Well they showed up a day early and it’s raining here so I’ve had some time to set them up. Out of the box I set them on the stands my 1032A’s were on in the same location. Connected to my Rme Adi2 fed digital from an Airport Express streaming Apple music high res over airplay.
First listen - they have astonishing clarity and detail. Bass is a little over-the-top, but they are placed very close to the front wall. I turn up Dua Lipa and I can shake my wife’s baubles right off the fireplace mantle. The power these are capable of is very impressive.
I ordered a GLM kit with them so I connected everything up to my laptop and ran the calibration. One sweep each side and…that’s it! Done. GLM reduced several modes below 180 hz. Now things sound a little lean to me, I like a little bit of bass boost. Sound Profiler allows you to shelve it, but only 3dB. I’ll listen like that for now, I guess I can give it a bit more through the RME if I want to?
Comparing them to my 1032’s gives me a new appreciation of how good the 1032’s were. They’re not on the level of these but these 61’s don’t embarrass them either. The 61’s sound more “refined” (?) maybe? The biggest difference I notice is the soundstage. The 1032’s had no trouble producing soundstage outside the speaker’s spread, the 8361’s seem to contain the soundstage to between the speakers. Imaging is very precise though, definitely more pin point than the 1032’s were capable of.
I need to play with glm and learn more about it. I’m going to fire up REW and get my Umik 1 out and take some measurements with it as well. As it stands I’m pretty impressed with these, probably will be my last purchase for a while. I took a pic beside a 705p to give some scale to them.
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