• WANTED: Happy members who like to discuss audio and other topics related to our interest. Desire to learn and share knowledge of science required. There are many reviews of audio hardware and expert members to help answer your questions. Click here to have your audio equipment measured for free!

Genelec 8030C Studio Monitor Review

Just a follow up, I got the 8030c's up and running. I used DIRAC for EQ and have it pretty close to dialed in. My desk is up against a wall, so I think I need to get some room treatment for the wall between the speakers at some point and run the process again, though. I'm fairly happy with them, they won't compete with my Revel Be's but will be nice in the office/bedroom.
 
Just a follow up, I got the 8030c's up and running. I used DIRAC for EQ and have it pretty close to dialed in. My desk is up against a wall, so I think I need to get some room treatment for the wall between the speakers at some point and run the process again, though. I'm fairly happy with them, they won't compete with my Revel Be's but will be nice in the office/bedroom.
may I ask what Revel Be you are using? just lazy to dug up the posts.

in such desk setup I do think using DIRAC or whatever EQ should tame the bass boost for the 8030C only, but there will be desk comb filtering going on, my own setup is ordering the new 8000-333B desk stands and will see how that could improve on comb filtering/desk reflections, but at least making them ear level would improve things compared to tilting up I guess
 
may I ask what Revel Be you are using? just lazy to dug up the posts.

in such desk setup I do think using DIRAC or whatever EQ should tame the bass boost for the 8030C only, but there will be desk comb filtering going on, my own setup is ordering the new 8000-333B desk stands and will see how that could improve on comb filtering/desk reflections, but at least making them ear level would improve things compared to tilting up I guess
I have the F328be. My comment is probably more directed toward Revel's use of the beryllium tweeter, because I'm not expecting the 8030c to have anywhere near the fullness of the big speakers. I've heard the M128be and they are rather special too, just lacking the bass. Revel did a good job on the Be speaker line.
 
  • Like
Reactions: YSC
I have the F328be. My comment is probably more directed toward Revel's use of the beryllium tweeter, because I'm not expecting the 8030c to have anywhere near the fullness of the big speakers. I've heard the M128be and they are rather special too, just lacking the bass. Revel did a good job on the Be speaker line.
Thanks for the info. That’s full range vs bookshelf then, the Be tweeter should sound good but I bet despite the bass extension they shouldn’t sound too different, since I bet most ppl here aren’t young enough to even hear the harmonic distortion associated to the breakup modes resonances near 20khz if any is present?
 
013BF92B-1E13-4ED4-806F-54310946896F.jpeg



The Genelec 8030c/G three stand has been discontinued. I was told by a rep from bhphoto as they only have one in black.

I just bought the pair from another website and had to pay the $250 total plus tax ouch

So if you want them better to buy now
 
They cancelled my order cause is discontinued lol i guess I’ll buy the new ones

The new ones seems thinner?
 
don't look slim to me in real life, but the screw in mechanism now is all metal, so no worry of the old issue of the plastic cracking
I have the old ones and that plastic part seemed dubious from the first use. You have to tight the screw quite hard to avoid the speakers to move when you touch them by accident or just to move them. So from that perspective it looks like a neat improvement.
 
I have the old ones and that plastic part seemed dubious from the first use. You have to tight the screw quite hard to avoid the speakers to move when you touch them by accident or just to move them. So from that perspective it looks like a neat improvement.
Yeah, that’s a weak point with the old stands so this seems to be an improvement.
 
I'm going to purchase the new ones, good thing I didn't buy the old ones, cause I saw them on reverb, but the bigga wanted like $240 for the pair, literally almost the same as new
 
Since there's a lot of conflicting info on hiss of 8030c, I'll just add my 2 cents.

Yes, they definitely hiss. The hiss gets slightly quieter on the lowest sensitivity (+6 on the back knob), but it's audible at about 1m in a not-perfectly quiet room, ear roughly on tweeter level.
Before that I tried Neumann KH 80s, which most people say are "dead quiet", but they have a comparable hiss, maybe a bit quieter.
I also tried different outlets, apartments, and even some audiophile power strip bs, but that doesn't make any difference.

As a side note, the minimum sensitivity of 8030c is still very high, so my audio interface volume knob is maybe at 10% volume max, and that's already pretty loud. My interface's max output power is +15.5 dBu for reference.
 
Since there's a lot of conflicting info on hiss of 8030c, I'll just add my 2 cents.

Yes, they definitely hiss. The hiss gets slightly quieter on the lowest sensitivity (+6 on the back knob), but it's audible at about 1m in a not-perfectly quiet room, ear roughly on tweeter level.
Before that I tried Neumann KH 80s, which most people say are "dead quiet", but they have a comparable hiss, maybe a bit quieter.
I also tried different outlets, apartments, and even some audiophile power strip bs, but that doesn't make any difference.

As a side note, the minimum sensitivity of 8030c is still very high, so my audio interface volume knob is maybe at 10% volume max, and that's already pretty loud. My interface's max output power is +15.5 dBu for reference.
Did you tried if you unplugged the xlr did the hiss exist? Sometimes it’s just the amplified noise of the interface
 
Did you tried if you unplugged the xlr did the hiss exist? Sometimes it’s just the amplified noise of the interface
Yes of course, it's the same unplugged, plugged, and on 0 volume. And my 2i2 interface has balanced outs
 
  • Like
Reactions: YSC
Since there's a lot of conflicting info on hiss of 8030c, I'll just add my 2 cents.

Yes, they definitely hiss.
It's inevitable that they hiss to some extent. If you look at the datasheet for the TPA3116D2 that the 8030c uses, the output integrated noise spec is only 80dB down. As good as their engineers are, it's unlikely that they can do better than the datasheet.

It's not a huge issue though.
 
It's inevitable that they hiss to some extent. If you look at the datasheet for the TPA3116D2 that the 8030c uses, the output integrated noise spec is only 80dB down. As good as their engineers are, it's unlikely that they can do better than the datasheet.

It's not a huge issue though.
Sure, I understand. It's a bearable amount of hiss too.
What I don't understand is how come people are claiming they are completely silent.

They either have to be in a pretty noisy environment, have some severe high-frequency hearing loss, or sitting 1.5+ meters away (or some combination of all 3 + strong copium).
 
Sure, I understand. It's a bearable amount of hiss too.
What I don't understand is how come people are claiming they are completely silent.

They either have to be in a pretty noisy environment, have some severe high-frequency hearing loss, or sitting 1.5+ meters away (or some combination of all 3 + strong copium).
no idea of the circumstances, but really in a midnight room in city, I can only hear the hiss with my face almost touching the speaker itself, else it sounded dead silent to my ears, ironically those mosquito repellers sound annoyingly screaming to my ears... I believe it's a YMMV thing as our living space could vary a lot in noise floor or personal sensitivity to the hiss
 
Back
Top Bottom