Recording - March 2020 - 63

REVIEW

Kali Audio LP-6 Studio Monitors
The highly affordable LP Series builds a solid
reputation as a top-tier budget monitoring option
REVIEW BY ALEX HAWLEY

esigned and engineered in California, Kali Audio got its start in January of 2018 with the goal of creating professional products at affordable price points. While the brand may be new, the Kali Audio
team was formed by a group of friends that first met while working at JBL
Professional, most notably Charles Sprinkle, who was the Principle Systems
Engineer at JBL and is credited with engineering the JBL M2, 7-Series, and
3-Series monitors. He also designed the JBL Image Control Waveguide.
The first offering from Kali Audio was the two-way Lone Pine (LP) series
of monitors in 6.5" or 8" configurations. Kali also offers the three-way
Project Independence (IN-8) with an 8" woofer and a coaxial midrange
driver and tweeter. There's also a Bluetooth Module, the MV-BT, which
is designed to arm any professional speaker with Bluetooth connectivity.
We'll be covering the MV-BT in a future issue.

Overview

The LP-6 is intended for nearfield configurations and is designed to deliver accurate response with low distortion, high
headroom, and pristine imaging with the
3-D Imaging Waveguide. It's bi-amped
with class D amplifiers for a total of 80W
(40W LF, 40W HF). The LP-6 features a
6.5" woofer made of polymer-coated paper. The 1" soft-dome tweeter is a blend
of textile materials designed to produce
smooth frequency response and low distortion. The frequency response is listed
as 39Hz to 25kHz, with 47Hz to 21kHz
being +/- 3dB. The crossover frequency
is 1.5kHz and has a maximum SPL of
62 RECORDING March 2020

112dB. The total harmonic distortion is <3%
80Hz to 1.7kHz, and <2% above 1.7kHz.
The enclosure is front-ported, which
is ideal for project studios that have
monitors placed up against a wall. The
cabinet stands just over 14" tall with
an 8.75" width and 10.25" depth. It
weighs 15.54 lbs. and comes in either
black or white. It's made of medium-density fiberboard and is covered in vinyl.
The back panel has connections for
XLR, balanced 1/4", and unbalanced
RCA. There are HF and LF trim DIP
switches in addition to the Boundary
Compensation EQ DIP switches. Printed
on the back panel is a quick reference

guide for suggested EQ compensation
settings, which is great to have when taking the monitors between different rooms.
Rounding out the back panel is the IEC
power connection and an on/off switch.

Boundary Compensation EQ

Listening environment and positioning
play a significant role in how speakers
sound. Limitations in positioning for
home or project studios are often determined by proximity to walls, corners,
ceilings, and other reflective surfaces
that can cause comb filtering, phase
cancellation, or unwanted frequency
buildup. These effects can create mud or
negatively impact the overall accuracy
of the sound. In an attempt to compensate for any shortcomings in placement,
there are a series of EQ compensation
DIP switches built into the back panel.
In total, there are eight DIP switches.
Switches 1-3 control the boundary compensation EQs, switches 4-5 control LF
trim, and switches 6-7 control HF trim. The
LF and HF trim controls can boost or cut
2dB, though the documentation doesn't
specify at what frequency. The final DIP
switch toggles the RCA input on or off,
which should remain in the lower position
if you're connecting through either the XLR
or 1/4" input. The boundary EQ settings
don't provide any specifics as to which frequencies are being affected, but they all
seem to be focused in the lower frequency
range, and provide a tighter bottom end
with improved clarity and separation.

Recording - March 2020

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