Genelec 8351B Review (Studio Monitor)

[Arnas]

Common knowledge is that a sub taking over lowest beats from small speakers improves their clarity in middle range and overall performance (SPL).

Mids clarity is not issue on 3way design + Bass will never be strained in my small room, large room i would imagine yes.
From what i understand bass dips are not avoidable in rooms so sub with its carefull positioning could give big gains though.

 

[Arnas]

No sub on my end. I do lust for a pair of W371A though… Not sure I really need it, but I have hopes it would fix any resonances in my room GLM can’t fix with EQ. And of course give me a full range system with plenty of headroom. Maybe next year…

Looks nice, but that price is out of my league. max i could afford next year is 7370.
Those new 32 inch 4k oled monitors + sub is my dream setup for everything.
Movies, Gaming, Music.

 

[tmtomh]

Its 51Bs

Oh, wow - sorry! For some reason I think their proportions looked a little different to me in your photo vs my pair in real life. Could be that yours are white and mine are dark gray; or maybe just the perspective of your photo (or a flaw in my eye-brain connection ).

At any rate, yes, these have tons of power - I'm in a room that's about 320 sq ft aka about 30 sq M and I listen 9-10 feet/3M away and I can't make them even break a sweat even turning them up louder than I can stand to be in the room.

 

[EchoChamber]

Looks nice, but that price is out of my league. max i could afford next year is 7370.
Those new 32 inch 4k oled monitors + sub is my dream setup for everything.
Movies, Gaming, Music.

Like me, you probably don’t need a sub… I’m not ready to spend 20K on a pair of super sophisticated subs myself either. But they certainly look amazing.

 

[Arnas]

Oh, wow - sorry! For some reason I think their proportions looked a little different to me in your photo vs my pair in real life. Could be that yours are white and mine are dark gray; or maybe just the perspective of your photo (or a flaw in my eye-brain connection ).

At any rate, yes, these have tons of power - I'm in a room that's about 320 sq ft aka about 30 sq M and I listen 9-10 feet/3M away and I can't make them even break a sweat even turning them up louder than I can stand to be in the room.

Yeah these guys seems to have infinite amount of power.
Speakers on my photo look much smaller for some reason but are so massive in real life. Could be the color giving optical illusion too who knows... Now that i think that i wanted 8361a... Those must be absolute Monsters! No wonder that Amir needed help to lift those.

 

[Arnas]

Like me, you probably don’t need a sub… I’m not ready to spend 20K on a pair of super sophisticated subs myself either. But they certainly look amazing.

Yeah i guess you absolutely right and i think lot of people go too crazy about flat FR... Flat FR is a must for studios not for many of us who just want pleasurable listen.
I even think that these with Room gain will be fine for movies considering how much bass it gains in a small room
For music i could just engage GLM.
Anyway i have a year to test these babies to see what i need.

 

[holdingpants01]

Like me, you probably don’t need a sub… I’m not ready to spend 20K on a pair of super sophisticated subs myself either. But they certainly look amazing.

They're way more than a subwoofer, they transform the system to a real 5 way system, I can only suggest to ask for a better price at your distributor

 

[holdingpants01]

Yeah i guess you absolutely right and i think lot of people go too crazy about flat FR... Flat FR is a must for studios not for many of us who just want pleasurable listen.
I even think that these with Room gain will be fine for movies considering how much bass it gains in a small room
For music i could just engage GLM.
Anyway i have a year to test these babies to see what i need.

If you do automatic correction please remember that it flattens the low end to a straight line (at least peaks), this is a starting point to add the low end to your preferences, not an ending point. I have +3dB low shelf below 200Hz in my studio and there's plenty of bass, but I can easily imagine going with more and with different frequency. Add so much you won't miss it when correction is engaged, they should have the same weight, just more even. I also lower the HF by -1.5dB at 10kHz, but -3dB was also fine, I just needed a bit more sparkle so it's -1.5 now

 

[Arnas]

If you do automatic correction please remember that it flattens the low end to a straight line, this is a starting point to add the low end to your preferences, not an ending point. I have +3dB low shelf below 200Hz in my studio and there's plenty of bass, but I can easily imagine going with more and with different frequency. Add so much you won't miss it when correction is engaged, they should have the same weight, just more even. I also lower the HF by -1.5dB at 10kHz, but -3dB was also fine, I just needed a bit more sparkle so it's -1.5 now

I imagine that Studio target and Harman target are different so it makes sense.
What i heard about GLM correction thus far completely lines up with your comments. Leaner bass and tiny bit too much energy elsewhere.

 

[Pearljam5000]

I still don't understand the logic of going with 8351 instead of 8361 considering that the price difference is not huge

 

[Arnas]

I still don't understand the logic of going with 8351 instead of 8361 considering that the price difference is not huge

8361 only have 2hz lower bass... Main advantage of 8361a is that it can go very loud, but that is needed only for the largest of rooms and the fact that 8361a are absolute monsters when it comes to size makes it unsuitable for smaller rooms.
I asked Genelec support and here is the response:

Hi!

No, it's just about SPL. 8361 plays down to 30 Hz, 8351B reaches 32 Hz. Absolutely similar. ;-)

Greetings,
Marcel

 

[G|force]

Nice! Are those 31's or 41's?

One can tell that they are '51B because the front LED is offset.

 

[Descartes]

Have been considering GENELEC the Ones for creating a multichannel system.

My room is 13 feet long by 11 feet wide by 9 feet tall.

I was thinking of the following:
(3) 8351B for R-C-L channels
(2) 8341 for rear channels
(4) 8331 for Atmos

I will also use two small subwoofers to cross over the speakers at 80Hz.

The seats are 8 feet from the front wall and 3 feet from the back wall.

Do you think that’s overkill?

 

[HiMu]

I will also use two small subwoofers to cross over the speakers at 80Hz.

Depending on what you consider a small sub, how the speakers perform in your room and what are your preferences, you could even try 50-60hz. You can use the GRADE report for guidance.
Check the Genelec links in this post https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...o-sub-vs-dual-mono.43767/page-11#post-1628063

My room is ~14x11x8ft, listening distance of ~7,5ft. and I'm pretty damn happy with a pair of 8340 crossed at 70hz.

 

[maxijazz]

Have been considering GENELEC the Ones for creating a multichannel system.

My room is 13 feet long by 11 feet wide by 9 feet tall.

I was thinking of the following:
(3) 8351B for R-C-L channels
(2) 8341 for rear channels
(4) 8331 for Atmos

I will also use two small subwoofers to cross over the speakers at 80Hz.

The seats are 8 feet from the front wall and 3 feet from the back wall.

Do you think that’s overkill?

See https://www.genelec.com/immersive-hub.
You can also read descriptions of systems installed at Genelec’s customers. Quite interesting systems there.

 

[EAXAE]

One can tell that they are '51B because the front LED is offset.

Now that's makes 8351 a no go!

 

[G|force]

Now that's makes 8351 a no go!

I wouldn't kick em out of the house just for that, but it's certainly not ideal.
I'm confident Genelec knows that design choice was a mistake, corrected with '31 '41 and '61.
If they ever evolve to 8351C...

 

[tmtomh]

Now that's makes 8351 a no go!

It's why the good lord created the LED Disable option in GLM.

 

[Pearljam5000]

I wouldn't kick em out of the house just for that, but it's certainly not ideal.
I'm confident Genelec knows that design choice was a mistake, corrected with '31 '41 and '61.
If they ever evolve to 8351C...

From what I understand they did it on purpose so you could distinguish between 8351 and 8361 in photos just by looking at the LED

 

[Arnas]

So far i always thought that speakers are not that good at low wolumes in comparison to headphones.
Not these! I was listening couple of nights in a row those at low wolumes and they still sounded super good. Guess this is effect of low distortion...
Bless Amir and other good folks here cause otherwhise if there was no ASR i would have wasted my money on Susvara and speakers with "exotic drivers" ,but no real enginering.

P.S movies sound leaps and bounds better on coaxial speakers when listening at close distance. 2 way, 3 way speakers imaging is not good at close distance except for very small speakers.
On these you can tell people talking meter away, birds chirping 20 meters away, kids playing 30 meters away. On my previous Edifier S3000Pro even at 1.5 meter listening distance there was no depth, everything happened at couple of meters away.
For home cinema this doesnt matter, but for nearfield coaxials suprised me a lot. When i first heard about it i thought its a scam... Now i will only get coaxial speakers.