Kali Audio IN-5 Active Studio Monitor 5” 3-Way White
Kali's IN-5 is one of the most innovative Studio monitos ever made. Combining the natural advantages of a 3-way design with a surreal display of a coaxial mid-range and tweeter, it offers more transparency, lower distortion and a soundstage you have to listen to to believe it.
The IN-5 Studio Monitor is a speaker like no other. Using the same woofer and tweeter from Kali's famous LP-8, the IN-5 adds a mid-range driver that surrounds the tweeter and acts as its waveguide.
In this way, both the tweeter and the woofer, are equipped with a lower workload, are able to play clearer and with less distortion.
The coaxial nature of the medium and the tweeter make the IN-5 an audio point source. This eliminates the deviation from the pod axis, resulting in a stereo sound stage that presents the listener with a super-realistic level of detail.
All of this means that the IN-5 is extremely accurate and easy to mix, and that the mixes made in the IN-5 will be perfectly transferred to other systems.
IMAGING
We know. We continue to talk about the "surreal" depiction of IN-5. What does this mean?
When you listen to a stereo speaker set, you hear information about where the instruments and players were placed when the material was recorded. Even with purely digital material, producers can manipulate the physical locations of the elements in the mix, and you will hear them in a stereo recording.
Not only does this allow producers to create interesting spatial effects, but it also means that you can work faster and with more confidence. An accurate audio track lets you see every 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, such as the Kali LP-6 and LP-8, do a good job of transmitting this spatial information. However, because the tweeters and woofers on these speakers (and most studio monitors!) Are separate, this information is lost in the space just above and below the speaker. This means that in the listening position, you do not hear the full stereo image.
IN-5 solves this problem. The tweeter and the middle part share an audio center and the woofer penetrates 330 Hz, so the distance between the woofer and the medium size is much less than a quarter of the wavelength at the junction. This means that the IN-5 is an acoustic point source. Therefore, it has the same excellent directionality that the LP-6 and LP-8 have on their sides at a full 360 degrees around the speaker. You listen to all the space information in the listening position, so the sound scene you hear will have every detail in the mix.
CLARITY
The total harmonic distortion of the IN-5 is less than 1.4%, which is excellent. This is the result of unloading both the woofer and the tweeter, so they both do less work. The woofer penetrates at 330 Hz, 2.5 octaves lower than the LP-8.
The tweeter traverses at 3000 Hz, almost an octave higher than the LP-8. Take up space between the hero of the IN-5 system: the 4-inch, optimized mid-size driver. This guide has a lot of work to do. In addition to playing the midrange, it also acts as a waveguide for the tweeter. This means that the shape must be precisely constructed to provide an ideal dispersion characteristic of the tweeter.
It also means that the medium intervals must remain stationary. In many other coaxial or concentric systems, the large deviation from the larger guide causes a distortion of the body and degrades the accuracy of the system. The midline in the IN-5 is limited to a peak deflection of less than 1 millimeter, making the headset stagnant while still providing midrange to keep up with the powerful woofer and tweeter.
Marginal EQ control
The given speaker position in a room can drastically change the frequency response. A speaker mounted against a wall or desk will sound very different from a speaker mounted on a stand, even in a well-crafted space. Hard surfaces such as walls, desktops, and recording consoles can alter the screen's low-frequency response and degrade overall sound clarity.
Fortunately, most of the common positions are quite predictable and easily corrected.
Kali's team did the Boundary EQ tuning at The Village Studios in Los Angeles and found EQ settings for offsetting to help you get the perfect sound for where to place your speakers.
Combined with the LF and HF fins, this will ensure that the speakers sound better, regardless of the room in which you mix or where the speakers are placed.
