GEAR REVIEW
KRK KREATE 8 STUDIO MONITORS | Michael Hodge
• Powered Two-way Studio Monitors
• Eight-inch Low Freq Driver
• One-inch High Freq Driver
• Port and Connections on Back
• XLR, TRS, RCA, and Bluetooth Inputs
• Rubber Isolation Pad on Bottom
KRK has been a household name for 35 years. Their studio monitors are renowned globally. The signature yellow woofers are unmistakable and serve as a strong marketing asset. KRK monitors are valued for consistency, reliability, accuracy, and affordability. The new KRK Kreate Series includes 3, 5, and 8-inch models. This review focuses on Kreate 8, the 8-inch version.
KEY FEATURES
OUT OF THE BOX: KRK Kreate 8 ships double-boxed with foam protection. Each box includes a 110 V IEC cable and a multilingual manual. The front has an eight-inch woven glass-fiber lowfrequency driver with a yellow cone, a oneinch high-frequency driver, and a lit KRK logo. A waveguide surrounds the drivers. The MDF PVC vinyl-wrapped cabinet feels solid and weighs 20 pounds, which is nice and heavy for this price range. There’ s a rubber pad on the bottom for isolation. The back provides XLR, TRS, RCA, and Bluetooth inputs. The volume knob has convenient professional detents. High-frequency and low-frequency knobs each offer four EQ settings: Flat and +/- 1 or 2 dB. The IEC cable input jack accepts 100- 240 VAC. There’ s also a large bass port. It’ s biamped: 80 W Class D for lows and 20 W Class A / B for highs. Max SPL is 111 dB. Dimensions are 15.28 x 10.83 x 11.98 inches.
IN USE: The substantial weight of the monitors suggests a solid cabinet construction and contributes to tighter bass response. The wide listening positions are effective for accommodating multiple listeners. In the studio, I have several pairs of monitors to make sure my mixes translate. Yamaha NS10s serve as my old, tried-and-true reference monitors, but they tend to always cause ear fatigue during tracking, overdubs, and mixing. The KRK Kreate 8 model offers a smooth high-frequency response and generous headroom, making extended listening sessions a no-brainer. For monitor evaluations, I use reference material I know really well, like Donald Fagen’ s“ Gaucho” or Michael Jackson’ s“ Billie Jean,” to get in the weeds of critical listening. Since the Kreate 8s have Bluetooth, I was able to easily connect my laptop via the buttons on the back. That’ s an amazing feature that KRK added. You can also
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