Kali’s IN-8 is one of the most innovative studio monitors ever made. Combining the natural advantages of a 3-way design with hyper-realistic imaging of a co-axial mid-range and tweeter, it offers more transparency, lower distortion, and a soundstage that must be heard to be believed.
Power. Detail. Soundstage.
The IN-8 Studio Monitor is a speaker like no other. Using the same woofer and tweeter from Kali’s celebrated LP-8, the IN-8 adds a midrange driver that surrounds the tweeter, and acts as its waveguide.
In doing so, both the tweeter and the woofer are unburdened; with a smaller workload, they are able to play more clearly and with less distortion.
The coaxial nature of the midrange and tweeter make the IN-8 an acoustic point source. Off-axis lobing is thereby eliminated, resulting in a stereo soundstage that presents the listener with a hyper-realistic level of detail.
All of this means that the IN-8 is extremely accurate and easy to mix on, and that mixes made on the IN-8 will transfer wonderfully to other systems.
- Co-Axial Midrange and Tweeter - A three-way with impeccable imaging.
- 8-Inch Woofer - Powerful, clean bass. Crossed over at 330 Hz to make the IN-8 an acoustic point source.
- Low Noise Port Tub - Precisely engineered using airflow simulations for powerful bass without port noise.
IMAGING
We know. We keep harping on about the “hyper-realistic” imaging of the IN-8. What does that mean?
When you listen to a stereo set of speakers, you’re hearing information about where instruments and players were placed when the material was recorded. Even with purely digital material, producers can manipulate physical locations of elements in the mix, and you will hear these on a stereo recording.
Not only does this allow producers to create interesting spatial effects, but it means that you can work faster and with more confidence. An accurate soundstage lets you “see” each element of the mix in front of you, so you can hear exactly what happens when you make changes.
2-way systems with good waveguides, like Kali’s LP-6 and LP-8, do a good job at conveying this spatial information. However, because the tweeter and woofer on those speakers (and most studio monitors!) are separate, this information gets lost in the space immediately above and below the speaker. This means that at the listening position, you’re not hearing the full stereo picture.
Boundary EQ Control
- A speaker’s given position in a space can drastically change it’s frequency response. A speaker placed against a wall or on a desk will sound very different than a speaker placed on a stand, even in a well-treated space. Hard surfaces like walls, desk tops, and recording consoles can change the low end frequency response of the monitor, and degrade the overall clarity of the sound.
- Happily, most of the common positions are fairly predictable and easily corrected.
- Kali’s team did our Boundary EQ tuning at The Village Studios in Los Angeles, and came up with boundary compensation EQ settings to help you get the optimum sound for where you need to put your speakers.
- Combined with the LF and HF trims, this will ensure that the speakers sound their best no matter what room you’re mixing in, or where the speakers are placed.
Easy Connections
The LP-6 and LP-8 both feature balanced XLR and TRS inputs, and an unbalanced RCA input.
The RCA input can be set to -10 dBu sensitivity when you’re using consumer devices like a laptop or smartphone’s headphone jack.