USA - Kali Audio has announced the SM-8, an 8" model in its top-tier Project Santa Monica, or SM-Series, line of studio monitors. Combining Kali’s proven three-way coincident architecture with ‘uncompromising components and craftsmanship’, the SM-Series delivers ‘unparalleled imaging, accuracy, and detail for critical production applications’.
The SM-8 is a three-way monitor with an 8" woofer, and a 4" midrange with a coaxial 1" metal dome tweeter. Like Kali’s IN-Series loudspeakers, the SM-8 is an acoustic point source, and special care has been taken with the unique geometry around the midrange to ensure a seamless transition to the edge of the speaker. This gives the loudspeaker an ideal directivity characteristic, resulting in an engrossing stereo image where details are lifelike and crisp.
The transducers on the SM-8 are similarly precision-engineered for high dynamic range, smooth response, and low distortion. The woofer design has been refined, and incorporates features that reduce magnetic flux modulation, bringing distortion down dramatically.
The midrange has been optimized not only for its own frequency handling, but also for its role as the tweeter’s waveguide. The tweeter is an aluminium dome with a special geometry that reduces high-Q ultrasonic resonances, eliminating the harsh sound that can plague metal dome designs.
All of these features contribute to impressive performance from the SM-8. THD of the loudspeaker is less than 0.5% and lower frequency response is 37 Hz at -10 dB. With 300W of total power, the SM-8 can deliver 119 dB SPL peaks, allowing for reference-level listening at up to 5m from the loudspeaker.
On top of its impressive out-of-the-box performance, the SM-8 features user-editable DSP to control parametric EQs, delays, and trims per loudspeaker for room calibration. This is all processed natively on the speaker’s own DSP chip, allowing for a less complicated signal chain and no additional latency while processing room calibration.
Users can programme these DSP features using a USB drive plugged into the speaker, or by networking speakers together via Ethernet. While networked, changes in processing settings happen in real time, and multiple tuning profiles can be toggled between.
The SM-8 can be mounted using hardware from Triad Orbit, or any other speaker mount that uses a 4.25 x 2" hole pattern and can support the loudspeaker’s 31lb weight.
