User's Manual

KALI AUDIO WS-12 Studio/Live Subwoofer User’s Guide 5
About Your Subwoofer
Congratulations on your Kali Audio WS-12 Subwoofer! This subwoofer was designed to de-
liver accurate, authoritative low end for recording studios, and also to be used on stage in
light-duty applications. Whether you need to mix very low frequency content, or if you’re
just looking for some punch, you’ve picked an excellent subwoofer!
Where does “WS” come from?
The official name of this product line is “Project Watts.” Kali names all of our product lines
after towns in California. Watts is a neighborhood in Los Angeles that features prominent-
ly in the history of West Coast Hip-Hop. The name is also an allusion to the high power of
this subwoofer; capable of 1000W peaks, this subwoofer far outpowers other studio sub-
woofers in its price range.
Output and Bandwidth
The WS-12 is designed to provide enough output to serve as the subwoofer in a 5.1 setup
with 5x Kali Audio LP-8s. Having been designed for this demanding task, the WS-12 is eas-
ily capable of serving as the subwoofer in most stereo monitoring applications.
This high level of output also makes the subwoofer suitable for use alongside small porta-
ble PA systems. A single subwoofer may be used alongside PA speakers with similar Max
SPL specs in small settings. In larger settings, two subwoofers may be used side by side.
The WS-12 plays down to 23Hz at -10dB. This is low enough to reveal details in very low
frequencies in film soundtracks, as well as bass-heavy music like EDM and Hip-Hop. This
bandwidth also makes the WS-12 an excellent choice for live playback of these genres.
The WS-12 is equipped with a limiter circuit that will protect the subwoofer from unsafe
voltage levels. This will be plainly audible as distortion, indicating that the speaker is re-
ceiving too much input signal. If this is the case, it is recommended to reduce the volume
of the playback material.