Kali Audio IN-8: Hiss On An Otherwise Amazing Speaker
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- Опубликовано: 7 сен 2024
- UPDATE: The Second Wave of monitors by Kali now includes a Kali IN-8 v2 which has been ordered. This uses the same amps as the IN-5 which are about -12dB for self noise. I'll make a quick video if anyone wants a comparison as I will have the original and improved version to compare.
The Kali IN-8 came close to being a keeper after shopping for a year for new speakers. Unfortunately the hiss is audible midfield in an untreated room with background noise.
Baseline Criteria: (In some cases relative to my HiVi DIY 3.1)
-More bass extension
-Better vertical dispersion
-Better horizontal dispersion
-Zero port chuffing playing Jamie XX Reconsider at 2:20
-No audible self noise/hiss
This speaker excelled all all but the last, and did so poorly with the last requirement it was returned.
Listening in a living room from ~6 feet away, the hiss is audible even with a refrigerator running in an adjacent room that has an opening ten feet wide into this one.
During very soft parts of songs it's audible, and it is bothersome when things are paused.
Troubleshooting:
-Turning down the speaker almost all the way has a minor impact but you lose dynamic range and volume.
-Testing at a friend's studio with power conditioning and clean balanced signals.
-Removing the ground plug from a splitter as shown in the video.
-Plugging into different circuits, the same circuit, and the same power strip.
-Maximizing the gain of the input devices and using multiple devices.
-Only having power plugged in.
None of these things affected the hiss besides turning them down a ton, and even then, I'd put the hiss on par with a JBL LSR308, which had louder hiss than a Mackie HR824, which hisses more than a Genelec 8040 (which approaches silent, as you have to be closer than 6" to hear it,) which hisses louder than an Elac Navis where I didn't notice any hiss at all, even putting each speaker inches from my ears to simulate the extreme separation of headphones.
Sound wise I only listened for a couple of days, but they are warm compared to a friend's Yamaha HS8, though that could likely be corrected by the switches on the back which I didn't tweak at this studio besides for the stand setting.
Listening to them alone, they initially passed all my test songs: realistic vocals, small mouth movement details came though, phantom center is fairly easy to get, bass extension is good, and trumpets and triangles aren't sharp/peaky enough to scratch my ear off.
More details on Reddit:
/ kali_audio_in8_initial...
![[Eng Sub] Kali Audio IN-8 three-way design studio monitors](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Y30o1ZlPsrg/mqdefault.jpg)
![[Eng Sub] Kali Audio IN-8 three-way design studio monitors](/img/tr.png)
by the way, the amount of reviews from room studios swearing by this in8 without mentioning the hiss is unbelievable.
it's like going back to 80's tape hiss memory hole
Update: This is now fixed with the IN5, which I'd recommend if the hiss on this bothers you.
hey, bought myself kali lp 6, got them today. I hear the hiss, any thoughts? Im using Cordial CFM 3 MV XLR to a balanced into the focusrite solo 3rd gen. Any thoughts? Maybe it's because of the cable?
@@my_name_was_stolen Kali monitors prior to the IN-5 have hiss.
Not possible to reduce that?
@@zimouspero Nope. It's inherent to the amps in the earlier speakers. Grounding and ungrounding makes no difference. Having them at normal volume or turned down a little does virtually northing either. There are zero other solutions to this.
@@stevenswall thank you. Between Yamaha hs8 and Kali áudio in8 what are your recomendation? To mix and mastering
There is now an IN-8 V2! hopefully without the hiss, I just bought these 2 weeks ago so returning until a fix is available. The do sound amazing though!
Do they hiss?
Can confirm, the hiss is very bad. Mine is on par with yours. Near field users will not be happy. A shame indeed on an otherwise fantastic speaker.
No kidding. Just got a pair of Devialet Phantom Reactor speakers and damn... I miss the IN-8 but not the hiss!
at what distace you'd say the hiss is okay, let's say 2 metres far ?
For what it's worth, Kali responded to my comment on their IN-5 video where I asked if the hiss would eventually be removed from the IN-8, as well as updating the DSP to match the IN-5. They replied saying that they are planning to do this, but don't have a timeframe for when it'll be completed yet.
Actually have a pair of the version 2 speakers and they are excellent.
@@stevenswall No hiss on those?
@@Hankblue The IN-8 V2 and IN-5 don't have notable hiss and are about as quiet as Genelec monitors. Low enough for nearfield use in a very quiet room. I'm quite impressed.
White noise is normal for any speaker but when a capacitor is out of spec this is usually the issue. I got a demo version of the lp6 and didn’t have any loud white noise more than my tannoys or krks. I think there demo batches are good hint hint but who knows I just listen to my ears
Kali - the Hiss Masters
When I received a pair of Kali IN-5 speakers I thought the hiss was acceptable at listening distance. After lots of evaluation against my other monitors I noticed they were a little dark on the upper mids, so I set the dip switches to up 2 db for the high frequency setting. That increased the hiss to where I could now hear it at nominal listening distance. After much back and forth I sent them back. Too bad because they sound great.
Are you sure that's the three way, coaxial IN-5 and not one of the old LP series? The IN-5 should hiss very, very little compared to what's shown in the video since the IN-5 is part of their second wave of monitors with redesigned amplifiers.
@@stevenswall After I bought the IN-5 speakers and discovered the hiss after they were adjusted 2db up in the high register I went back and read and watched reviews. There are number out there that mention the soft upper mids, which I found noticeable as well. Only when I made that slight adjustment did I notice the increase in hiss. For example, I have an old pair of Tannoy 800 monitors powered by a Hafler 200 watt amp. With the Hafler and desk monitor full up they are whisper quiet. The In-5's with signal cable unplugged and the 2db high end boost, they were hissing substantially. Night and day. I had high hopes but in the end I am looking forward to a pair of Adam A7v monitors.
@@rickhuff9030 Couldn't you just apply to 2db increase on your DAW side instead of the built in speaker EQ? Or does this also affect the hiss?
i just got the lp6s and I was very worried about the hiss reviews. I actually submitted a cancellation on amazon but it was too late for them to cancel. I'm so relieved to have these because they are quieter than my KRK G3 Rokit6's. The krk's have the same hiss to me, and one of my krk has hiss+a slight buzz. I record acoustic instruments right at my desk with the neumann km184 about 16-24 inches from the speaker and I never have a problem with the hiss, it will pick up my macbook fan noise at idle before the level of white noise from these monitors.
how loud was the hiss for you? is it noticeable sitting across on them if I have them on my desk?
Yeah i have the rp6 also and they have hissed for years , one speaker also pops when shutting off at the back switch but they still are working fine and sound decent after 10 yrs .
yes, KRK before gen 4 have bad hiss
I had the same with Kali’s LP6’s. Liked the sound, but the amount of hiss is really annoying if you’re not playing music
Try using TRS balanced cables or xlr. This way the eletrical polarities kill each other. -1+1=0 wich means no interference
@@miguel_the_miko i did , still hiss
@@martinmerino4568 then try this:
ruclips.net/video/Beyp9Nk2PDY/видео.html
its a link of a video from kali themselves. they sent it to me when I reported this same problem.
@@miguel_the_miko noise comes primarily from the tweeter amp
My Tannoy Gold 8’s had an audible hiss through unbalanced RCA. Once I connected them to XLR, the hiss went away. I had a pair of those on order and I canceled prior to seeing this video. Glad I did!
My KRK 10-3 G4 have a mentionable hiss as well. My Presonus Eris E8 do too, but not as loud.
That stinks. At one point I was looking at the 3-way KRK as a relatively cheap monitor with a 10" woofer.
@@stevenswall They were an absolute beast otherwise. I now have the Kali IN-8.
Okay have you tried plugging them in to a power conditioner to see if there is a difference. I have heard so many mixed reviews. Some hear it some cannot. I would like to know because going straight into an outlet with no conditioning it’s hard to say.
It's not electrical noise or dirty power! This is the inherent sound of the amplifier itself.
I've wondered about this too; I have a power conditioner and it helped the hiss on my cheaper monitors immensely when I lived in oklahoma; we had very dirty power in one of our houses.
I don’t understand the hype over Kali LP-8’s. I’ve had mine for about two or three years; the hiss annoys me, and I still have trouble getting my mixes to translate. It’s always after I go to the car that I make adjustments for translation. Maybe it’s my room, but you’d think I would’ve been able to figure it out by now, but nope, every time I mix something I’m never sure if it’s going to sound good until I go to the car.
Try the IN-8 and you may need more room treatment if your car, full of soft surfaces and low reverb time, sounds better.
The early units did hiss, and now they've fixed it.
@@stevenswall if anything my room is over treated.
@@stevenswall another issue I’ve noticed with these is how the frequency response is way different at lower volumes than at higher volumes. I pretty much have to crank them up to get them to be the most accurate. I’ve ruined many mixes trying to mix with these at lower levels.
@@cbrooks0905 What is your source? They shouldn't be doing any kind of dynamic volume or loudness contour. If you're comparing them to the car, the car may do some loudness contours that keep the bass higher relative to the mids and highs.
@@stevenswall not sure what you mean by what my source is, but what I’m talking about is they basically don’t seem to “open up” until they get to a certain loudness. And that seems to be around 75-85 db on my SPL meter. I heard someone else say the same thing. It could be my room, which these are supposed to help with, but there’s also not much clarity in the high end on these things either. My vocals have really harsh sibilance, but when I mix on these it doesn’t even bother me.
You have to separate the speakers at a good decent distance from one another to take that hissing out of the speakers 😉
yuppppppppp
Ive had some LP6s since 2019. So these speakers have hiss. No getting around it. You cant hear the hiss with audio through them. I keep the gain set halfway on the amps and the hiss is almost non existing. My monitor controller has good gain and the floor level from the Kali amps stays low. Soooo I would suggest keeping your amp gains at half
I've already tried everything. Half gain, less than half, full, grounded, ungrounded, RCA shorted, balanced, unbalanced, no inputs, etc.
They hiss a ton, and I can hear it both between songs and during quiet parts.
Thankfully the IN-8 V2 is superior in Every way including hiss.
Are they connected with xlr balanced cables?
Hey,
A pair of HS5 with HS8S sub is good or not.
sub is only good when you have a good treated room with basstraps. a kali in8 is better option for a midsize room. hs5 is not recommended these days. and they are not acurate, they are to bright. for a small room is the lp6 good. buy never a 8" with out 3way system or a ribbentweeter. because you have too little midrange
An $800.00 pair of speakers should not have any noise when powered up! My Mackie MR524's and HR824's have no noise. Kali Audio states that they have that noise to keep the cost down? My Mackie MR524' only cost $340.00 and have no noise when powered up! That's a line of BS that they can not produce a speaker for that price with out a noise filter that virtually cost nothing. Capacitors cost pennies!
do you notice the hiss with music on?
no, because music is mutch louder then a hiss. hey cranked the volume to the max. its best what you can do is you put the speaker quiter and your interface or Active monitor controller setuo i'm louder
Should have bought Yamaha HS8's 👍They have AB class amps instead of D-class . Much more natural sound and cheap and EZ to repair .. Sampling -resampling in the digital crossovers in D-class amps also changes the coloration of the sound - so if you need reference monitors for studio - always go with AB class type of amplified monitors.
I don't like non-coaxial speakers. Amplifiers can be transparent regardless of class, and the conversion to digital and back to analog is typically also transparent, and related to the DSP rather than the class of amplifier.
Class D amplifiers are not digital.
As far as reference monitors go, I think Genelec the ones series are the best there are right now, and they happen to use class D amplifiers and even do an analog to digital and digital to analog conversion while remaining transparent.
HS8 has D class
@@ziutkownik You so wrong
Update: Moved on to a pair of Genelec 8260 speakers.
lol what an upgrade from 300bucks to 3000
its not fair to compite a €6000 pair speaker to a €800 pair of speakers. a mercedes is faster then a dacia, its not fair to compite
@@SwiftLikesGames It was $800 to $5000, so an even bigger gap.
Curious to see what Kali can do for their next pair and hopefully it's even closer to what Genelec does but for even cheaper.
@@PyroKalfje I think it's perfectly fine to compare things to different price levels... That being said, this isn't a comparison video of the Genelec 8260 speakers vs the Kalis, though that's a good idea.
I'd also like to compare some Devialet Phantom speakers at $2000 with some $20,000 speakers that I heard at a convention that sound absolutely wretched.
I have the LP-8s from Kali with the same issue. I'm sure you know by now, but it has something to do with the class D amplifiers used. I've learned to tolerate it at this point because my mixes are much better with these, but I'm pretty bummed they didn't improve upon the noise issue with the IN-8. Lowering the volume isn't really an option for me either because you start hearing these odd digital noises.
I might take a chance and order the IN-8s to see if the hiss is any louder than my LP-8s though. I hope it's at least the same level because hiss aside, I love the LP-8s. Sorry it didn't work out for you. Thanks for sharing.
They said they got it down -2dB, which is nearly an inaudible improvement unless you're in a fully treated studio.
(3dB changes are about the smallest a human ear can hear, if it's perfect silence, 1dB is the smallest change humans can hear. So this is two of the Smallest adjustments down you could make.)
I guess you truly get what you pay for :(
every speaker have hiss only its goes away with a ribbentweeter. why? because hiss create wen you make a acurate speaker that can be play loud with out distrurtion.
@@PyroKalfje BS! An $800.00 pair of speakers should not have any noise when powered up! My Mackie MR524's and HR824's have no noise. Kali Audio states that they have that noise to keep the cost down? My Mackie MR524' only cost $340.00 and have no noise when powered up! That's a line of BS that they can not produce a speaker for that price with out a noise filter that virtually cost nothing. Capacitors cost pennies!
My lp6s don't hiss so much I really have to very close to hear any hiss. Wtf is wrong with my pair?
I ordered these..... they are on the way... and now i am really worried :(
Can any of you say thats these are way better as a 3 way speaker, than the 2 way lp-6 or lp-8. If one is use to the hiss from the previous models, would they find the quality much improved on this 3 way design?
I have not compared these to the LP6 or LP8, but dispersion is the biggest improvement. If you move around at all these have a larger sweet spot, especially vertically. Two ways cannot compete with coincident drivers like this has when it comes to having a stable soundstsage.
They hiss the same
Is there anyone who can tell me the better option, Lp8 or Hs8?
The Yamaha HS8 sounds clear but doesn't have the stable soundstsage and imaging of this.
It also doesn't have the hiss.
LP8 will also have the hiss.
I want a speaker without any hiss...so HS8
I’d go HS8 or kali IN8 HS series better than the LPS in my opinion
It is not that bad.. buy a new fridge....keep the speakers..
The version 2 of these speakers is much improved hiss wise, and sounds a little better too. I highly recommend those.
There's nothing wrong with the fridge, this on these was just louder or as loud as the fridge. If the fridge made no noise at all, it would simply be even more noticeable listening to the hiss on the Kali IN8 v1.
Because you turn the other speaker upside down so you reversed the polarity , that's why they hiss ! Just kidding lol
Yep, read about this in a few reviews. How hard is that to fix in production, Not very smart of them , like fumbling on the 1 yard line.
Buy trs balanced cables and the hiss goes away
The hiss is there with nothing connected. It is completely internal.
Besides the hiss, how they sound? Much better than the LP6?
I haven't heard the LP6, but any standard two way will not have the stable imaging and soundstage both vertically and horizontally like the IN-8 has.
@@stevenswall Thats a 3 way though, isnt it?
@@RogwinMusic Correct. The IN-8 is a three way. Two way or three way though, all tweeters should be inside the mid or bass driver.
Bummer. Hope mine are not as noticeable.
What is your application? It's identical on both speakers so I don't think it's unique to the pair I got, but if you are even further away and less sensitive to it, it might be fine.
I'm fairly critical of most things, so it might not be as big of a deal for you either.
(EX: see my video on shoes... It took dozens of models to find one that worked well for me.)
@@stevenswall Living room system, distance about 9 feet . My LP6 hiss at very close range but not a problem for me
@@JeffMudrick These may be excellent for you then. More stable soundstsge and better dispersion than the two way. Plays deeper too.
Nothing for bedroom
Jeff Mudrick I was wondering if you are 2 feet away is the hiss really that bad. I have older
Behringer truth monitors that were only $250 a piece and I barely here any noise at all unless I put my ears really close to the tweeter. I don’t understand how they say because the amps do this because of the cost but my behringers where cheap and sound great so I am a bit confused.
Sucks!
Power conditioner might solve your problem
It makes no difference!
Very bad amplifier inside
EVERY SPEAKER UNDER A $1,5k HAVE A HISS OR ITS HAVE A RIBBENTWEETER
@@PyroKalfje Wrong! An $800.00 pair of speakers should not have any noise when powered up! My Mackie MR524's and HR824's have no noise. Kali Audio states that they have that noise to keep the cost down? My Mackie MR524' only cost $340.00 and have no noise when powered up! That's a line of BS that they can not produce a speaker for that price with out a noise filter that virtually cost nothing. Capacitors cost pennies!
@@bassiclogic yes is some exseption. But most of other speakers some noice. When you wany te make super acurrute speakers and want some decond loud monitors. You get some noice
@@bassiclogic How many times did you copy/paste your comment?
@@FlatTire lol i was thinking the same thing