Neumann KH 80 DSP 4 inch Powered Studio Monitor Reviews

These are nothing but spectacular, flat, uncolored sound of what you put in is what you get out, as the previous reviewer mentioned, they will rattle with the wrong amount of low frequency along with that frequency being to loud, and if they do, its BOTH, otherwise these are of the utmost pureness in any price range... I have them in a 18 x 20 room and they are more than loud enough to mix without any distortions what so ever. These are truly the best and if you need bigger and much louder... Get the KH 150's, but these WILL get loud and stay balanced. You will know when your mix is right at low or loud volumes... There are incredible ! Reverb tails and compression can be heard from with in inches from the speakers out to 10 feet away with ease... I think they are best heard around 5 or so feet. Do you self a favor and get these if you want the truth in your tunes. Later

Upgraded to a pair of these from some old genelec 1029As, and what a difference. Hits lower despite being smaller with a smaller woofer. Highly recommend these with the measurement mic kit, the calibration is incredibly intuitive and gave me exceptional results.

If you want to hear every detail in a mix, use the KH80s. The crispness of the top end and tightness of the low is incredible, especially considering the monitor's size. The depth of the stereo field is impeccable and separation is pristine. Not only will they get the job done right, but your mixes will most likely improve after using them. Give these monitors serious consideration.

I have focal genelec jbl all 350 to 850 range cms40 genelec 8030 jbl 4326 p and these neumann kh 80 are my favorites the other are great sounding these are better sounding more bass then I thought possible out of this size of speaker and cabinet mid and high are a delicately I love them and the way they sound there loud and accurate at any volume they just keep getting louder and donot break up at all . These meumann rock !!! Tony .

These are a killer little pair of monitors. They are breathtakingly detailed, clear, and revealing - I'm hearing new transient information that I haven't heard on tracks I've been listening to for years. The stereo imaging is staggeringly accurate, and they put out way more sound than I was expecting them to. The low end is tight and put together, more than enough for the rock and punk tracks I've been running through them. If you make/mix low end heavy electronic music or something of the like, you'll need a sub if these are going to be your primary monitors. I use them in conjunction with Adam A77Xs and they are an ideal second reference monitor. I have a feeling mixing on these will lead to near perfect translations on other systems. Would very much so recommend picking a pair of these up.

I've used these monitors for a little over 2 months and absolutely love them. I almost returned them after my first listen!! I sat down, listened to reference tracks back to back for hours.. and didn't like them. I set the attenuation on the back for desk placement and that helped some, but I still wasn't thrilled. I decided before I sent them back I would knock out a mix on them and see what my results were. GLAD I DID. The mix translated so much better than my previous Tannoys. I decided to take it a step further and use the DSP with the iPad and it made a HUGE improvement. I highly recommend doing that to anyone who is considering these.
I Primarily mix hip hop/ trap music and these are spot on. I'd recommend a sub for any bass heavy genres, but for all others I'd imagine these would be enough. Good low end for the size.

The Neumann KH80s replaced the Electro-Voice Sentry 1A Studio Monitors that I've used since the late 1970s. These little boxes deliver a room full of sound with astonishing low and high end response. Frankly, the vast majority of commercial recordings don't have the dynamic range to really showcase what these can do. The EV speakers did have massive magnets on them, so they only required 40w total to drive both speakers from an audio amplifier. The KH80s are bi-amped, each transducer having its own amplifier, at 70/120w respectively, but you would expect to have to use more power to move the same amount of air with smaller speakers. "They sound three dimensional" is the comment I often hear from clients. The iPad DSP set-up is very slick, but does require wired Ethernet connections to both speakers and the software only works on the iPad. I presume they opted for wired Ethernet because Bluetooth or WiFi radios caused noise issues with the speaker amplifiers?

I've always loved my Neumann microphones for their reliable performance and quality but I expected something much different out of such a small package. Compared to my Event 5", and my Mackie 5 and 8" speakers, this deliver a remarkably smooth and even frequency response with the added bonus of tight lows. It feels like I've been using the wrong speakers to mix all along!

Really great product for the size, value. Incredible detail and transient response.

Honestly, I hated these when I first got them. I' was using a pair of Event 20/20s for a few years and thought a second pair would help. Everything I listened to sounded like absolute garbage. The mid range was too in your face and you can hear every single problem with the mix. I was about to return them when I decided to try them out on a mix.

I'm a fool. These speakers didn't sound crappy. My mixes on the Event 20/20s were the ones sounding terrible. You can hear so much detail that you kind of lose yourself in fixing everything. When you finally play it back on some hi-fi system, the results are incredible.

I have never heard mixes this clearly and accurately in my life.

Very good sounds and are in a class which the Focal CMS 50 shares.
The speakers incorporate clear highs and full low range.
I would not hesitate to recommend them for small rooms/environments.
Go for it!

I recently acquired a pair of these monitors from Sweetwater. I have been using them as a desktop setup for both monitoring mixes, as well as general audio playback from various audio sources. I compared these directly to a pair of Focal CMS 40 monitors, which would be a direct competitor based on form factor and cost. Here are my thoughts thus far:

The build quality of the KH80s are very good. They are lighter than I expected, but are solidly made. They have some sort of high density plastic cabinet, whereas the Focals have a solid aluminum case. All of the requisite shelving controls are located on the back (as with the Focals), as well as a Neutrik combo jack, so one can plug in either xlr or trs cables. This is a nice feature, since on the Focals, one is limited to either rca jacks or xlr only.

From a power standpoint, I was amazed by how loud these monitors are, particularly compared against the Focals. In a small room, such as where they are located, I had to attenuate the db controls on the back, and turn down (way down) the mixer and dac that I have connected to it. These speakers are tiny, but they pack enough power to monitor in very large spaces. The Focals, while certainly having sufficient power, were nowhere close to the output of the KH's. And, that power does not distort at all. Everything is clear and powerful.

From a sound quality perspective, the KH80s are excellent. Given their size, the bass response, while not overwhelming, is very good, far better than one might expect from a 4 inch subwoofer. This is in large part due to the DSP magic that Neumann has baked in, and it definitely works. Compared to the Focals, both high and low end were just slightly more defined and better presented. The Focals, however, are no slouch, and even at the much lower power output, help up very well against the Neumanns. If you are going below 60 hz, you'll probably want either a larger monitor, or some sort of subwoofer, but the bass on the Neumann's is clean and well defined. More than adequate for getting a good sense of a mix.

A few criticisms: The Neumann logo on the front (multicolored depending on the status) is too large and bright. I gather that this can be controlled from the promised Neumann control app, but as of this writing, it has yet to be released. Given that one of the advertised features of this monitor was the ability to control the speaker based on room acoustics (along with other features) I find it odd that Neumann released the speaker and not the app. I understand that the app is coming "soon", whatever that means. That is my second issue. Also, unlike the Focals, there is no mute switch or level switch on the front, so you have to rely on a mixer or dac to take over those functions. The manual is quite poor, with an included pictorial on monitor positioning, some warnings, and not much else.

All in all, I would recommend these monitors. The sound quality is stellar, the power is phenomenal from a monitor weighing less than 8 pounds, and the monitors are excellent for monitoring mixes as well as casual listening. They are not inexpensive, but nothing of high quality is these days.

I quite conflicted with this product. One one hand they do sound quite amazing, mixes are way easier to nail down and I can do it much faster. Any fears I had about headroom or extension were quickly alleviated upon hearing them. I came from various budget monitors, the last pair being some Yamaha HS8. I was worried if this would really be an improvement and the KH80 are absolutely a much better speaker. The build quality seems quite good, about as good as it could get. I find the hardware to be exceptional.

And now I get to talk about the nightmare that is the software! I will make my main issue clear to start off with. IF YOU HAVE ANY INTENTION TO UTILIZE THE DSP/LOGO DIMMING YOU MUST BUY AN IPAD OR THE MA-1 MEASUREMENT MIC. There is no other way to access the built in features of this speaker and Neumann provides different software for different platforms. The Ipad app has greater user control in the form of manual EQ adjustments and logo dimming (you will need to dim them if you work in a remotely dark room, they are blinding). The desktop application shares effectively none of the features of the Ipad app and is an entirely automated calibration process with no option to manually adjust the filters. There is no android app and there likely never will be. Sweetwater needs to update the listing to better reflect the reality of the software.

So at the moment there is no way to access the internal feature set of the speaker without spending additional money. I messaged Neumann and they informed me that my issues could be solved by purchasing and Ipad or the MA-1 mic, yeah their support is pretty terrible here which surprised me. Just generic tech support responses.

Nice size, nice shades, fine mids and highs. Low end rattles the enclosure or something internally. Super frustrating. Go with a different make.

For those of us who trusted in the Neumann brand, this is a disappointment.
It sounds good, but it's not exceptional, It's one more. Robust appearance, but very fragile internal electronics. The after sales technical service is very complicated. I bought 4 and after 30 days one failed. 15 days later another one had problems with the tweeter. Since September I am in circles and I have not yet been able to solve the problem. Undoubtedly, the quality of these new Neumann products destined to compete in the market for prices and not for quality, make their price go down and their quality too.