Nearfield upgrade for small room

[jorgen83]

About 20 years ago, still as a student, I took my vacation job earnings and splurged on a set of Dynaudio BM5A's, the first series. These have worked very well for me for 2 decades, but I'm looking to upgrade and could really use some input from people who’ve lived with these systems.

Some specifics:

• Nearfield listening distance: ~80–100 cm
• Speaker placement is against a back wall, on my desk
• Room: currently a large attic office, but moving to a rather small room in the house later on (room is about 3.5m by 2.5m, I don't know what that is in freedom units)
• Usage: audio and video production for e-learning, but honestly mostly music listening and general work (I work in online learning and this is a business expense)
• Would be running these from my Focusrite 18i20 (which doesn't have aes ebu, but does have sp/dif out).

While audio production is the reason for getting monitors, music enjoyment is also a big consideration tbh. I've always really liked the Genelecs, the way they look and the GLM system looks like a big step up from my rather "dumb" monitors right now. So I've been focusing on Genelec to look for the upgrade path. Now I don't know if this sounds familiar, but when I start researching audio stuff things tend to escalate rather quickly. So where I started out looking at 8040s, I'm now mostly looking at either 8341s no sub, or 8331s with a 7350. That last option currently looks like the best option for my small room. Both options obv with GLM.

I am slightly worried about the 31s being underpowered compared to the 41s, but the 41s I think are a little too big for my office, especially once I move to the smaller room (a necessity due to 2 growing boys that need a bigger bedroom in the house). On the other hand the BM5As have 2 50 watt amps, and the 31s have 2 36 watt and 1 72 watt amps. I don't really listen that loud anyway, but there are so many reports of these quickly redlighting that it is a bit of a concern.

Are there other combo's to consider, other brands to look at, or other suggestions, let me know. Any insights or long-term impressions would be hugely appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[goofytwoshoes]

I'd be surprised if you found you needed/wanted more power with the 8331/7350 combo. I have a pair of 8040B speakers, and an 8330A/7350A combo set up side by side. Room is 7.5m by 5m, and I sit 3m from the speakers. Could easily live forever with either setup. When you set up using the GLM kit, there is some flexibility in the sub's crossover point, and GLM automatically crosses over the monitors, too. So a setup with sub will reduce power requirement of the monitor's woofers.

Got a Fiio SR11 streamer and a Neutrik digital audio impedance converter to feed the Genelecs, all good. Later, just for giggles, I got a barrel connector to mate digital RCA to AES/EBU cables. The subwoofer was unhappy with the barrel connector, and it's LED was red for 2 - 3 minutes until it settled down. So, I suggest a proper impedance matching transformer, either Neutrik or Canare. Genelec suggests the passive version of either will do the job.

 

[jorgen83]

I'd be surprised if you found you needed/wanted more power with the 8331/7350 combo. I have a pair of 8040B speakers, and an 8330A/7350A combo set up side by side. Room is 7.5m by 5m, and I sit 3m from the speakers. Could easily live forever with either setup. When you set up using the GLM kit, there is some flexibility in the sub's crossover point, and GLM automatically crosses over the monitors, too. So a setup with sub will reduce power requirement of the monitor's woofers.

Got a Fiio SR11 streamer and a Neutrik digital audio impedance converter to feed the Genelecs, all good. Later, just for giggles, I got a barrel connector to mate digital RCA to AES/EBU cables. The subwoofer was unhappy with the barrel connector, and it's LED was red for 2 - 3 minutes until it settled down. So, I suggest a proper impedance matching transformer, either Neutrik or Canare. Genelec suggests the passive version of either will do the job.

Cool thanks!

This thread has already been caught up by reality, since my daily search for deals on Genelecs lead me to find a store that sold new 8331s for 1500 a piece. I’ll see how I like them as is before adding a sub for now.

 

[jogi]

About 20 years ago, still as a student, I took my vacation job earnings and splurged on a set of Dynaudio BM5A's, the first series. These have worked very well for me for 2 decades, but I'm looking to upgrade and could really use some input from people who’ve lived with these systems.

Some specifics:

• Nearfield listening distance: ~80–100 cm
• Speaker placement is against a back wall, on my desk
• Room: currently a large attic office, but moving to a rather small room in the house later on (room is about 3.5m by 2.5m, I don't know what that is in freedom units)
• Usage: audio and video production for e-learning, but honestly mostly music listening and general work (I work in online learning and this is a business expense)
• Would be running these from my Focusrite 18i20 (which doesn't have aes ebu, but does have sp/dif out).

While audio production is the reason for getting monitors, music enjoyment is also a big consideration tbh. I've always really liked the Genelecs, the way they look and the GLM system looks like a big step up from my rather "dumb" monitors right now. So I've been focusing on Genelec to look for the upgrade path. Now I don't know if this sounds familiar, but when I start researching audio stuff things tend to escalate rather quickly. So where I started out looking at 8040s, I'm now mostly looking at either 8341s no sub, or 8331s with a 7350. That last option currently looks like the best option for my small room. Both options obv with GLM.

I am slightly worried about the 31s being underpowered compared to the 41s, but the 41s I think are a little too big for my office, especially once I move to the smaller room (a necessity due to 2 growing boys that need a bigger bedroom in the house). On the other hand the BM5As have 2 50 watt amps, and the 31s have 2 36 watt and 1 72 watt amps. I don't really listen that loud anyway, but there are so many reports of these quickly redlighting that it is a bit of a concern.

Are there other combo's to consider, other brands to look at, or other suggestions, let me know. Any insights or long-term impressions would be hugely appreciated.

Thanks!

I'm in a similar situation like you.
Ultra near-field under 1m.
No music production on my site, only music listening.
My room is also on the smaller size.

My problem is, that i'm very sensitive to speaker hiss.
Currently using Adam A3X and wanted to upgrade. The A3X hiss very little (almost none) at my listening position.
I've ordered Adam T7V, unfortunately, they hiss too much. Event at 2m distance i can hear them if nothing is playing. Will be sending them back.

So, I'm starting again.
As far as I know, Genelecs also hiss.
Aren't you afraid that it will be audible at 80 cm?
Did you consider going with passive speakers?

 

[jorgen83]

I'm in a similar situation like you.
Ultra near-field under 1m.
No music production on my site, only music listening.
My room is also on the smaller size.

My problem is, that i'm very sensitive to speaker hiss.
Currently using Adam A3X and wanted to upgrade. The A3X hiss very little (almost none) at my listening position.
I've ordered Adam T7V, unfortunately, they hiss too much. Event at 2m distance i can hear them if nothing is playing. Will be sending them back.

So, I'm starting again.
As far as I know, Genelecs also hiss.
Aren't you afraid that it will be audible at 80 cm?
Did you consider going with passive speakers?

I'm not worried about this with the 8331A. Genelec specifies them as the quietest from the "the Ones" range with 0db self noise at 1 meter.

Haven't received them yet, the store said it could be up to 3 weeks. Apparently the insane price they gave me wasn't because they had stock.

 

[Roland68]

I'm in a similar situation like you.
Ultra near-field under 1m.
No music production on my site, only music listening.
My room is also on the smaller size.

My problem is, that i'm very sensitive to speaker hiss.
Currently using Adam A3X and wanted to upgrade. The A3X hiss very little (almost none) at my listening position.
I've ordered Adam T7V, unfortunately, they hiss too much. Event at 2m distance i can hear them if nothing is playing. Will be sending them back.

So, I'm starting again.
As far as I know, Genelecs also hiss.
Aren't you afraid that it will be audible at 80 cm?
Did you consider going with passive speakers?

That's precisely why I use Elac DBR62 and Elac Carina BS 243.4 speakers in my two setups, along with Topping PA5 II (the Mini300 and 3E A5/SE work just as well), or Sabaj A30a.
Both setups are well under a meter away, and even at night in complete silence, there's absolutely no hiss or background noise perceptible.

I'm extremely sensitive to such noises, and even with active monitors costing over €500 each, I was almost driven crazy by them.

 

[jogi]

That's precisely why I use Elac DBR62 and Elac Carina BS 243.4 speakers in my two setups, along with Topping PA5 II (the Mini300 and 3E A5/SE work just as well), or Sabaj A30a.
Both setups are well under a meter away, and even at night in complete silence, there's absolutely no hiss or background noise perceptible.

I'm extremely sensitive to such noises, and even with active monitors costing over €500 each, I was almost driven crazy by them.

It can drive me crazy too.
I did try to test it with 5 friends of my age (40+) and only 2 of them did hear the hiss.
Thank you for your tips, will put them on my candidate list for further investigation.

 

[Chanur]

I'm in a similar situation like you.
Ultra near-field under 1m.
No music production on my site, only music listening.
My room is also on the smaller size.

My problem is, that i'm very sensitive to speaker hiss.
Currently using Adam A3X and wanted to upgrade. The A3X hiss very little (almost none) at my listening position.
I've ordered Adam T7V, unfortunately, they hiss too much. Event at 2m distance i can hear them if nothing is playing. Will be sending them back.

So, I'm starting again.
As far as I know, Genelecs also hiss.
Aren't you afraid that it will be audible at 80 cm?
Did you consider going with passive speakers?

If you are worried about hiss my Kanto YU6 powered don't hiss at all.