Genelec 8030c vs Arendal 1961 bookshelf - unexpected treble boost

[Biblob]

Hi all,

Recently bought the Genelec 8030C and Arendal 1961 bookshelf to compare the two. Had the Genelecs for a while and listened to them, love them. Comparing them on Spinorama.org beforehand showed the on-axis and in-room response to be comparable. Tonight I unpacked the Arendals, set one of both brands in middle of my room, level matched them with pink noise (300-3khz), and hi-passed them to cross over to my Monolith sub. I checked to see if the 8030c had any of the dip-switched on, but that is not the case.

To my surprise, the 1961 sounded much brighter!

So I whipped out the 'ol REW again to measure them. Because of my small room wasn't able to get great measurements, but good enough to confirm what I heard:
2,5-3 dB boost from the 1961's from 2-9 kHz:.

Switched around the speakers, and exact the same was measured. Teal and yellow are 1961, red and blue are 8030c. The unit-unit comparison look great for both speakers though!

Measurements were at ~1m, gated at 5,8 ms.

What do y'all think, what could be the cause here? Anyone had the same experience?

 

[Biblob]

Here is a not-windowed/raw measurement (1/6 smoothing) at the listening position. And to be honest, the 1961 (in blue) looks more lineair here than the 8030c (in orange).

Will listen tomorrow with some fresh ears

 

[holbob]

They are apples and oranges. 8030 designed for near field, and 1961 designed for far field. Keep the correct one for whatever you are using it for and dispense with the wrong one. Problem solved.

 

[Biblob]

They are apples and oranges. 8030 designed for near field, and 1961 designed for far field. Keep the correct one for whatever you are using it for and dispense with the wrong one. Problem solved.

Even though they may have different design principles, the spinoramas tell the actual picture. Based on that these two are very comparable, especially in far field. So I disagree with this statement.

My own measurements (in room) tell something different than the ones Amir and Erin made of these speakers.

 

[MaxwellsEq]

I've not heard either loudspeaker, but don't in-room measurements tell you more about your room than about the loudspeaker, given that is what in-room measurements are for?

 

[Biblob]

I've not heard either loudspeaker, but don't in-room measurements tell you more about your room than about the loudspeaker, given that is what in-room measurements are for?

Generally speaking, yes (but it's more complicated) . That's why I made a gated measurement, which eliminates the room. So the first one you see is reflection free. That shows the Arendal has a slight elevated treble.

 

[Doctors11]

They are apples and oranges. 8030 designed for near field, and 1961 designed for far field. Keep the correct one for whatever you are using it for and dispense with the wrong one. Problem solved.

What is it specifically that dictates the Arendal is not appropriate for nearfield? The distance between woofer and tweeter?

 

[MaxouPaxou]

Finally, which pair did you prefer ?

 

[Biblob]

Finally, which pair did you prefer ?

I kept the Genelec and returned the Arendals. The Arendals sounded to much for me, with the lifted highs. Ofcourse EQ could be used (and I do use that). The all in one package of the Genelec won it over for me.