Genelec 8361A Review (Powered Monitor)

[YSC]

This was actually added in GLM4.1, they're phase linear down to 100hz now, if you accept an additional ~4ms of latency for a total of ~7-8 depending on the model. It also reduces the group delay.

Spoiler

View attachment 167579

now this really interests cannot tempt me! (looking at my wife)

 

[Pearljam5000]

now this really interests cannot tempt me! (looking at my wife)

Maybe you could buy Waldo's 8361A

 

[YSC]

Maybe you could buy Waldo's 8361A

actually even if someone offer me as a gift I can't take a 8361, I need a bigger home for that..... the max size for stereo to me is the 8341

 

[Purité Audio]

Why would you need a larger room?
Keith

 

[pozz]

Where are this 100 years ? All I have readed on the subject Toole inclued has more to do with psychology than engeenering.
Even the humanities use more mathematics than the audio world

The science called hard science has never been used in audio. A mix between woodwork, engeneering and auditory tasting.

Ignorant comment.

Siemens, Webster, Rice & Kellogg, Olsen, Beranek, Villchur, Thiele, Small and on and on. Well over 100 years of research just on loudspeakers themselves. This is without including all of the tightly related research in other disciplines.

 

[YSC]

Why would you need a larger room?
Keith

Because... in Hong Kong our whole apartment is about the size of a bathroom in Europe...

so take away spaces for bathroom, beds etc. if you give me a 8361A I can only use it as chairs or throw away my TV just to find a space to put them

 

[Purité Audio]

Throw away the TV, turn the speakers around and they would make quite comfortable chairs, and your weight might add some useful mass damping.
Keith

 

[CMB]

Speaking of furniture, what would make some not to expensive nice, solid and stable stands for those in a livng room please ?

 

[Frank Dernie]

Just out of curiosity was the noise mono or "stereo" (uncorrelated)? I have the feeling that loudspeakers and headphones with higher pair imbalance also tend to sound more spacious.

Sorry, don't remember (it was a long time ago and I wasn't running the experiment).

 

[YSC]

Throw away the TV, turn the speakers around and they would make quite comfortable chairs, and your weight might add some useful mass damping.
Keith

ok, then anyone willing to buy me some new furnitures

 

[Pearljam5000]

ok, then anyone willing to buy me some new furnitures

You know the minimum distance for them is 1 meter, so it doesn't really matter how small is your house

 

[tmtomh]

Where are this 100 years ? All I have readed on the subject Toole inclued has more to do with psychology than engeenering.
Even the humanities use more mathematics than the audio world

The science called hard science has never been used in audio. A mix between woodwork, engeneering and auditory tasting.

This is a very common issue in audiophile discussion: folks tend to equate their own personal state of knowledge about the field with the actual state of human knowledge about the field.

 

[ahofer]

Btw, when string players use the word “intonation”, it has always, IME, meant the pitch accuracy of the player (i.e. accuracy on the fingerboard). Not something that happens or changes in musical reproduction since we left wow & flutter behind.

I find it very noticeable how HF dies away with distance, so the frequency balance of anything, be it my daughter's viola, another daughter's cello and my wife's piano sound much more bright close to than at a typical concert hall "best seat" and even more so up "in the gods" at the Albert Hall, for example.
A lot of the recordings I like are old, recorded simply with a pair of microphones over the conductor's head, for example. Close miked recordings need a lot of manipulation to get a convincing concert hall perspective.

Looking at GLM demo videos (I have been considering Genelecs myself) the balance chosen does seem to be a flat FR at the listening position which is way brighter than the normal downward slope usually recommended.
FWIW

While I have a lot of experience with live music, I have almost none with recording. It strikes me that the 'objective function' of stereo recording for home reproduction is complicated. Most classical recordings capture or simulate a bit of the room/venue. But that gets added to the listener's reproduction room, with more or fewer reflections based on speaker directivity and room characteristics. A very wet production reproduced in a large, live room could be quite irritating.

In general, it seems like many recordings go for an effect like a window into the performance venue, ideally opening up behind the speakers. This is very different from the close-mic'd style (the HM recording, and some Hyperion recordings I have) that puts the instruments in your room with a lot more direct HF energy. They can indeed sound harsh. Truth be told, though, there are good and bad versions of both styles, from my point of view.

An old mentor of mine used to put on concerts in our college dining hall (Mostly the Muir Quartet and Christopher O'Riley). He'd record them on one of the first Sony DAT recorders. He just used two mics, roughly 8-12 feet out, and they captured a lot of what was a huge, live room (Except the ceiling had acoustic treatment - picture below). Through headphones, and in my little dorm room, those were actually great recordings. But when I see live music being recorded (at Alice Tully, for instance), they usually have the two cable-suspended mics over the stage plus near-field mics on the instruments to mix in. That technique tends to confuse the "image" for me, pushing instruments around in space in different ways through the recording.

 

[preload]

In no way did I intend to imply fabrication. Only that it Could be wrong because it hasn’t been replicated or really subject to strict peer scrutiny in academic journals over a period of time,

Any research "could be wrong," even when replicated. JAES strikes me as reasonably academic and is peer reviewed. Absence of replication does not mean the results are not true.

Also, that motivated by commerce, no matter the honorability of the researcher, deserves even a higher level of scrutiny. This seems uncontroversial.

Sure, and how often do you see papers where none of the authors have any financial disclosures?

also, I, really hate headphones. i am not alone in this. their spatial characteristics make them nearly unlistenable for music to me.

Well you're totally on your own there. That sounds like a pretty extremist view to me. I think in one survey, 87% of respondants use headphones to listen to music. It's a $2 billion dollar industry.

If I didn't have a similar impression of violins on my 8351b myself I would have suspected that your listening impressions of the 8361a were a one-off.

 

[YSC]

You know the minimum distance for them is 1 meter, so it doesn't really matter how small is your house

not really... I am currently sitting against my back wall, 8030C's put in front wall 5cm distance, and guess my listening distance from woofer... 75cm

 

[Spocko]

Because... in Hong Kong our whole apartment is about the size of a bathroom in Europe...

so take away spaces for bathroom, beds etc. if you give me a 8361A I can only use it as chairs or throw away my TV just to find a space to put them

Subwoofer + toilet combo!

 

[CMB]

not really... I am currently sitting against my back wall, 8030C's put in front wall 5cm distance, and guess my listening distance from woofer... 75cm

Soo, how high is ceiling ? There must be a solution

 

[pozz]

Speaking of furniture, what would make some not to expensive nice, solid and stable stands for those in a livng room please ?

If you're in North America, Skylan makes nice, furniture grade stands: https://www.skylanstands.com/

For example, the Sky-4P20 is big enough for the base and holds 150lbs. Depending on how far away you sit you may have to tilt those 8361 eggs up a little.

Edit: There are also the reliable Sound Anchors, but they look industrial and are pricey, especially considering that you'll need one of the thick four post models: https://soundanchors.com/products/2044/4-post-stands

 

[waldo2]

Thank you for all of your responses. I learned a lot about the speaker and about ASR. The speakers are still too bright for me after messing around quite a bit with glm. I just can’t get rid of what I take be bright treble and artificial or synthetic sound on strings and pianos. Given how many people love the speakers, I just chalk it up to different priorities. I understand that ASR doesn’t really believe in different priorities though. Anyway, thanks again for humoring me.

 

[Spocko]

Speaking of furniture, what would make some not to expensive nice, solid and stable stands for those in a livng room please ?

For my various Genelec speakers, I only use their dedicated K&M stands (which only come in black) but I have used other stands shown below:

I bought these white stands from Amazon (Kanto speaker stands) and like them, stable enough for my needs, "living room friendly" and the plates rotate so you can "toe in" the plate without having to turn the stands themselves!

For my studio I use these Ultimate Support stands (from Sweetwater) They come in red as shown below and also all black.