8010A and 7040A or 8020D and 7040A for a small room - Forum

I'm no Genelec engineer, or in any way affiliated with them, bear in mind.

Best advice ever, no-one can contradict: Borrow and experiment.

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As for my personal opinion... Think bigger.

​​​​​​For my 3x4x2,5m room, with an even closer listening distance and the listening position near the front wall, I had to jump to 8330's and a 7350 under the desk. When a sub is participating in the higher bass frequencies I can hear and locate it, which I don't like; With this setup I could set the monitors to go low enough and drop the sub crossover frequency so that it stays hidden. My near-front listening position, which can't be changed, would be impossible without heavy DSP correction; The 8030's had no chance whatsoever. The rear-wall still causes a cancelling dip I have to live with.

Listening levels are mostly irrelevant here - 99% of the time my GLM SPL meter doesn't even exceed 70 dB. Genelec makes the best stuff to listen to with low/moderate levels I've ever heard, this includes subwoofers.

​​​​​​​​If you can stretch it, do go straight for the SAM models, get a kit of two with GLM. 8330's are surprisingly good even without a sub (got mine a year later). ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​If you just can't go SAM and NEED a sub, get the 8020D's and a 7350 and have someone with GLM set and store the crossover frequency etc. to your preference (compare 60, 65, 70 Hz at least).
​​​​​​​​​​​​​Why the 7350? First, at near-field there's a good chance you'll prefer to use the full range of the 8020's. Second, the price difference vs. a 7050 is insignificant. Third, you'll be all set to upgrade the monitors to 8320/8330(/8331)'s. Also, if you NEED a sub, the 7040 just won't cut it; Sorry.

​​​​​​Alternate, mathematical ways to think:

8320SAM kit, € ~ 8010 x 2 + 7040. Add 7350 as soon as possible => Bliss; Beware though, no bass until done.

8330SAM kit, € ~+40%, you'd be OK-ish from the start and there's the digital input (S/PDIF is fine) which is really convenient. Add the carrying case and you'll have an easily travelling 11 kg bag, which rocks any decent-sized room. You'll still want to add the 7350, just a bit later.

​​​​​​​8010 x 2 + 7040: Get it all Right Now - except ... not quite all ... and Oh My, the room really was Much worse than you thought. Sell all with 25-33% loss; Goto SAM. Due to losses, get 7350 much, much later. Meh.

Many thanks for your input!

That certainly got me thinking in the SAM direction again.

I initially didn't really consider it because I already have a Sonarworks Reference 4 kit (software and measurement mic). But I could probably sell that and use the money for the difference between 8020 and 8320 I guess. I do have to admit that having a controllable crossover frequency and having the room correction outside of the DAW is somewhat attractive.

 

Btw, just ordered a set of 8320 and GLM as well as a 7350 - looking forward to installing them and see how things work out. :)

Well now, that's quite a jump from your initial thoughts... Congratulations and here's hoping you'll be amazed. :)

If your setup will be anything like mine (desk near front wall, sub under, monitors on desk), don't settle with a global crossover frequency. It's the most appropriate starting point for sure, but also try full range and low crossover frequencies for the monitors, with different frequencies for the sub (I use 70 Hz). It's easy with GLM, just duplicate, edit and optimize a few groups and start switching between them, see what works out. That Sonarworks kit might give very valuable hints on where to head, assuming it has analyze-only functionality.

The three full range sweeps per optimization round take mere seconds, but a fair warning - the next step, sub phase optimization, is best done with no bass-sensitive disturbances (read: wife or such) present.

stefanwiesendanger, are you happy with your purchase? I'm about to repeat what you just did. I was considering 8010A or 8020D with the7040A, but after reading this thread I changed my mind to doubling the budget for the 8320A+7350A combo.

Hi.

So far I'm really happy with it, didn't have a chance to actually mix something on them though to see how well it translates (primarily was listening to reference material I know well).

Regarding 7040 vs 7x50, it certainly helps the 8x20. If the 7040 would have been enough is hard to tell, but the 7x50 is not too much, at least not when it's under control of GLM - if I just run it without equalization, it's a loooot of bass. But that is to be expected in this room. If there would have been a "7340", I probably would have looked into that as well, but as I really wanted GLM, 7350 was the smallest option.

Regarding GLM as such, this works really nice and makes a huge difference compared to no room correction. I couldn't compare it one-to-one with Sonarworks as I had already sold it when I got the Genelecs. I basically only have the small Sonarworks edition for my headphones now. Which is actually nice, as I'm using Cubase Pro, so there I can setup the Genelecs as one set of monitors with no correction in the DAW and the headphones as another set of monitors with Sonarworks for the headphones and I can easily switch between the two - sweet.

The only negative with GLM is that is it only does attentuation and no boosts. As I still have one dip left in the frequency spectrum after using acoustic panels and GLM, I have to correct for this in the DAW (not a real problem though).

Hope this helps :)

 

Thanks! I'm very much looking forward to owning these monitors. About to pull the trigger now.