Senal ASM-5

[Pearljam5000]

I have no real interest in them but the design is hilarious so i thought I'd share.

 

[YSC]

... the design... why it gives me a feel of something I can buy in flee market counterfeit Genelec

 

[Mnyb]

... the design... why it gives me a feel of something I can buy in flee market counterfeit Genelec

Yes it looks like a fake genelec a very bad fake , looks like a superficial fake that just badly mimics the exterior ? would their "waveguide" work for example

 

[BDE]

For me it looks more like a SWANS HIVI X:

https://swanspeakers.com/product/x6/
https://swanspeakers.com/product/x5/
https://swanspeakers.com/product/x4/
https://swanspeakers.com/product/x6-sub-active-subwoofer/

Alixepress:
https://de.aliexpress.com/item/32902788036.html

 

[YSC]

For me it looks more like a SWANS HIVI X:

https://swanspeakers.com/product/x6/
https://swanspeakers.com/product/x5/
https://swanspeakers.com/product/x4/
https://swanspeakers.com/product/x6-sub-active-subwoofer/

Alixepress:
https://de.aliexpress.com/item/32902788036.html

this looks like the counterfeit of the counterfeit....

I wonders if @amirm want to measure one of these to see if they are real Shxtty counterfeit or it was a bargain... this Aliexpress one even use all simplified chinese marking power supply... for Senal I could only found their contact phone is in New York, but nothing related to where and how they started? a bit weird to me

 

[Zvu]

They actually look pretty well engineered. Swans or Senal. If the drivers are any good, diffraction with these would be practically non existent.

 

[amirm]

I can measure if someone wants to send me one.

 

[Zvu]

I've just found this

https://www.kenrockwell.com/audio/senal/asm-5.htm#intro

 

[YSC]

I've just found this

https://www.kenrockwell.com/audio/senal/asm-5.htm#intro

Hum interesting, I saw the graphs are supplied in box (I will keep a doubt on those legitimacy) and that they are made in China with the weird fake genelec looks.

really kept a smile when Ken said they don’t sound as sweet as genelec and focal but better than KH120

well I respect him as photo gear reviewer but this just looks so...

 

[Zvu]

No problem with doubting in graphs. I don't believe curves of much more famous manufacturers so this is no exception.

Though, i don't see why would it be so hard to believe Senal sounded better to him than KH120. If tonality of Senal is right, it can boil down to dispersion characteristics depending on listening position and surounding. He uses sub so we know that low frequency response of compared monitors isn't of any particular significance.

 

[Mnyb]

Maybe it is better than it looks I'm sometimes to negative

"imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery" as it is said if egg shaped aluminum shells works for genelec it may work for these guys too.

But where they not discontinued ?

 

[YSC]

No problem with doubting in graphs. I don't believe curves of much more famous manufacturers so this is no exception.

Though, i don't see why would it be so hard to believe Senal sounded better to him than KH120. If tonality of Senal is right, it can boil down to dispersion characteristics depending on listening position and surrounding. He uses sub so we know that low frequency response of compared monitors isn't of any particular significance.

I don't really mean don't believe it sounded better to him personally as subjective impressions are all along the place, maybe it just rolled off quick in highs or a weird shelve in any frequency range might make it sounded better to him in a quick sighted test where he have to try hard to distinguish between speakers, all I wanted to say is with that this statement makes me feel he have strong memory bias than he believed, in real life listening tests I don't think the genelecs, focal and Neumann to be that different.

and the skepticism mainly from personal bias though, personally I don't trust some weird copy cat job would spend serious effort in optimizing the design, like the "waveguide" can have lots of negative effects if varies slightly in shape. the choice of drivers/driving matching is also in query with such low priced counterfeit looking things.

 

[Zvu]

Why are they counterfeit ? If you have same acoutical goals, don't you end up with similar looks ?

In your opinion, what should designer/manufacturer do with cabinet if the goal is low diffraction, need for cooling the amp and low panel resonance ? You are almost destined to get to some form of an egg shaped loudspeaker made out of cast aluminium.

You could be right about waveguide performance, though. But for me, this waveguide doesn't look any more or less suspicious than any other monitor that isn't measured here or that i haven't measured myself.

 

[YSC]

Why are they counterfeit ? If you have same acoutical goals, don't you end up with similar looks ?

In your opinion, what should designer/manufacturer do with cabinet if the goal is low diffraction, need for cooling the amp and low panel resonance ? You are almost destined to get to some form of an egg shaped loudspeaker made out of cast aluminium.

You could be right about waveguide performance, though. But for me, this waveguide doesn't look any more or less suspicious than any other monitor that isn't measured here or that i haven't measured myself.

to me yes, if diffraction only the rounding or so should be ended up somewhat similar, but those grilles shape, port shape, finishing, the "foots" and even internal layout in terms of port duct and driving fixing mechanism give me those "O this looks so genelec" feel it's a sign of counterfeit

 

[Zvu]

As you are writting this, i'm thinking on how would i have dealth with any of those problems and only "foots" and woofer grills look Genelecky to me.

You need to flare the port so outer look will be almost the same, but these ports don't have cutout with felt glued on it to fight the port resonances, like Genelec does. The way of mounting the tweeter is similar but it is the cheapest/safest way (hold the driver by its magnet) so i can't attribute it being a Genelecky feature. Woofer is mounted differently than Genelec or Neumann. This one use drivers with neodimium motors (unlike Genelec 8030C or KH120) so will save on weight alot and doesn't need the plate over magnet to hold it.

To me, this looks like a good attempt to fight some of known issues in compact two way actives. But, proof is in the pudding and since they are discontinuited i guess we'll never know how succesful it was.

 

[Soniclife]

Why are they counterfeit ? If you have same acoutical goals, don't you end up with similar looks ?

In your opinion, what should designer/manufacturer do with cabinet if the goal is low diffraction, need for cooling the amp and low panel resonance ? You are almost destined to get to some form of an egg shaped loudspeaker made out of cast aluminium.

You could be right about waveguide performance, though. But for me, this waveguide doesn't look any more or less suspicious than any other monitor that isn't measured here or that i haven't measured myself.

I agree. The second you move away from bits of wood as a cabinet material to a cast shape you are going to quickly end up with this sort of shape if driven by function over aesthetics, I'm sure there are much older products that have the same basic sort of shape.

 

[YSC]

well I will just stop here and not trying to argue it "must" be a counterfeit, but all those resemblance do gives ME the impression they are trying to mimic the Genelecs and not do their own proper design, and man even that tweeter external black plastic ring looks so genelec like... yea all acoustic goals might ended up in similar solutions like waveguides, but hey, look at all those big guys out there have all sorts of looks and they achieving good results not limiting them to end up with similar material, style of foots, colour or even grills and port shapes, this reasoning don't really looks like an excuse to be that similar yet different in a way you first sight would say "is this genelec.. wait, something isn't like them"

despite all these it may ended up sound decent / great, objective measurements would be great for determining this.

 

[q3cpma]

Why are they counterfeit ?

Come on, they even copied the Iso-pod.

 

[buz]

Counterfeit they are not, they make no attempt at trying to pass as genelec - some sort of clones, possibly, even likely.

 

[maverickronin]

There's a pretty important difference between a counterfeit, which these obviously are not, and a knock off, which they obviously are.