Genelecs

The smallest models? Yes, the DSP stuff is nice, they are sturdy and easily transportable with the sturdy metal mesh covering the woofer. Subwoofer integration is easy if you want one.

The Ones are even nicer but also expensive. Genelec is in the same boat with ATC regarding longevity and repairs, for example they still provide parts and repairs for S30, which are from the late 70s. I want to support that in the age of single use disposable everything. Not to mention they are made 100 miles from where I live, I'm a fanboy.

1238 for the living room, 8330 for portable use. <3

Seen as we're going through every manufacturer now ... Genelec seem to be the de facto metal mixing speaker and I've come across tons of them over the years. They're okay, in general a bit mid muddy and flattering but seem to translate well enough. I prefer ATC's usually but I've only ever come across one pair of SCM25A's and SCM45's over the last two decades.

I do have to give a special shout out the Genelec 8361A's, I love coaxial's and these are some of the best I've heard.. A bit pricey but I've been tempted on more than one occasion. However I still really like my Dynaudio LYD-48's, maybe not quite as articulate as the ATC's or massively impressive as the 8361's but there's always a trade off anyway.

The Dyn's for me are very neutral speakers which represent the good, bad and ugly dependant on the source. They're very revealing and analytical enough to fix problems easily but not to the point you're chasing ghosts subtly wrecking tracks due to information overload. Minimal distortion, no obvious issues etc. and whilst I'd like to have some ATC's or high end Genelec's the Dyn's haven't given me a good enough reason to "upgrade".

I've heard some say that they're a bit "soft on top" but that's contrary to my first review which stated that the HMF's were quite piercing.. Turns out it was just the reference track I was listening to across a bunch of monitors in my long term test stage (which included PMC, Barefoot, ME Geithain, Focal and many others).. The track was a well known highly regarded 70's song that actually sounded pretty rough on them, then I played some Journey and the Dyn's turned from rough / spikey to smooth and flattering so it's easy to determine when a song is ready to release. They translate perfectly too..

I worked myself with the 8040 for about 8 years.
I heard a few of the newer designs too.
IMO Genelecs suffer from a bad Waveguide design...
But that's just me and my experience since I own monitors which truly minimize the coloring of the sound spectrum.

It was Ragan who recommended them to me years back. They'll do 52, 42 or 32 Hz dependant on the switch setup so they can chew on whatever your room can handle. All my posts are quite verbose lately so I'll cut it down..

Owned 1030’s 1029’s and 1031’s sold a ton of all of them. Genelec very much has a sound, it’s very musical and can be seductive, honestly you don’t even notice it unless you put them next to say a PMC, ATC or Quested ( or you have a pair of ESLs and Magnepans with the ribbon in the same room but that’s just not playing fair for a little 2 way). I personally can’t listen to Genelecs for more than 2 hours without needing a break, it’s something to do with the HF, but I actually like them. The 1030 & 1031 really need some high pass, full range that last octave can get a bit of overly boomy, next to something with lower distortion and the amps seam slow but only next to something much more expensive.)

The guys besides metal who love them are post and guys doing live remote work. This is because in both cases the rooms are seldomly well treated and often position is a compromise, that wave guide is the magic here, in a bad room a 1030 can eat a ATC for lunch because of that wave guide.

Over the years I have used 1029s for all kinds of small playback systems, they need a sub but little genelecs hold their own.

I also found the old entry level 3 ways to be awesome for large scale demos. Honestly we once did a PT clinic where 250 showed, I was getting panicky and ready to see if Danny at Turbosound had something I could use to cover the crowd when I fired up the Genelecs found with a pair of Dual 18 Bagend subs and moving them out a foot I covered the crowd. Not many Monitors I can say I got that much even Coverage ( I was never allowed to try to use them as a live rig no matter how much I begged).

My Quested F11’s are voiced like Genelecs, honestly I have an issue with them around the crossover point ( it gets a bit “Tizzy”) but ironically I can listen to them for a week so go figure.

To sum it up they won’t keep you from making great records ( I can’t say who I sold them to but I know of a ton of well regarded albums mixed and tracked on Genelecs. They are not the sexy monitor of the month and you can do a lot worse.

I've been demoing the Ones in my own room and am considering the 8351b. For those of you that have them or have heard them, what would you say is too big a room for them? Mine is about 2722 cubic feet (16.5x15x11). I guess the answer might apply to any speaker, but this is a Genelec thread, so I'm gettin' specific. The 8351b seems to be in my sweet spot of price and performance, I just don't know if I'm underpowered. There will also be a sub available.

ericn, thanks for the wisdom. I'm not great with this stuff.

Listening distance is between 5-6 feet from each speaker. I'll call it 6 to be conservative.

As for SPL, I calibrate to 85dB SPL (C) but monitor 90% of the time in the mid 70's. 

The couch is about 12-14 feet from the speakers, and maybe 6-7 feet behind the sweet spot, if that helps. 

The published spec is 113dB SPL on that model. Hopefully it means there's enough headroom for me to crank a little when I need. I think it's -6dB for every doubling of distance, right? Would that mean max headroom at listening position is 107dB? Maybe it's better than that, because I'll bet they measure at 1 meter, not right up on it. That would make the couch around 100dB or better. Do I have that right?

Also, I own a sub, so maybe the LF thing won't be a big issue. The 8351b in my demo had really good LF performance. Even when I would crank it from the sweet spot, I never hit the distortion point. My ears always gave up before that. 

I can dig it!

I was thinking about stereo subs, actually, for the reasons you mention. Thanks again.

That’s encouraging. Do you run sub-less?

What sub do you pair with it?

If you don't mind me asking, what do you use for surrounds? It's all good market research.

I was really surprised about the Ones. I worked for years on 1031/1032s and HHHAAAAAATTTTEEEEDDDDD those things so much. It took somebody who I really trust completely to convince me to listen to these. They are a completely different speaker.

I had them up against some ATCs (and others), and although I think the ATCs are a slightly more refined speaker in the midrange, I liked the imaging and the impact of the Genelecs. I could switch between them often and forget which ones I was listening to, which I thought was a really good sign.

For whatever it's worth, I'm running a 7.1.4 Genelec setup in a room that's about 15' x 12' x 7.5'. My setup is as follows

My normal working levels are in the 70-something dBA range. I rarely push above 85 dBA, but there's plenty left in the Gennies' tank. I should point out that the sub provides 8 inputs that support bass-management and there's excellent control of where you place the crossover.  I don't have bass management for the top speakers, but I don't think it's a good idea to put a lot of deep lows up there anyway.

I can strongly vouch for GLM and for the GRADE reports you get from Genelec. Even though my room is treated, GRADE showed a few areas of my room that could improve. These were easily addressed by putting stuff in different places.  This in turn lowered the amount of correction that GLM needed to apply.

So even though I use smaller speakers than Blackdawg, I still get a very satisfactory result. I don't hear any mud in the low-mid areas. The 'ones' are incredibly good speakers and the concentric nature of the drivers naturally gives excellent imaging, no matter where you are in the listening area.

It's probably just me, but any thing I've done on Genelecs ends up sounding disappointing once it leaves the studio. Is It because they're too pretty sounding, or maybe difficult to make bad sounding tracks and mixes on?

It's probably only me.