I’ve been in the market for new studio monitors for a few years now. I bought my KRK RokIt 5 2nd Generation studio monitors back in 2010 when I was writing music as Dirty Machine Language with my roommate at the time. I was 20, working at a burger place and hustling cannabis on the side. Money was tight and our townhouse was small, so that’s what I went with. A buddy had some RokIt 8’s that I’d worked with and in the old studio I worked in at 17 we had them too. It’s what I knew.
Fast forward to today and I’ve gotten a chance to hear different brands and different size speakers. I’ve been eyeballing and reading up on the Kali Audio LP-6’s for the better part of a year now and just acquired a pair recently after getting approved for a Sweetwater credit card. Now the KRK RokIt 5’s were definitely a good starter monitor however the 2nd Generation one’s frequency range was really weak, a measly 53hz on the low end. No wonder when I was making Dubstep and Drum and Bass I just couldn’t get mixes to sit right. Not to mention these RokIt’s had been blasted at FULL volume during Nothern California summer’s when it was upwards of 100 degrees. They’ve been battered and definitely developed a muddy sound over time.
Instant Satisfaction
I waited for almost a week for these monitors to arrive, and they took an extra day thanks to FedEx, but once I got the delivery notification I immediately unboxed them. Coming out of the box they give off a sense of modernism and sleekness. I’m sure ifI had ordered the black version it might not have looked as modern, however the design, bevels and curves are gorgeous.
I quickly replaced the KRK RokIt’s on the stands with the Kali Audio LP-6’s and hooked up my new 1/4 inch to XLR cables to my interface. I asked friends on Discord what should be the first song I should listen to on them and chose Steve Darko – Descending. This song was gorgeous out of these monitors. While my room is not yet treated, I could hear every detail and things sound clear and accurate. There’s definitely more low end out of these beauties. Bonus points to Kali Audio for including a DSP chip that allows you to toggle switches on the back to help adjust the speakers to your particular monitoring situation such as wall distance and speaker placement on desk or stands.
I was working on two songs after hooking them up and was able to get really good leveling on my mixdowns, even with an untreated room. When I did the car test later that evening I was amazed at how balanced everything sounded on my mixdowns. Usually my kicks and bass are turned way too far up.I listened to some mixes the next day from when I was on the KRK’s and there’s a severe lack of bass and just overall volume.
For $300 USD for a set of monitors I HIGHLY recommend the Kali Audio LP-6’s. They end up costing less than the Yamaha versions, and my Sweetwater Engineer told me that he had a customer choose these over a pair of $1500 Dynaudio’s recently.
10/10 Do Recommend.