Genelec 8030C Studio Monitor Review

[Pearljam5000]

They get plenty loud when you really turn the volume up, the bass is getting more wholesome, while the highs do not get harsh. This is what I can tell from listening to the 8030A's, that are installed at my workplace, where at night shifts, when nobody can complain about some bass heavy UK dance music tracks filling the wing, I have "tested" them a couple of times. No seriously, I have tried to listen to tracks that I do know quite well to understand what they can do.
At home, I have DIY 12-inch + waveguide active speakers which are really good, appart from edge diffraction that cannot be worked on with DSP alone. I often think that I should have saved me the troubles, not being a carpenter, and have picked up a used pair of 8030X with a sub. I didn't know then, how good they actually are. Very clear, very fresh. All this sighted and with obvious reasons for being biased, I still like my big speakers more. There is something about the (room corrected) low-end reproduction, that I do favor over the Genelec, and this advantage might just go away with a sub connected to the Genelecs (my home speakers have f3 @ ~36 Hz), but I mean that what I do enjoy and hear is a bit higher, in the actual bass and the lower mids, where the sub is not working. If this is trickery of my mind or the old saying about "no replacement for displacement" is correct, I cannot decide for obvious reasons. Also, soundstage depth is much deeper with the waveguides. Still: the Genelecs with a sub, I could have had used for about 1k (Euros) and would have been done. That is an easy and affordable way to great pleasures.

Thanks for the great info

 

[Reed]

Guttenberg has reviewed the G3.

 

[mightycicadalord]

Boy that raw look, I just don't know. I'm pretty sure in my house that lacks modern climate control the humidity would rust them in a month. In the summer my guitar strings will last about a week if I don't put it in a case.

I don't really get his comment about generally not liking active speakers.

 

[dshreter]

Boy that raw look, I just don't know. I'm pretty sure in my house that lacks modern climate control the humidity would rust them in a month. In the summer my guitar strings will last about a week if I don't put it in a case.

I don't really get his comment about generally not liking active speakers.

Fortunately aluminum does not rust, and these are made from aluminum, not steel.

 

[Reed]

Boy that raw look, I just don't know. I'm pretty sure in my house that lacks modern climate control the humidity would rust them in a month. In the summer my guitar strings will last about a week if I don't put it in a case.

I don't really get his comment about generally not liking active speakers.

They won’t rust but they will oxidize. I wonder how many folks buy that finish.
Guttenberg has reviewed active/powered speakers before and has commented that he’s not a fan. I suspect it’s because as a reviewer, it limits his ability to try different equipment upstream. He was a high-end hifi salesman for many years. His whole life has been listening and swapping out equipment and speakers. Because the G3 takes in analog, he can at least try different preamps and DACs. It was refreshing to hear him say that he’s not necessarily looking for accuracy. He likes his speakers to have personality. Despite this, he is very enthusiastic about the G3. High subjective praise.

 

[dshreter]

They won’t rust but they will oxidize. I wonder how many folks buy that finish.

This is technically accurate, but that's one of the positive qualities of aluminum and does not mean it will change in appearance over time. Raw aluminum immediately oxidizes in an oxygen-including environment which forms a thin film protective barrier to further oxidation, protecting the material beneath.

What is the Relationship Between Aluminum Oxidation & Corrosion Resistance?​

Paradoxically, aluminum oxidation is a central part of its corrosion resistance. Aluminum has a very high affinity to oxygen. When a new aluminum surface is exposed in the presence of air or any other oxidizing agent, it quickly develops a thin, hard film of aluminum oxide (or hydrated oxide in non-stagnant water). This aluminum oxidation is precisely what makes aluminum so corrosion-resistant.

This film is relatively inert chemically. The corrosion resistance of aluminum relies on the inactivity of this surface film of aluminum or hydrated oxide. It’s when this surface film dissolves that corrosion occurs; when the film suffers localized damage and self-healing cannot occur, localized corrosion follows.

This surface film is generally stable in a pH range of about 4.5 to 8. The film can stay stable in other cases depending on the environment, for example, nitric acid at pH 0, glacial acetic acid at pH3, or ammonium hydroxide at pH 13. The oxide film can be dissolved in most strong acids and bases, in which case the corrosion of the aluminum will be rapid.

 

[MaxRockbin]

This is technically accurate, but that's one of the positive qualities of aluminum and does not mean it will change in appearance over time. Raw aluminum immediately oxidizes in an oxygen-including environment which forms a thin film protective barrier to further oxidation, protecting the material beneath.

What is the Relationship Between Aluminum Oxidation & Corrosion Resistance?​

Paradoxically, aluminum oxidation is a central part of its corrosion resistance. Aluminum has a very high affinity to oxygen. When a new aluminum surface is exposed in the presence of air or any other oxidizing agent, it quickly develops a thin, hard film of aluminum oxide (or hydrated oxide in non-stagnant water). This aluminum oxidation is precisely what makes aluminum so corrosion-resistant.

This film is relatively inert chemically. The corrosion resistance of aluminum relies on the inactivity of this surface film of aluminum or hydrated oxide. It’s when this surface film dissolves that corrosion occurs; when the film suffers localized damage and self-healing cannot occur, localized corrosion follows.

This surface film is generally stable in a pH range of about 4.5 to 8. The film can stay stable in other cases depending on the environment, for example, nitric acid at pH 0, glacial acetic acid at pH3, or ammonium hydroxide at pH 13. The oxide film can be dissolved in most strong acids and bases, in which case the corrosion of the aluminum will be rapid.

I saw the post about rust and almost started to type a reply like this (not as thorough)- apologizing to be pedantic etc. But then I saw 3 other people already corrected him. Because ASR.

 

[changer]

I found evidence to verify my earlier verdict:

They get plenty loud when you really turn the volume up, the bass is getting more wholesome, while the highs do not get harsh. This is what I can tell from listening to the 8030A's, that are installed at my workplace, where at night shifts, when nobody can complain about some bass heavy UK dance music tracks filling the wing, I have "tested" them a couple of times. No seriously, I have tried to listen to tracks that I do know quite well to understand what they can do.
At home, I have DIY 12-inch + waveguide active speakers which are really good, appart from edge diffraction that cannot be worked on with DSP alone.
[...]
All this sighted and with obvious reasons for being biased, I still like my big speakers more. There is something about the (room corrected) low-end reproduction, that I do favor over the Genelec, and this advantage might just go away with a sub connected to the Genelecs (my home speakers have f3 @ ~36 Hz), but I mean that what I do enjoy and hear is a bit higher, in the actual bass and the lower mids, where the sub is not working. If this is trickery of my mind or the old saying about "no replacement for displacement" is correct, I cannot decide for obvious reasons.

In another thread, there is another description of the phenomenon:

View attachment 127693

The left KH80 overlays with the left KH310, the right channel with the right. Other than the slight shift in sub-bass nulls due to the subwoofers’ optimized placement, the responses of main speakers track each other pretty well. The KH310 seems to have bigger up-and-downs from 200Hz to 600Hz.

The listening impressions were quite interesting. Though the corrected frequency responses have the same slope, I just didn’t feel that the KH80+subs produced the same bass impact as the KH310+subs did. Since the sub-bass below 80Hz was produced by the same pairs of subwoofers, the difference had to come from the upper-bass, around 80Hz to 250Hz. KH310’s upper-bass was bigger, deeper, in-your-face, and for lack of a better term, “musical”. KH80’s upper-bass did not have the same level of impact or spatial size. It even felt bass-deficient at the beginning. It sounded like listening to a pair of good-tunning headphones, I could hear the bass frequency, but I did not feel much physical impact, yet once I got used to it, I did not think there was anything particularly wrong with this impact-less bass presentation. Much like most people can easily adjust to listening to headphones’ bass without feeling weird about it.

View attachment 127694

Eventually I dialed the subwoofers’ volume up a bit, creating a bass shelf in the sub-bass region to compensate for the lack of upper-bass impact, and that actually worked pretty well. Still, the impact was no match, but with the elevated sub-bass, I no longer felt that the KH80+subs lacked in bass as a whole. Seems like increasing the bass volume can effectively make up for the lack of bass quality. No wonder cheap gears often have a bass boost.
[...]
To make the upper-bass from the KH80 system sounded as impactful as the KH310 system, one probably needs a W371 type of standing subwoofer with directivity control and cross it with the KH80 at above 250Hz. Pretty sure this was not what we usually mean by “just adding a sub or two”.

Seems there is more to perceived bass quality than in room frequency response likeness alone or "adding a sub" for the very low end extension.

 

[Pearljam5000]

I can get a brand new 8030C or a used 8040B(without subs for now) for the same price
But can't decide
Specs are really close
Which one would you get?

 

[richard12511]

I can get a brand new 8030C or a used 8040B(without subs for now) for the same price
But can't decide
Specs are really close
Which one would you get?

View attachment 166239View attachment 166240

Save for 8361A

 

[Pearljam5000]

Save for 8361A

Lol
I figured it's going to take a year or 2 until I can afford them and meanwhile I'm not enjoying any good sound so I thought that would the medicine until I buy them

 

[dfuller]

Lol
I figured it's going to take a year or 2 until I can afford them and meanwhile I'm not enjoying any good sound so I thought that would the medicine until I buy them

Get the 8040s, IMO.

 

[richard12511]

Lol
I figured it's going to take a year or 2 until I can afford them and meanwhile I'm not enjoying any good sound so I thought that would the medicine until I buy them

Genelec's are really hard to break, so I'm guessing the used 8040 is fine, and should outperform the 8030c. Same price, I'd definitely go for the used 8040.

 

[sweetchaos]

Genelec's are really hard to break, so I'm guessing the used 8040 is fine, and should outperform the 8030c. Same price, I'd definitely go for the used 8040.

This was my choice last year, and that's what I did as well.
Got 8040B's for less price than a new 8030C, and as far as I know, the speakers I got was scratch-free. The owner didn't like for some reason. His loss is my gain.

 

[Walter]

Also, if you plan to sell them in a couple of years to fund 8361s, the 8040b, being second hand already, will probably hold their value better.

 

[vcl0124]

My current setup for music listening is RPi > Gustard X16 > NC252MP amp > Elac B5.2. No sub and eq. Considering to replace the amp and B5.2 with 8030C. A few questions would like to get some advices here:

1. My room is ~3m x 4m x 3m, my listening position is 1.5~3m, will 8030C be loud enough?

2. I read Genelec's document about the critical distance of reverberant sound become dominate, will this critical distance become shorter with my small room? Does this reverbetant sound really have big effect on the sound?

3. I read some discussion about the internal amp of 8030C may be not as good as other external amp (like my NC252MP amp) in terms of distortion but I think the distortion of speaker should be the gating item after all, if the measured distortion of 8030C is not worse than B6.2 (the big brother of B5.2 and measured by Amirm), I should not lose any performance in terms of distortion, am I correct?

4. Is there any hiss?

5. My other candidates are Kali LP6v2 and Elac DBR62 (keep my amp), anyone has compared them and share some thoughts?

Looking forward for the advices. Thanks a lot!

 

[YSC]

My current setup for music listening is RPi > Gustard X16 > NC252MP amp > Elac B5.2. No sub and eq. Considering to replace the amp and B5.2 with 8030C. A few questions would like to get some advices here:

1. My room is ~3m x 4m x 3m, my listening position is 1.5~3m, will 8030C be loud enough?

2. I read Genelec's document about the critical distance of reverberant sound become dominate, will this critical distance become shorter with my small room? Does this reverbetant sound really have big effect on the sound?

3. I read some discussion about the internal amp of 8030C may be not as good as other external amp (like my NC252MP amp) in terms of distortion but I think the distortion of speaker should be the gating item after all, if the measured distortion of 8030C is not worse than B6.2 (the big brother of B5.2 and measured by Amirm), I should not lose any performance in terms of distortion, am I correct?

4. Is there any hiss?

5. My other candidates are Kali LP6v2 and Elac DBR62 (keep my amp), anyone has compared them and share some thoughts?

Looking forward for the advices. Thanks a lot!

1) my room is even smaller and listening distance is approximately 0.75m, but I have to use with line level source, lowest sensitivity and a passive volume pot to attenuate it by 60db for sensible listening level, so I believe your distance should be fine

2) No idea

3) speaker distortion are always in the % range rather than the amp's 0.000x % range, so technically when paired correctly without any impedance swing adversely affecting the driver performance, it should not be a problem at all, for passives you always need to spare extra margin for it to work flawlessly.

4) I myself and my wife can't notice any at that close a distance, although ppl can vary in sensitivity, say those mosquito repelling devices 15-18khz buzz is loud and annoying as hell to me but most visitors can't even notice

5) AFAIK the Kali is a really good one but not on the same performance level of 8030C, but you know, by this good the law of diminishing return already kicked in, so depends on how much you expect it to be better with price increase

 

[Reed]

Ordered a pair of 8030c yesterday from Guitar Center. Should arrive by Friday. We have a local store so if they don’t work out I can return at the store and avoid the restocking fee. These will be in a 10’x11’ dedicated room. Listening position will be 6.5’ away. Will be paired with an NAD C658 (with Dirac) and a REL T5i sub. I did reach out to Genelec a few months ago and they seemed confident the 8030c would be fine in this setup. I’ve read this entire thread too many times to count and I’m looking forward to actually listening to them.

 

[Reed]

They’ve arrived.

 

[Pearljam5000]

They’ve arrived.
View attachment 168240

How's the sound?