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Genelec M040 Review (Studio Monitor)

Rate this speaker:

  • 1. Poor (headless panther)

    Votes: 3 1.7%
  • 2. Not terrible (postman panther)

    Votes: 6 3.4%
  • 3. Fine (happy panther

    Votes: 90 51.7%
  • 4. Great (golfing panther)

    Votes: 75 43.1%

  • Total voters
    174

dfuller

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Postlan

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Port resonance from back can be reduced a lot very easily just attaching a box filled with absorption material to the back side of the speaker. The box can even be an Amazon cardboard box. It definitely works. You'll clearly hear the difference and the difference is measurable. It also makes the speaker slightly more cardioid at low frequency.

Manufactures can't do it, because the speaker will be way too deep just to reduce port resonance.
 
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Tangband

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Port resonance from back can be reduced a lot very easily just attaching a box filled with absorption material to the back side of the speaker. The box can even be an Amazon cardboard box. It definitely works. You'll clearly hear the difference and the difference is measurable. It also makes the speaker slightly more cardioid at low frequency.

Manufactures can't do it, because the speaker will be way too deep just to reduce port resonance.
Just a point : Its not clear that its a port resonance in this speaker . Amirm writes it might be a port/cabinet resonance .

The smaller G3 ( 8030c ) tested in Stereophile dont have any audible portresonances , and the cabinet is dead quiet. The G3 cabinet is different made than this loudspeaker , that makes me believe that it might be a resonance from the cabinet walls.

My vote regarding this loudspeaker is that we dont really know if its a port or cabinet resonance. It might be both.

8D1FC3E6-75AD-436F-B5E7-50B7EC063683.png
 
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Habbe

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Oct 12, 2021
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I don't know if this comment is relevant here, but the M040 has a down firing port, not back firing.
 

DeathMeister

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May 20, 2021
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It isn't. I think it came out in 2013 or 2014. I see a lot of reviews from that era. And as late as 2018 they were saying they are still available.
Out of curiosity not judgment, why take the resources and time to test an out-of-production device? Virtually no one is able to buy a new one.
And how many times must we test and prove that power and USB cables are all about the same in the proper application? How many nails does it take to nail boutique cable manufacturers' coffins shut? (And is this a valuable use of expensive test gear and expertise?)
I like finding info on my old speakers on sites like this. I was quite happy to discover the impressive Spin-o-rama plots for my good old HR824’s for example. i like buying used gear that compares well to current, much more expensive stuff, or realizing that years ago I bought a classic!
 

nathan

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May 24, 2020
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Yep, craigslist, audiomart, Ebay, facebook, garage sales, audiogon, etc etc are a veritable cornucopia of audio gear history -- and access -- often for pennies on the dollar compared the original prices. A review like this can really help those on a budget buy or sell this older gear that in many cases handily outperforms the latest "darlings" of the subjective YouTube reviewers that seem to dominate the discussion a lot of time.
 

nathan

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May 24, 2020
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@amirm I’ve noticed in many reviews you call out narrow beam width as a detractor in speakers. Is this a personal preference or do you think that wider dispersion is inherently better?

In the Genelec monitors specifically I think they seek to keep direct vs reflect sound over 50% at the intended working distance. So the larger speakers actually beam more to achieve this over longer distances and they are intentionally designing to achieve narrow beam width.

Is this something where optimal design for enjoyment might be different from optimal for audio production?

IIRC, "narrow beam width" does not mean "narrow sound". The speaker is still sending audio out in a wide direction, even with a narrow beam width -- it is just "inaccurate" or "different" from the on axis sound.

Since rooms reflect sound to some extent, the more consistent those off axis response curves are with the on axis curve (wide beam = consistency between on and off axis sound) the better the experience of listening.

It gets a little less critical with near field monitoring in a well damped room, but it still matters.
 

zoink

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I know that it takes a lot of effort to do a full Klippel spinorama, but I really do wish more "legacy" speakers had these kinds of measurements available. The used market can have a lot of very cheap speakers, but it's always a crapshoot whether Stereophile or some other review from "back in the day" did measurements. And of course you have to squint pretty hard to grok those 3d Stereophile dispersion graphs. A few people out there are doing one off modern spins of older speakers. At some point if I get geeky enough it would be in interesting hobby to get fully set up to do spins and to buy cheap local used out-of-production speakers, publish the results, and sell them along.
 

Bataille

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I bought these few years ago, barely have used them in my home studio. I wonder if I could eq them better in my nontreated room with the GLM set? Are they compatible? Thanks
 

YSC

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I bought these few years ago, barely have used them in my home studio. I wonder if I could eq them better in my nontreated room with the GLM set? Are they compatible? Thanks
these are analog actives, not DSP, so GLM wont work, but if you use a PC source, you could always use EQ APO and REW to do it, or get a dac with parametric EQ like the RME ADI and use REW to get your room eq
 
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