Genelec 8361A Review (Powered Monitor)

[Tangband]

Here is a comparison between a class leading loudspeaker with low distortion like ASR Directiva and the Genelec 8361 .

 

[stunta]

@amirm Any chance of a youtube review? There is hardly any content on youtube about this speaker. Thank you!

 

[Lambda]

Are you sure?

Sure... the question is only at what sound pressure level and with how mush distortion...

And if you can actually hear 20Hz at this level.

 

[caught gesture]

Looks good enough for home to me. Sadly its very expensive

Some fancy power chords there!

 

[abdo123]

Sure... the question is only at what sound pressure level and with how mush distortion...

And if you can actually hear 20Hz at this level.

I think we need to be careful what we share on this thread as it will be read by the general public.

This speaker is -30 dB @ 20Hz, it will sound like shit if there were to be a boost in any significant way.

 

[brandall10]

Very nice stuFF! Available in 3 colors. In Canada $5350.00 each and in the USA $4995.00 each. The Canadian price is surprisingly low compared to the USA price. This is picture intensive! So many features and capabilities...
Gray finish.
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Black finish.
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FWIW, I was quoted a price for 8351b from a French dealer that would have saved a substantial amount, shipping/customs... something like $1500 for the pair.

 

[FrantzM]

FWIW, I was quoted a price for 8351b from a French dealer that would have saved a substantial amount, shipping/customs... something like $1500 for the pair.

Smells like a scam.. I mean, from around $8000/pair down to $1500??!!??? ... .

 

[gvl]

Nice active speakers... but damn, $10K for 2, good to see they perform.



JSmith

It’s a bargain compared to 2x AHB2s and some Revels.

 

[Pearljam5000]

FWIW, I was quoted a price for 8351b from a French dealer that would have saved a substantial amount, shipping/customs... something like $1500 for the pair.

Whats his name?

 

[Habbe]

How much these Genelec gonna suffer in an Earthquake?

I once heard a story from Genelec employee. Customer had an accident where 8030 (or sililar, cant remember) on top of speaker stand fell straight on to hardwood floor. The speaker was fine, but the mirrored text "GENELEC" was found printed on the floor.

They make their stuff to last, seriously.

 

[oldsysop]

It measures very well, but its appearance is horrible

 

[PeteL]

Here is a comparison between a class leading loudspeaker with low distortion like ASR Directiva and the Genelec 8361 .View attachment 164939View attachment 164940

So is it the speaker with the lowest measured distortion ever on ASR?

 

[Tom C]

Looks good enough for home to me. Sadly its very expensive

Love the 4:3 screen in that image.

 

[echopraxia]

Are you sure?

In my medium room placed near a wall, the 8361A's each have a massive +20db mountain of boost in the bass region. In-room response does not roll off until 25hz in my medium room, and I'm quite sure could easily reach 20hz in a small room. Due to room gain, the bass is overwhelming and of course not flat FR until equalization. After equalizing flat, and then adding back a nice (now smooth) bass boost and treble attenuation to taste (which in my experience when done carefully, solves all potential complaints of harshness or brightness others may mention), they sound pretty incredible as full-range speakers without a subwoofer.

The main difference you'll see vs bigger tower speakers (e.g. Revel F328Be Salon2's etc.) with significantly more woofer swept volume is that the Genelec 8361A's frequency response rolls off extremely quickly like a cliff at the lower end (which is extended a bit in depth with room gain, but not massively). Whereas these big towers, and also if you use a subwoofer, tends to fill in the sub-bass more. Whether this is audible or not is up to you to decide, but you can always add a subwoofer to fill in the bottom section and the 8361A will still give you the benefit of much much greater power in the 100-500hz region, which I find is actually quite important for that 'tactile' bass feeling.

In fact, I would say that having used dual 18" subwoofers + speakers with unexceptional midbass capabilities in the past (I won't name names as I do think they're great speakers for what they are), even with the subs are crossed over at 80hz or 120hz, the feeling of immense bass power is still nothing like the feeling you get with even a single pair of Genelec 8361A's and no subwoofer!

The only scientific explanation for this I can think of is that there's something extremely important in the 100-500hz range to deliver that sensation of what many describe in a variety of ways (impact, slam, tactile bass, etc.) Both low distortion and high SPL capability here is essential for this, depending on your listening level. So I suspect you'd only match the powerful sounds of speakers like the 8361A with less powerful woofer speakers if you cross the subwoofer(s) at 200hz-500hz+, and this is only going to sound good with stereo subwoofers physically co-located with your mains (since 200-500hz is quite localizable)!

It makes sense if you think about it; consider a drum impact waveform with a deep fundamental frequency; if you only play the fundamental frequency, the time-domain signal will just look like a smooth sinewave. If you incorporate the higher harmonics of the drum impact, the time-domain signal will be much sharper, and deliver a much higher pressure and abrupt 'leading edge' of the wave. Sorry for my hand-wavey terminology, but hopefully this makes sense.

To those who say "we can't hear time-domain though"; perhaps... but can we feel it (10-500hz)? I suspect we might. But even if we can't, I'm not even talking about phase alignment; I'm referring to dynamic compression and nonlinearity; if your subwoofer can do 106db from 20-100hz, that's all great, but not very useful if your main speaker can't maintain 106db at the crossover point, because if it can't, you'll get weird compression artifacts and possibly all sorts of unpleasant destructive interference patterns as the dynamic compression occurs in the main bass drivers but NOT the subwoofers!

And before you say "106db is so loud!" Yes it definitely is, but depending on the frequency of tone and the size of your room etc., it's not nearly as loud as you think for the bass frequencies. In upper mids/treble, you'll probably never want to go above high 90s dbA. But in the lower frequencies, we hear very differently (see dbA vs dbC weighting).

 

[maty]

This is my first post here. I currently have a pair of 8361s set up in my listening room for an in home demo. ... Nevertheless, my experience is that the speakers are poorly suited for classical or other acoustic music. I think that strings sound harsh and piano brittle. Depsite the excellent measurements and clear virtues of the speaker, the e string on a violin is artificial sounding to me, harsh, unpleasant and cold. I find myself dreading the high notes. The beauty of live acoustical music is just not conveyed by these speakers In my room. The speakers are incredibly impressive, but do not companionable....

Maybe the problem is: tweeter + cheap? class D amplifier.

 

[echopraxia]

Maybe the problem is: tweeter + cheap? class D amplifier.

No.

If anything, the explanation is spectral balance tuning vs room acoustics, and perhaps beam width.

The former is quite easy to solve by fine-tuning the target curve with GLM (where the difference is night-and-day).

The latter is indeed more of a real "issue", and I notice wide beam stereo speakers sound better and more natural than narrower beam speakers for classical, acoustic, and a few other types of music. It can be solved by building a multichannel setup with stereo upmixing, if you want to have the best of both worlds (which is what I've done). But if only stereo will do, there's still definitely a place (IMO) for ultra wide beam speakers like the Salon2's etc.

 

[ahofer]

I think that dipoles, panel speakers, electrostats and classical music usually go well together. Observe, believe, do not know. You can ask more experienced about it.

(FYI I use Harbeths now, but have used Thiels and Magnepans extensively)

Choose your poison - Magnepans frustrated me a bit with image instability and high variability of pleasing experience with different recordings.

This interests me, as I'd like to try out the Genelec experience vs the Harbeths, which I enjoy.

 

[Lambda]

"we can't hear time-domain though"; perhaps... but can we feel it (10-500hz)? I suspect we might.

This is an interesting hypothesis.
Maybe we feel in time domain and the Wave shape is actually important for the putschy sensation.

 

[Honken]

I'm sorry if you have mentioned this already @echopraxia, but as someone who owns both the 8351 and 8361 how would you say that they compare? I can't really fit a mch setup at home. Is the flatter response of the former noticeable at all (I would assume it isn't)?

Thanks for the review @amirm, it's getting harder to resist the urge for every review of this darn brand.

 

[KaLam1ty]

I once heard a story from Genelec employee. Customer had an accident where 8030 (or sililar, cant remember) on top of speaker stand fell straight on to hardwood floor. The speaker was fine, but the mirrored text "GENELEC" was found printed on the floor.

They make their stuff to last, seriously.

I mentioned in another thread before, but I wish the hardiness of their speakers was lauded a bit more.

Sure, it is professional equipment, so I suppose it's somewhat expected in that realm. But I still see a lot of misassumption of their products being "toy-plasticky" -- which is funny, because there are a ton of crappy enclosures made of the like. Photos don't really do justice.

Aside from being hunk of mass itself, all of the circuitry protection and digital I/O is just a great piece of mind. This is a system that's nearly all-in-one, too.

From my personal experience, their support is also incredibly responsive and knowledgeable. Throw in any added "assurance" you usually get from many reputable pro dealers.