MOTUnation.com

For those who have been looking in vain for K+H 0110 or 0300 active monitors in the US after reading such glowing reviews in Sound-On-Sound and elsewhere, there is a bit of good-news/bad-news today:

Sennheinser is discontinuing the Klein + Hummel brand due to poor international name recognition and distribution.

http://www.sennheiser.com/sennheiser/ho ... leases_k-h

http://www.haz.de/Hannover/Aus-der-Regi ... Hummel-auf

There is some debate over whether the workforce has been half-fired, partially redistributed into Neumann and Sennheiser offices, or what.

But it does seem that the existing products will be re-branded and hopefully distributed more widely than before.

Studio monitors will be rebranded Neumann, and P/A monitors will be re-branded Sennheiser.

Personally, I always liked the sound of K+H, but what's in a name?

The 0110 has been at the top of my wish list for some time, but no one carries it here, so I didn't want to order it without hearing it -- especially at the current exchange rate.

I do hope this change is for the better in terms of worldwide distribution. The 0110 in particular is almost universally praised as the most neutral and transparent (and non-fatiguing) small-format near-field monitor available (outside the Barefoot budget range).

I talked to the K + H folks at NAMM, and there have been some changes since the original announcement was made: the loudspeakers will be re-branded as Neumann, not Sennheiser.

Finally I got to listen to the loudspeakers for the first time, even if in a non-ideal environment. I was there early in the day before the white noise got unbearable, and it did seem to me that the entire loudspeaker line is very consistent, smooth, and maybe even a bit hi-fi like the Dynaudio BM6a's.

They are tiny, which wasn't obvious from on-line lit )picture-wise, even if dimensions were listed). So even the O300 is OK for a smaller room.

It turns out they are available in the US but only at select dealers and typically in audio stores vs. MI stores. I got a dealer's name for SF and may try them again in a more conducive environment soon.

I suggested they change the model names as it is hard to find these on-line with searches as zeroes and oh's get confused. They seem to think it is easy enough, so I get the idea the model names will stay and just the branding will change. Certainly "K + H" is the harder part of the search currently.

I couldn't tell in the NAMM environment about bass extension, but the O300 did seem the more desirable of the two from a mixing point of view. I'll need to reinforce this later in a better environment.

I have a pair of K&H 0300's and I do love them. Not for everyone though...

OK, the O110 replacements are out now in Europe, and should arrive in the US around December. I'm hoping they'll have some at AES in SF in early November, as that's a less noisy listening environment than NAMM.

The new model is the Neumann KH120, and is said to be both better and cheaper, with more bass extension. 600 euros each. Not sure in dollars, as their could be import/export and shipping fees vs. just a straight currency conversion.

Here's the product announcement (hot off the press):

http://broadcastengineering.com/product ... -20100926/

http://en.audiofanzine.com/active-monit ... .7730.html

http://www.dv247.com/news/Neumann%20KH1 ... ors/132578

http://radiojingles.co.nr.freehostia.co ... or-kh-120/

That's the first time I've seen four separate writeups on a new product listing! Usually one is just a copy or extraction of the other.

Here's a product page placeholder, without pricing:

http://www.dv247.com/studio-equipment/n ... gle--79159

Had I know about this a few days ago, I might have held off on my own upgrade, but the transition from KRK's to JBL's isn't costing me one cent, so it's no big deal.