Genelec 8050B Review (Studio Monitor)

[Pearljam5000]

Would the 8050b be a bad idea if one of them was placed next to a sidewall? I'm a bit tight for space on the right hand side. No chance of room treatment.

You could get the 8030C + a sub instead

 

[EchoChamber]

Would the 8050b be a bad idea if one of them was placed next to a sidewall? I'm a bit tight for space on the right hand side. No chance of room treatment.

I’d recommend going for the 8350A if you can and calibrate with GLM. The auto room EQ works really well and will help tame early reflections.

 

[Pearljam5000]

I’d recommend going for the 8350A if you can and calibrate with GLM. The auto room EQ works really well and will help take early reflections.

Then the price is really close to the KH310 and then he gets a 3-way, it's a slippery slope

 

[EchoChamber]

Then the price is really close to the KH310 and then he gets a 3-way, it's a slippery slope

IME, GLM is essential for the full Genelec experience. When I went from 8030C to 8330A, the sonic difference was significant in terms of accuracy and letting less of the room get in the way (I was using REW and ROON to measure and plot an EQ curve with the 8030C). I would personally favor room correction over number of drivers for accuracy. Maybe the 8340A would be a better choice to stay closer to the original budget and opening the option for a sub add on later on when budget allows.

 

[daftcombo]

IME, GLM is essential for the full Genelec experience. When I went from 8030C to 8330A, the sonic difference was significant in terms of accuracy and letting less of the room get in the way (I was using REW and ROON to measure and plot an EQ curve with the 8030C). I would personally favor room correction over number of drivers for accuracy. Maybe the 8340A would be a better choice to stay closer to the original budget and opening the option for a sub add on later on when budget allows.

Once you see how GLM work, you can re-do it with REW.
REW is the DIY of Room correction, and studying how GLM works is like a speaker teardown.

 

[Pete James]

Why do these rate so quite a bit lower than the 8030C in the "with sub" categories and also "with eq and a sub"? Shouldn't the greater headroom and lower distortion turn out better? I've seen this with other similar monitors too - the small versions seem to be rated better on spinorama.org.

 

[jdg78]

Why do these rate so quite a bit lower than the 8030C in the "with sub" categories and also "with eq and a sub"? Shouldn't the greater headroom and lower distortion turn out better? I've seen this with other similar monitors too - the small versions seem to be rated better on spinorama.org.

I have no idea how those preference ratings are calculated, so I can't speak to the rationale behind it. I will say, however, that I am currently running a pair of 8030's in a medium-sized room combined with dual subs, and they sound absolutely fantastic.

Although I haven't made a direct comparison, unless you are in a larger space that really requires the additional SPL, or for whatever reason can't accommodate a sub, I doubt the 8050's would sound significantly better than an 8030+sub setup for normal music playback.

Plus you can purchase a pair of 8030's or G-Threes for less than a single 8050, so the cost savings are significant - even after factoring in a decent sub (or two). Just my 2 cents.

 

[Pete James]

How many m2 / m3 is your room, what spl numbers are you getting at 1m before you notice increased distortion or compression? Yeah the smaller are significantly cheaper so I’d prefer as small as I need. I almost exclusively create / mix and listen to house and techno. Genelec recommended me the 8341 with sub and the 8351 with sub if I want to sit over 1.5 meters away. I mostly listen to music at 85db but want space to take it quite a bit louder with plenty of headroom.

 

[dfuller]

Why do these rate so quite a bit lower than the 8030C in the "with sub" categories and also "with eq and a sub"? Shouldn't the greater headroom and lower distortion turn out better? I've seen this with other similar monitors too - the small versions seem to be rated better on spinorama.org.

The directivity is noticeably poorer on the 8050, which is what's going on there. The 8030 has closer driver size matches and the c-c spacing vertically is closer.

 

[Pete James]

The directivity is noticeably poorer on the 8050, which is what's going on there. The 8030 has closer driver size matches and the c-c spacing vertically is closer.

Based on this would you expect the 8041 to rank slightly higher than the 8051 but slightly lower than the 8030?

 

[TurtlePaul]

Why do these rate so quite a bit lower than the 8030C in the "with sub" categories and also "with eq and a sub"? Shouldn't the greater headroom and lower distortion turn out better? I've seen this with other similar monitors too - the small versions seem to be rated better on spinorama.org.

The preference score doesn’t measure headroom or distortion. It has three main components: on-axis response, bass extension and predicted in-room response. 8050 has good bass extension and on-axis response. The issue is that there isn’t really a great way to crossover an 8 inch woofer to a 3/4 inch tweeter unless the waveguide makes a very narrow horn. Genelec made the waveguide have a similar wide directivity to the other 8000 series speakers, so you can see the score reducing big dip in the estimated in-room response graph between 1 khz and 3 khz.

 

[TurtlePaul]

Based on this would you expect the 8041 to rank slightly higher than the 8051 but slightly lower than the 8030?

8041 and 8051 aren’t Genelec model numbers. Do you mean the 8341 and 8351? Those are three-way speakers and coaxial, both of which improves the directivity a lot.

 

[Pearljam5000]

The preference score doesn’t measure headroom or distortion. It has three main components: on-axis response, bass extension and predicted in-room response. 8050 has good bass extension and on-axis response. The issue is that there isn’t really a great way to crossover an 8 inch woofer to a 3/4 inch tweeter unless the waveguide makes a very narrow horn. Genelec made the waveguide have a similar wide directivity to the other 8000 series speakers, so you can see the score reducing big dip in the estimated in-room response graph between 1 khz and 3 khz.

It's a 1 inch

 

[jdg78]

How many m2 / m3 is your room, what spl numbers are you getting at 1m before you notice increased distortion or compression? Yeah the smaller are significantly cheaper so I’d prefer as small as I need. I almost exclusively create / mix and listen to house and techno. Genelec recommended me the 8341 with sub and the 8351 with sub if I want to sit over 1.5 meters away. I mostly listen to music at 85db but want space to take it quite a bit louder with plenty of headroom.

My room is approx. 19 m2 / 50 m3 with plenty of rugs, bookshelves, sofas, etc. so fairly well treated acoustically. I haven't really measured the actual SPL at my preferred listening volumes, but it gets plenty loud for me at about 60% of total volume output on my preamp, with more than sufficient headroom for dynamic climaxes or to go louder if I wanted to. But I listen mostly to acoustic and orchestral music, so if you're primarily playing techno tracks with significantly more bass energy, it might be a different story.

The 8341/51's Genelec recommended are their higher-end series with coaxial design and room correction. I would expect them to perform objectively better than the 8030/50 series but at a significantly higher cost, and depending on your room and listening needs you may not find it worth the extra money. You could probably get 90% of the way there with the 8000 series, a well-treated room, and subs. But if you can afford the 8341/51's, I'm sure they would be fantastic.

 

[Mort]

You could probably get 90% of the way there with the 8000 series, a well-treated room, and subs

Maybe 66%. The SAM DSP is pretty magical, especially with subs. (I've owned many many genelec monitors.)

 

[Pearljam5000]

8030+ 2 X 7040/7050
Or 8050/8350 and no subs
Which would be better?

 

[TurtlePaul]

8030+ 2 X 7040/7050
Or 8050/8350 and no subs
Which would be better?

I feel like the best use of money in that range is 2x 8030 + 1x 7050 + MiniDSP Flex + UMIK-1. Gets you 99% of the way to a 8330 and 7350 setup if you don't mind spending some time learning to make a DSP filters in REW.

 

[Pete James]

I feel like the best use of money in that range is 2x 8030 + 1x 7050 + MiniDSP Flex + UMIK-1. Gets you 99% of the way to a 8330 and 7350 setup if you don't mind spending some time learning to make a DSP filters in REW.

I plan to do the whole room measurement and EQ thing with room EQ for my acoustic treatment and get ARC 4 for EQ (might as well since it includes a measurement mic with the software and costs £100 - the same price as a minidsp flex). The Genelec Ones are a very different design to their other monitors - Coaxial three way as opposed to non-coaxial 2 way so I can't see them being too similar. How much difference that makes in reality I don't know.

I was reading this on small vs big speakers - what do you guys think? https://www.pjbworld.com/cms/the-why-phil-jones-explains-the-advantages-of-small-speakers/