Genelec 8361A Review (Powered Monitor)

[Descartes]

I have the impression that Focal s prices are much more « flexible » than typically Neumann or Genelec.

You often can find offers or negociate their price at some time. As an example, I have seen brandnew Sopra 2 as low as 9k Eur last year, while official price now are around 14k.

Some say, french dont buy a product but the buy a reduction.

In the US good luck finding any discount on Focal!

 

[Sancus]

I pray for the day where Genelec designs a pair of 8351/8361 stands that are "visually acceptable" for residential use.

I'm pretty happy with the K&M stands in my setup, though sadly I'm not sure you could get 8361As on them, only 8351 and below.

Very interested in your opinion with the arendals! Thinking in the same lane aswell. Living in Norway so testing them is not a problem.. How big is your room? Can you do rock concert spl?

I'm very happy with them, they work great. They get louder than I need, probably >110dB @ 20hz. I may eventually do an SPL test but since this isn't an Arendal thread it'll be posted in my setup thread.

 

[Pearljam5000]

Anyone heard the 8361 and KH420 side by side?

 

[caught gesture]

 

[Pearljam5000]

View attachment 176121

I guess I'll wait for Amir's review of the KH420

 

[YSC]

I guess I'll wait for Amir's review of the KH420

No, you should buy the genelec first, and when the 420 came out you call me and throw the 8361 into my car

 

[stevenswall]

Any reason this wouldn't make an excellent center channel? I see people mention narrow dispersion for Genelec speakers and is seems like 90-100 degrees of dispersion is plenty, especially compared to most center channel speakers.

(I'd be using 8260 monitors as Left and Right, and some Kali's as surrounds... Seems like for movies the L and R speakers aren't used so much and in a lot of ways the center should be your best speaker.)

 

[HooStat]

It makes a ton of sense to me. You could probably get away with the 8351b if it is easier to place, and assuming it is loud enough for you.

 

[Sancus]

Any reason this wouldn't make an excellent center channel? I see people mention narrow dispersion for Genelec speakers and is seems like 90-100 degrees of dispersion is plenty, especially compared to most center channel speakers.

Genelec Ones don't have narrow dispersion at all, I wish people would stop saying that. A better word would be "medium". In the research, narrow typically describes things like dipoles with 120 degree 100-1khz dispersion and 60-80 degree 1-20khz dispersion, or even less. The 8361A are 200ish at LF and then 100 at 1khz+.

You would need a very wide room with seating comically close to the speaker to exceed +/- 50 degrees on each side, and adding even more additional reflections from a wider center is not actually a good thing as far as I can see.

I use an 8351B as center and it's fantastic, fwiw.

 

[Tonygeno]

Any reason this wouldn't make an excellent center channel? I see people mention narrow dispersion for Genelec speakers and is seems like 90-100 degrees of dispersion is plenty, especially compared to most center channel speakers.

(I'd be using 8260 monitors as Left and Right, and some Kali's as surrounds... Seems like for movies the L and R speakers aren't used so much and in a lot of ways the center should be your best speaker.)

I'm using it as a center (horizontally) and it works great, blending perfectly with my other (vertical) 8361s.

 

[q2klepto]

I'm thinking of upgrading to this from the kef meta.. Is there anyway I can use the genelac with the denon x8500ha avr? It only has rca pre outs

According to this reply.. I can simply use an rca to xlr cable and connect to the AES input?

All that concern about needing to use balanced digital inputs only (vs e.g. a simple adaptor from RCA coax SPDIF to XLR) is nonsense, unless maybe you’re trying to run extremely long digital cables.

I used to just plug the coaxial SPDIF output of my Sonos Port directly into one of my Genelec’s (via cheap RCA -> XLR cable from Amazon.com), then use a cheap XLR->XLR cable to daisy chain to the other.

It works perfectly.

If you really need to run digital cables hundreds of feet or something, then you can get a $50 digital transformer to convert the impedance from RCA SPDIF into the ideal impedance for XLR AES/EBU. The digital signal is the same; the only differences are electrical impedance/etc. that only really matter for extremely long cable runs.

Now, I use my Denon AVR preamp outputs (for multichannel) into the speakers analog inputs. I can’t really tell any difference vs pure digital (though I know pure digital is of course theoretically the only ideal way to go), and I suspect anyone telling you there is a big difference is hallucinating it via the well-known noceb-placebo effect we see in audio all the time. If there is any difference, it wouldn’t be due to frequency response (which should be unaffected unless your analog source is really bad), so it would have to be due to extremely subtle THD+N which for all but the most horrible DACs is likely well below the limits of human hearing anyway (unless the analog source is really bad, which it very well could cause some issues — but I have no doubt the ADC In the Genelecs will be audibly transparent).

 

[galanakop]

I'm ready to buy these speakers (8361a)
This is my place.
The speakers will be placed to the right and left of the TV.
In total it is 45 m2 and the listening position is about 2.5-3.0 meters.
Is it believed that I will be covered ???

 

[CMB]

What do you understand by « covered »?
If you wonder if those will play loud enough in your room, rest reassured they will.

Don’t underestimate the size of these speakers.
I would suggest that you double check on the size to see if it fits R/L of your tv and your expectations.

Where exactly and how do you intend to place them?

What and how will you connect?

 

[galanakop]

What do you understand by « covered »?
If you wonder if those will play loud enough in your room, rest reassured they will.

Don’t underestimate the size of these speakers.
I would suggest that you double check on the size to see if it fits R/L of your tv and your expectations.

Where exactly and how do you intend to place them?

What and how will you connect?

I will place them on a base that I am looking to find.

S360-415B Floor Stand - Genelec.com

Genelec design floorstand with adjustable height in 50mm stepsbetween 650 - 1050 mm.

www.genelec.com

To connect I think about Pro iDSD Signature.

Pro iDSD Signature by iFi audio - Solid State or Tube DAC, WiFi Streaming Headphone Amplifier

A standalone. A streamer. A DAC/amp. A Signature step up.

ifi-audio.com

Do you have anything else to suggest about it ???

 

[CMB]

So you will place them on a stand on the floor next to the TV.

Looking at your room, I was just wondering, as your tv seems in a « recess » (hope that is the right word) with corners, and then a cheminé and a heater on the sides.

I guess you will have to place them further in front of the TV. Of course it is difficult to judge from the picture, but you might be ending in front of the heater even and maybe covering the view to your tv from the places the people are sitting now on the couch notably. Or alternatively, you place them further appart, but then you will might be in front of your cheminé notably.

I also wondered about the influence to room acoustic from the cheminé close to the speaker.

I have a living room of your size, but without the recess nor a heater nor a cheminé at that wall. It works fine for me, but I can’t say enough how much smaller those look on pictures as they are in reality.

Maybe you want to test it with similar size boxes.

Then I was wondering if you would not be better off with 8351b which is smaller (maybe fixed to the wall) + a sub placed on the floor.

For the stands, I ordered plain wood blocks which to me looks nicer than the foreseen Genelec/KM stands.

Mine are connected to an ADI DAC with a Node3.
Cannot comment on the IFI.

The 8361 are great speakers. If you can place them you should buy them

 

[Tonygeno]

I will place them on a base that I am looking to find.

S360-415B Floor Stand - Genelec.com

Genelec design floorstand with adjustable height in 50mm stepsbetween 650 - 1050 mm.

www.genelec.com

To connect I think about Pro iDSD Signature.

Pro iDSD Signature by iFi audio - Solid State or Tube DAC, WiFi Streaming Headphone Amplifier

A standalone. A streamer. A DAC/amp. A Signature step up.

ifi-audio.com

Do you have anything else to suggest about it ???

The 415b stand works great. Adjustable and solid!

 

[hvbias]

I'm ready to buy these speakers (8361a)
This is my place.
The speakers will be placed to the right and left of the TV.
In total it is 45 m2 and the listening position is about 2.5-3.0 meters.
Is it believed that I will be covered ???

One thing to keep in mind is the Genelecs are "old fashioned" style of speakers in that they have to be pulled out from the front walls. This is one thing that is a non-starter for me*, and why I'm still more drawn to Kii and D&D that can be placed a few inches from the front wall as they have DSP to compensate for this and can actually take advantage of the wall coupling for bass.

*for my living rooms I don't want to have to pull speakers out to listen to them, then have to push them back in place against the walls. For aesthetic reasons and because I don't want the kids running into them and injuring themselves. For my dedicated listening room there are no such constraints like this, guessing this is how many others use them as well, especially given the number of people in this thread that have them as part of a MCH setup.

 

[KaLam1ty]

One thing to keep in mind is the Genelecs are "old fashioned" style of speakers in that they have to be pulled out from the front walls. This is one thing that is a non-starter for me*, and why I'm still more drawn to Kii and D&D that can be placed a few inches from the front wall as they have DSP to compensate for this and can actually take advantage of the wall coupling for bass.

*for my living rooms I don't want to have to pull speakers out to listen to them, then have to push them back in place against the walls. For aesthetic reasons and because I don't want the kids running into them and injuring themselves. For my dedicated listening room there are no such constraints like this, guessing this is how many others use them as well, especially given the number of people in this thread that have them as part of a MCH setup.

Assuming you're not using a sub, Genelec actually recommends you place their monitors close to a wall; even so much as having flush mount solutions.

Any bass boost can be corrected in the same way you've mentioned.

 

[echopraxia]

I guess I'll wait for Amir's review of the KH420

Note that AFAIK, Amir doesn't plan to compare the Genelec 8361A vs KH420 side-by-side any more, since he shipped back the 8361A to me and hasn't gotten to the KH420 yet (understandably, he has a big queue). This doesn't mean the KH420 review isn't forthcoming; just don't expect the KH420 review's subjective portion to include a side-by-side comparison to the 8361A.

I suspect the KH420 will also sound fantastic. By the measurements, it's almost identical performance in every respect except that the KH420 has a little more upper midbass power while the 8361A has more deep bass power, and of course the Genelec being coaxial has much better vertical off-axis performance which will permit a wider range of placements and listener positions than the KH420.

I'm thinking of upgrading to this from the kef meta.. Is there anyway I can use the genelac with the denon x8500ha avr? It only has rca pre outs

According to this reply.. I can simply use an rca to xlr cable and connect to the AES input?

I use generic RCA(m) -> XLR(m) cables to connect the analog preamp outputs from my Denon AVR-X3700H to my Genelec's, and it works great! What I was describing before was using the same cables to connect digital SPDIF RCA outputs to the Genelec digital AES/EBU XLR inputs, which also works great! Just make sure you feed the inputs into the appropriate analog vs digital XLR input into the Genelec speaker, and it should Just Work ™ As far as I know, Denon doesn't have any digital outputs, so just feed all the (analog) preamp outputs into the Genelec analog inputs, and you should be all good!

Genelec Ones don't have narrow dispersion at all, I wish people would stop saying that. A better word would be "medium". In the research, narrow typically describes things like dipoles with 120 degree 100-1khz dispersion and 60-80 degree 1-20khz dispersion, or even less. The 8361A are 200ish at LF and then 100 at 1khz+.

You would need a very wide room with seating comically close to the speaker to exceed +/- 50 degrees on each side, and adding even more additional reflections from a wider center is not actually a good thing as far as I can see.

I use an 8351B as center and it's fantastic, fwiw.

Same here -- these Genelec Ones are IMO the perfect LCR speakers since they're truly coaxial in every sense and allows you to use the same speaker (for Left, Center, and Right) with much greater positioning and orientation flexibility than any other product.

I'm ready to buy these speakers (8361a)
This is my place.
The speakers will be placed to the right and left of the TV.
In total it is 45 m2 and the listening position is about 2.5-3.0 meters.
Is it believed that I will be covered ???

Yes, you will be covered A pair of 8361A's will be more than sufficient to fill that room with amazing power from 30-20khz. If you get lucky with room modes, depending on your placement you may even get them flat down to 20-25hz but I wouldn't bet my life on it until testing in-room. In terms of mids and treble, either the 8351 or 8361 (which use the same midrange and tweeter) are more than powerful enough for anything ever in a room that size.

One thing to keep in mind is the Genelecs are "old fashioned" style of speakers in that they have to be pulled out from the front walls. This is one thing that is a non-starter for me*, and why I'm still more drawn to Kii and D&D that can be placed a few inches from the front wall as they have DSP to compensate for this and can actually take advantage of the wall coupling for bass.

*for my living rooms I don't want to have to pull speakers out to listen to them, then have to push them back in place against the walls. For aesthetic reasons and because I don't want the kids running into them and injuring themselves. For my dedicated listening room there are no such constraints like this, guessing this is how many others use them as well, especially given the number of people in this thread that have them as part of a MCH setup.

I'm not sure exactly what you mean by the Genelecs being "old fashioned" speakers which "have to be pulled out from the front walls"? The Genelec manuals don't seem to warn against placing them near walls (in fact they seem to encourage it!), and indeed I have my 8361A's just a few inches from the rear walls -- and they sound fantastic.

I will place them on a base that I am looking to find.

S360-415B Floor Stand - Genelec.com

Genelec design floorstand with adjustable height in 50mm stepsbetween 650 - 1050 mm.

www.genelec.com

To connect I think about Pro iDSD Signature.

Pro iDSD Signature by iFi audio - Solid State or Tube DAC, WiFi Streaming Headphone Amplifier

A standalone. A streamer. A DAC/amp. A Signature step up.

ifi-audio.com

Do you have anything else to suggest about it ???

Regarding stands for the 8361A, I have commented earlier that I really like simply placing the 8361A's on art exhibit pillars, which can be ordered in virtually any diameter and height. I know the Genelec Ones are aesthetically polarizing, but I personally find them quite beautiful, and on pillars look like a modern art exhibit

I use the same Genelec stands you mention (well technically mine are K&M, but they're the same thing just rebranded for Genelec) for my rear 8351B's and they work great, but aren't particularly beautiful or space-efficient due to the massive square base-plate (whereas I find cylindrical pillars more aesthetically pleasing and also more space-efficient -- but maybe that's just me).

 

[phoenixdogfan]

Note that AFAIK, Amir doesn't plan to compare the Genelec 8361A vs KH420 side-by-side any more, since he shipped back the 8361A to me and hasn't gotten to the KH420 yet (understandably, he has a big queue). This doesn't mean the KH420 review isn't forthcoming; just don't expect the KH420 review's subjective portion to include a side-by-side comparison to the 8361A.

I suspect the KH420 will also sound fantastic. By the measurements, it's almost identical performance in every respect except that the KH420 has a little more upper midbass power while the 8361A has more deep bass power, and of course the Genelec being coaxial has much better vertical off-axis performance which will permit a wider range of placements and listener positions than the KH420.


I use generic RCA(m) -> XLR(m) cables to connect the analog preamp outputs from my Denon AVR-X3700H to my Genelec's, and it works great! What I was describing before was using the same cables to connect digital SPDIF RCA outputs to the Genelec digital AES/EBU XLR inputs, which also works great! Just make sure you feed the inputs into the appropriate analog vs digital XLR input into the Genelec speaker, and it should Just Work ™ As far as I know, Denon doesn't have any digital outputs, so just feed all the (analog) preamp outputs into the Genelec analog inputs, and you should be all good!


Same here -- these Genelec Ones are IMO the perfect LCR speakers since they're truly coaxial in every sense and allows you to use the same speaker (for Left, Center, and Right) with much greater positioning and orientation flexibility than any other product.


Yes, you will be covered A pair of 8361A's will be more than sufficient to fill that room with amazing power from 30-20khz. If you get lucky with room modes, depending on your placement you may even get them flat down to 20-25hz but I wouldn't bet my life on it until testing in-room. In terms of mids and treble, either the 8351 or 8361 (which use the same midrange and tweeter) are more than powerful enough for anything ever in a room that size.


I'm not sure exactly what you mean by the Genelecs being "old fashioned" speakers which "have to be pulled out from the front walls"? The Genelec manuals don't seem to warn against placing them near walls (in fact they seem to encourage it!), and indeed I have my 8361A's just a few inches from the rear walls -- and they sound fantastic.

Regarding appearance and stands, I have commented earlier that I really like simply placing the 8361A's on art exhibit pillars, which can be ordered in virtually any diameter and height. I know the Genelec Ones are aesthetically polarizing, but I personally find them quite beautiful, and on pillars look like a modern art exhibit

I think it's a matter of taste. When they first came out I wasn't fond of their look at all, but now I really like it. I think white is definitely the way to go. Don't know if it's possible, but a blue driver with the white would be absolutely stunning. They also need a stand that adds to their look. Saw one that was curved that looked amazing. I don't know who sells it, and I saw it just once, and didn't save the image, but if anyone knows what I'm talking about, please post it.