Most obvious difference between IN8 V1 and V2 is hiss. The V1 is quite hissy (although it's quite a "warm" hiss, not HF sizzle). Kali also improved headroom and arguably FR on the V2, but those are more subtle improvements to my ears. The noise floor is the step change.
I used my V1s at about 3m and it was still totally audible, but it never bothered me in the slightest in actual use. That said, I grew up in the analogue days; where significant noise floor was just a part of life in mixing/recording and you just had to deal with it the best you could of course! At the other extreme some people seem to report that if any hiss is audible at all, that means the speaker is unusable for them. Dunno where you sit on that scale but it could be a deal breaker?
Oh and as above, make sure you look at Amir's retest of the V1 not the first unit as that was NG. Can't remember if I posted it in this thread or elsewhere, but my take on the Kali is that it's a very well designed speaker, very cheaply made. So it doesn't entirely surprise me that the first one Amir had was bad. I've been unlucky and had a couple (out of 8) that have been imperfect, but I'd still buy them again if I needed more speakers at this price point. In the event you were also unlucky with it, you can always return a bad unit and have it swapped out, and once you do, they are IMHO unbeatable for the money. I'm yet to have any long term issues with any of them - like - they're totally reliable once you get units that aren't DOA. So far