing is if I’m monitoring guitars / bass through them. I keep the volume knobs on the LPs at the noon / detent position since going any higher than that exacerbates the hiss issue.

I’ve calibrated this setup with my monitor controller so I’m around the 79 dB mark and for that it does just fine. But when it comes to guitars / bass I find myself wanting to crank them a lot more for that oomph factor.

Any news about the 3-way models? I saw a 8" version but would love to know if there is going to be a 6" version also

Since weeks I was tempted to order them but no matter how great they sound for the price range, I just cant have such ugly (I know it‘s subjective) and cheap looking speakers in my studio But since I feel like having something new, I will give the Alpha 65‘s a try instead.

Studio monitors are not about aesthetics, some of the best speakers out there are ugly. They're not trying to appeal to the same demographic as Beats headphones.

With that said I think the Kalis are an ideal candidate for commercial mods. Just like the dedicated community of mic mods. Maybe someone could come up with a wooden cabinet mod for those of you that hate the current look.

So are LP-6 just slightly reworked JBL 306p?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQPcEnaM-Cw

The curves look nearly identical in this video. Better controlled bass from the front port on LP-6 but that's about it.

It's best to hear them yourself in person. That video and accompanying graph don't give much information away, its possible it was captured under less than ideal conditions. In my opinion the Kali's are the best affordable studios on the market, the next step up (with at least 6inch drivers) would be either Hedd or Eve Audios.

That's quite an exaggeration.

It's just hype. I'm sure they are great speakers, but they're essentially 306p, it's been said in some reviews. I think they share the tweeter and basic cabinet (Kali has a front port).

I jumped on the JBL hype train and bought 306p last year and while I found them fine and nice sounding compared to direct competitors in their price range, they're nothing more than that. I didn't like their hifi sound (too bright and blurry lows). I find HS7 much better for strictly mixing duties, so much clearer and articulate throughout the spectrum... but as bookshelves for casual listening I'd pick JBLs because Yamahas don't sound "nice", they sound like professional studio monitors. I wouldn't mind JBLs as second reference but I already have NS10s and Auratones so I got rid of them.

GC doesn't carry these in store unfortunately, so the only reference I had was youtube comparison, and with eyes closed I couldn't tell when they switched from JBL to Kali. With other speaker compared you can clearly hear the switch when speakers are actually different.

It's not an exaggeration it's an opinion. Read the reviews from more technical minded folks, for example this one below by Admiral Bumblebee.
https://www.admiralbumblebee.com/mus...P8-Review.html

Another reviewer I trust is Warren Huart (who mixed James Blunt), who actually uses them for mixing. And trust me with the end gear Warren has, he would not be mixing on the Kali's if they were shyte.





Nothing in the price range comes close. Like I said you need to listen to them to form a proper opinion. However if you don't like JBL's you probably wont like the Kali's either as they were designed by the same person.

You have to listen carefully what he says.

At 1:10 he says he uses them to hear what other people hear through their speakers (hi-fi reference). He further reinforces that saying they're great as "second pair" at 2:45. He doesn't mix on them, he mixes on his Genelecs. He uses Kalis as a hi-fi reference of sorts.

That's exactly what I was saying. They're a great reference. Also, great "if you're just starting" monitors, compared to what you got for the money 10-15 years ago. I think you can get some work done on them. Inexpensive. Definitely great for music listening.

You misunderstood him. He means they're a great second pair for referencing if you already have high end mains like he has. However if you don't already have £1000+ monitors they're still usable for mixing. Remember in the 80s and 90s people mixed on NS10s which are inherently inferior and originally designed as hifi speakers. These days some people even mix on KRK Rokits which are quite terrible imho.

I went back and forth and changed my mind between JBL and HS in the last 4 years. I was a long time NS10 guy, had LSR‘s, sold them and bought HS7 (with sub) and believed my mixes were the same quality done on JBL‘s....then sold the HS7 because they‘re not as „nice“ and ear fatigue was the reason I bought JBL‘s again. Now, over one year later I can 100% say mix translation is not as good as with Yamaha! For my ears Yamaha is just incredibly good when it comes to translation. The JBL‘s are great to listen or judge as a second pair but ultimately can‘t compete with Yamaha when it comes to making mix decisions and translation!

I also suspect Kali‘s sound very similar to LSR‘s which has it‘s place but I will switch back to Yamaha by the end of the year!

Why do you think the Yamahas translate well? Is it because you have to compensate for them in your mixes in a way that is more balanced?

You don't compensate.

It's all about clarity and separation. They are also actually flatter. You don't have to listen too hard into your mix, they throw the problems right in your face. Monitors like JBL or Mackies smooth things out too much so you don't hear these problems.

I'm not good at this, but I'll provide an example: wiggle your fingers (frequencies) - that's Yamaha. Give me your middle finger - yep, I know you just flipped me off because I saw that middle finger of yours sticking out clearly... and it hurt and I want to do something about it. Now put a mitten on and flip me off. I still see you made some gesture at me, but I don't see what exactly it was. I didn't get what it was, so it doesn't hurt, and so I'll probably ignore it.

That's my experience with JBL and Mackies. Not hearing problems the way I hear them on Yamahas, not fixing them. Ending up with bad mixes. You can compensate with your skill, or with time spent. It will just take you so much less time/work to achieve the same result with Yamahas. Because they tell you things upfront and don't make you to do so much guessing and investigative work.

Interesting. Thanks. Doesn't quite make sense yet, but I'll think about it some more.