Check out my written comparison of Yamaha HS7 and Kali LP6 here: digitalstereophony.blogspot.com/2019/05/kali-lp-6-or-yamaha-hs7-which-one.html 09:03 Frequency Response Graphs
@@chrisasmith75 no its the best speaker on the market for under $500 for under $1k is the Kali in8. Kali shocked the inderstry. Kali are old imployees from jbl
I have owned both in my home studio. The biggest Kali's advantage is the most 3D soundstage I've ever heard. Yamaha has more cohesive soundstage. Kali have some audible, quite annoying hiss. Also, my units had some power issues, they turned off for 5-6 seconds few times a day. Build quality isn't the best and feels kinda cheap. I very enjoyed them for casual listening - pleasure experience. Yamaha's are slightly lacking depth & width in the sound. But I like how tight, punchy and revealing they sound. For mixing, I slightly more prefer the Yamaha.
how you do to have a beautiful mix result with the HS7 ? I have the hs7 at home and sinds 5 years, never had a beautiful track when i listen in my car ... the final mix sound good on my hs7 and sound never perfect in my car ..... I dont have this problem with other speakers. Maybe the frequency response of this yamaha ? idk .....
@@ChrisBessy i have different monitors now, from LP6 to HS7 to HS8 to EVE SC205 and now on Focal Alpha 65. My results were best on HS8's. I really can't say why your mixes don't pass the car test but proper levelling is the most important thing for good translation. Checking your mixes in mono may help. Maybe Yamahas don't match your taste. You should pick the monitors based on what sound signature you prefer, learn them and accept how they sound. The ideal situation will be to listen to them at music store.
@@prodrejent i learn mastering sinds 10 years and i tried at home krk, eris, mackie, yamaha .... my rp5 are cool but not flat enough. My hs7 are very awesome and i love the look and biuld quality. I always check in mono, i compare with other sounds, i use Fabfilter for the mastering with around -7dB in TT loudmeter with -0,3dB to convert in mp3 ...... my track sound good on my hs7 ..... in my car, always something sound not ok, the clap too close, the kick too much loud, .... I have basstrap in my room and no resonnance. If you have ideas you are welcome because I love much the yamaha than krk lol .... I tried to do the mastering with ozone or T-Racks and not in fl studio, but same thing.... But i think also that the hs8 are more flat than hs7 and better bass response too... its not the same sound.
Skills are much more important than gear. I know people who mix on low-grade monitors and produce hits with them, so I guess it's more about the mix itself than the gear. I don't have 10 years experience, maybe 3 or 4 but what I learnt over the time is not to overcomplicate it.
@@prodrejent thank you for this tips. sory for my bad english. do you have a tips to have a good final mix ? ..... what do you use for the mastering....
The Yamaha's have more clarity and better high end but I really like the mid range on the kali's. They have a pleasing and more gentle sound and I think acoustic guitar and piano sound great on them, but Yamaha wins in overall clarity and sound balance
Kali LP-6 vs Mackie MR624 would be an interesting (and fair) comparison. At 6'' stage, Kali is the king (I heard all your comparisons ) :) Keep on your excellent presentations!
I just came from doing a Sound Engineering and Music Production Degree - we have an SSL Duality and all NI / Ableton Adam etc /Ns10's and Adams are what we use. My best mixes have been from NS10's ..not Genelec's not Amphion, no £5000 monitors. The best enginerrs in history used these relatively cheap NS10 Paper cone monitors for a reason. I had Genelec 8020's at home (£800) - I sold them to get Hs7's - the flat frequency response is what we look for - not definition and clarity etc - the true sound with no bells and whistles...They are REFERENCE monitors - then you have another set for playback to tell you how a mix sounds with the bells and whistles...The HS7 bettered where NS10's had no low frequency give and are a fantastic monitor - this is why you'll see them used by Swizz Beats, Timbaland, ....Timbaland uses the and a pair of ATC large playbacks - if you know you know ..
I agree with everything you said apart from the bit where you say you not looking for definition or clarity.....I would say without definition clarity you cannot make critical decisions on sonic quality of instruments and vocals.
As someone just starting out, I don’t want to buy two sets of monitors for reference and playback. I have some decent sennheisers which I’ll use for referencing for the time being. Which monitors would you say are the best for production and playback in this case?
no question No doubt You cannot lose with the Kali LP6’s I had the HS7s for a week and sent them back to the shop - there’re awesome if you know what you’re doing But the LP6’s out performed £900 Genelec’s and every reviewer also agrees that they are outstanding ✅✅
IMHO, comparing to the original sound: Kali - speakers, for listening - just balanced as I like when listening to music. Yamaha - monitors, for mixing - much detailed, easy to catch details, EQ may help when just listening. And since I'm looking for mixing monitors, need to compare them live in my room.
Kali's where way more flat. Yamaha just tricks you being flat because of the volume of the high frequencies. But compare the resemblance of each set to the original and you will see.
Ugh! These shootouts are a touch maddening. On one hand, the Yami sounded more detailed particularly in the all important mid-range --yet the Kali sounded closer to the original source (of which some tracks sounded a little dark and muddy to my ear) (i.e. crappy mix) and that's no fault of the monitor. Now I'm left feeling even more confused. I like them both. Would someone please make the decision for me?
I like the low end on the Kali and the high end on the Yamaha. I would choose the Yamaha cause of the clarity in the highs but I wonder if I would always be pushing my highs lower because of it. Hmmm... This could also be in vise versa with the Kali’s. Hmmm... My conclusion is that you gotta start somewhere so why not go with the budget friendly LP-6’s.
I've listened to and compared the Kali LP-6 side-by-side to Genelec 8351B and it was just insane what the LP-6 could deliver. Considering the price, the sound quality, and above all the sound quality/price ratio, the cheap LP-6 2-way monitors absolutely embarrassed those big and VERY expensive Genelec 3-way coaxial monitors. Just to point out, Genelec 8351B is priced at about 3800€ ($4500) per one monitor. Kali LP-6 is priced at about 170€ ($200) per one monitor. So you could buy 11 pairs of LP-6's for *$100 less* than just a single Genelec 8351B monitor. I'm not even trying to insinuate that the Kali LP-6 is in any way better or even comparable to the Genelec 8351B, of course they're not. Let's say the 8351B is the baseline for relative sound quality at 100/100 "points", in my opinion the LP-6 would be at 85/100 "points". So when comparing dollars per "point": LP-6 at $4.7/point vs. 8351B at $90/point. Disclaimer: There's no such thing as sound quality "points", it was just a very simplified way to describe how they compare in relation to each other. Also everything above is based entirely on my personal listening experiences and all opinions are 100% subjective, and should be taken as such. I am by no means any expert, however I do have some 15 years of experience in more or less serious hifi/music madness.
PS. And I do know the difference between (near-field) studio monitors and traditional hifi-speakers, they serve a very different purpose. However there are studio monitors that are awful as studio monitors but suitable for listening, and there are hifi speakers many consider to be too revealing, neutral or even boring for listening but they would work in a studio environment
These are the 2 that I’m torn between. Here in Australia the Yamahas go for $620 while the Kalis go for $570, so not a massive difference. The big difference is that I can walk into any store and find the Yamahas to test while the Kalis are still an “order only” product. This makes it really tricky to decide based purely off online sources. The other big part to consider is that I can find the Yamahas in good used condition for around $450-500... damn. I’m so torn! Any advice you guys and girls would like to share to help me? EDIT: Just read your written review, Digital Stereophony. That helped a lot. Thank you.
They ended up having a massive sale on the Focal Alpha 50s. Ended up being cheaper than the Yamahas! Instant buy. Listening to them now and loving it :)
What I'm hearing Yamaha HS7's: top end around 2.5k in female vocals is noticeable. Although you have to tame those eq to make it seem like there's enough instead of overexaggerating the top end. Kali LP-6: Mid range is smooth and doesn't brittle on top end like what the HS7's do. Bass response could use some help with a sub to enhance the low end. Both have good bass response if I'm listening to flat freq speakers. I'm listening to this thru my samsung tv speakers and with hearing aids on. My natural hearing lacks 1.5khz and above. My Opinion. I seem to like the Kali's better than the Yamaha's not because Kali is a newer brand that came out recently but by what I'm hearing and how my mixes will translate over the speakers so I can make my own selection based on that.
What you're hearing is speakers going into a microphone along with his untreated room, being compressed by RU-vid, and then being reproduced on whatever speakers you have in your *most likely) untreated room. There's no way to make any real comparisons or decisions this way that's actually useful.
Let's put things into perspective, i ve been working for years on a pair of HS7 and although i don't dislike how they sound; Let's face it, they sound nothing like that original mix... Extra bump in the mid to mid high end, struggle to give good definition in the low ends.. Which leads me to that conclusion, the kali here gets 90% of the mix right compared to the original.. Considering they add maybe a bit of mud in the low ends, a quick fix and it should help get the final mix to sound just like everywhere else.. I have been struggling for years getting my mixes to translate, so for roughly the same price, i am defenitely sold!
As owner of a pair HS8s I'm shocked that in this video I can't hear any low frequencies from HS7. I didn't have the opportunity to compare them personally but I'm telling you that HS8s have solid lows. And differences with HS7 on paper are very small. I'm also surprised that people in the comments are fascinated by Kalis muddy mids and highs.
Just based on the frequency response graphs, I'd say the Kalis are better for mixing. They sound closer to the original mix as well. Someone else said you can listen to them all day without the hearing fatigue you get from other brands in the same price range.
you took a step back sound wise but gained more gear..Yamaha are way more clearer and accurare than kali lp6..Even great producers like Timbaland use yamaha hs8
The Yamahas lack bottom . The kalis are almost exactly the same kids and highs except the lows are more accurate to the real world. Ur confusing the Yamahas lack of bass for clarity because it sounds more midrange. Midrange frequencies always seem louder and more in ur face, especially with no bass to give proper perspective. Kali gives perspective and a little bass. It isn’t less clear Producers like Timbaland use treble mid focused speakers to relate to people who use cheap gear but they also use speakers w more bass for higher end systems like cars.
That's the thing. I sort of like the idea of (slightly) scooped mids on mix monitors. This makes you work harder in the mix to bring them forward. Mid's are ear-candy to the listener. If they're already too forward then the tendency might be to dial them back in the mix --this may leave little to be desired in the final mix. As for me, I'm still undecided between these two.
Kali's sound a little more rounded and more pleasant to listen to but I imagine the yammies are better for mixing, as I'll be doing both its the Kali's for me, plus they're cheaper
Kali has an elevated mid bass while yamaha is a tad flatter. But tracks without bass they just sound soo identical. Yamaha for me. In jazz i feel kali need to open up more.
can we adjust this with the settings behind the speaker ? I have HS7 sinds 5 years and never had very good results with them. I learn them a lot ... I had better results with other speakers ...
I tried these out today. Glad I did because I almost went with the Kali based on youtube alone and comments. Holy crap….Half the sounds on the track I played was missing from the Kali. I switched to Hs7 and they appear like magic out of nowhere. Definitely a heck NO for Kali. You’re better off getting KRK or JBL 305 if you want bass. Yamaha is so clear.
I had 3 pairs of HS7, sold them and tried other monitors such as tannoy reveal, jbl lsr, kali in8 etc. I find that if you make something sound good on HS7, it generally sounds good elsewhere. I’m now on my 4th HS7 and not selling them ever
Thanks for your comment! It helps people like me who hear how the HS is different but need reassurance.. :) I’ll be getting a pair and keep them for good. Maybe one day get a pair of something fancy and really high end and keep the hs there too!
Kalis make a great job as a studio monitor. Transparency, dynamics, balance and great sound stage! Almost all yamaha monitor has mid boosted, they're more focused on mids
Thank you! Great test, although to me the LP-6 sounds better and is half the price, so your choice of the HS7 is surprising. Also, I'd love to hear a comparison of the LP-6 and the Kali In-5.
It looks (and sounds) like the Kali units are a great set up, one question (I asked on an older review) how do the Kanto YU6 compare to the Kali,? Obviously not comparing like with like, Kanto not full studio quality (perhaps) but I am looking to hook up my Pro-ject Debut II Turntable, hence the Kanto - built-in phono preamp option would be a great thing to have,.....but I have not heard them and nobody on the net has done a review ...would you give it the DS treatment and compare these 2 units? Please,....Pretty Please :) :)
They're near field reference monitors!! They're not meant to sound nice. If NS 10's sounded nice, we wouldn't have many of the greatest records of the last few decades.
They are being tested against the original track to see how close they are to the original and how flat the response is from the monitors, not to see if they sound nice.
For mixing can't go wrong with HS7 for getting the mids and highs right, check bass using headphones. Kali sounds more balanced but you still have to check the bass in headphones so it's not a real advantage to me. The Kalis are definitely better as a listening/tracking producer speaker. I would rather mix on the Yamahas.
@@wapanglemdur often the sound great in the HS7 and not good in my car .... for example with my eris 4.5 i can have better mix than my HS7. Check the frequency response of HS7 and you will see the bump at 950Hz and after 1kHz it's very not flat .....
I have the Kali's Lp6 on a desktop in a small home studio. I miss the in you face accuracy on the mids and highs. To neutral for me. After this vid actually thinking of swapping them for the HS7's
@@XxdillffxX I hear ya.. to me Kali bass frequency souds too compressed.. and lacking detail.. All bass instruments or synths sounds pretty much the same in Kali..very boomy...For me there needs to be better clarity in the bass not just big and boomy.
@@XxdillffxX yes the Bass sounds nice and tight (nice and compressed sounding) almost Hi-Fi sound...not great for mixing bass but nice to listen to... There alright monitors but cannot compare to Yamaha HS 8 etc which is used by many top producers.. for example Timbaland...(To me Kali sounds okay as an entry level pair of monitors but enough of detail in the sound for me.
Kali seems to be like just nice active bookshelf speakers, although Yamahas are better for monitoring, but sounds a bit too harsh. I do not appreciate Yamaha's ideology about "... just build monitors, which sounds too harsh, aggressive and overloaded, and if mix will sound great on such a monster speakers, you will win...". Anyway, great thanks for video!
Use HP filter on kali, and boooom! You have more details!!! Don't forget low range bro, i used yamaha hs8 for about 10 years and i had so issues with HS (lack of low range)
@@hrmehrfarYT So in your opinion kali or yamaha is better. The Yamaha sounds brighter and more detailed than the real thing. But yamaha deserves so much bass
The other thing to consider even in getting more bass definition and sound out of the hs8s if you have a smaller and or untreated room, it can end up being too much for the room and you can't even use the extra. So I wouldn't say on is better, it would depend on the room. In the end ideally you have a sub as well.
I specifically saw 1 or 2 reviews talking about how detailed the bass was on the Kalis. I wish I could remember specifically which review it was but the reviewer was fooled into thinking his sub was on and kept turning it down only to realize it wasn't even powered on.
Both need sub-woofer for low frequency. I prefer Yamaha because of Kali's cheep and vague mid and high range sound. If you like Yamaha, I recommend you to purchase HS8 for better low frequency range.
A lot of people buy expensive professional sound equipments for absolutely not professional usage.. It’s the same as i buy a F-35 fighter airplane and put it in my backyard and just enjoy having it 😐
@@theworld2781 You have zero clue of what you are talking about. Look at the frequency response graphs instead of focusing on price point. The Kalis absolutely take the win from 40 hz all the way to 400 hz. The Yamahas only start to catch up around 200 hz. From 200 hz to 1k its a back and forth battle with no clear winner give it to Yamahas from 200 to 350. then its a dead tie til 1k. The Yamahas Win from 1k -3.5k. The Kalis steal the show from 4k-20k. So to act as if the Yamahas blew the Kalis out of the water is to show ignorance of how to read a response curve graph. At half the cost, the Kalis should not be CLOSE, yet they outright win in several areas. To not weight any of that in your hyperbolic comments is a bit absurd. With no sub, Kalis all the way especially if you mix electronic or hip hop. With a sub, Id probably lean towards HS7s because you can get the correct sub for the units which the Kalis flat out dont have in their line. You have a good one. Not trying to be a super dick. You are just saying shit that's crazy for there only being a +3db difference at the most from about 210 hz to 250hz which is nothing. Otherwise these are incredibly similar save for the lack of low end on the 7s.
having more bass not means have good sound the Holy Grail "Flat listening" is what we are looking for. The most problems are medium frequencies that's why Yamaha are better than others... NS10 for example are tipically famous for that reason. Just my Opinion. But not forget that without a good room, we are talking of nothing.
Waah! The Yamaha sounds like it has no box behind the front;) I own the Kali lp6's for half a year now. Best buy! Soon i will purchase the Iloud Micro's too. These comparisons are great!
@@dnttheband I owned both and would say both are not amazing but if you need the better sound quality and some bass as well go for the Kali LP 6. If space is a big issue then take the I Loud.
You are enjoying the sound of Kali more than Yamaha.... So Yamaha is the winner..... lol ... More flat is better..... but I bet Sonarworks will make Kali sound exactly same as Yamaha or better..... If you take out some bass and add a bit high mid to Kali.. it will sound same.
Hi 😊 just subscribed ! Would the V2 LP6 or LP8’s be okay for my music room? It’s only about 10ft by 10ft in size… I do not do any recording or mixing, I just want to plug my keyboards into my Soundcraft Mixer (in stereo) then plug the mixer to the speakers… I also listen to RU-vid music and my normal WAVS and MP3’s, I’m asking all this because I just sold my Yamaha HS7’s, my keyboards sounded awful through them! very “mid” sounding and “boxy” My speakers have to go in the corner of my room, around 8 inches from the wall……. My maximum budget is £500 british MAX - any help would be great 👍🏻😊
I do not like these tests from digitalstereophony. They do not give a frequency response. No charts. They merely assume that you have professional monitors, or monitoring headphones. Not to mention the coloration from RU-vid itself. They make no mention of how they would and could work in different studio settings, what professionals say, or give their opinions on it. No recommendation, or why. What you should be listening for, looking for your needs. This is not the best way to adaquately make an informed decision. I give this review a bad rating.
Anyone that thinks the Yamaha's sound better than the Kali's, needs to clean the wax out of their ears. Especially the guitar tones. Much fuller and defined and open on the LP6's.
@@TonyTana9905 You should, you will be happier with what you get for the money on the Kali's. This video made up my mind and I ended up buying the Kali LP6's from Alto music on Amazon. I haven't tried them yet, but I know I made the right choice. Not that the Yamaha's are a bad choice. But you get more from the LP6, plus the boundry eq on the back is a huge advantage for me.
@@kaliaudioI have bought them today :) - theysounded awesome at shop. I will test them on saturday, because I do not have proper cables to connect them to my interface (and I ordered some with proper lenghts in the music shop). I could only check them with my hifi (headphone output to chinch with some crap cable) and they sounded really good.
@@kaliaudio Today I received the proper XLR cables and connected them - they sound great :) very defined sound! I listened my mixes through them - and I immediatelly hear that there is a room for improvement :)
yes ... my HS7 are very awesome for the mastering but I make deep house and often they lacks a little bass for the kick ... thus in my mastered tracks the result is that there is too much bass arround 70-100 Hz .... for the rest, the frequencies are perfect ...
wtf, what wrong with the audience, lmao, why u say what kali`s better than yamaha, this is hilarious. Kali`s have a little dirty and boomy sound, but yamaha has a lot more details what makes it absolute winners. Studio monitors were created for neutral cleaner sound which helps on the mixing stage. I don't talk shit bout kali`s, they good for the price, but for me in this battle winner is yamaha (but better get some focal`s :) )
I made the error of following or all the hype on youtube etc and bought kali lp 6 when I compared them to my yamaha hs5 I was very disappointed that they lacked detail and had a boomy bass that was not very clear...Had to return my Kali back to the store.
@@HAYDENMUSICTV hs5 are awesome! Loads of depth, revealing midrange, clarity, really tight bass. Once you learn them, and reference low-end on headphones, can get really good mixes..
I have hs5 and bought kali lp 6 as well but sent the Kali lp 6 back to the shop..they are just do not provide detailed sound and clarity like the yamaha hs5 and have a scooped out mid range frequency.
@@MrJohanmessi I do not recommend kali...KRK will be good/fun for producing music and okay for mixing music. Ideally you would have two different sets of speakers one for producing and one for mixing..Go for KRK..I have heard both KRK and Kali side by side and KRK produced a sweeter sound.
