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Genelec 8351B Review (Studio Monitor)

hege

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The 61s seem to sacrifice some smoothness for output.

Yeah I'm sure every buyer is interested in those graphs.. why do "much worse" boxed versions even sell then?

I don't think there is anything strange in physically larger (uglier?) and more expensive speakers being (anecdotically) more rare. And 8361A is probably around the price point where you could just go full retard with much larger speakers (or smaller and subs if you are very tight on budget). It's still only 10" equivalent, barely out of midbass territory. ;)
 
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Sancus

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Do you also hear that bass slot noise on yours?

No slot noise here, but I also use a sub. Not terribly surprised that Amir managed to find their sub-bass limits when comparing an 18" bookshelf to 53" 150lb floorstanders. :p

As with pretty much all their bookshelves, Genelec have sacrificed some headroom for extension here via EQ. It is a smart tradeoff IMO as you can regain that headroom simply by adding a sub.

@amirm Distortion graphs pls? :)

Side note: why do 61s seem so rare?

Personally I didn't buy the 8361A because they're larger, heavier, more expensive, and their measurements appear slightly worse. And I felt that using a sub was a more logical way to handle sub-bass limitations. Plus in a multi-channel setup, headroom is less of a concern.

Also, I think if you have the budget for the 8361As and you purely want stereo, there is competition in the same price range with better LF directivity like the D&D 8C that I would probably pick over them.
 

Χ Ξ Σ

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Did Amir increase the resolution of the NFS over the past year since he measured the 8341A? Why does the response of the 8351B look not as smooth as that of the 8341A? Just by looking at the graphs, the 8351B's w/sub score might be lower than the 8341A's w/sub score.

Edit: I guess he did. 700 measurement points vs 1000 points.
 
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amirm

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pierre

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i have 8341 and 8361. It is nice to see the measurements from the middle guy. Waiting for W371+83X1 measurements and review, I find them a killer package. Thanks for the review! @amirm if I may ask, can you measure the AES entry too? I would like to know if I am imagining things. In my room with a lot of speakers, switching from analog to AES decreased the self-noise. I use a AES interface (RME 6432) with an analog interface (RME UFX+). I do not think this can be interfaces driven so it is either the speaker or my brain.

Score 7.0 (vertical) 7.1 (horizontal)
Score w/sub 8.3 8.4


Picture is for the horizontal version (I swapped horizontal / vertical SPL measurements from @amirm).

Just for fun, a small EQ would push the score to 7.4. I do not think it is required, EQ is already built into the speaker and you would optimise for another speaker (the one measured not yours).

Code:
EQ for Genelec 8351B computed from ASR data
Preference Score 7.0 with EQ 7.5
Generated from http://github.com/pierreaubert/spinorama/generate_peqs.py v0.8
Dated: 2021-05-16-06:01:32

Preamp: -2.3 dB

Filter  1: ON PK Fc  1585 Hz Gain +1.64 dB Q 8.16
Filter  2: ON PK Fc  2309 Hz Gain +1.80 dB Q 12.00
Filter  3: ON PK Fc  2808 Hz Gain +1.05 dB Q 12.00
Filter  4: ON PK Fc   506 Hz Gain +0.51 dB Q 1.34
Filter  5: ON PK Fc  1133 Hz Gain +0.76 dB Q 12.00
Filter  6: ON PK Fc  1351 Hz Gain -0.99 dB Q 12.00
Filter  7: ON PK Fc  2125 Hz Gain -0.39 dB Q 12.00
Filter  8: ON PK Fc  2531 Hz Gain -0.97 dB Q 12.00
Filter  9: ON PK Fc  1714 Hz Gain -0.28 dB Q 12.00
Filter 10: ON PK Fc  1925 Hz Gain +0.70 dB Q 12.00
Filter 11: ON PK Fc  3754 Hz Gain -0.87 dB Q 12.00
Filter 12: ON PK Fc  4340 Hz Gain -0.54 dB Q 12.00
Filter 13: ON PK Fc  6105 Hz Gain -0.66 dB Q 12.00
Filter 14: ON PK Fc  8158 Hz Gain -0.34 dB Q 12.00
Filter 15: ON PK Fc 11601 Hz Gain -0.28 dB Q 12.00
Filter 16: ON PK Fc   949 Hz Gain -0.52 dB Q 12.00
Filter 17: ON PK Fc  1144 Hz Gain +0.26 dB Q 9.47
Filter 18: ON PK Fc  3256 Hz Gain +0.52 dB Q 7.55
Filter 19: ON PK Fc   514 Hz Gain -0.46 dB Q 12.00
Filter 20: ON PK Fc  2347 Hz Gain +0.48 dB Q 12.00
filters0.png

filters1.png
filters2.png
 

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Robbo99999

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Expensive...but nice! Genelec seem to churn out near perfect speakers.
 

martijn86

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The Salon 2 was in entirely different class. Powered with 1000 watts of amplification, it provided a level of belly shaking that the 8351B could not even dream about reproducing.

Sounds like they are a JTR captivator away from perfection. Would that make the difference between them smaller?
 

stevenswall

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Sounds like the 8260 would be better suited to bass without the slot issues you and a few others have mentioned.

Worse vertical dispersion, and room correction DSP isn't as powerful on the 8260, but wider dispersion, deeper bass, no slots to interfere, and a slightly more accurate frequency response may make up for those things for many. I think it may still be their flagship.

Hopefully those using them for theater and living room use can pair them with sub's... There are better sub's out there but GLM tying everything together for a $300 is quite the value proposition when the alternative is a $4000 piece of flawed engineering and Dirac Live Bass Control without perfect digital output, or nightmare $16,000 room correction units that have their own sets of complaints.
 

stevenswall

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Sounds like they are a JTR captivator away from perfection. Would that make the difference between them smaller?

Perhaps with room correction. Or a pair of 7380 subwoofers and GLM to tie it together which would put the total near $22,000.
 

Sancus

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So the dispersion is more narrow than the 8341?

Nah, they're the same over most of the range, just Amir was evaluating dispersion from the contour map in the 8341A review which is less precise than the beamwidth graph.

The main difference is that the 8351B has somewhat lower directivity control and a smoother, better controlled transition to the omnidirectional frequencies from 1khz to ~300hz.
 

stevenswall

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And 8361A:p

I think that and the Neumann may be a step down. The 8361 graphs seem to show a slightly less accurate speaker, just with higher SPL. The Neumann lacks a coaxial driver, though maybe the SPL and bass would make up for it with many users.
 

Sancus

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There are better sub's out there but GLM tying everything together for a $300 is quite the value proposition when the alternative is a $4000 piece of flawed engineering and Dirac Live Bass Control

GLM doesn't cost $300, the premium for GLM subs is baked into the subs and is very high relative to their performance.

Also, GLM's sub integration is pretty rudimentary and not really suitable for a multi-sub home theatre system IMO.
 

daftcombo

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Great!
Thanks a lot @amirm for the review and comparison with the Salon2.

How would you compare them to the Neumann KH 310 which are also a 3-way with top panther and laudative review?
 
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