Seeking recommendations: Best active speakers for $10k/pair? (Would also be offered for measurement.)

[Abe_W]

Let's see ... (from the link you provided)

...​

EISA, the Expert Imaging & Sound Association (www.eisa.eu) revealed the winners of its 2019-2020 Awards. Technical experts from over 60 leading specialist magazines and websites in 29 countries across the world have recognized and awarded no fewer than 78 products as the best in their categories. ...​

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And who are they ...
https://eisa.eu/members/

Certainly a fine group of world renowned technical experts

What are your credentials? Education, work experience, etc, etc Spit it all out and enlighten everyone about your expertise. I mean, your post appears to indicate that you know everything about the nitty gritty of speaker design better than Andrew Jones perhaps. You know more than everyone out there judging things at EISA perhaps....So, prove to me how all these guys at EISA are wrong and you are right. Prove your greatness to me.

Before you start....hang on a sec, let me get the bananahead meter out and point it at ya. Please don't make it roar to the red and set off all the loud alarms right away. I wish to have some peace and quiet...bwaaaahahaha

 

[NTK]

What are your credentials? Education, work experience, etc, etc Spit it all out and enlighten everyone about your expertise. I mean, your post appears to indicate that you know everything about the nitty gritty of speaker design better than Andrew Jones perhaps. You know more than everyone out there judging things at EISA perhaps....So, prove to me how all these guys at EISA are wrong and you are right. Prove your greatness to me.

Before you start....hang on a sec, let me get the bananahead meter out and point it at ya. Please don't make it roar to the red and set off all the loud alarms right away. I wish to have some peace and quiet...bwaaaahahaha

And what exactly are the credentials of these EISA "experts" and their history of technical achievements?

 

[echopraxia]

Before you start....hang on a sec, let me get the bananahead meter out and point it at ya. Please don't make it roar to the red and set off all the loud alarms right away. I wish to have some peace and quiet...bwaaaahahaha

This is outright trolling.

The rest of us should probably try to ignore the trolls (other than reporting them to mods) and proceed as usual.

 

[Senior NEET Engineer]

I recently discovered Buchardt Audio's active speakers.

A500 Measurements and Spinorama

A700 towers measurements

Look's like D&D 8C got some competition. The floorstanding A700 model is on pre-order, to be shipped September.

I struggle to see similarity to Dutch 8C. One is near constant directivity to 100hz. The other isn't. The A500 seems more like competitor to lifestyle "all in one" speakers.

 

[Thomas savage]

What are your credentials? Education, work experience, etc, etc Spit it all out and enlighten everyone about your expertise. I mean, your post appears to indicate that you know everything about the nitty gritty of speaker design better than Andrew Jones perhaps. You know more than everyone out there judging things at EISA perhaps....So, prove to me how all these guys at EISA are wrong and you are right. Prove your greatness to me.

Before you start....hang on a sec, let me get the bananahead meter out and point it at ya. Please don't make it roar to the red and set off all the loud alarms right away. I wish to have some peace and quiet...bwaaaahahaha

Thread ban , clearly nothing of value to add and being insulting.

 

[andrewch]

I went to hear the Genelec bunch in an acoustically horrible room few weeks ago, to understand what the difference is with their GLM kit on/off room EQ.

One model fitted my shortlist for a living room speaker - measured well, room EQ, powerful enough to use without sub, good warranty policy. The 8350A.

After reading this review on the German website about 8350A, I compared the 8340A vs 8350A with GLM calibration on/off.

I have to say it made a difference for me, and after a while I continued comparing both 8340A and 8350A with room EQ from GLM software (mic + software is extra cost).

Looking at the summary of test data from both 8350A vs 8351B 8351A, it's hard to justify the price diff for me. I liked what I heard and after a while I stayed with the 8350A. It was the better speaker, reproduced music effortlessly and when comparing to 8340A I was sure I want a speaker with 8" drivers.

The speakers also come in white color. I heard you could even get them in another color (120 available for home speakers), but not sure about that.

 

[HooStat]

Looking at the summary of test data from both 8350A vs 8351B,

That is the 8351A, not B.

 

[EchoChamber]

I went to hear the Genelec bunch in an acoustically horrible room few weeks ago, to understand what the difference is with their GLM kit on/off room EQ.

View attachment 89196

One model fitted my shortlist for a living room speaker - measured well, room EQ, powerful enough to use without sub, good warranty policy. The 8350A.

After reading this review on the German website about 8350A, I compared the 8340A vs 8350A with GLM calibration on/off.

I have to say it made a difference for me, and after a while I continued comparing both 8340A and 8350A with room EQ from GLM software (mic + software is extra cost).

Looking at the summary of test data from both 8350A vs 8351B 8351A, it's hard to justify the price diff for me. I liked what I heard and after a while I stayed with the 8350A. It was the better speaker, reproduced music effortlessly and when comparing to 8340A I was sure I want a speaker with 8" drivers.

The speakers also come in white color. I heard you could even get them in another color (120 available for home speakers), but not sure about that.

I went for the 8351B unauditioned... Couldn't be happier, a worthy investment IMO. I also have a set of 8030C's in a secondary system. Also excellent, but the 8351B with GLM and fed directly a digital signal from my computer using GLM for volume beats it in transparency, detail and presence by a good (subjective) margin.

 

[andrewch]

I went for the 8351B unauditioned... Couldn't be happier, a worthy investment IMO. I also have a set of 8030C's in a secondary system. Also excellent, but the 8351B with GLM and fed directly a digital signal from my computer using GLM for volume beats it in transparency, detail and presence by a good (subjective) margin.

Congrats. I see two choices here from Genelec:

$5K budget = 8350A
$10K budget = 8351B

@EchoChamber did you compare ASU/EBU vs analog XLR using the octo dac8 stereo? Any significant difference? I see a dac8 Stereo tour announced on their website.

 

[EchoChamber]

Congrats. I see two choices here from Genelec:

$5K budget = 8350A
$10K budget = 8351B

@EchoChamber did you compare ASU/EBU vs analog XLR using the octo dac8 stereo? Any significant difference? I see a dac8 Stereo tour announced on their website.

It is not night and day, but significant enough for me to switch to digital (and bypass the Dac8) for critical music listening. I still need the Dac8 for other digital inputs and ease of use.

 

[EchoChamber]

Congrats. I see two choices here from Genelec:

$5K budget = 8350A
$10K budget = 8351B

@EchoChamber did you compare ASU/EBU vs analog XLR using the octo dac8 stereo? Any significant difference? I see a dac8 Stereo tour announced on their website.

You could get the 8351B from a pro audio online store in Europe shipped to the US for much less than 10K. I didn’t pay all that...

Same goes for the 8350A.

 

[Pearljam5000]

@EchoChamber
If I'm not mistaken you wrote you had some big ATC monitors, would you say the 8351B are on the same level as the ATC? do you feel they are too limited without a sub in SPL and bass output? Thanks

 

[EchoChamber]

@EchoChamber
If I'm not mistaken you wrote you had some big ATC monitors, would you say the 8351B are on the same level as the ATC? do you feel they are too limited without a sub in SPL and bass output? Thanks

Wow... I don’t remember mentioning ATCs... But I did have a passive pair of 2-way ATCs many eons ago. Too for back for any meaningful subjective sonic memory. I did like them a lot though and I remember they had no bass (they were not large monitors).

To me the 8351B’s in my living room have more than enough SPL and Bass output for my needs. They give me more bass than when I had a pair of Rel’s 8” subs to complement my passive Ara Be’s.

Using GLM to control volume and feeding them a digital signal from my computer through a X-SPDIF (to convert USB to AES/EBU), -40 dB will sound fairly loud, -30 dB is loud for pop music and adequate for classical IMO. -20 dB is really loud for pop and -18 might trigger the circuit protection on heavy electronic music with a lot of low end such as Trentemoller.

I find a good bass test playing movie soundtracks like Gladiator or Interstellar (one of my favorite sci-fi movies). There’s a lot of bass information and energy in those tracks and the 8351B give me more than any other speaker system before them in my room. After GLM applies room correction bass is really tight and tuneful. Before GLM, it overwhelms the room...

I’m sure adding a big Genelec sub to complement would give me more of it, but I really don’t feel the need and don’t really want to look at a BIG, pro audio looking, ugly box in my home...

 

[q3cpma]

@EchoChamber
If I'm not mistaken you wrote you had some big ATC monitors, would you say the 8351B are on the same level as the ATC? do you feel they are too limited without a sub in SPL and bass output? Thanks

You're confusing with @Vintage57

 

[Pearljam5000]

Oops yes, sorry.

 

[TheHighContemplator]

I really enjoyed reading this thread. Thank you all. I hope a comparison between the 8351B and Salon2 happens, even if not blind, just to get an idea of their differences.

 

[Cbdb2]

Prove to me how everyone at EISA is wrong and you are right. Prove your greatness to me,

Looks like there all a bunch of audio rag reviewers, the ones that say a power cord makes a huge difference ( in there advertising income) . So if there lying about power cords why should anyone trust anything else they say? The measurements dont lie, like these reviewers, those are not great speakers, look at the enclosure resonances.

 

[pierre]

I really enjoyed reading this thread. Thank you all. I hope a comparison between the 8351B and Salon2 happens, even if not blind, just to get an idea of their differences.

there is no way the 8351b can compete with the salon2. Add 1 or 2 subs to the 8351 and then yes a test may be interesting. If not, you will notice the bass differences and go with the speaker that produces more output in the bass.

and both the salon2 and the w371 are not in the 10k$ category (or op was thinking per item?)

 

[Vintage57]

The in budget solution is the Neumann KH420. -3 dB of 26 Hz, 100 Hz to 10 kHz +/- 1.2 dB all for $8K.

 

[echopraxia]

there is no way the 8351b can compete with the salon2. Add 1 or 2 subs to the 8351 and then yes a test may be interesting. If not, you will notice the bass differences and go with the speaker that produces more output in the bass.

and both the salon2 and the w371 are not in the 10k$ category (or op was thinking per item?)

Do you own both? Given that I own both the Genelec 8351B and Revel Salon2, and having listened to both extensively (probably for hundreds of hours at this point), with subwoofers integrated with both (and without), I can say the Genelec 8351B undeniably does compete with the Revel Salon2. In fact, in many ways, it beats it.

But of course, it’s more complicated than that. As I’ve described earlier, each have their strengths and weaknesses (the Genelec 8351B is superior in some ways, and the Revel Salon2 are superior in other ways). Which you prefer will probably depend on your taste in music genre and recording style: Revel excels over a wider range of older vs newer recordings, and for recordings without much spatial information in them already (due to their wide dispersion having the effect of projecting a realistic soundstage into your room). Whereas the 8351B has medium dispersion but is otherwise technically superior in most every other way to the Salon2’s (aside from bass which can be easily matched with a few subwoofers and still cost less than a pair of Salon2’s), so it really excels when the recording contains high quality spatial information.