Kali Audio was founded in 2018 in Burbank, CA, by five former employees and industry veterans from JBL Professional. Kali was founded to achieve creative freedom to build high-performance audio gear with an aim to avoid corporate compromises. The company is named after the state of California (“Kali”), and every product line is named after a California town or city. Kali focuses on value engineering, delivering acoustic accuracy at accessible price points for musicians and engineers.
The top of the line in the Santa Monica series is the SM-8 powered 3-way studio monitor. Featuring an 8-Inch woofer, and a 4-Inch midrange with a coaxial 1-inch metal dome tweeter, the SM-8 looks like a two-way monitor system, but is cleverly engineered as a three-way system. This design further ensures time alignment and point-source phase coherency, an engineering standard. The transducers on the SM-8 are precision engineered for high dynamic range, smooth response, and low distortion.
The SM-8 is designed to provide professional imaging, accuracy, and detail for critical mixing applications as a nearfield and midfield speaker set. Frequency Range is stated as (+/-3 dB) 45 Hz - 21 kHz with crossover points at LF-to-Midrange Crossover at 280 Hz and Midrange-to-HF Crossover at 2800 Hz. The SM-8 features 3 built-in Class D power amps per speaker enclosure. THD of the system is less than 0.5% and lower frequency response is 37 Hz at -10 dB.
With 300 W of power, the SM-8 can deliver 119 dB peak SPL, making it capable of hitting 85 dB continuous output with 20 dB dynamic peaks from up to 4 meters away. The SM-8’s are designed to be used at a 1m-5m distance.
Recording and mixing is a highly subjective creative art form. You can only address what you hear. With this in mind, the SM series speakers feature user-definable DSP for room calibration. The calibration for each speaker will be a little different, due to where they are placed in the room and how they interact with the room acoustics. Individually configurable, each speaker can process up to 8 parametric EQs, 12ms of delay and speaker trim from -12 dB to +6 dB.
This allows you to tune the speakers for your room, delivering accurate monitoring that will translate without second guessing. DSP latency is <3ms. Kali Audio explicitly recommends the Earthworks M23R G2 omnidirectional measurement microphone, available at $549, for calibrating their SM series loudspeakers via the Kali Control Panel app. Kali Audio notes that the M23R is the only supported microphone for generating accurate target tuning files.
Kali has a distinct process for speaker calibration, supported by 14-minute video that describes 9 steps and pdf documentation. For a $50 per speaker fee, Kali can send you tuning files for your speakers based on your measurements. Early adopters of the SM-Series speakers who purchase an Earthworks M23R mic will have this fee waived for a limited time. You need to be reasonably technically inclined to accomplish this speaker tuning or hire someone that is, but the speakers also sound good without the room tuning, so while it’s not a requirement to tune the SM’s, it is an advantage.
MC tested a 5.1 surround setup in a film score mixing studio with three SM-8’s for the LCR and two of the smaller Kali SM-5 speakers for the LS/RS. The studio’s existing active subwoofer was retained. The room was analyzed, and the speakers were calibrated by Kali marketing manager Nate Baglyos. The process was smooth and efficient. In use on multiple surround and stereo musical projects, the SM-8’s sounded clean and powerful, with a full frequency audio spectrum and a firm and accurate bass. And importantly, the system was non-fatiguing and enjoyable to work on.
The front-ported cabinet has access to USB-A which is used for calibration. The rear panel provides balanced XLR/TRS combination input, AES/EBU connectivity, and Ethernet. Passive versions are available on a custom order basis. The SM-8 can be mounted using hardware from Triad Orbit, or any other speaker mount that uses a 4.25x2 Inch hole pattern and can support the loudspeaker’s 32 lb. weight. A great sounding and feature laden speaker in the midrange price. SM-8 $2,499
