Genelec 8010A Powered Studio Monitor Review

[cistercian]

Thanks for the review Amir! I never would have thought a 3 inch woofer would sound good! Aside from the bass crackling
issue this seems ideal for desktop low level use. Very nice!

 

[ROOSKIE]

Please remember that this is intended as a professional monitor for the music creation process. If it used a compressor on the bass when playing loud, music could be mixed with too much bass. Better to crackle or even turn off to let you know the monitor is unsuitable for the purpose and to get a bigger model.

True but who is mixing on these? Maybe you tubers or something, no way albums are mixed on these. In any case, why not just have a switch to turn the compressor on and off?
I mean this is $700 for very small speakers, I think such a feature is more than warranted.

 

[ROOSKIE]

Genelec's spec:

I wonder how hard it must be to design a speaker with so little volume inside. Even more if it's ported.

The small box shouldn't make it any harder at all.
The same basic principles apply no matter the box size, and actually since it won't need any bracing it is likely easier to make it.
The one thing that can hold up some small box designs is that an optimal port may not fit inside the box beyond that you have you driver parameters and you run the numbers and calculate the box size and port and then test to ensure you have what you indented.

 

[JohnYang1997]

True but who is mixing on these? Maybe you tubers or something, no way albums are mixed on these. In any case, why not just have a switch to turn the compressor on and off?
I mean this is $700 for very small speakers, I think such a feature is more than warranted.

You can bring this on the go. (like traveling to a different place, in the hotel) It's quite an achievement for what it is.

 

[ROOSKIE]

You can bring this on the go. (like traveling to a different place, in the hotel) It's quite an achievement for what it is.

I used to have this set made by Focal/Fender. They actually sounded very decent and with the plastic case were very lightweight. I would bring it on the airplane as carry on and folks would constantly ask what it was. Seriously very decent sound.

 

[ROOSKIE]

Hmm. Everything looks fine except for the jaggyness throughout the mids to highs. Why is that?
Great review as always.

Likely that port resonance is out of Phase with the drivers around 1k.
The enclosure is very narrow so the edge diffractions are kicking in, that is my best guess.
The cabinet is rounded on the edge like Genelec's larger models but due to small size of the enclosure the round-overs are small and thus far less effective especially since the diffractions are starting in the midrange due to the small size. (on a typical larger box the effects would start at higher frequency's easier to affect with round overs & other cabinet shaping)

 

[napilopez]

The issue is very small compared to huge contribution it makes to bass:

The main driver starts to droop at 140 Hz already. The port shifts that to below 80 Hz.

Note though that as these are nearfield measurements -- unless you are applying baffle step compensation -- the port noise is actually about 6dB higher than shown. (A little less in reality since there's you're not as close as possible to the woofer.)

Still, I wouldn't plug the port unless it's an obvious audible issue.

 

[YSC]

A Genelec speaker getting the soccer panther is the least surprising thing I've heard all day.

Yes, as well as I am saving up for a 8030c purchase I am kind of more interested in other manufacturers like Adam, focal, krk etc to see how their budget line performs

 

[Francis Vaughan]

One wonders whether integration with a sub (7040A one would assume) could be improved by pluging the port and implementing a suitable Linkwitz transform in the 8010A to match the sub nicely. It always bothers me that these small monitors are ported, when if a sub is added there are likely some gains in fidelity to be had moving to a sealed design. Adding the 7040A doubles the overall price, so there are a lot of questions to be asked about the best value to be had. Compared to say a pair of 8030C for instance. So maybe just considering these as is, is the right answer.

 

[sweetchaos]

Thanks Amir!
Love to see golfing/soccer panthers for tiny speakers!
This speaker is so tiny and cute, IMO.
Perfect for desktop low-volume listening and/or travelling.
It reminds me of...IK Multimedia iLoud MTM, for the same price.
Can't wait for that review!

 

[xup]

True but who is mixing on these? Maybe you tubers or something, no way albums are mixed on these. In any case, why not just have a switch to turn the compressor on and off?
I mean this is $700 for very small speakers, I think such a feature is more than warranted.

Maybe not mixing, but in a tv newsroom, where the editors and reporters and whatnot all sit in one giant "open space", these are used by editors. I doubt they go very loud, but if there's a serious issue with the bass (too high gain or something along those lines) they would likely hear it.

Source: have seen these used in that exact circumstance

 

[Tks]

Eh not a fan. Can't see how with distortion this high, these get a soccer panther. I get they're small, but if imagine many speakers this small can be EQ'd if they were also allowed to play at low volume levels.

Might as well bite the bullet and save up enough for the proper sets. Portability aspirations seem like the only real justification. But then, you can discount subwoofer usage that would allow these proper breathing room.

 

[Maiky76]

Hi,

That is a very difficult Speaker to EQ as not much is wrong.
However since @amirm pointed out that the balance was a bit warm, and the optimizer seems to agree, that's all I tried to correct.

Spinorama no EQ:
Score: 5.12

The EQ is really minimal
Score with EQ: 5.30

Type    freq       Gain     Q
PEQ     159.0,    -1.50,   1.10,...
PEQ    5320.0,     0.86,   4.00,...
PEQ   15305.0,     0.53,   1.03,...

The EQ Spinorama:

Zoom ON-LW-PIR

And tonal balance, that can probably be fined tune by changing the LF PEQ to less attenution.

The LW is consistent

the rest of the data is attached.

 

[soundwave76]

Great review, thanks again! A note about using only small Genelecs in a desktop setup -> larger ones work as well In my opinion 8x3x series works the best also size wise. 8x4x begins to be too big for my taste at least. Here's my setup with 7350 sub on the floor.

These rather new Genelc desktop stands are the best imo begins one can adjust the tilt and they are VERY robust.

 

[Francis Vaughan]

Hmm, so I wonder how close the -2db bass switch on the back would get them without eq.

I think there is a good argument that there is no such thing as a "default" setting for any compensation controls on speakers like this. There is only a correct setting for use.

 

[milezone]

Yes, as well as I am saving up for a 8030c purchase I am kind of more interested in other manufacturers like Adam, focal, krk etc to see how their budget line performs

If you live near a Guitar Center you can demo the aforementioned speakers. The Genelecs outperform the budget lines of all the brands which you mentioned and in my opinion anything south of $4000 a pair aside from other Genelecs and maybe the KH 310 which I haven't heard.

 

[kezman]

Thanks Amir! U are top! please next speaker measurements Genelec 8020D...

 

[milosz]

"Professional monitor" doesn't only mean that they're intended for someone who is mixing albums. There's lots and lots of other audio use cases that are considered professional besides recording engineer or mastering engineer. There are radio stations that need to monitor how their broadcast sounds - think talk radio, not a lot of sub-bass there. There are FBI guys sitting listening to wiseguys wearing wires.... FAA crash investigators listening to recovered cockpit voice recorders.... ornithologists listening to birdsong.... and let's not belittle YouTubers, quite a few of them make 6-figure annual incomes off of their channels. There's LOTS of professional situations where clean, uncolored audio playback is needed but where there isn't going to be all that much content below 100 Hz.

 

[pavuol]

Found these nice cut photos of bigger brother 8020B (older gen., current is "D"):

Spoiler: 8020B cross section photos

src1, src2

+ nice pro audition test/comparison:
A discussion on studio monitors:
We brought together Sapphire Slows, Wata Igarashi, Gonno, Sauce81 and Taiji Okuda to test some of the best monitors for electronic music production under €800.

 

[napilopez]

Eh not a fan. Can't see how with distortion this high, these get a soccer panther. I get they're small, but if imagine many speakers this small can be EQ'd if they were also allowed to play at low volume levels.

Might as well bite the bullet and save up enough for the proper sets. Portability aspirations seem like the only real justification. But then, you can discount subwoofer usage that would allow these proper breathing room.

We have little idea how distortion in speakers will correlate to listener impressions. No sense for that to affect scoring unless it's majorly problematic, which it did not seem to be to a trained listener. It's also a 3-inch woofer, there's only so much you can expect.

More importantly, from reviewing speakers and getting reader questions and feedback, it's become clear to me that people who buy small speakers buy them because:
1) it is what their budget allows, as small speakers are usually cheaper
2) they actually want small speakers for their particular space/aesthetics/whatever

So the argument of "just buy bigger speakers" is usually DoA. For some people, the difference between a 3" a 5" speaker is significant.

I often find myself in those two groups. I want good sound, but I don't want a pair of giant monitors on my desk. I also need speakers for my digital piano, and for that, the smaller the better. It's already unreasonable enough that I have three speaker setups(five, if you count smart speakers) in a small apartment shared with a partner (and three pets)

Anyway, small speakers can be great. I enjoy the various multithousand dollar living room setups I've reviewed but frankly I often feel like enjoy listening at my desk with tiny speakers more, sometimes even without a sub. This might even just be be sure my desk is in a quieter part of my apartment. We have to work with the space we've got.

Lastly, it's worth noting that these are small enough you might have them at less than 1m. I use my desk speakers at about 0.6m, where larger speakers might need more room to integrate or might just not fit from that close. I'd pretty much never hit the SPLs tested here other than some peaks.