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Genelec 8330A Review (Studio Monitor)

KaLam1ty

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Something I often don't hear mentioned either is how nigh-indestructible Genelecs are. Perhaps resiliency is a given for professional equipment... but the digital Input, plus the built in protection circuitry is some incredible peace of mind. Their customer service is also top notch, as with all of the professional vendors I've purchased from -- Sweetwater, B&H, Thomann.. all great.

Not to mention, if one of these things fell off a stand, I'd be more worried about the floor lol. I jest of course, but the massiveness from the cast aluminum is really no joke. And the stiff grills keep from curious fingers.
 

daftcombo

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Xyrium

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Another good showing by Genelec. I have the 8030c's which seem to measure flatter and have better directivity, albeit slight. It really makes for an easy listening, yet detailed experience, but truly provides an excellent platform to eq. Good stuff!
 

dfuller

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Something I often don't hear mentioned either is how nigh-indestructible Genelecs are. Perhaps resiliency is a given for professional equipment... but the digital Input, plus the built in protection circuitry is some incredible peace of mind. Their customer service is also top notch, as with all of the professional vendors I've purchased from -- Sweetwater, B&H, Thomann.. all great.

Not to mention, if one of these things fell off a stand, I'd be more worried about the floor lol. I jest of course, but the massiveness from the cast aluminum is really no joke. And the stiff grills keep from curious fingers.
Usually, yes, but not always. Pro stuff has to work day in, day out, often for long periods of time. Some brands (e.g. Genelec, ATC, Dynaudio) are better than others (e.g. Focal, Barefoot).
 

x-dfo

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I was talking today to some super experienced mastering engineers for electronic music and metal and the consensus seems to be Genelecs are not favoured. They are described as harsh and metallic. Neumanns and focals are much preferred, adams and eves are also very highly spoken of. Barefoot for sure. But these are used for creating mixes that sound good on all speakers, not necessarily good listening speakers.
 

dfuller

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I was talking today to some super experienced mastering engineers for electronic music and metal and the consensus seems to be Genelecs are not favoured. They are described as harsh and metallic. Neumanns and focals are much preferred, adams and eves are also very highly spoken of. Barefoot for sure. But these are used for creating mixes that sound good on all speakers, not necessarily good listening speakers.
I don't think that's entirely accurate - Mark Lewis (Whitechapel, The Black Dahlia Murder, Trivium, Daath, etc) swears by Genelecs. And, to be honest, a lot of them use Amphions, which to say the least don't measure particularly well.
 

Xyrium

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I was talking today to some super experienced mastering engineers for electronic music and metal and the consensus seems to be Genelecs are not favoured. They are described as harsh and metallic. Neumanns and focals are much preferred, adams and eves are also very highly spoken of. Barefoot for sure. But these are used for creating mixes that sound good on all speakers, not necessarily good listening speakers.
:facepalm:
 

x-dfo

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I don't think that's entirely accurate - Mark Lewis (Whitechapel, The Black Dahlia Murder, Trivium, Daath, etc) swears by Genelecs. And, to be honest, a lot of them use Amphions, which to say the least don't measure particularly well.
No of course not, but it's interesting to hear how speakers that are pretty flat are received.
 

Sancus

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I think there is a tendency to ascribe loudspeaker expertise to mixing/mastering engineers that doesn't necessarily exist. There seem to be plenty of less-than-scientific viewpoints among them. I'm not saying that means they're all wrong or anything, but are they blind testing loudspeakers more often than the rest of us? I suspect not. So the usual issues of normal human bias will still apply.
 

x-dfo

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I think there is a tendency to ascribe loudspeaker expertise to mixing/mastering engineers that doesn't necessarily exist. There seem to be plenty of less-than-scientific viewpoints among them. I'm not saying that means they're all wrong or anything, but are they blind testing loudspeakers more often than the rest of us? I suspect not. So the usual issues of normal human bias will still apply.
I trust people who can pick out to within 5 hz where there are issues in the spectrum in a mix than 'audiophiles' who listen in untreated rooms and complain or praise based on the pure luck of where they happen to be sitting ;) At least a mastering engineer has treated their space professionally and then measured and re-measured the response until it's as flat yet lively as possible.
 
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I trust people who can pick out to within 5 hz where there are issues in the spectrum in a mix than 'audiophiles' who listen in untreated rooms and complain or praise based on the pure luck of where they happen to be sitting ;) At least a mastering engineer has treated their space professionally and then measured and re-measured the response until it's as flat yet lively as possible.

But still within pro world you have all marketing talk and word of mouth. I've heard many monitors in my life and the most popular models on the market are not necessary the best ones. Many of my friends bought "X" because their friend also use "X". I've worked in a music shop and even when clients compared monitors by themselves and they heard the difference, they still doubted themselves, "because their friend use X".

I think in recent years there's all that talk on different forums that you should find one for yourself and listen before you buy, but it's still a new trend.

Genelec has one of the best engineering ideas in recent years with bringing back coaxial design in The Ones which is different twist that's been never seen before and GLM are also great thing that is foolproof by now and sounds beautiful. When you want step up your game there's also ATC and PMC which are very prominent in mastering studios.

BUT! There is always different needs and preferences - many people don't like AMT tweeters like in Adams and Eves, because they find them overpresent with high freq sparkle or simply harsh. Also metal tweeters like in Focals get that sometimes. Heard them, tried them. it was fun on all of them, but flavor was different.

Also I recall that Bob Katz that is successful mastering engineer really liked Genelec and spoke highly about them and he worked on very spectacular sounding records.
 

dshreter

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I was talking today to some super experienced mastering engineers for electronic music and metal and the consensus seems to be Genelecs are not favoured. They are described as harsh and metallic. Neumanns and focals are much preferred, adams and eves are also very highly spoken of. Barefoot for sure. But these are used for creating mixes that sound good on all speakers, not necessarily good listening speakers.
Not surprising that someone finds speakers with aluminum enclosures to be “harsh and metallic.” Doesn’t make it true, but not surprising, similar to preconceptions about silk vs metal dome tweeters.
 

x-dfo

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But still within pro world you have all marketing talk and word of mouth. I've heard many monitors in my life and the most popular models on the market are not necessary the best ones. Many of my friends bought "X" because their friend also use "X". I've worked in a music shop and even when clients compared monitors by themselves and they heard the difference, they still doubted themselves, "because their friend use X".

I think in recent years there's all that talk on different forums that you should find one for yourself and listen before you buy, but it's still a new trend.

Genelec has one of the best engineering ideas in recent years with bringing back coaxial design in The Ones which is different twist that's been never seen before and GLM are also great thing that is foolproof by now and sounds beautiful. When you want step up your game there's also ATC and PMC which are very prominent in mastering studios.

BUT! There is always different needs and preferences - many people don't like AMT tweeters like in Adams and Eves, because they find them overpresent with high freq sparkle or simply harsh. Also metal tweeters like in Focals get that sometimes. Heard them, tried them. it was fun on all of them, but flavor was different.

Also I recall that Bob Katz that is successful mastering engineer really liked Genelec and spoke highly about them and he worked on very spectacular sounding records.
Yeah ultimately try before you buy is crucial. I think it's genre dependent, some genres are much more reliant on vocal repro which is incredibly personal to how one hears it and thus there's fussiness about speaker types. Currently I'm aiming for PSI and neumann 310s for production and light mixing. But am I going try a bunch? Hell yes. I'm open to being surprised as to what my ears like if I'm going to spend 4k+ on monitors.
 
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Yeah ultimately try before you buy is crucial. I think it's genre dependent, some genres are much more reliant on vocal repro which is incredibly personal to how one hears it and thus there's fussiness about speaker types. Currently I'm aiming for PSI and neumann 310s for production and light mixing. But am I going try a bunch? Hell yes. I'm open to being surprised as to what my ears like if I'm going to spend 4k+ on monitors.

One of the best (real sounding) monitors I've heard was Quested. At first I've listened to some pop tracks and it was like... meh. Then I tried some jazz (Chet Baker to be exact) and they blew me away. I could see that he's like a meter behind the columns and when we switch to Whitney Houston "I will always love you" my friend had tears in his eyes. Beautiful.

If you're going for that budget maybe it's good to try some 8331? Or ATC SCM20?
 

Tangband

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Not surprising that someone finds speakers with aluminum enclosures to be “harsh and metallic.” Doesn’t make it true, but not surprising, similar to preconceptions about silk vs metal dome tweeters.

With GLM, you can manually do a shelving * from 2,5 kHz - 20 KHz , -1 dB , if you use Genelecs as hifi speakers in a normal, undamped room. The factory ruler flat response is perfect in a damped studio , listening nearfield.
Listening in a normal livingroom at greater distances is somewhat different.

*I do that shelving in my 8340. The sound mirrors the best loudspeakers I have had in my home ( 100+ )
 

daftcombo

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With GLM, you can manually do a shelving * from 2,5 kHz - 20 KHz , -1 dB , if you use Genelecs as hifi speakers in a normal, undamped room. The factory ruler flat response is perfect in a damped studio , listening nearfield.
Listening in a normal livingroom at greater distances is somewhat different.

*I do that shelving in my 8340. The sound mirrors the best loudspeakers I have had in my home ( 100+ )
-1dB per octave?
 

Tangband

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-1dB per octave?
No , -1 dB shelving at 2,5 kHz in GLM = meaning the whole tweeter area is lowered -1 dB, from 2,5 kHz , not more two octaves up.
 

daftcombo

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No , -1 dB shelving at 2,5 kHz in GLM = meaning the whole tweeter area is lowered -1 dB, from 2,5 kHz , not more two octaves up.
Ok, I understand. But does that -1dB from 2500 Hz to 20000Hz come out of nowhere? or is there science behind that?
And to me, it is too little a shelving to be audible
 
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Tangband

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Ok, I understand. But does that -1dB from 2500 Hz to 20000Hz come out of nowhere? or is there science behind that?
In a normal livingroom without damping panels like in a studio, you gonna have more energy in the treble area compared with a studio.
My experience is subjective - I think the sound gets better in my living-room. The difference is clearly audible, it changes the way the music ”gel” together ( subjectively ) . Real instruments play tones containing frequencies in the whole audible range at the same time, and at that perspective, a change of 1 dB is much . And remember you always play music with two loudspeakers, making the powerresponse difference bigger than if you only use one loudspeaker.
 
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