Kali Audio SM-5-C Black

The key to the SM-Series’ high performance is its 3-way coincident architecture. This design allows for the ultra-lifelike imaging of a coaxial speaker, while delivering the low distortion and midrange clarity that only a 3-way can achieve. 

Not only are the midrange and tweeter coaxial, they are also coincident, meaning that they are physically time aligned and thus phase coherent from all angles. 

The SM-Series speakers are acoustic point sources, and particular care has been given to the transition from the midrange to the baffle. This transition is seamless to the edge of the speaker, resulting in an engrossing stereo image where details are lifelike and crisp.

1-Inch Aluminum-Dome Tweeter
The SM-Series’ aluminum-dome tweeter delivers excellent dynamics, resulting in clear high frequency response without distortion. The tweeter uses a unique geometry to reduce high-Q ultrasonic resonances, eliminating harshness that can make metal tweeters fatiguing over time.

4-Inch Profile-Optimized Midrange
The SM-5-C’s midrange is optimized not only for its own frequency band, but also for its role as the tweeter’s waveguide. The shape is precision engineered for ideal directivity, and peak-to-peak excursion is limited to under 1mm to prevent intermodulation distortion.

Flux Stabilized Woofer
The SM-5-C’s woofer incorporates features that reduce magnetic flux modulation, bringing distortion down dramatically.

Paper is used for both the woofer and midrange cone material. Kali’s testing has shown that, despite its humble nature, paper is ideal in terms of stiffness, weight, and natural damping characteristics.

Crossover Network
A top-tier speaker deserves top-tier internals, and the crossover network on passive Santa Monica speakers is as fine as they come.

Since the SM-5-C uses amplifier tuning to handle frequency response optimization, the crossover network can be purely optimized for its use in directivity transition. This level of optimization allows for premium components to be used, including ultra-low dissipation polypropylene capacitors, air-core inductors, and ultra-low inductance resistors.

The crossover network is fully optimized for bi-wire (LF+MR/HF) use, but care has also been taken to allow for single-wire use.

Low-diffraction Baffle
The baffle around the midrange follows the shape of that driver, blending seamlessly from the edge of the driver and into the rest of the speaker cabinet. This eliminates on-axis diffraction artifacts in the frequency response, and helps reinforce the SM-Series’ excellent imaging characteristics.

Low-noise Port Tube
Like all of Kali’s speakers, the SM-5-C uses a fluid dynamics derived port tube for high performance and low noise.

On most port tubes, air leaves at different speeds from different points of the opening, creating noisy turbulence. This turbulence can be heard as “chuffing,” or an audible air sound coming from the system. This sound will add to the noise floor and obscure the details of the low end.

The port tube on the SM-5-C was designed to ensure that all of the air leaves the port tube at the same velocity. This helps add to the low end response of the subwoofer, while keeping the bass clean, tight, and devoid of extra noise.

The SM–5-C features mounting holes on both the top and bottom of the loudspeaker. Kali recommends using a speaker specific U-bracket mount with a 4.25 x 2-Inch bolt pattern that is capable of holding the SM-5-C’s 9,5 kg weight.