sweetsounds
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- Apr 24, 2019
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This site clearly became the go-to place to pre-select equipment on their measurements. Thanks a lot!
I was looking to upgrading my dated Logitech desktop speakers to listen more to music. My desk is against the wall, so a particular situation.
Because of the limited space on a desk, I selected the above for a test-drive based on size and score. I followed Amir's approach on spending time in mono first and only then trying stereo. I used the Peter Verbeek's Peace frontend to Equalizer APO to dial in the filter settings. Source was a SMSL SU-8.
Visual impression: all very different, Neumann's cube design vs. the 90s look of the Genelec and the rustic Bamboo wood of the AudioEngine A5+. The 8320 size-wise is really small and takes the crown for a not intriguing appearance on a desk, especially in white. The AudioEngine has that living room look and is imposing in comparison.
Many tracks were tried: the most revealing were pink noise (Chesky Records CD) and very dynamic music (Yosi Horikawa, Bubbles/Wandering). Female voices like Diana Krall or Jennifer Warnes reveal the cozy factor and finally Fraunhofer Saitenmusik Dreissig is great to check note attack.
Electronic Music we used Philippe Cretien, Le Chat Noir with lots of richness. For exakt positioning the Te Deum of the Westminster Choir is always good.
Phasing is the off-voice in Roger Waters' Perfect Sense.
Mono listening: as there are no recommendations yet for the 8320A, I dialed in 3kHz, +1.5dB, Q=2 based on other sites. No correction for KH-80, and the EQ for AudioEngine from Amir plus a 50Hz, +1.5dB, Q=1.4, because the bass was lower than Genelec.
The 3 behaved quite differently: Neumann had a bright sound, at first sounding accurate, but after a while it caused me some headache. The recessed bass sounds out of sync from the higher frequenc behavior, drum tracks lost their power (Brent Lewis, Dinner at the Sugarbush). If you like revealing upper linearity with little frequency tilt, this is for you. It excluded it for me in my set-up.
The Genelec was very impressive, authorative bass, not so revealing in the highs and very punchy. The Genelec (and somewhat Neumann) had another issue: from 80cm away one could clearly hear the position of tweeter and woofer, they didn't blend. I wonder if that depends on the radiation pattern of the tweeter. So they sounded smaller, maybe that was also observed by Amir on the 8010.
The AudioEngine was not so punchy in the bass, very enjoyable to listen to and maybe a little less precise in the highs. Amir's setting filled really nicely in, best heard on the pink noise. I got carried away and spend hours listening to music.
Overall I still preferred the Genelec in mono by a little, the most round sounding, especially for electronic music.
Interestingly we noticed speaker burn-in, when switching to stereo. Since we had listened in mono before, the second speaker sounded different for the first 30 minutes, especially the Genelec. The sound started unbalanced, we thought of a model variation and tried factory reset, swapped position, no change, but the effect gradually disappeared.
Stereo image: the AudioEngine won for me. The speakers really disappeared and voices and instruments were well positioned left to right. Despite the formal lower speaker preference score, this was a pleasure. It gives you the "be there" effect and again made me forget, that this was a test, not a listening session.
Vertical stage size was a little limited. Here the Genelec were better on the jumping balls in Horikawa's Bubbles. Also their depth is really good for the size (John Campbell, Way Down in the Hole). Their well behaved frequency made them shine on tracks like Michel Godard's Trace of Grace.
Yet, the locatability of the Genelec tweeter made the stage image collapse sometimes (especially for higher pitch noises like applause) and pulled me out of the music.
You won't go wrong with either, they are all very good for the price. It was interesting to hear that even monitors have a quite distinct sonic character.
Edit: mistake, the 8320 was used, not 8020
I was looking to upgrading my dated Logitech desktop speakers to listen more to music. My desk is against the wall, so a particular situation.
Because of the limited space on a desk, I selected the above for a test-drive based on size and score. I followed Amir's approach on spending time in mono first and only then trying stereo. I used the Peter Verbeek's Peace frontend to Equalizer APO to dial in the filter settings. Source was a SMSL SU-8.
Visual impression: all very different, Neumann's cube design vs. the 90s look of the Genelec and the rustic Bamboo wood of the AudioEngine A5+. The 8320 size-wise is really small and takes the crown for a not intriguing appearance on a desk, especially in white. The AudioEngine has that living room look and is imposing in comparison.
Many tracks were tried: the most revealing were pink noise (Chesky Records CD) and very dynamic music (Yosi Horikawa, Bubbles/Wandering). Female voices like Diana Krall or Jennifer Warnes reveal the cozy factor and finally Fraunhofer Saitenmusik Dreissig is great to check note attack.
Electronic Music we used Philippe Cretien, Le Chat Noir with lots of richness. For exakt positioning the Te Deum of the Westminster Choir is always good.
Phasing is the off-voice in Roger Waters' Perfect Sense.
Mono listening: as there are no recommendations yet for the 8320A, I dialed in 3kHz, +1.5dB, Q=2 based on other sites. No correction for KH-80, and the EQ for AudioEngine from Amir plus a 50Hz, +1.5dB, Q=1.4, because the bass was lower than Genelec.
The 3 behaved quite differently: Neumann had a bright sound, at first sounding accurate, but after a while it caused me some headache. The recessed bass sounds out of sync from the higher frequenc behavior, drum tracks lost their power (Brent Lewis, Dinner at the Sugarbush). If you like revealing upper linearity with little frequency tilt, this is for you. It excluded it for me in my set-up.
The Genelec was very impressive, authorative bass, not so revealing in the highs and very punchy. The Genelec (and somewhat Neumann) had another issue: from 80cm away one could clearly hear the position of tweeter and woofer, they didn't blend. I wonder if that depends on the radiation pattern of the tweeter. So they sounded smaller, maybe that was also observed by Amir on the 8010.
The AudioEngine was not so punchy in the bass, very enjoyable to listen to and maybe a little less precise in the highs. Amir's setting filled really nicely in, best heard on the pink noise. I got carried away and spend hours listening to music.
Overall I still preferred the Genelec in mono by a little, the most round sounding, especially for electronic music.
Interestingly we noticed speaker burn-in, when switching to stereo. Since we had listened in mono before, the second speaker sounded different for the first 30 minutes, especially the Genelec. The sound started unbalanced, we thought of a model variation and tried factory reset, swapped position, no change, but the effect gradually disappeared.
Stereo image: the AudioEngine won for me. The speakers really disappeared and voices and instruments were well positioned left to right. Despite the formal lower speaker preference score, this was a pleasure. It gives you the "be there" effect and again made me forget, that this was a test, not a listening session.
Vertical stage size was a little limited. Here the Genelec were better on the jumping balls in Horikawa's Bubbles. Also their depth is really good for the size (John Campbell, Way Down in the Hole). Their well behaved frequency made them shine on tracks like Michel Godard's Trace of Grace.
Yet, the locatability of the Genelec tweeter made the stage image collapse sometimes (especially for higher pitch noises like applause) and pulled me out of the music.
You won't go wrong with either, they are all very good for the price. It was interesting to hear that even monitors have a quite distinct sonic character.
Edit: mistake, the 8320 was used, not 8020
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