Major upgrade at Casa Voltronic. New studio monitors arrived today, replacing a very old set.
The difference is not at all subtle, moreso than the cabinet size would indicate. WOW. I've been missing out on so much, and mixing at a severe disadvantage. Not anymore.
Kali IN-5. Highly recommended.
@voltronic If they sound half a sexy as they look I can see you spending a LOT of time with them 😍
@BillyBones
The looks are pretty utilitarian, but watch the video in the review I linked. You'll see a lot of thought went into their design.
Next step is to take a panel of measurements and apply room correcting EQ, but that's for another day.
For now, I had to remove that grip clamp on the left side of the desk. Pipe organ music is making a loose sleeve bearing in it rattle like hell!
@voltronic 😍 What's sad is that there's no way for any of us to share in this (short of buying a pair).
But it's nice to experience them vicariously. Hope they bring a lot of happiness and productivity 🔊
@BillyBones
Well there may be, sort of. A couple weeks ago I posted my classical and pop/rock sample track compilation tracks.
After measuring and correcting my old KRK monitors, I set up a pair of DPA 4011A at the listening position and recorded the tracks both with and without correction.
Later this week I'll do the same with the Kali's. The music sharing site I'm using now (samply.app) let's you do A/B comparisons on the fly.
@BillyBones
Recordings done. I don't think my recording method did a good job conveying the differences between the speakers, other than the increased treble brightness of the KRK's. Kali sounded so much better in all aspects in reality.
Click the v4 icon to get to the A/B comps.
https://samply.app/player/CZiDKvJ0HRgkEJgj96LM/
What I think does come through is how much the EQ corrections I generated tame the muddiness in the room.
@BillyBones
Something else I discovered while cranking these is that it wasn't my clamp bushing that was vibrating; it's these adjustable speaker stands buzzing all over the place. So now I need new stands to handle these monitors!
@voltronic That's fantastic and seriously thorough stuff.
So what led you to these monitors? Were they particular ones you've wanted or was there something about the old ones that you were unhappy with?
@BillyBones
The old ones were pretty basic when I bought them 10+ years ago. More recently, I started to be increasingly bothered by the high-frequency hiss that plagues many powered speakers, and it can get worse as capacitors age. These are also very bass-limited, and wanted to do less switching back and forth between my headphones and monitors to check the bass in my recordings.
@BillyBones
I am fortunate that the equipment I am now recording with is as good as it gets, and I'm trying to improve my techniques. The monitors were holding me back in post work, and an engineer on one of the forums remarked that I was achieving good results in spite of such poor monitors. My headphones are excellent but you can't judge imaging there.
So I did a lot of reading on audiosciencereview.com. The forum admin and the person who's with you I linked both do very scientific no-BS...
@BillyBones
...measurements and analysis, and the members there generally don't have any tolerance for snake oil or vague impressions you read in most audio reviews.
Neumann and Genelec are out of my price range, and I don't need built-in active DSP built-in since eye of the ability to measure and apply those corrections in my PC which will be the only source for these.
I had never heard of Kali, a relatively new brand. But the reviews were very positive subjectively and objectively.
@BillyBones
Should have read *review* two posts above.
@BillyBones
Well the measurements and room correcting EQ just happened.
DAMN. Now we're rocking over here. Hot For Teacher and Know Your Enemy have never hit this cleanly.