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Genelec 8030C Studio Monitor Review

richard12511

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I'd rather sacrifice some midrange quality for more bass and SPL, also bigger speakers just sound bigger to me, so it's a much more "realistic" experience, if that wasn't the case everyone just would have bought the 8010 with a tiny 3 inch woofer ;)

8010 doesn't measure as well as the 8030, though.
 

YSC

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I'd rather sacrifice some midrange quality for more bass and SPL, also bigger speakers just sound bigger to me, so it's a much more "realistic" experience, if that wasn't the case everyone just would have bought the 8010 with a tiny 3 inch woofer ;)
the 8030 seems like the flattest in measurement though, I would think that adding them with sub in the middle to get a 2.1 would be better than a pair of 8050
 

tmtomh

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I'd rather sacrifice some midrange quality for more bass and SPL, also bigger speakers just sound bigger to me, so it's a much more "realistic" experience, if that wasn't the case everyone just would have bought the 8010 with a tiny 3 inch woofer ;)

I think that's very interesting. It's a good example of why the "if measurements are so great then why do we ever need to listen or upgrade equipment" folks are mistaken: we all have different preferences and measurements don't just tell us about overall performance. They also help us make informed trade-offs in our purchases.

While I agree that very small speakers - and especially tiny woofers - are not generally satisfying for midfield and farfield listening, personally I am hesitant to sacrifice midrange quality, as we are so sensitive to both amplitude and distortion at those frequencies. I definitely want a decent-sized soundstage and good bass impact, but over the years I have moved away from trying to feel totally enveloped by the sound, and I have grown weary of chasing the bottom octave. Sure, I want some energy in the 30-35Hz range, but I find life becomes so much easier (and less expensive!) if my main, deal-breaker priorities for performance stop at 40Hz.
 

YSC

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I think that's very interesting. It's a good example of why the "if measurements are so great then why do we ever need to listen or upgrade equipment" folks are mistaken: we all have different preferences and measurements don't just tell us about overall performance. They also help us make informed trade-offs in our purchases.

While I agree that very small speakers - and especially tiny woofers - are not generally satisfying for midfield and farfield listening, personally I am hesitant to sacrifice midrange quality, as we are so sensitive to both amplitude and distortion at those frequencies. I definitely want a decent-sized soundstage and good bass impact, but over the years I have moved away from trying to feel totally enveloped by the sound, and I have grown weary of chasing the bottom octave. Sure, I want some energy in the 30-35Hz range, but I find life becomes so much easier (and less expensive!) if my main, deal-breaker priorities for performance stop at 40Hz.
It’s easier for me though as my hearing range is 50hz-17khz so the lack of lowest octave of the 8030 don’t affect me a dime
 

Zvu

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I'd rather sacrifice some midrange quality for more bass and SPL, also bigger speakers just sound bigger to me, so it's a much more "realistic" experience, if that wasn't the case everyone just would have bought the 8010 with a tiny 3 inch woofer ;)

I would never sacrifice midrange quality for anything. Aditional subs can make bigger sound but no matter what the spl or bass are, if mids aren't right, i won't waste my time on it. As Joseph D'Appolito said - music lives in the midrange. For me it proved right every time.

Edit: 3" woofer is not a 3" midrange. 3" midrange can play very loud crossed at 500Hz.
 

jwb

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Day 2 with these speakers, I have to say I'm pretty impressed with the absolute accuracy of their calibration. I thought surely the sensitivity would be off by a dB or two, but when I checked with the SPL meter they were right on the money.

By the way I have them turned to the stops because the way they come out of the box results in audible wideband noise. With the sensitivity all the way down and a +13dBu source the noise is less.
 

Pearljam5000

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Day 2 with these speakers, I have to say I'm pretty impressed with the absolute accuracy of their calibration. I thought surely the sensitivity would be off by a dB or two, but when I checked with the SPL meter they were right on the money.

By the way I have them turned to the stops because the way they come out of the box results in audible wideband noise. With the sensitivity all the way down and a +13dBu source the noise is less.
Do you feel you could live with them without a sub?
 

YSC

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For a really confined tiny room like 3mx2m and on a desk, do you guys think a sub can be usable? Like right under the desk
 

YSC

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To me, the sub is always needed as it adds quite a bit to the bottom octaves. You cannot have chest slam without a subwoofer.
I am just thinking in my very small room with speakers facing the short side (~1.5m wall to sold wood cupboard), the integration of the sub will be damned difficult if not impossible, very likely just will get overwhelmed by sub bass for the sake of chest slam and throw off the neutral balance where we buy these Genelecs for??
 

Xyrium

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I am just thinking in my very small room with speakers facing the short side (~1.5m wall to sold wood cupboard), the integration of the sub will be damned difficult if not impossible, very likely just will get overwhelmed by sub bass for the sake of chest slam and throw off the neutral balance where we buy these Genelecs for??

Proper integration goes a long way with subs. If you time/phase align them, then EQ the resulting overall response in a nice slope, you'll get lower distortion from crossing over the 8030's higher, and thus, better midrange, IME. I've been comparing the 8030's to my little Dynaudio Emit 10's, and thus far, the 8030s seem to do well in producing a less euphoric, and more neutral sound.

I used the bass roll off switch to provide a gentle LF slope on the 8030, and cross in a pair of small, sealed 10" subs around 120Hz. The 8030's sit atop stands which sit on top of the subs, and the sound is very good. This is the easiest part of the integration of course, but it yields positive results fairly quickly. I then run EQ APO/Peace and dip 53Hz for a room mode, then bump 2.5kHz up by about 2dB. I sit nearfield, so there isn't too much by way of reflections, though the wall behind me is heavily treated.

Best of all, those Gennie's will play even louder, without distortion now. Of course, this is just for music down to about 30Hz.
 

lc155

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Trying out a pair of 8030c's right now. Only on the second day and for sound impressions I think I need to play around with the dip switches some more before giving any thoughts in that regard. That, and I'm used to a HiFi sound so need some adjustment to neutrality, I think.

I will say that they look far better in person than I thought they would - black finish would be preferable, though.

The biggest cons of the speaker for me right now are the input sensitivity (on my MOTU M4 I can barely crank the volume knob past 9 at all without the speakers getting loud), and I've adjusted the dial to +6dB already. From what I recall, the Neumann's give you far more flexibility in this regard. I have to adjust the volume in Windows instead, which really isn't ideal from what I understand, and wouldn't work if you were using an ASIO driver.

The second con is the hiss. I admit I expected better from Genelec. At an 80cm depth desk I can hear the hiss fairly audibly in a quiet room with nothing playing, and I'm not a fan of that. And yes, I noticed this before I had any kind of source plugged in - this was the raw noise from the speaker with just power.
 

Pearljam5000

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Trying out a pair of 8030c's right now. Only on the second day and for sound impressions I think I need to play around with the dip switches some more before giving any thoughts in that regard. That, and I'm used to a HiFi sound so need some adjustment to neutrality, I think.

I will say that they look far better in person than I thought they would - black finish would be preferable, though.

The biggest cons of the speaker for me right now are the input sensitivity (on my MOTU M4 I can barely crank the volume knob past 9 at all without the speakers getting loud), and I've adjusted the dial to +6dB already. From what I recall, the Neumann's give you far more flexibility in this regard. I have to adjust the volume in Windows instead, which really isn't ideal from what I understand, and wouldn't work if you were using an ASIO driver.

The second con is the hiss. I admit I expected better from Genelec. At an 80cm depth desk I can hear the hiss fairly audibly in a quiet room with nothing playing, and I'm not a fan of that. And yes, I noticed this before I had any kind of source plugged in - this was the raw noise from the speaker with just power.
Where are the positives? :cool:
 

lc155

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Hm, mine are inaudible at 20-30 centimeters. You could try to isolate grounding contacts on either socket or plug — it helped me a lot with JBL 305 back in the day.

How old are you? I'm fairly young which could be a reason why I'm so sensitive to it. I'm also coming from passive speakers which were completely silent, hiss wise. It's an odd transition.
 

Xyrium

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How old are you? I'm fairly young which could be a reason why I'm so sensitive to it. I'm also coming from passive speakers which were completely silent, hiss wise. It's an odd transition.

Thanks for posting! I have the 8030c's hooked up to an RME ADI2 DAC fs and the volume adjustment is as fine as one could ask for. I have the sensitivity on the Genn's set to -6dB, and I use the RME to remotely control the volume. It sounds like you just need to tweak something on the MOTU, and double check the setting on the Genn's. Default was -6 when I got mine, and that worked great out of the box.

Re: Hiss. I don't hear it, my baseline room noise level is below 60 dB, and when I hold my trusty Rat Shack SPL meter to either driver, and in between, it does not rise above the room noise level. If I place my ear up to the tweeter, I can hear it, but it's far below that of my JBL 305's.

I bet once you get that sensitivity sorted, you will also discover a decrease in the hiss that you hear. However, if you're like me, once you hear it, you can't unhear it. ;)
 

theyellowspecial

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I have to adjust the volume in Windows instead, which really isn't ideal from what I understand, and wouldn't work if you were using an ASIO driver.
You can use something like JRiver that allows 64-bit internal volume control while using ASIO.
 
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