STOAKES’ GEAR TALK – KALI AUDIO LP-6 STUDIO MONITORS
Despite being the ‘new boys in town’, Kali Audio are very quickly establishing themselves as a force to be reckoned with in the studio monitor world. Formed by a team of former JBL folk in 2018, Kali Audio have been getting rave reviews ever since. I have been trying out Kali’s debut monitors that they released back in 2018. The LP-6 range is a great set of monitors that are far better than I expected. The low price isn’t a fair representation of just how staggeringly good these monitors are.
The monitors come in either a white or black finish and aesthetically I think they look rather stylish and straight out of the box, they are pretty much ready to go. With a 6.5 inch woofer and 1 inch soft dome, they’re not the biggest but they produce a great sound. On the back there is a series of dip switches, which allow you to tailor the speakers to your room, either adding or taking away various ‘problem frequencies’ depending on the space you have them in. They also come with a TRS and XLR connection, plus an unbalanced RCA input too. So far, I’m more than impressed and I’ve not even heard anything yet.
Upon loading up a song that I had been working on over the past few weeks, the thing that struck me was the level of detail. With some monitors, the sound is coloured slightly or there are bits of the sonic picture just missing. Not so with the LP-6’s. They are incredibly accurate right across the sonic spectrum. I was impressed at how balanced the overall sound was and actually, for such small speakers, the bottom end is fantastic. The mid range was crystal clear and crisp and the top end has lots of air and plenty of space. I was absolutely amazed at the clinical accuracy of the LP-6’s right across the board.
They are incredibly easy speakers to mix with, I found my mixing sessions could go on longer, without suffering any ear fatigue. The differences in EQ settings is pretty impressive too, especially boosting some of the high or low end, achieved by pushing two of the dip switches up. An increase of just 2 dB to the high end makes the world of difference. Another impressive feature of the LP-6’s is a boost dial, you can boost or reduce the overall sound by 6dB, a very useful feature and easy to reset as the dial naturally sits at 0 and has a little ‘click’ when you reach the 0.
After mixing my own songs and interviews using the LP-6’s, I thought I would try some ‘proper’ songs. ie. songs already released. I wanted to try a variety of different genres, from rock to country, to Hip Hop and folk. The LP-6’s again, didn’t fail to disappoint, nice bass that isn’t in your face, great mid range and nice, smooth and airy top end. Also, it’s worth pointing out, the stereo imaging with these speakers is amazing. I would say possibly wider and deeper than some others. You can really pinpoint where things actually are.
If I’m honest, I don’t think I could fault these. My only concern is that Kali Audio are selling these things far too cheaply, I would happily pay twice or three times the price, they have that high end quality. Unfortunately, amongst ‘audiophiles’ there is still a snobbery that is present with some people that says that ‘cheap aint good’. Well, the guys at Kali Audio have destroyed that theory with these monitors. The sound is completely flat and uncoloured with impeccable detail and I would say that the LP-6’s are the perfect monitor for your studio. Try them out, trust me, you won’t regret it!
Specs:
- Power 40w + 40w Class D power amp
- Driver types 6.5” woofer, 1” soft dome tweeter
- Frequency response 38Hz -25kHz
- Max. SPL 108dB
- Crossover frequency 1.5kHz
- Connections 1 x TRS and XLR (both balanced); 1 x RCA (unbalanced)
- TRS/XLR Input Sensitivity +4dB
- RCA Input Sensitivity -10dB
- Size (h x w x d in cm) 35.9 x 22.2 x 26.0
- Weight (kg) 7.01
RRP: £159 Each / £318 Pair
