| MIX VERDICT: KRK SYSTEMS KREATE 5 MONITORS |
| THE TAKEAWAY: “Sporting solid sound, a sleek look, satisfying controls and a clear, well-written manual, these speakers will be a hit with content creators from all corners of media.” |
| COMPANY: KRK Systems • www.krkmusic.com PRICE: $169 each. PROS: • Many input options. • Clear, non-fatiguing sound. • Great manual. CONS: • No mounting threads. |
New York, NY (December 4, 2025)—KRK Systems’ studio monitors have always had their fans; offerings like the ROKIT line and the flagship V-Series cater specifically to pro recordists, and a few years ago saw the debut of its GoAux Series portable monitors, aimed largely at musicians on the move. Now the company is expanding its reach even further with the new Kreate Series, intended for content creators like podcasters, social media videomakers, musicians and others who may not have deep pockets or pro-audio expertise, but still need to hear sound presented truthfully and with more heft than what a basic multimedia speaker can provide.
The Kreate line of two-way active monitors consists of three different models—the Kreate 3 ($179/pair), Kreate 5 ($169 each), and Kreate 8 ($229 each)—that are duly named after the sizes of their low-frequency drivers. KRK provided a pair of Kreate 5s for this review, and right out of the box, the monitors made a good first impression in terms of their product design.
Weighing 9.5 lbs. apiece and measuring a little over 10x7x9- inches, the rear-ported Kreate 5s look and feel solid, in large part due to the MDF and reinforced polystyrene faceplate used. On the front is the brand’s trademark yellow cone—this time made with woven glass fiber—as well as a small KRK logo that lights up when the speaker is powered. There’s also a grille over the 1-inch tweeter, which, according to the manual, protects it from “pokey fingers” (that’s my new favorite technical term). Under each speaker is a thin, rubber pad for decoupling, but that in turn means there are no mounting threads in the bottom surface.
The Kreate line is intended to be ultra flexible in order to accommodate all forms of content creation, and the back speaker panel reflects that, offering more input options than other similarly sized KRK products as it provides balanced Neutrik XLR and TRS connectors, an unbalanced RCA jack and Bluetooth Classic 5.3 connectivity. While some audio users might scoff at the wireless option, it aids listening back from portable devices like tablets and phones, and plenty of creators will put that to good use.
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Also on the back panel are three detented knobs—a system level control, and HF and LF Level Adjust controls, each offering options of -2 dB, -1 dB, Flat and +1 dB. EQ changes wrought by the Level Adjust knobs aren’t overly dramatic but definitely help tweak the speakers’ sound to better fit a space. That’s particularly important given that the entire Kreate Series is comprised of rear-ported speakers (the only ones currently made by KRK, in fact), so they’re best placed away from walls and corners to avoid low resonance buildup. With that in mind, the Level Adjust knobs will help many content creators working in less than acoustically ideal environments (living spaces, small edit suites and so on) to moderately tune speaker output to the room.
Each speaker is bi-amplified, with Class D LF amp power output of 45 watts and Class A/B HF amp power output of 15 watts. With that kind of horsepower, the Kreate 5s get plenty loud for nearfield listening, going up to a max SPL of 105 dB.
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The Kreate 5s are designed to be all-around monitors, and they succeed in that regard. Put through the paces, they were enjoyable to use for basic video editing, general recording and non-critical listening for fun. Given that they need to be all things to all users, the 5s were perhaps unsurprisingly neutral-sounding, usually presenting whatever went through them with ‘what you hear is what you get’ accuracy and little in the way of hype. I found the sound to be full and clear without causing fatigue over time, though to be fair, I never needed (or wanted) to get anywhere near that max SPL.
Users focused solely on recording should probably check out KRK’s similarly priced ROKIT line instead, but for those on a budget looking for compact monitors that can handle a variety of applications, Kreate 5s are a very real and reasonable option. Sporting solid sound, a sleek look, satisfying controls and a clear, well-written manual, these speakers will be a hit with content creators from all corners of media.
