Bailing on the Genelecs...ordered some 8" Yamaha monitors

[Jarick]

Set them up and have a couple hours in with them. Still feeling them out.

Out of the box, I wasn't super impressed with them. They sounded fairly flat and had good bass extension, but I could definitely hear the desk resonance and the high end wasn't as crisp as I was expecting.

I made three tweaks that seemed to help:

• Removed the Mackie Big Knob to run directly off the MOTU interface, which I think helped the clarity a tiny bit. Something about the gain hitting the speakers directly maybe?
• Realized there was a little bit of EQ on my computer Spotify bumping the mids by a couple decibels as I was trying to help the scooped tone of the JBL's, so pulled that off and that helped the highs and lows come back up.
• Put the speakers on the Iso Acoustics pads which cleaned up the bass and the desk resonance

So now they do seem quite better than the JBL 306 speakers. There's more bass that extends deeper, the midrange isn't nearly as scooped, the highs are crisp but not too splashy, and it just sounds really good overall.

Biggest issue though is they are massive, like really massive, even compared to the 6.5" JBL speakers. They definitely aren't going to be desktop speakers, so I'll have to pick up some stands for them. I was hoping they'd fly under the radar in my office but my 4 year old just walked in and said "WOAH you have some new radios that are super big!"

Also they seem to want a moderate amount of volume to open up, and I like to listen at low volumes. I'll see if that changes as they break in a bit. They don't sound bad, but they are big speakers and only feeding them a tiny bit of power doesn't move the cones much. That could just be our old pal Fletcher Munson.

I also think there may still be a little dip in the midrange due to the size gap between the big 8" cone and the 1" tweeter. I think that's possibly why the 5" speakers are pretty aggressive in the mids and the 8" speakers are smoothed out. That's another place I wonder if the 6.5" wouldn't be a better fit, but looking at the measurements and hearing comparisons, the 6.5" seem to still be a little too aggressive in the mids and the bass rolls off earlier, so maybe it's better to just get used to the 8"?

EDIT: One more thing, the hiss is a lot lower than the JBL and not really noticeable with my tinnitus and ambient noise. The JBL had a very noticeable hiss at the same volume and distance. The Genelec was silent and had the really nice auto power feature.

 

[Jarick]

LOL

Just put on "No Ordinary Love" by Sade...yeah the little speakers aren't going to stand a chance against these beasts.

I'm getting flashbacks to when I had dual 12" subwoofers in the back of my hatchback.

 

[FuzzyAce]

LOL

Just put on "No Ordinary Love" by Sade...yeah the little speakers aren't going to stand a chance against these beasts.

I'm getting flashbacks to when I had dual 12" subwoofers in the back of my hatchback.

Any time I test new speakers or headphones it's going to be a mix of Sade, Steely Dan, Peter Gabriel, maybe some Maxwell, for starters.

 

[fretworn]

LOL

Just put on "No Ordinary Love" by Sade...yeah the little speakers aren't going to stand a chance against these beasts.

I'm getting flashbacks to when I had dual 12" subwoofers in the back of my hatchback.

 

[MirrorProfiles]

I think the older 10 series Genelecs had a reputation for sounding hyped, where anything you played through them sounded too flattering and unrepresentative of how it actually is. 1031’s sort of became a standard even when at the time people knew they were hyped. A lot of great sounding stuff made on them though.

Newer Genelecs don’t seem to have that quality like the old ones, I think especially with GLM they can be pretty great in any room.

 

[Jarick]

Any time I test new speakers or headphones it's going to be a mix of Sade, Steely Dan, Peter Gabriel, maybe some Maxwell, for starters.

Absolutely. Gotta get some Aja in there, and anything off So. Red Rain is my go to.

 

[la szum]

I tune my room to Daniel Lanois.

 

[Jarick]

Got some stands yesterday and I can tell that positioning will get tricky. Depending on the position it can either be a bit bright or a bit scooped or really balanced.

Also think I’m going to try and shoot a video later today comparing all the speakers for guitar. Would be useful. I’ve got a reference mic that may be good for that.

 

[duzie]

LOL

Just put on "No Ordinary Love" by Sade...yeah the little speakers aren't going to stand a chance against these beasts.

I'm getting flashbacks to when I had dual 12" subwoofers in the back of my hatchback.

I have no idea who “Sade” is
My flashback to car stereos goes back to the 70’s.
The lack of bass and exaggerated treble from my Jensen tri-axles has my ear’s still ringing to this day .
Edit :
Dammit I knew I was spelling axials wrong

 

[Jarick]

I have no idea who “Sade” is
My flashback to car stereos goes back to the 70’s.
The lack of bass and exaggerated treble from my Jensen tri-axles has my ear’s still ringing to this day .

I’m not super familiar with her catalog but she’s a really popular R&B singer from the 80s/90s, except instead of being bubble gum pop it’s more jazz and soul inspired.

My first job was working at Best Buy so I used to get awesome discounts on electronics. Soon after starting I replaced the paper cone speakers in my car with coaxials and it nearly took my head off. Didn’t realize how bright they were. Had to save up and get a subwoofer to balance it out.

 

[JiveTurkey]

Sade is amazing. Full stop.

 

[Rock Chalk]

The lack of bass and exaggerated treble from my Jensen tri-axles has my ear’s still ringing to this day .

Ah yes....the ol' Jensen Triaxes propped up on the back of the seat of my old pick-up truck..........remember it well.....

 

[duzie]

I didn’t have a subwoofer in my car till the mid 90’s

This cd was then played for a month straight.

 

[James Freeman]

Besides the lower cutoff, is there really a noticeable difference in the midrange between the 6.5" and 8"?
Both are thechnically flat.

 

[FuzzyAce]

I didn’t have a subwoofer in my car till the mid 90’s

This cd was then played for a month straight.
View attachment 10515

Only a month?!
Pantera got a lot of play time too back then -- as I recall.

 

[James Freeman]

Vulgar, Countdown, Justice.
Excellent albums and the benchmark of scooped guitar tones.

 

[Cirrus]

I tune my room to Daniel Lanois.

I got married to him.

Well not... No, not HIM! My wife! Listening to him.

 

[la szum]

Great taste!

Is your wife's name Wynona by chance?

 

[Jarick]

Update after a couple days:

Still struggling to get the positioning right. The stands are too tall and don't really fit around the desk legs well, so I need the speakers 1-2 feet away from the corners of the desk. This makes the sound really distant or with some odd stereo phase issues. So I've reverted back to putting them on my little homemade bridge shelf. They are up on the Iso Acoustics stands which does really seem to help clean up the bass with the big drivers.

I briefly set them up alongside the JBL 306 monitors, and was absolutely shocked by the difference. The JBL's sounded like there are blankets over the speakers compared to the Yamahas. That's surprising because the JBL's sounded more open than the Genelecs, but the Yamahas had way more clarity and punch.

Looking at the frequency response graphs I can find now, I suppose that makes sense.

Here's the Yamaha HS7. The HS8 should have a flatter overall response with a little more bass, but wasn't tested by the same person. Notice the response is pretty flat, maybe tilting down by 1dB from 100 up to 10k:

Here's the JBL. Notice that it tilts down by about 5dB:

And here's the Genelec 8030. Again, the 8020 should be very similar with a little less bass extension. There's a tilt of about 5dB here as well:

So the other two monitors have a 5 dB tilt where the Yamahas are about a 1 dB tilt. That would likely explain the big difference I'm hearing.

 

[pipelineaudio]

I LOVE the hs8s. But it’s a rare control room nowadays that can handle them. I have hs5’s or 50’s or whatever and also a pair I carry around. I should see if with the trapping I have now that the 8’s would be ok.