I listened to the KH150 vs a 8351 and a Dutch & Dutch 8c today in a 12sqm room (thanks,
@Hörzone). All of them without EQ, but the room was equipped with quite a lot of treatment, including AVAAs. It was less dry than my own room, though, and i cannot make valid comparisons to my own calibrated system. It was the first time hearing a Genelec for me. For me personally it was an interesting experience, but i don't think it is of much worth for others. I am not a trained listener and the setting was not controlled at all, i just listened to each of the speakers for some time, as i would at home.
I tried pushing all of them as hard as i could in bass, and all of them could handle more than myself. I was surprised that something in the 1-2k region of the Genelec bothered me a bit, there was a little "bite" while the others seemed more smooth. I don't know the reason for this (because on paper, the 8351 looks almost perfect), maybe something psychological, maybe i was tired at the time or maybe i am particularly sensitive to this, but mostly because of this i overall preferred the KH150 over the 8351 in this situation. If i wanted to buy a Genelec, i would take more time figuring out if this could be a subjective problem or not. In some tracks i think the Genelec was bit ahead and in others the Neumann, but to me, i did not have the feeling they were in a different class. They seemed pretty similar, and i guess the rest is up to individual preference or use case.
The D&D on the other hand seemed better to me than both, as far as i could tell in this scenario. It is of course also in a very different price category, so no surprise here.
I really cannot make a valid comparison or comment on the soundstage question, but as an owner of a KH310, i did not miss anything in the KH150. All of the 3 had a good stereo image, the D&D seemingly the most wide and overall "best" while 150 and 8351 seemed close to each other, but i guess if all of them would have been calibrated and/or in a different room, it could have been different. I did not hear any hint of "darkness" in the KH150, it sounded just right to me. But to be sure about that i guess the spinorama will be telling. I also did not find them lacking in the bass region. To my "wooden ears" the bass of the 150 sounded very deep, clean, loud and satisfying, even without a subwoofer. But this is hard to tell in an uncalibrated room.
