Kali Audio HP-1 Review

Design

• Plastic construction
• Physical buttons
• 3.5m aux input

You can tell Kali Audio is not a veteran headphone-maker from the design of the HP-1. They feel like a generic headset design with some Kali Audio tweaks, and those additions are all pretty ugly. 

The Kali Audio HP-1 have a bunch of buttons towards the bottom of each cup, and they — plus the connector cable — are all embarrassingly very clearly labelled. I don’t think anyone needs “AUX” printed by a pair’s 3.5mm socket. 

Few are going to be impressed by the Kali Audio HP-1’s sheer presence, but they are not creaky and do not feel flimsy. The plastics are solid and the basics are those of the kind of solid also-ran over-ear headphone I’ve seen many times over the years. They don’t appear to be remotely water resistant either, but that’s normal for a headphone of this style.

The Kali Audio HP-1’s feel is a bit like that of older Bose headphones, like the QC35, but with significantly higher clamping force. I find them comfortable for hours-long wear, but some will complain the space inside the pads is a bit limited, that their mid-level head-hugging doesn’t let them entirely disappear on your head. 

These headphones have an unusually high number of buttons on them — four — and they have more than four jobs to do as well. The left cup’s button is unusual. Let lets you toggle both the Bluetooth and active noise cancellation, rather than relying on a phone app. There isn’t one for the Kali Audio HP-1.

The three buttons on the right cup handle the normal stuff. That’s play/pause and volume control. But a double tap of the Kali Audio HP-1’s pause button toggles between sound modes. 

Here’s the Kali Audio HP-1 USP. The modes include reference, called Studio, the mainstream Consumer mode and Bass Heavy. The concept is music makers can try out how their mixes will sound through a trio of three typical voicings of popular headphone styles. 

It’s a neat idea but I’m not sure this is really a replacement for listening through multiple pairs of speakers and headphones. A little EQ doesn’t entirely emulate the differing characters of headphones out there. But the convenience of having that quick-switch control? It is absolutely not nothing. 

Headphones aside, the Kali Audio HP-1 also include a semi-hard case, a short charge cable and audio cable with 6.35mm adapter.

Noise Cancellation

• Tonal change when ANC is activated

What Kali Audio doesn’t quite nail are the bits big brands like Sony and Bose have worked on for years. For example, the character of the sound changes significantly as active noise cancellation is turned on and off. It’s drier, less glossy-sounding and more balanced without ANC. And compared to the big hitters, the Kali Audio HP-1’s ANC effectiveness is just OK. 

I tried the headphones on a couple of train journeys, and while the ANC is useful it doesn’t have that impressive sense of separating you from the outside world. The range of frequencies it affects is narrower, although it does still get rid of a good amount of the old active cancellation mainstay: engine noise and rumble. These are also very low-maintenance headphones thanks to their “40+” hour battery life, and very slow drain when just left lying around.

Sound Quality

• Nicely balanced Studio sound mode
• ANC upsets sound quality significantly
• Secondary profiles behave as promised

There are a few ways to judge the Kali Audio HP-1. Do they pull off the whole triple-personality thing? Do they sound genuinely good in their best mode? And can they really compare with a decent wired studio monitor headphone that costs, say, £100-odd? 

To get a reasonably fair view on the Kali Audio HP-1, I compared them directly to a set of Audio-Technica ATH-M50xBT2 headphones. Much like the Kali Audio set, these have pro-grounded roots. But wireless makes them perfect feasible for use as plain old portable headphones. 

In their Studio mode, the HP-1 are somewhat neutral. Their mid-bass isn’t obviously overemphasised, the mids have decent clarity and texture, lacking the softened approach common among mainstream pairs. And they don’t have the added “zing” of the Audio Technica ATH-M50xBT2.

I love the extra energy this gives that pair, but is something that might overly steer your judgement if you’re mixing/mastering tracks, rather than just listening to them. 

Are they perfectly neutral? There’s extra energy in the sub-bass, and the mids are a bit dry and thin. I don’t hate this effect at all when it’s notably different to what you hear in most consumer headphones.

This mode is the Kali Audio HP-1 most impressive, to my ears, and demonstrates the company has a solid grasp of tuning headphones as well as speakers. What are perhaps less notable are aspects like sound field scale and imaging. 

Both are fine, but the Audio Technica ATH-M50xBT2 sound more expansive, a little more airy, to my ears. I suppose you could argue having a deliberately expanded sound scale is a form of flattery you don’t want in monitor headphones. But you’re going to get that extra open-ness if you use any decent open-back headphone anyway. 

Moving to the other two modes does largely what Kali Audio promises, in relatively steep downward spiral. Consumer mode adds bass, puts a veil over the treble and makes the whole character of the sound that bit softer and fatter. 

This mode can be handy when you’re out and about, the bassier sound better able to better cope with greater ambient noise. The bass-heavy mode further ramps up the mid-bass is a manner I’m always complaining about as a headphone reviewer. It sounds pretty bad in direct comparison with the other modes. 

The concept is sound here. But I can’t help but feel you might get more out of having a “poor but popular reference” like a crappy pair of bundled Apple earphones, alongside a reference set when judging how your music sounds. 

Should you buy it?