Description

Kali Audio’s LP-8 V2 is an 8-inch studio monitor. It was designed to deliver transparent sound for creators working across genres and formats at a price that puts it within anyone’s reach. An advanced waveguide, a large voice coil, and precision tuning make the sound extraordinarily transparent, while the oversized low-frequency magnet and low noise port tube deliver powerful, clean bass response. To make it easy to integrate into your setup, the speaker is self-powered and has a variety of inputs. The DSP features Boundary EQ settings that optimize the speaker’s response for where it’s placed in your listening space.

New in the 2^nd Version is an improved amplifier platform that offers lower noise, higher sensitivity, and smoother high-frequency response. The Boundary EQ settings have been updated based on user feedback, and the low-frequency driver cone has less mass for more consistent response.

LP-8 Features:

3-D Imaging Waveguide

The 3-D Imaging Waveguide allows you to hear a 3-D soundstage from a stereo pair of speakers. By matching the shape of the waveguide to the interactions of the HF and LF drivers, this waveguide produces a stereo image that is wider, taller, and deeper than the space where the speakers are placed.

The LP-8 accomplishes this by ensuring that the speaker’s reflected sound matches its direct sound. Every time you hear a loudspeaker, you’re hearing both the direct sound from the speaker, and reflections from the speaker’s signal bouncing off of objects in the room.

When those reflections are congruent with the direct sound from the speaker, listeners perceive a better sound overall, and are able to make out very subtle details like where microphones are placed in a room. When done very well, the stereo image will be three-dimensional.

This gives users a very high degree of confidence in their mix. It allows them to mix faster, and produce better mixes overall.

1.5″ Voice Coil

The voice coil on the LP-8 allows the speaker to have very high excursion, resulting in clearer sound with lower harmonic distortion, and exceptional dynamic range.

Low Noise Port Tube

On most port tubes, air leaves at different speeds from different points of the opening, creating noisy turbulence. This turbulence can be heard as “chuffing,” or an audible air sound coming from the monitor. This sound will add to the noise floor and obscure the details of the low end.

The port tube on LP-8 was designed to ensure that all of the air leaves the port tube at the same velocity. This helps add to the low-end response of the speaker, while keeping the bass clean, tight, and devoid of extra noise.

High Output

The LP-8 is capable of 85 dB continuous output with 20 dB of dynamic headroom from as far as 2.8 meters. This makes it an excellent choice as a main, side surround, or overhead speaker in most small- to medium-sized immersive mixing rooms.

Bass Power

Bass on the LP-8 is delivered by a larger magnet and larger voice coil than any comparable speaker on the market. This gives you more accurate bass response that extends lower, so you can dial in exactly the low end sound you need.

Nothing is over-represented, but the bass that is present on your track will come through with clarity and punch. 

Boundary EQ

A speaker’s given position in a space can drastically change its frequency response. Happily, most of the common positions are fairly predictable and easily corrected. 

Kali’s team came up with boundary compensation EQ settings at the Village Recorder in Los Angeles 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.

There are EQ settings for:
-Free Space
-Speakers on stands, against a wall
-Speakers on a desk, away from a wall
-Speakers on a desk, against a wall
-Speakers on a console meter bridge
-Speakers on a studio desk

Class D Amplification

The integrated 60W + 40W Class D Power amp delivers clean, reliable power that’s optimized to this speaker. The new 2^nd Wave amplifier platform delivers all this with significantly lower idle noise, and better sensitivity than the original version.

XLR, TRS and RCA Inputs

The LP-8 features 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.

2nd Wave Technologies

The new LP-8 V2 is part of Kali’s 2^nd Wave of loudspeakers. 2^nd Wave products draw on 3 years of R&D for across-the-board improvements. A new amplifier platform allows for 12 dB less self noise, while input sensitivity has been increased by 3 dB. The tuning has been refined for smoother HF response, and the boundary EQs have been updated to reflect common real-world use cases. Physical improvements include lighter transducer cones for better transient response and upgraded cabinet construction for greater reliability.