Kali Audio IN-8 V2 – 3 ways are better than 2!

How often do musicians, engineers, producers or home studio enthusiasts purchase a new set of studio monitors? The best answer I could find on the internet to that question is roughly between 1-3 sets. This is personnaly my third set, so I am way ahead of the curve. I have worked on many more than those three sets, and I will say that’s not always a good thing. It takes times to train your ears to a set of monitors! Trusting your ears to them is serious business. For many of us, we are mixing art. For the rest, we would be wanting unadulterated sound waves penetrating our skulls. I want both. I am not filthy rich yet, so acheiving a purist’s soundscape on a budget is not necessarily easy. This part of my journey has led me to the Kali Audio IN-8 V2.

Kali who?

Kali Audio. I’ll give you one guess where they’re located. Figure it out? I sure hope so. In short, the company was founded in 2018 by some pretty smart guys who used to work for some big company named JBL. They use good ol’ engineering and R&D to make loudspeakers and related products. To keep it fun they name all these products after towns or cities in their home state of California.

I mentioned above that I am on my third set of studio monitors. And they are these, the Kali Audio IN-8 V2. I began to have tweeter issues on my old pair. At the same time I was kind of in the middle of a small time overhaul of my home studio. I began the shootouts. The problem with going to your local music store and shopping monitors is the room. It’s always the room! The listening environment in most is less than ideal. And it, good or bad – could never replicate your personal room.

Unboxing went well. The speakers are packaged tightly in styrofoam and a thick cardboard box. After I threw all that and the manual aside, I went about hooking them up. The Kali Audio IN-8 V2 are powered studio monitors, and as you may have guessed the V2 indicates that these are Kali’s second designed version of the IN-8’s. I never tried the V1’s, but the new on board amplifier in the V2’s is allegedly much quieter than it’s predecessors. The back panel has a very interesting layout. Especially the set of dip switches that Kali Audio has placed there with accompanying images for proper set up and placement. I must say, I love this. I messed with them a bit, and can say that the settings that match my placement was the best.

Coaxial, coincident, concentric, co-what?

For those of you not familiar with the adjectives above, they explain the design of speaker that Kali is using in the IN-8. This is a true 3-way speaker. Unlike anything In its class. You will not find a good and true 3-way speaker for under a cold $G, much less at $399/per monitor. Remember those smart guys and their R&D? Kali Audio is placing the tweeter and the mid range speaker into one cavity of the cabinet. The tweeter sits on top of the mid-range. Kali says that this design, not only cost effective also delivers unrivaled imaging. This also allows the woofer to do woofer kinds of things by only having to focus on the low end. It doesn’t have to compete with the midrange. The following description is straight from the horse’s mouth:

“The three-way design lets both the woofer and the tweeter do less work, resulting in better headroom and lower distortion across the frequency spectrum.

At the same time, the coaxial architecture of the midrange and tweeter result in hyper-realistic imaging. This means that you’ll be able to hear subtle details in your mix with pinpoint precision.

The design of the system comes together to allow the IN-8 monitors to act as acoustic point sources. They enjoy all the benefits of both traditional 3-way systems and traditional coaxial speakers, with none of the drawbacks traditionally associated with either.

All of this make the IN-8’s extremely accurate and easy to mix on. You’ll be able to work faster and with more confidence, and your mixes are going to translate to other systems with less work.”

Here’s what I’m hearing, and thinking…

Back at the lab, I can tell you with all honesty that the stereo imaging stage on these monitors is jaw dropping. Literally jaw dropping. The sound just reaches so far, in a great way.
They are the flattest sounding monitors I have had the luxury of listening to. And I have worked on some very nice monitors. What you put in is what you get out. They are not fatiguing in the high end and the bass doesn’t disappoint by any means. I have noticed may studios are starting to take notice and use this in multi-channel set ups, such as Dolby Atmos.

Studio monitors are such a “personal preference“ thing, but I wish I could pimp these things out to others listeners. I know that right this second, somewhere in the world, somebody is spending $400-$1000 each on a set of monitors and they haven’t heard these. They are that good. This is a 5 Star review.

Having confidence in a studio monitor allows many things. The ability to work faster and be more creative. I am doing new things with my mixes now that I am hearing them better. I guess the ultimate compliment is that I want to go back and remix all of my old mixes! But I won’t, these are taking me down whole new avenues. I’m using delays and reverbs more effectively because of the spatial imaging. Vocals are a dream to mix, having a dedicated mid range is something I’m growing gratefully accustomed to. I have never owned a 3-way monitor prior to these.

Kali Audio IN-8 V2, I think I’ll SUPERSIZE that!

Since I’ve purchased these, I have added Kali Audio’s WS-12 subwoofer and Sonarworks SoundID Reference speaker calibration software. Both reviewed in other posts. You can follow the links. I will also add that my room is outfitted with GIK Acoustics bass, absorption and diffuser panels. I feel real good about my listening environment. My mixes are on steroids ever since and I trust what I’m hearing.

The IN-8’s are truly in a class of their own. They have no peers. If you might think I’m not full of bologna and want to drink my koolade, I picked up my pair of Kali Audio IN-8 V2 at Zzounds. I had them in a day. Incredible. I paid for my pair in 4 payments of $199 with no credit check, or just buy them straight up at $799/pair. You cannot go wrong. I also got mine in white. Bad ass looking in my room.

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