Faulty Genelec 8361?

[KitoDavy]

One of my genelec 8361s are not producing the same level of volume even after resetting to factory default (to eliminate the possibility of volume attenuation from an existing GLM profile). I’ve switched inputs and confirm all inputs are at the level. The trimpot on the back of the monitor are all set as -6dBu without changing out of the box. I'm using digital inputs, so the trimpot shouldn't even matter? I also noticed the overload protection for this particular speaker always comes up first (blinking red). The one (center channel) is almost as high as 7.5dbu lower than the rests from a measuring microphone. See the photo attached.

Is this piece faulty? Or am I missing something? I don’t think a difference of 7.5dbu is within the manufacturing tolerance.

I also noticed that this monitor didn’t blink red when there is no digital signal, while rests are blinking red. That’s why I did a factory reset, thinking there may be existing profiles. After resetting every monitor. All the LED lights are performing the same. But it still did not solve the volume level issue.

 

[Holmz]

Did you contact Genelec or the place you got it from?

 

[KitoDavy]

Did you contact Genelec or the place you got it from?

Just did. Want to learn what others could think of the cause. it is very heavy for me alone to handle it to do a warranty....So trying to avoid it...

 

[KitoDavy]

Found the solution:

The Digital switch selects the digital audio signals A and B carriedin one AES/EBU cable. Turning on both switches reproduces thesum of the signals. When both are selected, a 6 dB attenuationis applied to avoid an overload.


What they didn't say in the manual is that when both digital A and B are OFF, they also sum them up and apply the attenuations.

 

[unpluggged]

Found the solution:

The Digital switch selects the digital audio signals A and B carriedin one AES/EBU cable. Turning on both switches reproduces thesum of the signals. When both are selected, a 6 dB attenuationis applied to avoid an overload.

Why were you mixing both channels in one of the speakers in the first place if you have a stereo setup?

 

[XpanD]

Probably an accident? If it's like my 8341a pair, the channels are toggled through tiny external DIP switches that you have to flip individually. Very easy to accidentally bump a switch's neighbor, too. (especially if your setup is like mine and you have the speakers mounted to an adapter plate, so you use a screwdriver to change the switch positions)

 

[KitoDavy]

Why were you mixing both channels in one of the speakers in the first place if you have a stereo setup?

I don't know how you interpreted that I have a stereo setup. In the figure, it has already showed at least 5, didn't it? Most of my channels are daisy chained with 2 digital in one cable, leaving the center alone, which causes this issue. Hope it explained.

 

[KitoDavy]

Probably an accident? If it's like my 8341a pair, the channels are toggled through tiny external DIP switches that you have to flip individually. Very easy to accidentally bump a switch's neighbor, too. (especially if your setup is like mine and you have the speakers mounted to an adapter plate, so you use a screwdriver to change the switch positions)

All my other channels are daisy chained, so I have to pick A or B for rests of the monitors. But I only have 1 center, so I didn't even think about switching one DIP to on to prevent the attenuation...

 

[unpluggged]

I don't know how you interpreted that I have a stereo setup. In the figure, it has already showed at least 5, didn't it? Most of my channels are daisy chained with 2 digital in one cable, leaving the center alone, which causes this issue. Hope it explained.

All my other channels are daisy chained, so I have to pick A or B for rests of the monitors. But I only have 1 center, so I didn't even think about switching one DIP to on to prevent the attenuation...

So the center channel is not a a separate one in your signal source? This is a wrong way to set it up then. AES is a two-channel interface. The center channel is not a mere mix of left and right channels; you need to feed the correct signal to the speaker (whether it is a discrete channel or a matrix-encoded one, it still needs to be fed to the speaker after decoding), and if you do it over AES, make sure that this channel is correctly transferred (it can be subframe A, B, or both, but on the speaker you should select only one subframe of the AES signal).

The common way is to run a separate AES connection to each pair of channels: front, surround, back, and the center channel is usually paired with the LFE on one AES connection. So for 5.1 setup you will need at least three AES outputs.

This is how Neumann describes the common cabling layout, for instance:

 

[KitoDavy]

So the center channel is not a a separate one in your signal source? This is a wrong way to set it up then. AES is a two-channel interface. The center channel is not a mere mix of left and right channels; you need to feed the correct signal to the speaker (whether it is a discrete channel or a matrix-encoded one, it still needs to be fed to the speaker after decoding), and if you do it over AES, make sure that this channel is correctly transferred (it can be subframe A, B, or both, but on the speaker you should select only one subframe of the AES signal).

The common way is to run a separate AES connection to each pair of channels: front, surround, back, and the center channel is usually paired with the LFE on one AES connection. So for 5.1 setup you will need at least three AES outputs.

This is how Neumann describes the common cabling layout, for instance:
View attachment 463981

Thank you. This is what I did.