Genelec 8341A SAM™ Studio Monitor Review

[thewas]

You're right, I don't hear distortion even in the bass with my Genelec. They and the Devialet Phantom reactor don't sound like bommy one note boxes... Which should be expected, because their designs literally aren't boxes, which is something most manufacturers refuse to deviate from.

Bass boom has nothing to do with the shape of the enclosures, from internal modes point of view actually a sphere is the worst shape as you have one very dominant internal mode.

 

[LTig]

This is where people usually go wrong. Genelec gives true specifications always described same way for every model. It's not necessarily comparable to other loudspeaker manufacturer's spec sheet. I.e. for 8361A they state: "Maximum short term sine wave acoustic output on axis in half space, averaged from 100 Hz to 3 kHz at 1 m ≥ 118 dB SPL" that is "Maximum peak acoustic output per pair in a listening room with music material at 1 m 128 dB". It's a lot of sound. In my room I have simply locked maximum output to -20 dB to ensure that I don't ruin my ears by accidentally turning the volume to maximum. I haven't yet found more than couple recordings that would not play loud enough to make me feel uncomfortable.

The numbers I've cited are measurements by sound and recording. They are referenced to 1m distance in free field environment, not in a listening room. And of course this is done for all speakers they measure.

Citation (sorry, german only):

Für unsere Monitor-Tests in SOUND & RECORDING werden zwei Messverfahren verwendet. Dazu siehst du dir am besten zunächst die beiden Messreihen in Abbildung 6 an, bei der zunächst ein Verzerrungsgrenzwert von 3 % vorgegeben wurde; danach haben wir ermittelt, welchen maximalen Schalldruck der Lautsprecher dabei bezogen auf 1 m Entfernung unter Freifeldbedingungen erreicht. ​

 

[test1223]

Sorry, but the mentioned Genelec 8050 doesn't have neither better directivity or distortion in the mid range compared to the KH310 and a 8341 (which is significantly more expensive in Germany compared to a KH310) has much lower SPL limits.

The Genelecs 8050 cost about 300€ less and I would bet the Genelecs will provide a better preference rating despite the fact that the current Genelec to compete with in this class should be the one form the one series which is their newest and best model in the class with room correction and all the other features...

 

[stevenswall]

Not sure what you mean by this? For parametric notch filters maximum center frequency in GLM is 18 kHz. I'm not saying that you should do corrections above 500 Hz (I dont because natural sounds better), but hardware doesn't limit it at all.



I'm not sure about price level in your region, but in Finland pair of 8260A is about the same as/slightly less than pair of 8341A + pair of 7360A subs or single 7370A sub. If you have 8260A already maybe it's best to upgrade directly to the final system: pair of 8351B+W371A instead.

The automatic calibration, and yeah, there are drawbacks many mention using EQ at high frequencies.

The 8260 is discontinued. I have a pair purchased for $5000 total. My mistake thinking the 8341 was $5000. It's $3000 each, then $2500 for two subs. $9k vs $5k. The W371 over here is 9K, and I always seem to see them in sets of two, so $18k... Just for subs. Maybe when they are used for ten years I'll take a look.

 

[JAP]

It doesn't inherently lead to problems with the driver, and Devialet models their driver behavior and measures it specifically so that they sound like what they are aiming for. Perceived quality on the Phantom Reactor seems to be high by everyone who had heard them.

I don't know what they would claim in average for their speaker at 30-100 Hz (i.e. THD <10%) or below. They don't even tell size of the bass driver. I haven't listened to it either. Laws of physics must apply though. I'm highly sceptic about 101 dB SPL | 18Hz – 21kHz without support of the room.

 

[andreasmaaan]

Can you determine whether the tiny woofers are screaming by looking at the FR plots in a spinorama?

You might have noticed @tuga that I was pointing out the invalidity of trying to compare an in-room measurement of one speaker's output capabililties with this speakers's SPL capabilities in the free field, without making any argument regarding the sufficiency or otherwise of this speaker's output cababilities (which you might have also noticed I mentioned earlier in the thread were quite limited)

 

[andreasmaaan]

The automatic calibration, and yeah, there are drawbacks many mention using EQ at high frequencies.

Could you elaborate on this please? I'm not sure what these drawbacks could be...?

 

[JAP]

The automatic calibration, and yeah, there are drawbacks many mention using EQ at high frequencies.

The 8260 is discontinued. I have a pair purchased for $5000 total. My mistake thinking the 8341 was $5000. It's $3000 each, then $2500 for two subs. $9k vs $5k. The W371 over here is 9K, and I always seem to see them in sets of two, so $18k... Just for subs. Maybe when they are used for ten years I'll take a look.

For 5k 8260A pair is a bargain speaker obviously. W371A is so much more than subwoofer - and actually it's not. I'm saving for a pair at the moment.

 

[tuga]

You might have noticed @tuga that I was pointing out the invalidity of trying to compare an in-room measurement of one speaker's output capabililties with this speakers's SPL capabilities in the free field, without making any argument regarding the sufficiency or otherwise of this speaker's output cababilities (which you might have also noticed I mentioned earlier in the thread were quite limited)

Sorry, I missed the last bit which you mentioned...earlier.

It's just that I'm seeing too many people with too much faith in those FR plots.

 

[Senior NEET Engineer]

I don't know what they would claim in average for their speaker at 30-100 Hz (i.e. THD <10%) or below. They don't even tell size of the bass driver. I haven't listened to it either. Laws of physics must apply though. I'm highly sceptic about 101 dB SPL | 18Hz – 21kHz without support of the room.

The 101dB spec from Genelec is "IEC weighted noise" averaged from 100hz-3khz with half space loading. The Ones have significant compression below 100hz compared to traditional woofer.

 

[MZKM]

My guess is extremely low distortion, both harmonic and intermodulation, but as we know these things aren't unfortunately fully understood yet.

Don’t know about IMD, but the THD of the 8341 is super low.

 

[andreasmaaan]

Sorry, I missed the last bit which you mentioned...earlier.

It's just that I'm seeing too many people with too much faith in those FR plots.

No worries

 

[JAP]

The 101dB spec from Genelec is "IEC weighted noise" averaged from 100hz-3khz with half space loading. The Ones have significant compression below 100hz compared to traditional woofer.

Yes I know. I was referring to Devialet Reactor spec. The compression of oval woofers is one of the reasons why I'm using subs crossed at 80 Hz with my 8361's. Other reason is to get better room response without nulls. Going to replace them with W371's later on...

 

[thewas]

The Genelecs 8050 cost about 300€ less and I would bet the Genelecs will provide a better preference rating despite the fact that the current Genelec to compete with in this class should be the one form the one series which is their newest and best model in the class with room correction and all the other features...

I don't think that even with the Harman rating the 8050 would do better, both their horizontal and vertical angle measurements aren't great.
https://assets.ctfassets.net/4zjnzn...ae580f2968fd576/8040b_8050b_en_fi_opman_e.pdf
Regarding to max SPL not even the 8351b fully reaches to the KH310 and costs almost double.
Room correction is of course nice, but am sure the successor of the KH310 will also have it, same like the first of the new DSP based generation, the KH80, did.

 

[tuga]

Don’t know about IMD, but the THD of the 8341 is super low.

Couldn't find a plot for the 8341A. Is it super low? Only if you band-pass it, say .5 to 3k.

 

[thewas]

Don’t know about IMD, but the THD of the 8341 is super low.

At the measured ninety something dB, but when it gets loud(er) it soon comes to its limits as Amir also noticed.

 

[LTig]

The Genelecs 8050 cost about 300€ less and I would bet the Genelecs will provide a better preference rating despite the fact that the current Genelec to compete with in this class should be the one form the one series which is their newest and best model in the class with room correction and all the other features...

There is no comparable ONE model in the price range of the KH310. Event the cheapest (8331a) costs 300 € more than a KH310A and is a much smaller monitor with a different application environment. The direct competitor is the 8350a, similar in size, price and application.

If you compare the measurements of sound and recording of KH310 and the 8350 though you may loose your bet. In several respects (directivity, max SPL) the KH310 is better and the reason IMV is because it's a 3-way system.

 

[Senior NEET Engineer]

Yes I know. I was referring to Devialet Reactor spec. The compression of oval woofers is one of the reasons why I'm using subs crossed at 80 Hz with my 8361's. Other reason is to get better room response without nulls. Going to replace them with W371's later on...

Is this a home setup? One issue I have with W371 is that it would place listening position higher than optimal with normal couch seating position. The unit itself is already 43 inches.

 

[andreasmaaan]

At the measured ninety something dB, but when it gets loud(er) it soon comes to its limits as Amir also noticed.

Keep in mind that the measurement is conducted at 33cm. IIRC, the CTA-2034 specifies a distortion measure at the equivalent of 85dB/1m for active speakers, which is far from stressful (or IMHO very useful).

 

[stevenswall]

Could you elaborate on this please? I'm not sure what these drawbacks could be...?

Haven't looked into it enough to call people out, just sounds like the person suggesting it doesn't do it, AMIR doesn't do it, Genelec doesn't do it, on forums people mention not correcting above the schroeder frequency of a room, etc.

Maybe there's a better way for me to phrase that, as it's an observation, and I'm not saying I've tested it or have an opinion besides right now "don't screw with it if many people who are smarter don't, and it's already relatively flat in my room."

My strongest opinion on the matter is that by default newer speakers should be getting more and more accurate, and it's too bad the specs don't show that, and I don't think someone should have to use GLM to manually tweak things as it can probably automatically work better than a human tweaking stuff.