By Kali Audio LP8, The Lone Pine, an Affordable Studio Monitor

It’s been about a year since Kali Audio launched their first line of studio monitors. From the getgo they have been the talk of the town, shaking the market with its affordability & sound quality. Kali Audio is an American based company with products designed and engineered in California. They initiated their monitor range with the LP or the Lone Pine Series studio monitors. The current LP range is available in 2 versions the Kali LP6 & the Kali LP8

What is Lone Pine?

Lone Pine is the name of a small city in the United States of America which is used as a starting point or a base camp for climbers hoping to summit Mt. Whitney, the highest peak in the US. Kali is using this name for their starting point in the audio industry with their studio monitors, hoping to Summit the Audio industry, and they are off to a great start.

Kali LP8 is the perfect balance of performance and affordability.

It has an 8-inch woofer with a 1-inch tweeter. The speaker also features a bass port below the woofer that gives you a solid bass response without being boomy.

The response of the speakers is drastically even and gives a balanced and honest depiction of sound for you to listen to your mixes. The frequency response as listed is 37Hz-25kHz.

Both the variants of Kali Audio LP series i.e Kali LP6 & Kali LP8 feature boundary compensation EQ.

“Kali Audio’s team came up with boundary compensation EQ settings at The Village Studios 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.” – Kali LP8 Owner manual.

The Rear Panel

The Rear panel has acoustic tuning settings along with three Audio inputs ( XLR, RCA, TRS) and a Volume Knob.

As with most active speakers, the controls in the rear panel can be modified to suit different placements of speakers in the room.

The back of the speakers has a labelled diagram showing speaker positions (close to walls, on desks, on a speaker stand or on a console), helpful to navigate the toggle switches for EQ.

3D Imaging Wave Guide

Every time you hear a loudspeaker, you’re hearing both the direct sound from the speaker source and reflections from the bouncing off of the objects in the room. Kali LP ensures that the Direct sound and the reflections match. The 3-D Imaging Waveguide in LP lets you hear 3-D soundstage which gives you a wider, deeper and taller stereo image from a stereo speaker or simply put stereo imaging.

“The 3-D Imaging Waveguide allows you to hear a 3-D soundstage from a stereo pair of speakers. This is achieved by matching the shape of the waveguide to the interactions of the HF and LF drivers. This waveguide pro-duces a coherent stereo image that is wider, taller, and deeper than the space where the speakers are placed.

The LP-Series accomplishes this by ensuring that the speaker’s reflected sound matches its direct sound.”

Testing the Kali Audio LP8

The Kali LP8 is surely not the loudest monitor but best for extensive sessions. Both the Lone Pine series 6‑inch LP6 and 8-inch LP8 have a limiter circuit. This helps to protect the driver. Whenever the limiter kicks in, the distortion becomes audible which indicated that you should turn down your levels. It is the 1.5-inch voice coil and a large magnet in the woofer that keeps the low end clean.

We can talk about a series of technicals tests done by lots of people to find flaws in the loudspeaker, but what’s important is whether we can have long sittings without too much ear fatigue and if the mix translates precisely to the other systems. Kali Audio LP series have been reasonably priced and it’s worth it. If you want a reliable pair of studio monitor or even a second pair for referencing, this is a sure shot purchase.

My tests with the Kali Audio LP8 included changes in the position of the speakers with reference to my room setting. First placing them on stands and next directly on the studio table.

The tests included tone testing as well as listening sessions with a range of genres. Songs ranging from Electronic to Hip hop to rock to Metal and Evergreen classics. I use these tracks to reference and test all the speakers I come across and have been using them to understand the intricacies of the speakers. 

Conclusion

Concluding here, Kali Audio LP8 produces a clean and firm sound with definite low mid. The lows are one of the cleanest I have heard in this range. The best part is, apart from the technicalities and jargon, Kali LP8 sounded good & easy to my ears from the first listen.

Kali Audio LP8 Tech Specification

If you enjoyed this review, check out the Presonus Eris and Tannoy Reveal studio monitor reviews