Genelec 8030C Studio Monitor Review

[Reed]

How's the sound?

So far so good. I had Magnepan MMG in here so the scale is very different. These are more appropriate for my 10’x11’ room but it will take some time to get used to it. Dirac over the weekend.
Edit: Pulled out from front wall and they got much bigger. Getting better.

 

[YSC]

So far so good. I had Magnepan MMG in here so the scale is very different. These are more appropriate for my 10’x11’ room but it will take some time to get used to it. Dirac over the weekend.
Edit: Pulled out from front wall and they got much bigger. Getting better.

But it seems pulling out from front wall will get cancellations in higher frequencies? Did you tried to keep them near the wall but EQ/ use the dip switches to counter wall bass boost?

 

[Reed]

But it seems pulling out from front wall will get cancellations in higher frequencies? Did you tried to keep them near the wall but EQ/ use the dip switches to counter wall bass boost?

I thought Genelec’s installation guide said it was bass cancellation. But I’m not finding that. I’m positioning these like regular hifi speakers, which for me they are. I had them closer to the wall after I took the picture. Listened for a while, then moved them to where the front baffle is, I’m guessing here, 32” from the front wall. The difference was immediate. The image was well behind the speakers, basically on the front wall. And it was bigger. I’m also listening off axis. That gave them a bit more spaciousness. I’ll run Dirac and maybe REW over the weekend to see what’s actually going on. Happy so far.

 

[Walter]

Genelec recommends less than 60 cm from wall to front of the speaker to avoid bass cancelation, but that is just a general guideline.

 

[dshreter]

Did you also move your listening position some 30” back with the speakers? Did you move closer to an equilateral triangle positioning? You are probably now getting more direct sound and a more focused soundstage, which likely sounds better.

But if you placed it 32” from the wall you are outside of what they recommend. Geometry and distances are even more important than frequency response in terms of how good it sounds though, so if you have to make that trade off it’s ok for home listening.

 

[YSC]

I thought Genelec’s installation guide said it was bass cancellation. But I’m not finding that. I’m positioning these like regular hifi speakers, which for me they are. I had them closer to the wall after I took the picture. Listened for a while, then moved them to where the front baffle is, I’m guessing here, 32” from the front wall. The difference was immediate. The image was well behind the speakers, basically on the front wall. And it was bigger. I’m also listening off axis. That gave them a bit more spaciousness. I’ll run Dirac and maybe REW over the weekend to see what’s actually going on. Happy so far.

they are saying going very close to the wall you eliminate bass to low mid cancellations and put the cancellation frequency into the highs which don’t radiate backward, but then you will got bass boost at the enhancing frequency which need to use -4/-6db dip switch to counter that or else bass will be too boomy and masking the other frequencies, if you got REW occasionally the boost will be up to 100-200hz depending on your room. Ended up myself after adding the 7040, have to use -6db bass tilt and the bass roll off function to get the ideal sloping down response

 

[changer]

 

[Reed]

View attachment 168285Did you also move your listening position some 30” back with the speakers? Did you move closer to an equilateral triangle positioning? You are probably now getting more direct sound and a more focused soundstage, which likely sounds better.

But if you placed it 32” from the wall you are outside of what they recommend. Geometry and distances are even more important than frequency response in terms of how good it sounds though, so if you have to make that trade off it’s ok for home listening.

I did move my chair closer than it was for my old speakers and it did make a difference. It’s a process that I’m happy to undertake. It took me a year to understand how to make my Magnepans work in that room. It became a challenge and I learned a lot in the process. In the end, I got tired of having to sit perfectly still to maintain the sound.

 

[pehu63]

A few months ago, I bought a set of genelec 8030. I removed the isopods, put them straight on thin desktop mike stands, total 90cm high from the floor. Looks great, no amplifier in sight, no nothing! I connected using the following diagram:

Using REW and a UMIK, I measured the room modes, and corrected the bass only. The (50 dollar) streamer from arylic includes a built-in DSP. It is a DIY "upstream mini v3". I connected via a separate DAC, a PCM5102a. Converted the signal to differential, according the diagram in the genelec manual. DSP room mode corrections according the advise from "tangband" elsewhere.

Initial issue in my set up, was some power line humm. Initially, I did not have grounded mains. As the DAC does not have symmetrical output, this caused a bit of hum. After some power line re-work, hum completely gone. Other option would have been to use a DAC with real symmetrical output.

Playing my favorite music is always fun, but on these speakers, it is awesome. A daily joy. Insanely good, great looks, and small. In my opinion, the build quality is beyond anything that ever came out of germany or japan (no insult intended here).

 

[Dannyws]

Went for the sub8 from Presonus for now using it's 80Hz switch x-over & 85/90Hz lpf. Could't be happier, soundstage before correction and treatment is already incredible. Creds to this forum!!

 

[BoredErica]

My friend got the 8030c and said he could hear hiss from the speakers from 70 inches away.

 

[dominikz]

Went for the sub8 from Presonus for now using it's 80Hz switch x-over & 85/90Hz lpf. Could't be happier, soundstage before correction and treatment is already incredible. Creds to this forum!!
View attachment 169384

Nice workstation! Do you have any in-room measurements to share by any chance? Would be really interested to see how the Presonus Eris Sub8 measures in-room.

 

[Dannyws]

Nice workstation! Do you have any in-room measurements to share by any chance? Would be really interested to see how the Presonus Eris Sub8 measures in-room.

Thanks, althought I might be having some comb filtering going on with the inclined wall and window, by moving the sub a bit and a pillow or 2 I managed to reduce 95% of some annoying room modes(standing waves).

I did not touch any 8030c eq switches, just matched the volume to the sub.

The sub8 is not a clubsub and does resonates/rumbles a little at high spl, but since i'm using it to fill the lows moderately and on my working levels (60-75db) it's more than good enough. For a 200 bucks 8" sub that kicks in at 25/30Hz, without any whistle, it's pretty acceptable, expecially until any serious sub upgrade, imo.

I only have a sc1100 mic and rew so I would say I can't make a decent response chart yet. (Will try one) Will get a measurementmic when the rest of the room is emptied to decide on treatment. For now, I can conclude, that with bare treatment and a small sub, it's a killer set.

 

[dominikz]

Thanks, althought I might be having some comb filtering going on with the inclined wall and window, by moving the sub a bit and a pillow or 2 I managed to reduce 95% of some annoying room modes(standing waves).

I did not touch any 8030c eq switches, just matched the volume to the sub.

The sub8 is not a clubsub and does resonates/rumbles a little at high spl, but since i'm using it to fill the lows moderately and on my working levels (60-75db) it's more than good enough. For a 200 bucks 8" sub that kicks in at 25/30Hz, without any whistle, it's pretty acceptable, expecially until any serious sub upgrade, imo.

I only have a sc1100 mic and rew so I would say I can't make a decent response chart yet. Will get a measurementmic when the rest of the room is emptied to decide on treatment. For now, I can conclude, that with bare treatment and a small sub, it's a killer set.

If you put the SC 1100 in omni mode and use MMM you'd probably get reasonably OK results in the low to mid frequency range - in case you want to try
Now that I think about it - I also have a large diaphragm multi-polar condenser mic as well, and a calibrated measurement mic - I might do a test at some point to see how they compare for this purpose.

I've been eyeing the Sub8 for a while for use with my Neumann KH120As in a nearfield setup (so somewhat similar to your case) - hence my interest. Was hoping that the Sub8 might be a practical and inexpensive way to combat some nulls I have in the 70-100Hz range at bedroom-friendly SPLs.

 

[Reed]

One of the questions I had about the 8030c was would they be enough for my 10’x11’ listening room. Without a doubt. LP is a little over 6’ away. There was more to go and they never went into protection. Saw 104db-c peak after this screen shot. Too loud for me. And they sound great.

 

[dominikz]

If you put the SC 1100 in omni mode and use MMM you'd probably get reasonably OK results in the low to mid frequency range - in case you want to try
Now that I think about it - I also have a large diaphragm multi-polar condenser mic as well, and a calibrated measurement mic - I might do a test at some point to see how they compare for this purpose.

So I was quite curious about it and did this test today It is off-topic (Sorry!) but perhaps some will find it useful.

The microphones tested are:

• Rode NT2A is a large-diaphragm multi-polar-pattern condenser microphone designed for sound/music recording
• Dayton EMM-6 is a small-diaphragm omni-pattern measurement microphone. Mine was purchased from Cross-Spectrum labs and so it was individually calibrated (in addition to the manufacturer-provided calibration).

I used the MMM method at the listening position (which I also normally use to generate room EQs).

• With NT2A I held the microphone vertically; but since it is a side-address microphone that means that the front of the capsule was pointing toward the mid-point between the loudspeaker. Microphone was set to omni-pattern, and other switches to '0'/neutral position.
• With EMM-6 (a front-address microphone) I used the 90° calibration file and also held the mic vertically - i.e. aimed at the ceiling.

Here are the results:

As we can see, for the there is very little (negligible) difference below ~300Hz, which is the area we're interested in when doing room EQ. Even quite a bit above that we have a pretty good match.

So in short, if I didn't have a calibrated mic, I would not hesitate to use Rode NT2A to measure in-room response and generate <300Hz correction filters - it seems to be absolutely suitable to identify and fix the main issues. I expect that many other similar microphones would work equally well.

Hope this helps!

 

[Lilith]

So I was quite curious about it and did this test today It is off-topic (Sorry!) but perhaps some will find it useful.

The microphones tested are:

• Rode NT2A is a large-diaphragm multi-polar-pattern condenser microphone designed for sound/music recording
• Dayton EMM-6 is a small-diaphragm omni-pattern measurement microphone. Mine was purchased from Cross-Spectrum labs and so it was individually calibrated (in addition to the manufacturer-provided calibration).

I used the MMM method at the listening position (which I also normally use to generate room EQs).

• With NT2A I held the microphone vertically; but since it is a side-address microphone that means that the front of the capsule was pointing toward the mid-point between the loudspeaker. Microphone was set to omni-pattern, and other switches to '0'/neutral position.
• With EMM-6 (a front-address microphone) I used the 90° calibration file and also held the mic vertically - i.e. aimed at the ceiling.

Here are the results:
View attachment 169427

As we can see, for the there is very little (negligible) difference below ~300Hz, which is the area we're interested in when doing room EQ. Even quite a bit above that we have a pretty good match.

So in short, if I didn't have a calibrated mic, I would not hesitate to use Rode NT2A to measure in-room response and generate <300Hz correction filters - it seems to be absolutely suitable to identify and fix the main issues. I expect that many other similar microphones would work equally well.

Hope this helps!

You have the same peak at 130 Hz like me. Try to correct this and it will sound much better.

 

[dominikz]

You have the same peak at 130 Hz like me. Try to correct this and it will sound much better.

Thanks - I am already correcting it though , the above measurements are intentionally made without EQ to illustrate non-calibrated microphone capability to detect the most problematic LF resonances.

In case you're interested I've documented some of my experiences with various room EQ solutions in this thread (this post specifically shows the EQ preset I normally use in this system), and some more detailed investigation of my current nearfield monitors here (including another room EQ example).

 

[Pearljam5000]

Has anyone compared LS50 Meta to 8030C?

 

[EAXAE]

Has anyone compared LS50 Meta to 8030C?

No, but I've compared my 8030 with friend's KEF R3, and we both preferred R3 for casual listening. 8030 seems to have more revealing, "in your face" kind of sound, that can be annoying. R3 were just prefectly smooth and enveloping, with a ton more capability to fill 15-20 m² rooms.