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Genelec 8361a vs 8351b

I have tried both speakers in my 3.5 x 4.5m room. Like you I love EDM (but a lot of other stuff too). For me the 8351b’s were just a bit under powered and seemed to run out of steam when things got going. I'm listening about 2.5m away. They did sound great and I could definitely hear the 'One' sound (startling dynamics, incredible coherence across the frequency spectrum, amazing imaging etc) but it often felt like they were working hard. Switching to the 8361's things just got serious! Bass was more authoratative i.e. it never felt like it would run out, and there was a sense of ease like they were saying 'is that the best you've got, bring it on'. All ridiculously subjective I know, but it may help illustrate the difference.

A more objective fact was that when I got enthusiastic with the volume I could get the 8351b's to flash red (protection) quite easily. I've NEVER got close to this with the 8361s.

Suffice to say I bought te 8361s and, to butcher a well known saying, I'm enjoying the quality long after I forgot the price!

Doug
 
Ellebob said:
I do acoustic designs for a living. Lots of things to consider in your decisions.

1. How loud do you plan to listen?
The larger speaker will play louder and the further away you listen the more capable of a speaker you need if you like to listen louder.

2. Sub or no sub? I always recommend a sub, sometimes more than one. If you don't need loud sometimes the smaller model with a sub is better choice. If I place a sub in one location I will get a certain bass response, it might be boomy, it might seem like it lacks bass, or maybe it is perfect. If I move the sub to a different location I get a different response. If I am not using a sub and using speakers I get different response whether the left speaker is playing bass compared to right speaker and compared to both speakers. Stereo bass is not really possible in most room if people's homes. Moving your speakers to get a good bass response is very unlikely to be in good location for midrange and high frequencies and maintain good soundstage and imaging.

Also, if you move your seat you get a different response. Multiple subs help with keeping the same bass response in a larger area. If you only care about one seat, one sub is fine.

With that being said if you don't plan on adding a sub now, go with bigger speaker as it can play lower.

3. Acoustic treatments can make a huge difference in a room. You can make your soundstage wider with great envelopment or more narrow and have precise imagining and focus. There are also many different types of treatments to achieve the desired result. Finding the correct combination can be tough and many companies try to over treat a room and sell more treatments than necessary. This can make the sound worse and not better. Treating first reflections is not always desirable, it depends on how speakers measure on and off axis and one's goals for that room. Too much to cover here but be ready if companies that say you should be treatments a certain way and they have not discussed you goals or preferences. I find many customers don't even understand unless they sit in a room and listen to music they are familiar, move different treatments around where they hear the differences. Then they have a better idea what they want for the sound in their room.
Click to expand...
After talking to Genelec i think i will stay in nearfield domain. Im aiming for as flat as i can get it for mixing. It will be a long wait now and when im that far i will contact you for some help- i will pay for your service of course and send you the room dimensions along with all the reports i could get. I contacted some people that do this kind of work here (i could find very few) and they didnt even want to bother with a room so small since they are doing big dedicated business rooms- a shame for me really. I am open for subs but most certainly cant afford them for atleast a year.
Thank you
 
Thanks for the input. You are the first one to tell me that 51 in a room that size will not be loud enough. Do you think the 51 with subs would be even better then? Genelec said it would be a more flexible system than just 61s. Also is your room treated? and if not can you hear alot of room problems?
 
They will be easily loud enough in the near field, if you are going to be listening for eight hours a day and value your hearing then you are going to be listening at a relatively low level 80-85dB perhaps less.
Keith
 
I agree with @Jimshoe in his assessment of 51 vs 61 is far-field listening. 61s seem to have unlimited headroom on tap and that is nice to have, and means that e.g. boosting the bass a bit in DSP causes no difficulty at all.

Lots of advantages to near-field listening if it suits your setup. My advice would be to only get the 61s if you are listening around 3m away, and go for 51s (or even smaller) if you are listening in a near-field setup.

I have a pair of 8331s + sub that I use exclusively near-field (70cm away). They are absolutely incredible and actually sound better (and measure better) than my massive 8361s do in far-field -- less interaction with the room make a huge difference to the sound. Near-field allows the direct sound from the speaker to dominate what you hear.

Main decision would be what distance you want to listen at, then choose an appropriate monitor for that distance.
 
Went through this process recently. Skipped passed the D&D8c as too much of a price difference and I really like what GLM brings.
Ordered the 8361a over 8351b as the price difference was minimal, and at 1.5-3m listening distance the difference in sound, particularly bass, was noticeable.
 
Definitely the 8361
They work well at any distance
More SPL, more bass
What else could you want
Screenshot_20201031-151055.jpg
 
sleepy.sock said:
I have 8361As and I listen from roughly 3m away too. I am glad I got them and did not go with smaller models. They are pretty big beasts though. Bass response with EDM is excellent (although EDM isn't something I listen to much myself). As recommended in previous posts (and by Amir in his review) it is wise to add a bit of a bass boost in the 8361As -- this is easily done in DSP in GLM or Roon and produces superb results. The 8361A can really deliver in the bass dept.

The main acoustic issue you are likely to encounter if you listen 3m away is early reflections. Unless you are in a studio (which you can build to be as weird as you like), it's just very hard to control reflections at this distance. They do colour the sound and make it less sharply defined. Solutions are: sit closer to the monitors, or do massive structural work to your room to try to kill early reflections (good luck with that!).
Click to expand...
Early reflections are not an acoustical issue and should not be controlled.
 
Pearljam5000 said:
Definitely the 8361
They work well at any distance
More SPL, more bass
What else could you want
Click to expand...
But the 8351b has smoother on- and off-axis responses and directivity, we should always keep in mind that every loudspeaker is a compromise and thus the optimal choice depends on the individual priorities, personally I would go for the 8351b if I didn't need the SPL or better combine it with some W371A.

1723786430616.png
 
Thanks for all the insights! Just a funny question: How could you actually have 8361 in nearfield? Are there any table stands? i dont suppose having them on isopods on the desk would do them any good (especially in my case- i have a midi keyboard and audio interface which woul cover some of the speakers bottom..
 
Just put it on the desk with isopods. It’ll work but you’d have to be mad to do it. A keyboard in front of the bass drivers would not be a problem.
 
sleepy.sock said:
Just put it on the desk with isopods. It’ll work but you’d have to be mad to do it. A keyboard in front of the bass drivers would not be a problem.
Click to expand...
why mad? ill be in nearfield for sure. I have two screens on top of eachother and i concluded i wont sacrifice stereo image by putting speakers behind. But what would solution be in theory for them on the table? do you really think 7cm tall keyboard wont affect anything? and how worse would they perform sound on the table?
 
I only said it was mad because one can have a much smaller speaker like a 8341 or 8331 in near field for less money, perfect performance, and it won’t look crazy to the rest of the world. The 8361s are very big beasts. I could not imagine wanting to sit with them on my desk. But go for it if it floats your boat!
 
I'd get the 8361 to future proof if I ever move to a bigger room
Once you're stuck with a smaller monitor it's problematic
 
sleepy.sock said:
I only said it was mad because one can have a much smaller speaker like a 8341 or 8331 in near field for less money, perfect performance, and it won’t look crazy to the rest of the world. The 8361s are very big beasts. I could not imagine wanting to sit with them on my desk. But go for it if it floats your boat!
Click to expand...
I understand. Its not the dealbraker for me- the looks. Its just for me and i like how they look actually. I think ill be using them nearfield exclusively and i have no luck so far with finding table stands for them.
 
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