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Genelec 8361A Review (Powered Monitor)

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  • 1. Poor (headless panther)

    Votes: 6 0.9%
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    Votes: 4 0.6%
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    Votes: 638 94.4%

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    676

NiagaraPete

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Their speakers may be assembled there but many of their drivers are mAnufactured in China.
Keith
I’ve read quite a bit about this company sustainability and I doubt very much anything in a Genelec comes from China. Feel free to prove me wrong.
 

Purité Audio

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Confirmed by a Genelec engineer on their own forum,
Keith
 

Pearljam5000

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I think the 8000 series drivers are outsourced and Ones drivers are made in house
 

Tangband

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I think the 8000 series drivers are outsourced and Ones drivers are made in house
The 8000 drivers are custom made for Genelec by Tymphany. They have better motors than the peerless HDS drivers they share the shassie with. The ones drivers are made in the factory.
Read more about Tymphany here :
 

Sancus

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Their speakers may be assembled there but many of their drivers are mAnufactured in China.
To be clear, this is not true for the Ones. The drivers for the 83X1 series are made in-house.

Not that there is anything wrong with parts coming from China. I'm sure they aren't making their PCBs in-house from raw sand either :p It's really at final assembly and testing/QA where quality of manufacture is assured.

They can move the production to China and make the products more affordable(not that I support it)

Why would it drive down prices? Prices are about market fit, not manufacturing costs. Kef actives are made in China, and most likely to a lower standard. Are their active speakers way cheaper than Genelec? Nope. The LS60 is $3500/ea, the LS50 II is $1400/ea and it's a 2-way! You'd maybe get prices lower by 20% or something. That wouldn't change the market for the speakers at all because no one is saying "ah yes I can afford $4K per speaker but not $5K!!!"
 

Pearljam5000

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To be clear, this is not true for the Ones. The drivers for the 83X1 series are made in-house.

Not that there is anything wrong with parts coming from China. I'm sure they aren't making their PCBs in-house from raw sand either :p It's really at final assembly and testing/QA where quality of manufacture is assured.



Why would it drive down prices? Prices are about market fit, not manufacturing costs. Kef actives are made in China, and most likely to a lower standard. Are their active speakers way cheaper than Genelec? Nope. The LS60 is $3500/ea, the LS50 II is $1400/ea and it's a 2-way! You'd maybe get prices lower by 20% or something. That wouldn't change the market for the speakers at all because no one is saying "ah yes I can afford $4K per speaker but not $5K!!!"
Actually that 20% is critical for someone like me and could mean i could buy them or not buy anything at all :)
But yeah i agree with you in general.
 

Newman

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Actually that 20% is critical for someone like me and could mean i could buy them or not buy anything at all :)
But yeah i agree with you in general.
It would be hard to justify not buying anything at all when you could buy the next model down the Genelec range.
 

Descartes

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“For me, multi-channel audio is the most enjoyable way to experience music, and I'll listen this way whenever I can. I feel like it's impossible to go back entirely to stereo after you've heard a decent multi-channel system!”
Cool set up!
The only thing that was surprising were the cables in that article!, why waist money in these pseudo science cables?

“For me, multi-channel audio is the most enjoyable way to experience music, and I'll listen this way whenever I can. I feel like it's impossible to go back entirely to stereo after you've heard a decent multi-channel system!”

I agree 100%

My dream room as a home theater

 
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Georgios

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Just a little anecdote…a good friend of mine came over tonight to hear my ‘61s. He has a pair of Heresy III’s at home he listen to music on. After hearing the ‘61s play some music he was familiar with, he was speechless for a minute, then he said “Well, there’s two instruments in that song I didn’t even know were there..” True story, lol.
Thats very tempting but it shouldnt be deciding factor to be perfect speakers. For music listening, there are some other important things like non-fatigue, instrument reality etc. I myself am inclined but hesitant to choose 8361.
 

807Recordings

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Thats very tempting but it shouldnt be deciding factor to be perfect speakers. For music listening, there are some other important things like non-fatigue, instrument reality etc. I myself am inclined but hesitant to choose 8361.
Frequency deviations can certainly push out elements in a mix/song/track that had not previously been heard before. ;-)
More often I find monitors that are accurate to be closer in details than huge differences.
 

RobL

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Thats very tempting but it shouldnt be deciding factor to be perfect speakers. For music listening, there are some other important things like non-fatigue, instrument reality etc. I myself am inclined but hesitant to choose 8361.

Have you had an opportunity to hear a pair of them, or any of the Ones series?
 

Georgios

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Have you had an opportunity to hear a pair of them, or any of the Ones series?
I have heard 8331 at dealers place. Same style as my previous 8320 with more details and better image of course, but I wasn't impressed. At that moment I even thought 8320 had way better value considering the price. 8361 should be much better but I won't expect it has different house sound.
 

Marc v E

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I have heard 8331 at dealers place. Same style as my previous 8320 with more details and better image of course, but I wasn't impressed. At that moment I even thought 8320 had way better value considering the price. 8361 should be much better but I won't expect it has different house sound.
Although I must say that I haven't heard the 8320, 8331 or 8361, I have heard the 8030 and own 3 way speakers; what you heard is pretty much what I would expect.

Imo you're basically confirming that a flat frequency response and wide even directivety is most important. To get a noticable improvement you'd probably need to add a driver dedicated to bass. Ie a subwoofer or the woofers in the 8361. And room eq of course, but you already have that in the 8320.

It's still pretty remarkeble though that you did hear some differences in details and imaging. Exactly the points that Genelec was aiming for.

One last thought is that if the 8320 are so much alike the 8331, it is also a testament to Genelec's research and dedication to good sound reproduction.

Edit:
If you read the reviews by Amir imo you'll notice his enthusiasm for speakers like the 8320 and 8030 just because they're such an incredible accomplishment at the lowest price possible.
 
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Marc v E

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Thats very tempting but it shouldnt be deciding factor to be perfect speakers. For music listening, there are some other important things like non-fatigue, instrument reality etc. I myself am inclined but hesitant to choose 8361.
One benefit of the Ones might be that , according to Genelec, a concentric driver helps to prevent listener fatigue : https://www.genelec.com/8331a

One other option is to lower the treble if you experience it with your current monitors https://support.genelec.com/hc/en-u...l-that-the-sound-is-too-bright-What-can-I-do-

(Personally I have experienced it a lot in the past, but not since I own B&O's and Genelec. )
 

MrSoul4470

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I think if you really want to listen in nearfield (like me at <1m / 3 feet) coaxial is almost a must. Otherwise even small movements change the sound drastically. I don't see how a coaxial speaker would bring any benefits at 3m / 10 feet or so. In my opinion nearfield is the way to go if you want ultimate detail and imaging.
 

Newman

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according to Genelec, a concentric driver helps to prevent listener fatigue : https://www.genelec.com/8331a
AFAICT you are misquoting Genelec, at least as far as that link quotes them.

All they say in that link is that unnatural imaging, whatever that is, contributes to listener fatigue. Plenty of non-concentrics have very natural imaging.
 

Marc v E

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Curiosity got the best of me.

I listened to the Genelec 8351's today and all I can say is: stunning! There is no other word for it. The imaging, clarity is beyond compare, at least as far as I have experienced. Between the 8030 and the 8351 is a big gap imo. Well worth it.

Any negatives? Hardly. Old well recorded music sounds great. Modern music sound great. Only badly produced music sounds really bad. I'm not talking about compression, but pop music that was overly processed and a truely bad recording. Like Rita Ora's New Look for example. The rest was absolute pure realism that made me forget about all of the equipment and just enjoy the music and performance. I'll say it again: stunning.

Ps: they didn't have the 8361; therefore I chose the 8351 to listen to.
 
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tmtomh

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Curiosity got the best of me.

I listened to the Genelec 8351 today and all I can say is: stunning! There is no other word for it. The imaging, clarity is beyond compare, at least as far as I have experienced. Between the 8030 and the 8351 is a big gap imo. Well worth it.

Any negatives? Hardly. Old well recorded music sounds great. Modern music sound great. Only badly produced music sounds really bad. I'm not talking about compression, but pop music that was just over processed. Like Rita Ora's New Look for example. The rest was absolute pure realism that made me forget about all of the equipment and just enjoy the music and performance. I'll say it again: stunning.

Ps: they didn't have the 8361; therefore I chose the 8351 to listen to.

Nice! Quick question: about how loud and how far away were you listening? I ask because the 8361 is on my "bucket list" but I don't listen to music super loud (usually 85dB or lower), I've never had or wanted subwoofers, and my listening position is about 2.5-3M from my speakers. Both the 8351 and 8361 are expensive, and I guess if I could swing $8k then I could also swing $10k, but still, $2k is a lot of money and I have wondered for a long time if I would really benefit from the '61s given my typical listening volume and use case.
 

Marc v E

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Nice! Quick question: about how loud and how far away were you listening? I ask because the 8361 is on my "bucket list" but I don't listen to music super loud (usually 85dB or lower), I've never had or wanted subwoofers, and my listening position is about 2.5-3M from my speakers. Both the 8351 and 8361 are expensive, and I guess if I could swing $8k then I could also swing $10k, but still, $2k is a lot of money and I have wondered for a long time if I would really benefit from the '61s given my typical listening volume and use case.
I was listening at about 2,5 meters.
It was in a room of about 5 meters wide and about 8 deep.
I was listening at about 1/3 volume to half volume at maximum. There was a dac/pre in between when listening at that volume. When connected digitally I had it at about 25% volume. 40 to 50 would be movie type loud, seriously loud. I haven't heard the 8361 but when listening I was wondering why anyone would need a bigger loudspeaker or even a sub. (You could probably use a sub if you wanted the utmost and use it for movie watching. All imo of course, with the caveat that I haven't heard it with a sub or the 8361).
Summarising: I think it's plenty loud, but to make sure you could take a look at what Genelec advises for your room size and desired spl.

Another thing that I would personally consider is the size of the monitor, where imo the 8351 is a nice volume, not too big. For myself I would buy the 8351... and a sub if I ever felt the need or flush with money to spend.

Edit: reading Amir's review and measurements of the 8351 and 8361, I probably listen at a lower volume than 85db when listening to music. He either has a really big listening space, or tries to test the monitor to the max, which translates to me as:
-are you searching for the best sound money can buy? Buy the 8361. Spending more would be silly.

Are you like me and listening to music lower than 85db? Then probably the 8351 would be just as good. Only when using in a big space and or with lots of high volume bass heavy music or playing movies, then imo the 8361 or a sub would be necessary. It could also be that I missed the overdriving of the bass units, but if that was the case, then imo you really need trained ears to hear it at the volume I played.
 
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