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Genelec 8351B Review (Studio Monitor)

Sebastiaan de Vries

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I would like your opinion about bartok dcs
https://www.whathifi.com/reviews/dcs-bartok
I am waiting for the 8351b together with 2x 7370 + GLM as well as the roon nucleus, and I will play all these with bartok.
A friend has bartok, and he runs the active atc 50asl, and really the erotic one. In my case with the genelec series it would be just as efficient ??? to play properly. Finally what applies ???

The end result all depends on:
  1. Your room-size and listening distance.
  2. Crossover-point and slope
  3. Desired SPL levels
Genelec provides very useful guidelines for this: https://assets.ctfassets.net/4zjnzn...2a6cbc9/Genelec_Monitor_Focusing_Template.pdf
 

Sancus

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I would like your opinion about bartok dcs
https://www.whathifi.com/reviews/dcs-bartok

Anything with a spdif or aes out can feed Genelecs digitally. It's hard to imagine what a 2-channel streamer could possibly be doing to justify a 5-figure price point. There are no audible differences between streamers with digital outputs, it's just features.

If you want something that looks fancy, Auralic makes a bunch(that are still too expensive). But honestly a Raspberry PI with AES output will do. Or any mini-PC with a SPDIF output. With the right cable.
 

Sebastiaan de Vries

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Anything with a spdif or aes out can feed Genelecs digitally. It's hard to imagine what a 2-channel streamer could possibly be doing to justify a 5-figure price point. There are no audible differences between streamers with digital outputs, it's just features.

If you want something that looks fancy, Auralic makes a bunch(that are still too expensive). But honestly a Raspberry PI with AES output will do. Or any mini-PC with a SPDIF output. With the right cable.

For more than half of the money of the you can have a Trinnov Amethyst which gives you:
  • The best room correction on the market today (in my opinion)
  • Direct AES connectivity with your Genelec mains and subs
  • ROON ready
  • Steep 8th order crossovers and perfect subwoofer integration
  • 64bits resolution volume control (basically no audible loss of resolution)
You will (and should) not utilize the dCS DACs. To me, as a streamer seems redundant.

https://www.trinnov.com/en/products/amethyst/#Specifications
 
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Sancus

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Steep 8th order crossovers and perfect subwoofer integration

Genelec already does 8th order and perfect phase matching with GLM. There won't be any problems with sub integration. I don't know if the Trinnov room correction would produce better overall results, it is possible since it isn't focused on low latency the way GLM is. But that only helps if the GLM room correction results are unsatisfactory.

Personally I'd buy the cheapest streamer that does the job and save up for W371As :p
 

Sebastiaan de Vries

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Genelec already does 8th order and perfect phase matching with GLM. There won't be any problems with sub integration. I don't know if the Trinnov room correction would produce better overall results, it is possible since it isn't focused on low latency the way GLM is. But that only helps if the GLM room correction results are unsatisfactory.

Personally I'd buy the cheapest streamer that does the job and save up for W371As :p

good point about the W371As and we are absolute in agreement.

I didn’t know GLM applies 8th order crossovers between sub and mains. That is great and what I believe in. Thanks for clarifying.

I did experiment with GLM but since I don’t own Genelec subwoofers I wasn’t able to experiment with the crossover and alignment between subs and mains inside GLM.
 

richard12511

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For more than half of the money of the you can have a Trinnov Amethyst which gives you:
  • The best room correction on the market today (in my opinion)
  • Direct AES connectivity with your Genelec mains and subs
  • ROON ready
  • Steep 8th order crossovers and perfect subwoofer integration
  • 64bits resolution volume control (basically no audible loss of resolution)
You will (and should) not utilize the dCS DACs. To me, as a streamer seems redundant.

https://www.trinnov.com/en/products/amethyst/#Specifications

Have you tried using both GLM and Trinnov? The Trinnov is quite pricy, and it's my understanding that GLM is a requirement for implementing the 8351B/W371 crossover.
 

Sebastiaan de Vries

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Have you tried using both GLM and Trinnov? The Trinnov is quite pricy, and it's my understanding that GLM is a requirement for implementing the 8351B/W371 crossover.

Yes I have tried GLM to room correction the 8351b’s

and you are right, for W371A you have to use GLM.

My comments about GLM. GLM makes the Genelec SAM series a very versatile package. The GLM room correction addresses the major room issues (peaks) and makes the world of difference. Also the ease of operation, well designed GUI and low latency is part of the Genelec value proposition. This will likely satisfy most if not all users.

Compared to the the Trinnov correction, the Trinnov provides a more focussed and shaper presentation, with extended isolation of sound elements in space (by lack of a better word). With some tweaked settings it transforms the 8351b’s to one of the cleanest, spacious speakers I’ve ever heard.
This won’t be for everyone, and for some (with my applied settings) this is borderline sterile.

The Trinnov allows for more tweaking and customization, but with that comes some learning curve.
 

richard12511

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Yes I have tried GLM to room correction the 8351b’s

and you are right, for W371A you have to use GLM.

My comments about GLM. GLM makes the Genelec SAM series a very versatile package. The GLM room correction addresses the major room issues (peaks) and makes the world of difference. Also the ease of operation, well designed GUI and low latency is part of the Genelec value proposition. This will likely satisfy most if not all users.

Compared to the the Trinnov correction, the Trinnov gives a more focussed presentation, with extended isolation of sound elements in space (by lack of a better word). With some tweaked settings it transforms the 8351b’s to one of the cleanest, spacious speakers I’ve ever heard.
This won’t be for everyone, and for some (with my applied settings) this is borderline sterile.

The Trinnov allows for more tweaking and customization, but with that comes some learning curve.

Thanks, eventually I'd love to try a Trinnov system. No doubt in my mind it's better than GLM, but I just wonder if running GLM in the chain before running Trinnov(to integrate W371) would cause problems. Right now, I use GLM to EQ first, and then Dirac Live comes in afterwards and applies additional LF EQ and also helps to integrate my non Genelec subwoofers.
 

Sebastiaan de Vries

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Thanks, eventually I'd love to try a Trinnov system. No doubt in my mind it's better than GLM, but I just wonder if running GLM in the chain before Trinnov(to integrate W371) would cause problems. Right now, I use GLM to EQ first, and then Dirac Live comes in afterwards and applies additional LF EQ and also helps to integrate my non Genelec subwoofers.

As much as I love Trinnov and highly recommend it, if you go with the W731a’s I would suggest stay inside the GLM eco system. It is tailored for the W731A integration. Also the approach is more favorable, actively manipulate and steer multiple woofers (in space) to combat room modal modes as opposed to post correction of a complete system.
 

galanakop

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As much as I love Trinnov and highly recommend it, if you go with the W731a’s I would suggest stay inside the GLM eco system. It is tailored for the W731A integration. Also the approach is more favorable, actively manipulate and steer multiple woofers (in space) to combat room modal modes as opposed to post correction of a complete system.
So what would you suggest for a streamer that can play properly a system consisting of 8351b-2x w371 + glm + roon nucleus ???
 

Sebastiaan de Vries

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So what would you suggest for a streamer that can play properly a system consisting of 8351b-2x w371 + glm + roon nucleus ???

I am sorry but I can’t give you valuable advice on this topic. Myself I have hooked-up a harddrive with AIFF, FLAC and WAV files to the Oppo UDP-205 and this works very well. God forbid my Oppo dies then I have to look for another solution.

Now Apple Music will be lossless and till some extend hi-res I would think a Apple TV 4K becomes interesting as well. But perhaps that sounds like cursing to some audiophiles.

(EDIT: unfortunately nowadays Apple TV’s don’t have an optical output anymore, limited to HDMI. Therefore Apple TV is only feasible when you use a home cinema processor)

My main criteria for a streamer would be reliability, good GUI and low-jitter outputs. For what’s worth it, I got my Genelecs demoed at the Shenzhen distributor using Auralic streamer. Was a pretty clean and neat solution. https://us.auralic.com/#nav
 
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galanakop

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at the moment I have the 8330 along with the 7350 on an ifi pro idsd connected analog to xlr balance and it sounds good.
But as soon as I put an A10 AURENDER for testing on the ifi pro with a usb port that I got for testing, the sound became even better.
So I came to the conclusion that a good streamer always does a good job
So if I avoid all this and connect my speakers and sub on a streamer like u 1 lumin aes / ebu is it believed that I will have the same or better result in relation to ifi pro / a 10 aurender ???
 

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kuf

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I think it is better to avoid the unnecessary extra Digital to Analogue and Analogue to Digital conversions,
that will exist with every one of the appliances you mentioned

you want sth with AES/EBU output, cheap and more expensive options have been already proposed in this thread,
the streamer can be another device
 

Terry Stahly

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I get my 328be's thursday and replacing some one month old 228be's. I am running a pair of Martin Logan Balanced Force 212's one front right one left rear. Any opinions on these subs for music I love them for home theater. In fact I would have stuck with the 228be if I did not listen to music but they are not loud enough or present the large sound I am looking for two channel. I have been unplugging the interconnects for the subs with listening to my Lumin T2 but I suppose I will try them both ways. But I am intestested in opinions on my subs I do not know a lot about subs. I power the system with Krell 700cx, a 450 Mcx for center and FPB 300 for surrounds.
 

Sebastiaan de Vries

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I get my 328be's thursday and replacing some one month old 228be's. I am running a pair of Martin Logan Balanced Force 212's one front right one left rear. Any opinions on these subs for music I love them for home theater. In fact I would have stuck with the 228be if I did not listen to music but they are not loud enough or present the large sound I am looking for two channel. I have been unplugging the interconnects for the subs with listening to my Lumin T2 but I suppose I will try them both ways. But I am intestested in opinions on my subs I do not know a lot about subs. I power the system with Krell 700cx, a 450 Mcx for center and FPB 300 for surrounds.

I think you are in the wrong topic, since we talk about the Genelec 8351B here. Do you utilize a crossover between your mains and subwoofers, or you let your subs "glide along" with your mains? If the latter that is not advisable since it won't give you any headroom advantages and you get (uncontrolled) overlab.
 

MBI

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I know this is the 8351B thread, but it's that same thread that put the 8361A on my list.

So I listened to a pair of 8361 two days ago, before purchasing. They sound big enough for my use and do seem very easy to room adjust. Room adjustment helps a great deal and some further tweeking may sometimes reduce brigthness if the recording has to much highs (not sure how to say it).

I sat aside and even stood up and down and walked around to test the coaxial design's ability to widen the sweet spot (which is something I'm looking for). Although the stereo illusion was perfect in the center, there was a quite a bit left to hear elsewhere.

Tried mono as well, which was surprisingly pleasant, even after having listened to stereo mode (but with no room reajustment though). Since I watched Amirm's video on mono testing, I now try to test every speaker mono too. Some sound very weak or even terrible when playing alone. The 8361A does not.

When the two W371A were brought in to play along with the 8361A, the whole system sounded predictably much much bigger, but not like as if the 8361 alone were ridiculously weak before. I can't fit those subs in my current home and I'm not sure I could even pay for them. But there was some benefit to adding them in of course, perhaps not worth as much as 18 more k€. Not sure, but perhaps adding just one cheaper SAM sub such as 7380A could be worth it. Has anyone experienced this?
 
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