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New 8351A - Pop at power up

openears, modified 5 Years ago.

New 8351A - Pop at power up

Youngling Posts: 1 Join Date: 12/15/17 Recent Posts

Hello,

This is my first post.

I recently purchased a pair of 8351a's. They are close in S/N (about 5 apart).

One of the speakers makes a loud pop after the power up sequence. it does it every time if I leave the speaker off for a few minutes or more. It does not pop if I power-cycle the speaker over a shorter period of time. 

The power up sequence is like this:

orange->red->flashing red(slight hiss)->green(loudish pop)

whereas the other speaker just does the light sequence with only the slightest "clcik" at the end of the cycle.

I have setup the speakers using the GLM SW. Also, the pop occurs even when nothing is connected to the inputs. Finally, this issue has been present since I powered the speaker up the first time. The speaker seems to sound fine but I am new to these monitors so I question my judgement.

I did a few internet searches and couldn't find anything. Is this something others have reported? It may be no big deal, but I don't like the fact that they behave differently, am concerned some manufacturing or shipping defect, and also worry about future problems caused by this "impulse".

Thank You,

Mike

jani-oksanen, modified 5 Years ago.

RE: New 8351A - Pop at power up

Jedi Master Posts: 449 Join Date: 3/30/17 Recent Posts

Hi Mike,

Small pop sound is totally normal, and each monitors behave little different as this start up pop noise is related to electronics. To determine is this something we would call as normal, could you make a short video clip of the problem and send it to service@genelec.com and we'll take a look at it and get back to you. This pop noise doesn't effect on the reliability of the product, and you can continue to use it without any worries.

 

Best Regards,
Jani Oksanen
Factory Service Team

ssk, modified 2 Years ago.

RE: New 8351A - Pop at power up

Youngling Posts: 2 Join Date: 11/5/20 Recent Posts

Dear Jani,

 

I am considering Genelec, but have a bad feeling looking through this forum. People reporting different hiss levels of each speaker or something like this „pop“ sound. Your statement that the origin of the different hiss levels, pops is from the electronic (clearly) implies, that there is no matching/proper testing in the factory to obtain the same performance of both speaker. I don’t mean equalization of the speaker, I am speaking about proper testing electronic properties of each amp and DACs including burn in. 

For me this would be a reason to return the speakers, because I would not trust the electronic testing/matching of the units. 
I had before bad experience with active speakers (other manufacturer) and am quite sensitive on that topic. 

Could you please outline how you test each unit and how you ensure consistency of a pair of speakers (not only equalization, also electronic properties). Is there a „longer“ test with heavy loads included (over 24h e.g.)? 

Thanks in advance for your reply! 
 

 

jani-oksanen, modified 2 Years ago.

RE: New 8351A - Pop at power up

Jedi Master Posts: 449 Join Date: 3/30/17 Recent Posts

Hello,

I consulted from our R&D and you can find their comments below:

It is very important to distinguish between transient noise (pop) on startup (turn on/off), and normal background noise during use.

On/off pop noises are not specified. There is a listening listening test, but no measurement for comparison to a limit. There can be some unit to unit variation. There are plenty of mechanisms in the system that can cause such transient noise, and during the design phase a compromise has to be made between on/off pop noise, on/off time delay, normal use specifications etc.

Background noise during use is specified. Our tight specifications and 100% testing of normal use performance figures means that variations between units in terms of frequency response, background noise, distortion is very small. So small that we don’t talk about pair matching – all our products are matched

 

​​​​​​​​​​​​Also some additional comments from me:

All the active speakers amplifiers generates sound which is heard through the speaker elements. This is called self generated noise level, which is specified at max. 5-10 dBA for current production Genelec products.. This is a very low noise level and most of the active speakers on the markets are not capable of such a low base noise. Of course, in a very quiet room and listening to it at very short distance, the normal self generated noise may be heard if there is no other sound or music in the background.

To compare the self generated noise, you can imagine as example having passive speakers, and then turning their external amplifier to full power-> you will hear noise generated from the amplifier from the speaker drivers which is normal.

With most of the Genelec products if you feel the noise is too loud, you can slightly adjust it to lower from the volume trimmer that is located on the front/rear panel of the speaker or with SAM-monitors you can change the input sensitivity from GLM software ie. to -20dB. However when you do this, you have to remember that after that you have to raise the volume from your sound source, and also your soundsource can generate some noise.

Best regards,
Jani Oksanen
​​​​​​​Customer Service

ssk, modified 2 Years ago.

RE: New 8351A - Pop at power up

Youngling Posts: 2 Join Date: 11/5/20 Recent Posts
jani-oksanen:

Hello,

I consulted from our R&D and you can find their comments below:

It is very important to distinguish between transient noise (pop) on startup (turn on/off), and normal background noise during use.

On/off pop noises are not specified. There is a listening listening test, but no measurement for comparison to a limit. There can be some unit to unit variation. There are plenty of mechanisms in the system that can cause such transient noise, and during the design phase a compromise has to be made between on/off pop noise, on/off time delay, normal use specifications etc.

Background noise during use is specified. Our tight specifications and 100% testing of normal use performance figures means that variations between units in terms of frequency response, background noise, distortion is very small. So small that we don’t talk about pair matching – all our products are matched

 

​​​​​Also some additional comments from me:

All the active speakers amplifiers generates sound which is heard through the speaker elements. This is called self generated noise level, which is specified at max. 5-10 dBA for current production Genelec products.. This is a very low noise level and most of the active speakers on the markets are not capable of such a low base noise. Of course, in a very quiet room and listening to it at very short distance, the normal self generated noise may be heard if there is no other sound or music in the background.

To compare the self generated noise, you can imagine as example having passive speakers, and then turning their external amplifier to full power-> you will hear noise generated from the amplifier from the speaker drivers which is normal.

With most of the Genelec products if you feel the noise is too loud, you can slightly adjust it to lower from the volume trimmer that is located on the front/rear panel of the speaker or with SAM-monitors you can change the input sensitivity from GLM software ie. to -20dB. However when you do this, you have to remember that after that you have to raise the volume from your sound source, and also your soundsource can generate some noise.

Best regards,
Jani Oksanen
​​​​​​​Customer Service

Dear Jani,

thanks a lot for the thoroughly answer on my concerns. Makes sense and sounds well thought out. This builds trust. I will test them and hope to like them :)