Kali Audio SM-5-C

Kali Audio SM-5-C — a passive 3-way studio monitor in the Santa Monica series, a 5-inch woofer paired with a coaxial 4-inch midrange and 1-inch aluminum dome tweeter, requiring an external Kali-recommended amplifier.

The SM-5-C shares its coaxial architecture with the active SM-5, but drops the onboard amp and DSP in favor of a crossover network optimized purely for the directivity transition between drivers. This frees up room for ultra-low-dissipation polypropylene capacitors, air-core inductors, and ultra-low inductance resistors — components a design with built-in electronics has no space for. THD stays under 1%, and frequency response reaches 39 Hz at -10 dB. At 200 W of power handling, the speaker delivers 117 dB continuous SPL.

Multi-speaker installations without electronics in every unit

In immersive systems or large surround installations, duplicating an amp and DSP in every speaker adds cost and failure points. The SM-5-C moves all amplification and processing to an external LEA Connect Series amplifier, driven by ready-made configuration files from Kali — a single LEA Connect 88 handles up to 8 speakers in single-wire mode. Bi-amping with a LEA Connect 164 (minimum 100 W per channel) delivers full output and the lowest distortion, while single-wire mode remains a more convenient, if slightly less precise, alternative.

A single acoustic point instead of two separate drivers

Separating the tweeter and midrange in a typical 2-way monitor causes off-axis lobing that blurs the precision of instrument placement in a mix. On the SM-5-C, the tweeter and midrange are time-aligned and coaxial, and the baffle around the midrange cone precisely follows its shape, eliminating on-axis diffraction artifacts. The offset 5-inch woofer is positioned and crossed over so it never falls out of summation with the midrange section, letting the whole speaker behave as a full-range point source.

KEY FEATURES

• Coaxial 3-way design: 5-inch woofer, 4-inch midrange, 1-inch aluminum dome
• Passive — requires an external amplifier (LEA Connect Series recommended)
• Crossover network optimized for bi-wire (LF+MR/HF) with single-wire option
• Paper woofer and midrange cones
• Low-noise fluid-dynamics port tube
• Four tapped 4.25 x 2-inch mounting inserts (top/bottom)
• Compatible with Triad-Orbit U-brackets

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

• Configuration: 3-way, passive, coaxial
• Drivers: 5-inch woofer, 4-inch midrange, 1-inch aluminum dome tweeter
• Power: up to 200 W (recommended amp min. 100 W/channel bi-amped)
• Frequency response: 39 Hz (-10 dB)
• THD: under 1%
• Max SPL: 117 dB continuous
• Wiring: bi-wire (LF+MR/HF) or single-wire
• Weight: 9.5 kg (21 lbs)