Looking for some advice from people who know better than me.
Years ago I had a B&W 5.0 setup (CM8 and CMC2 and CM1 rears with pioneer AV receiver) and I was never thrilled with it, always had issues with volumes being too loud and needing tinkering. I did love the clarity of vocals for TV shows though, didn't really care for the 'immersive sound' even though it was just 5 speakers, I just found it distracting. I also didn't really rate the B&W's for music though, kind of felt let down after spending that much money and the not enjoying the music I once loved. Perhaps I had a poorly matching receiver, but that's in the past.
I sold it all when I moved and replaced it with a Sonos sounder and sub, I knew it would be a step down and it was very obviously worse but I didn't watch too much TV/game at the times as I was busy so I just left it.
Fast forward to 2021 and since it was lockdown, I got some Genelec 8020s for my desk and had been occasionally watching Netflix at my desk, and then going to watch it on the TV and noticing just how terrible it sounds compared to my desk setup, I find myself not wanting to use my TV/PS5 setup.
I have been researching speaker setups for the past few days and had decided I would get Kef R3 fronts and R2C centre and a new AV receiver, then I checked out the sizes and remembered all the past clutter and started to look for alternatives.
I thought I may as well just test out what I have, the genelec 8020s in the area that my LG OLED is in. It's quite a large room (5 meters by 6 meters by 5 meters tall) and I know that these monitors are for near field listening, but I moved my chair to various distances and it all sounded amazing to me and got far, far louder than I would ever want to play it (to be clear, I have very sensitive hearing due to issues I had in childhood and I find the volume of a commercial cinema to be uncomfortably loud, for clarity). I was also staggered by how well I could hear the dialogue, from the TV shows that I was streaming from Netflix, I had always (perhaps erroneously) thought that I needed a centre channel or I would always be doomed to have the situation in movies where the dialogue is too quite but if you turn it up the rest of the sound is too loud.
To hook the genelec monitors to my TV I basically had my MacBook connected to my TV and the speakers were connected to my MOTU M2 audio interface via usb-c to my Mac. I was just doing this to test out a 2.0 genelec setup. I have a PS5 and Xbox also connected to the TV and I need the interface for my desk so this isn't really a solution.
To be clear, music is low priority for this setup, I will always either be watching tv series, sport, or playing my PS5.
So, my questions:
1) The only audio output from my TV is optical. I read that I can use a simple digital to analogue device from Amazon (<£20) and then use RCA > XLR cables to the genelec speakers. Would this result in inferior sound quality than I was getting from my MacBook/audio interface setup or would it be the same? I'm not informed enough to know if perhaps the MacBook/interface was doing some processing that the TV can't.
2) I considering a 3.0 LCR setup and perhaps adding a small sub at a later date, but now that I've tested it I think it may be more hassle than it's worth since I enjoyed the 2.0 setup just fine and don't care for surround. I had looked at an AV receiver to enable me to use the pre-amp inputs for 3x LCR genelec speakers, but I'm thinking this may be unnecessarily complicated? I also feel like paying for all the features, amplification and such that I just don't need is a waste of money.
3) Given that I need my 8020s for my desk, I was thinking of splurging and getting the genelec 8331 speakers as a L+R directly connected to the TV in the manner that I've mentioned in number 1), is there any real downside to doing this?
4) I want to avoid stand-mount speakers, as discussed I do not play a high SPL and have no desire to, I would like the option to add a small subwoofer at a later date though, although in the first instance that's not necessary.
Thanks for any advice, and forgive all my ignorance! Love the reliance on data and facts on this forum. It's refreshing given how many times I feel I have been mis-sold stuff due to subjective reviewing.
Years ago I had a B&W 5.0 setup (CM8 and CMC2 and CM1 rears with pioneer AV receiver) and I was never thrilled with it, always had issues with volumes being too loud and needing tinkering. I did love the clarity of vocals for TV shows though, didn't really care for the 'immersive sound' even though it was just 5 speakers, I just found it distracting. I also didn't really rate the B&W's for music though, kind of felt let down after spending that much money and the not enjoying the music I once loved. Perhaps I had a poorly matching receiver, but that's in the past.
I sold it all when I moved and replaced it with a Sonos sounder and sub, I knew it would be a step down and it was very obviously worse but I didn't watch too much TV/game at the times as I was busy so I just left it.
Fast forward to 2021 and since it was lockdown, I got some Genelec 8020s for my desk and had been occasionally watching Netflix at my desk, and then going to watch it on the TV and noticing just how terrible it sounds compared to my desk setup, I find myself not wanting to use my TV/PS5 setup.
I have been researching speaker setups for the past few days and had decided I would get Kef R3 fronts and R2C centre and a new AV receiver, then I checked out the sizes and remembered all the past clutter and started to look for alternatives.
I thought I may as well just test out what I have, the genelec 8020s in the area that my LG OLED is in. It's quite a large room (5 meters by 6 meters by 5 meters tall) and I know that these monitors are for near field listening, but I moved my chair to various distances and it all sounded amazing to me and got far, far louder than I would ever want to play it (to be clear, I have very sensitive hearing due to issues I had in childhood and I find the volume of a commercial cinema to be uncomfortably loud, for clarity). I was also staggered by how well I could hear the dialogue, from the TV shows that I was streaming from Netflix, I had always (perhaps erroneously) thought that I needed a centre channel or I would always be doomed to have the situation in movies where the dialogue is too quite but if you turn it up the rest of the sound is too loud.
To hook the genelec monitors to my TV I basically had my MacBook connected to my TV and the speakers were connected to my MOTU M2 audio interface via usb-c to my Mac. I was just doing this to test out a 2.0 genelec setup. I have a PS5 and Xbox also connected to the TV and I need the interface for my desk so this isn't really a solution.
To be clear, music is low priority for this setup, I will always either be watching tv series, sport, or playing my PS5.
So, my questions:
1) The only audio output from my TV is optical. I read that I can use a simple digital to analogue device from Amazon (<£20) and then use RCA > XLR cables to the genelec speakers. Would this result in inferior sound quality than I was getting from my MacBook/audio interface setup or would it be the same? I'm not informed enough to know if perhaps the MacBook/interface was doing some processing that the TV can't.
2) I considering a 3.0 LCR setup and perhaps adding a small sub at a later date, but now that I've tested it I think it may be more hassle than it's worth since I enjoyed the 2.0 setup just fine and don't care for surround. I had looked at an AV receiver to enable me to use the pre-amp inputs for 3x LCR genelec speakers, but I'm thinking this may be unnecessarily complicated? I also feel like paying for all the features, amplification and such that I just don't need is a waste of money.
3) Given that I need my 8020s for my desk, I was thinking of splurging and getting the genelec 8331 speakers as a L+R directly connected to the TV in the manner that I've mentioned in number 1), is there any real downside to doing this?
4) I want to avoid stand-mount speakers, as discussed I do not play a high SPL and have no desire to, I would like the option to add a small subwoofer at a later date though, although in the first instance that's not necessary.
Thanks for any advice, and forgive all my ignorance! Love the reliance on data and facts on this forum. It's refreshing given how many times I feel I have been mis-sold stuff due to subjective reviewing.
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