Paul Vnuk Jr. of Recording magazine called the KRK Rokit "the NS-10 of today," because he found it everywhere, from bedroom studios to professional rooms beside monitors costing ten times as much. Most people know a KRK by its yellow cones, which are woven Kevlar, and Paul White of Sound On Sound writes that KRK originally made its reputation with Kevlar-coned speakers. A stiff cone moves as one piece and settles quickly after each note, and White says that helps deliver "a tighter sound." The monitors are active, meaning the amplifiers are built into the cabinet. Recent Rokits have a wide port on the front, which White says allows more freedom in placement than one on the back. Sam McNiece of Mixdown hears the KRK sound as "chiseled and defined," with a grip on low kick drums and sub bass that suits electronic music. KRK suits producers, DJs and anyone building a first studio, and McNiece finds them just as enjoyable for home listening.

The Rokit is where most people start. Paul White's advice is to keep the Rokit 5 for small rooms and to choose the Rokit 8 once the studio is the size of a single garage or larger. A screen on the back offers three voicings. White worked in Mix, the flat one, and checked his mixes on headphones too. Create gives a more flattering sound for writing, and Focus lifts the midrange to help with vocals and electric guitar. The V Series is the step up, and McNiece calls it "a much more 'true' and critical affair" than the Rokit. White heard "very pronounced stereo imaging" from the V6 Series 4, and he advises setting it on isolation platforms such as IsoAcoustics rather than straight on a shelf. If you choose the rear-ported Kreate 5, Jon Musgrave of MusicRadar placed it about 30 cm from the wall with the bass control turned down a little. Vintage King describes a Grammy-winning engineer's Dolby Atmos room built from 11 V Series monitors and a subwoofer.

Keith R. Klawitter, whose initials give KRK its name, was a film mix engineer who could not find monitors with the clarity and accuracy he wanted, so he began building his own in the mid-1980s. Fellow engineers and producers were impressed enough that he went into business, and KRK Systems was founded in 1986. McNiece writes that it spent its first decade serving the broadcast and commercial recording industries. Paul White reviewed the original RoKit, the first KRK nearfield priced for the broad range of home studio owners, in a tapered cabinet he called the "Stargate" shape. The active Rokit 5 and Rokit 8 followed, and White reviewed those too. At the top of the range, the Exposé E8B paired a layered Kevlar woofer with a tweeter of aluminum and beryllium, and White compared hearing it to putting on spectacles. Producers and engineers in professional studios use KRK monitors, and McNiece calls them the default monitor for "an entire generation of bedroom beat makers, DJs and synth obsessives." The Rokit is now in its fifth generation.