Genelec 8361A Review (Powered Monitor)

[Pearljam5000]

KH420 has a better bass: less distortion at loud levels and ability to go lower.
The hiss is also more quiet with the KH420: 18.3 dBA SPL against 24dBA SPL for the 8361A.

And... that's it.

But I am convinced that if you want the best sound in the world you will need a subwoofer. Why?

1. Unless you listen to music in a perfectly treated room in a dedicated room (is such a thing real in this world?), you will have a hard time finding a place for your pair of speakers where the frequency response is flat in the bass region. Therefore, a sub will allow you to put your speakers at the best possible place for a nice response down to ~100hz. As for the bass, if you delegate the job to a sub, you can move it in the room to find the best place while you can still seat at the same location with the speakers located at the most convenient place for you. Of course you could add a second subwoofer to optimize and fill dips you weren't able to cover with the 1st subwoofer.
2. Subwoofer are made for bass, they're heavy as hell (is hell heavy? good question), their driver is really made for the sub 100hz region while woofers on speakers often have to handle up to 300-500hz to take over the mid-range driver. Therefore, a 18 inches driver will without a doubt have less distortion than an 10" woofer (KH420, 8361). It will go lower, it will go louder.
3. The bass woofer of your speaker will have less work and therefore will be better in the high bass region and will be able to go louder.

Of course all of this is possible only if:

1. The subwoofer is very good (not all subs are equal)
2. You are able to integrate the sub perfectly. In my experience, I was never able to do that before I met the GLM kit. You'll certainly be able to do it for most setups/brands using REW software and a microphone, but it will require a lot of time and knowledge. What GLM offered me is an outstanding "click and play" experience. I won't go into GLM's autophase and woofercal processes details but I find it to work very, very well.

@Pearljam5000 unless you don't care about wasting money or you can't mentally handle the fact you don't own the biggest Genelec model, you'll end-up with a pair of 8351Bs and a 7380A sub That is your endgame.

That's exactly it lol
It's very hard to know that there's bigger and better and you buy the second best model lol
A sub would be great but Unfortunately Genelec subs are overpriced
Obviously if it was easy to integrate an SVS sub that costs 1000$ that would be more realistic

 

[CMB]

My two grain of salt to it :

8351 is around 3.800 EUR
7380 is around 4.500 EUR
Total of around 12K

8361 is around 4.800 EUR
As a music/hifi enthusiast, you probably can live without a sub here (certainly at least for a good while) and then you are set at around 10K (including cables, GLM).

With the 8361, I don't feel the necessity for a sub (while I understand the above arguments), neither would this huge sub/cube fit somewhere in my living room.

For me, 8361 won easily above the KH420, mostly because of included GLM.
Considering that at the end, the room makes a huge part of what you hear at the distance of 3-4m, GLM is a must in my environment.
Certainly, there are other external solutions for KH420, but nothing looked as much convenient to me.

At the end, it is a choice between the bests, and you need to evaluate what fits the best your personal situation, considerations, expectations, etc.

 

[Pearljam5000]

Is it realistic to soffit mount them also at a
home and not a studio?

 

[Inner Space]

View attachment 274109View attachment 274110
Is it realistic to soffit mount them also at a
home and not a studio?

Well, that isn't really soffit mounting. Those are mounted on-wall, with soft insulation built out around them, with a box to keep the insulation from spilling into sight. But it's a really great way to do it, and easily done at home, absent decor disputes.

Soffit mounting is where a flat-fronted speaker is inserted seamlessly into a wall. The speaker "sees" the entire wall as its own baffle, removing SBIR and diffraction effects. On-wall mounting doesn't carry those inherent advantages, but to set them into a deadened boundary as pictured carries strengths of its own.

 

[Pearljam5000]

His room looks great

 

[ing.daniele]

in the end, how it actually behaves the dac of the 8361? will my 256 dsd files all be downsampled ? or is there a solution using an external DAC and analog connection? @amirm

 

[CMB]

in the end, how it actually behaves the dac of the 8361? will my 256 dsd files all be downsampled ? or is there a solution using an external DAC and analog connection? @amirm

Don’t know about downsampling. To my understanding (using myself an external DAC), the analog signal is processed any how in the speakers (to digital/to analog again). But I let the experts confirm.

 

[Sancus]

in the end, how it actually behaves the dac of the 8361? will my 256 dsd files all be downsampled ? or is there a solution using an external DAC and analog connection? @amirm

There's no way to bypass the DAC so they'll be downsampled anyway.

On the upside none of this matters and stop worrying about sampling rates.

 

[Hmast]

+1

DSD downsampled to 192khz will be far enough Could be 96khz, there is no ABX in this world that would allow to spot a difference.

 

[Marc v E]

I

in the end, how it actually behaves the dac of the 8361? will my 256 dsd files all be downsampled ? or is there a solution using an external DAC and analog connection? @amirm

I listened to the 8351. There is a slightly more focussed sound when using digital, ie only the dac in the Genelecs. But, I have to state, the difference is so small, that I personally would value usability more (a dac with volume control and remote) than choosing digital above analogue xlr.

 

[ing.daniele]

Perfect. I'll stop saying I'll worry about sample rates, and I'll only think about buying well-recorded music. whether it is 16-44.1 whether it is in dxd. if these monitors are used to produce music, and the engineers decide by listening how the music should be, then I don't see why I, in my house, should have the presumption of reproducing something better than a recording studio. Thank you. and thank you Genelec for your publications and products.

 

[Adi777]

His room looks great

Looks really nice, but so many glass, windows are not a problem?

 

[Hmast]

Yes, they are, the whole room looks awful in term of acoustics.

 

[RobL]

I suppose that’s the type of room that W371A’s are meant to help with but it’s kinda like driving a Ferrari in the mud.

 

[ing.daniele]

This is a good room for genelec

Genelec ‘The Ones’ power Morten Lindberg’s stunning immersive studio - Genelec.com

In the world of immersive music recording, no-one has done more than Grammy-winning sound engineer and music producer Morten Lindberg to set the gold standard for what can be achieved in this field. To raise the bar of sonic excellence even further, Lindberg has recently upgraded the monitoring...

www.genelec.com

 

[WalkingInTheRain]

His room looks great View attachment 274480View attachment 274481View attachment 274482

Living in Seattle area, East Side, I love this view and the Genelec's make it even better. After recently buying a pair of 8030Cs and RME ADI-2, I'm looking at a pair of 8341s. These photos are incredible.

 

[Esprit]

8351 is around 3.800 EUR
7380 is around 4.500 EUR
Total of around 12K

8361 is around 4.800 EUR

Where these prices?

 

[RobL]

Where these prices?

Genelec prices took a jump in some places recently (~ CAN$500 on 8361A’s here in Canada!)

 

[Trell]

Genelec prices took a jump in some places recently (~ CAN$500 on 8361A’s here in Canada!)

In EU we have VAT (Value Added Tax) that varies from 17% to 27%, depending on country, and VAT has to be included in the price shown for consumers.

 

[RobL]

In EU we have VAT (Value Added Tax) that varies from 17% to 27%, depending on country, and VAT has to be included in the price shown for consumers.

We have a sales tax here (13%) that’s similar, I guess. Still seems strange to me, given the freight costs to North America, that I can purchase Genelec here cheaper than people in Europe pay. Taxes included I can find 8361’s for about 4200€.