Genelec 8341A SAM™ Studio Monitor Review

[onion]

The extended phase linearity feature in GLM 4.1 subjectively improves the 3d-imaging of my system

 

[stevenswall]

I was going to buy the SHD Studio but needed analogue input/output for my non Genelec subwoofers.

Not sure about the latency but a Schiit Modius could give you 2 channels of AES to analogue.

 

[ShadowNeko]

i have a question,

what do people use up-stream with genelecs to stream digital aes/ebu into the speakers?

all i found was raspberry hat from audiophonics that has aes/ebu output... i would not want to hook up a computer all the time, if i would get pair of genelecs

thanks!

You can also get this it was reviewed by WolfX-700 on his site. https://m.aliexpress.com/item/10050...6f1ae966ef5a389c754O.jpg_640x640Q90.jpg_.webp

 

[testp]

i found this thread as well, mentions most of the solutions & some new ones if anyone is looking for this, in the future...

https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/usb-to-aes-ebu-the-solution.13893/

 

[BrokenEnglishGuy]

i have a question...

The woofers are behind for this speakers with holes in top and bottom, but if the woofers are in that position, you gonna '' feel '' the same punchy/energy in the woofers as the tradicionals design? where the woofers point at you

 

[dshreter]

i have a question...

The woofers are behind for this speakers with holes in top and bottom, but if the woofers are in that position, you gonna '' feel '' the same punchy/energy in the woofers as the tradicionals design? where the woofers point at you

The short answer is yes, the bass SPL should be as specified, which is the punch you feel.

 

[Peluvius]

All of this discussion about loudness and lower extension on a technical forum about a bookshelf speaker designed to work with a sub......?

 

[G|force]

Time flies away precious
Here is the answer to the sweepstakes to guess the speaker that has more in common than different with lovely Genelec One Series 3-way active loudspeakers.
Thank you for your bids this contest offers no money.

Presonus 328Ai

 

[G|force]

The Presonus has a mic pre built in and is intended as a PA, but it can be polite when gained down to 50% (12 o' clock) on the Line input pot and output pot with nominal +4 dBu input. After these months with 8341 it's fun to listen to these. They are decent PA but really not half bad monitors when you have them set.

 

[Pearljam5000]

The Presonus has a mic pre built in and is intended as a PA, but it can be polite when gained down to 50% (12 o' clock) on the Line input pot and output pot with nominal +4 dBu input. After these months with 8341 it's fun to listen to these. They are decent PA but really not half bad monitors when you have them set.

Whats so similar about them?

 

[G|force]

Whats so similar about them?

Both products are powered 3-way with dual woofers and concentric HF/MF, active crossovers, user adjustable DSP. Name another? I can't think of one.

 

[Pearljam5000]

Both products are powered 3-way with dual woofers and concentric HF/MF, active crossovers, user adjustable DSP. Name another? I can't think of one.

I meant sound wise

 

[G|force]

Naturally, well ahem. There is no comparison in sound, and the the discontinued SL328Ai doesn't have AutoCal in any sense. The similarities are in the common physical attributes, but it is like if you smell cologne or perfume on a person and you are reminded of another person, even if they bear no other resemblance.
Listening to live TV news broadcast with either, it's uncanny how much you can hear the studio room sound, even when the 'talent' has a decent mic working and the dummy in the control room is making proper signal.
But with the 8341, the localization of the micro reverberant details in that news studio is just so much more defined. You can hear the doppler as the talent moves their head back and forth against their lav.
Just an example, where personnel of dubious talent make sound live for TV.

Where I often like to lean into 8341 and just envelop my head into the image at 12 inches distance, the nearfield of nearfield dominance- the 328 is definitely a mid-field when you use it this way to produce 85dBA in room. As a PA the 328 was meant to be used with the SL 18" sub, which may be ok, I don't know. High pass at 85Hz seems to helps anything but I've been using both full range.

I bought these 328's when I was working for a company that was a dealer, 2013 IIRC. I heard one that the rep. brought, mounted on a pole in a church for demo. I purchased 2 with some dealer accommodation.

 

[HammerSandwich]

Both products are powered 3-way with dual woofers and concentric HF/MF, active crossovers, user adjustable DSP. Name another? I can't think of one.

Ex Machina Quasar?

 

[G|force]

HammerSandwich wins the prize for the first answer that satisfies the criteria, kudos! I never saw that product before. It's a beauty- not a 'mass produced in limited quantities and then abandoned and ignored product' which describes the Presonus pretty well.

 

[ernestcarl]

Time flies away precious
Here is the answer to the sweepstakes to guess the speaker that has more in common than different with lovely Genelec One Series 3-way active loudspeakers.
Thank you for your bids this contest offers no money.

Presonus 328Ai

Did Presonus discontinue most/all of their PA coaxes? Searched sweetwater and BH and didn't find anything other than the S6 and S8 studio monitors. I'm wondering when they will be discontinuing these, too. I wish they'd upgrade it to have the internal DSP fully user modifiable in the future.

 

[MarcPBcup]

My company picked up a Genelec 8341 to use in our anechoic chamber as a point source for measuring microphones and were very surprised at how early limiting kicked in. And that it kicked in on the tweeter well before the woofer. There seem to be a few other posts in this thread regarding that topic, but thought I would share some measurements to illustrate that the 8341 tweeter can't play full-band content above 90dBSPL//1m. This may be acceptable for music, but our use is for standardized microphone measurements which require sine-wave testing at minimum 94dBSPL//1m. The spec sheet has long term max SPL at 101dB and short term at 118dBSPL, but they're very specific (in the detailed specs, not the "cut sheet") that the content applied is weighted IEC-Noise and SPL output is specified 100Hz-3kHz. While not incorrect, it seems overly restrictive considering this should be a reference-class broadband playback device and even 2-3" full-band drivers can easily hit 94dBSPL//1m above 1kHz.

We're also noting differences on our unit vs other measurements (ASR's data in orange toned down by 2.3dB to adjust for 0.13V drive vs 0.1V drive) which is concerning- especially the LF woofer slope not matching. It looks like LF filters are on or something but we quadruple-checked they are not.

As a third item, we also noted audible port chuffing in the 50-60Hz region above 80 dBSPL//1m. I personally chose to only use the speaker >60Hz but this was noticeable in music clips also.

I wrote to Genelec about these three items and they sent back a nice thoughtful reply but in paraphrased summary, suggested: (a) yes, the tweeter is thermally limited and won't reach 94dBSPL at 1 meter. (b) yes, there's port chuffing but this is hard to avoid and if we're doing critical measurements we may want to block the port and (c) Our anechoic chamber may be to blame for the woofer slope. [my response: yes, possibly. But our chamber is rated at 120Hz cuttoff and -3dB at 100Hz from spec is about 2dB more than we're off for other speakers at that frequency. Time Selective Response (gets a bit hand-wavy including port areas, etc) also seems to indicate this is mostly a speaker-issue not chamber issue].

I'm not going to take additional data as we're returning this speaker, but thought I would share my notes as a word of caution.

 

[Pearljam5000]

My company picked up a Genelec 8341 to use in our anechoic chamber as a point source for measuring microphones and were very surprised at how early limiting kicked in. And that it kicked in on the tweeter well before the woofer. There seem to be a few other posts in this thread regarding that topic, but thought I would share some measurements to illustrate that the 8341 tweeter can't play full-band content above 90dBSPL//1m. This may be acceptable for music, but our use is for standardized microphone measurements which require sine-wave testing at minimum 94dBSPL//1m. The spec sheet has long term max SPL at 101dB and short term at 118dBSPL, but they're very specific (in the detailed specs, not the "cut sheet") that the content applied is weighted IEC-Noise and SPL output is specified 100Hz-3kHz. While not incorrect, it seems overly restrictive considering this should be a reference-class broadband playback device and even 2-3" full-band drivers can easily hit 94dBSPL//1m above 1kHz.

We're also noting differences on our unit vs other measurements (ASR's data in orange toned down by 2.3dB to adjust for 0.13V drive vs 0.1V drive) which is concerning- especially the LF woofer slope not matching. It looks like LF filters are on or something but we quadruple-checked they are not.

As a third item, we also noted audible port chuffing in the 50-60Hz region above 80 dBSPL//1m. I personally chose to only use the speaker >60Hz but this was noticeable in music clips also.

I wrote to Genelec about these three items and they sent back a nice thoughtful reply but in paraphrased summary, suggested: (a) yes, the tweeter is thermally limited and won't reach 94dBSPL at 1 meter. (b) yes, there's port chuffing but this is hard to avoid and if we're doing critical measurements we may want to block the port and (c) Our anechoic chamber may be to blame for the woofer slope. [my response: yes, possibly. But our chamber is rated at 120Hz cuttoff and -3dB at 100Hz from spec is about 2dB more than we're off for other speakers at that frequency. Time Selective Response (gets a bit hand-wavy including port areas, etc) also seems to indicate this is mostly a speaker-issue not chamber issue].

I'm not going to take additional data as we're returning this speaker, but thought I would share my notes as a word of caution.

Maybe try the 8351B instead

 

[Vintage57]

Interesting findings.

What speakers have you used in the past?

Have you considered the Neumann KH310?

 

[Trell]

Maybe try the 8351B instead

From the reviews of 8351A (older model) and 8361A even that could be marginal for what he wants:

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