Genelec 8050a apm

[fuzzface777]

IS this speaker is better than the older 8050a? Is the 8040 series better or worse than the 8050a? I understand the 8050a have quite a bit more bass. I am interested in accuracy for the best translation in my mixes of course. Any thoughts?

[fuzzface777]

bump

[Mike Chafee]

8040's are flat to the mid 40's, and have plenty of bass extension for electric bass, while 8050's extend to the mid 30's and give a more accurate picture of the low register of piano, and super Lf hip hop samples. 8050 plays louder.

Tonal preference is interesting. I use 8040's' as does Eric Schilling. Bob Katz prefers them over 8050, BUT George massenburg uses 8050,s in additiom to his large active ATC's.

Listen to both, if you can before you choose.

8050 is a lilttle more foreward in hf than 8050, and may be the prefered way to go in mid field applications.

Mike Chafee

[blueman]

Originally Posted by Mike Chafee

8050 is a lilttle more foreward in hf than 8050, and may be the prefered way to go in mid field applications.

Mike Chafee

Obiously, there's a mistake in this. Please, could you correct it?. What did you meant? It's interesting for me

Thanks

[fuzzface777]

so the 8040 are definitely flatter?

which model is more forward sounding???

Are the apm versions worth the extra or are a last years as good?

[fuzzface777]

holy crap, why am I not getting any answers on my Genelec question?
Do people hate Genelec now?

[Bat Head Sound]

Originally Posted by fuzzface777

holy crap, why am I not getting any answers on my Genelec question?
Do people hate Genelec now?

There is no difference between the 8050a and the 8050a APM. In fact, they are EXACTLY the same speaker. The "APM" designates the color of the cabinet, in this case the color is the standard matte black finish. The other color you could get would be white which would be labeled "AWM." Actually, the model numbers are 8050APM and 8050AWM, with not 8050a APM. I hope that helps.

[tamasdragon]

8040a is a fantastic speaker, 8050 is bigger and rather becoming midfield.
But believe me, these new gens are fantastic speakers.

Tamas Dragon

[Watersound]

I have no experience with the 8040, but I own a pair of 8050's and they are phenomenal. The mixes I am doing these days smoke anything I have ever done before- the depth and detail these speakers have...WOW. You do have to make sure your room sounds good and may have to play around with placement, bass and treble tilt to really fine tune them, but I highly recommend!!

John

[Blenn]

As a fellow 8050a user - I totally agree with the comment directly above me.

Paul

[danasti]

Originally Posted by fuzzface777

IS this speaker is better than the older 8050a? Is the 8040 series better or worse than the 8050a? I understand the 8050a have quite a bit more bass. I am interested in accuracy for the best translation in my mixes of course. Any thoughts?

The 80xx series differs in 10db of bass extension as you go up the model number. 8030, 8040, 8050 all have a similar sound quality just more bass extension. Most people who love genelec, love them from the moment they hear them. I love mixing on Genelec - I like the soundstage - I like listening and I feel like I can get that depth to translate to other speakers.

I just sold a pair of 1031 this summer and I was going to get either the 8040, 8050, proac 100s or PMC TB2s. However, I got a used pair of PMC AML1 and I'm very happy with them. Eventually I want to move up to a 3 way monitor.

[fuzzface777]

pmc? what are those? same price as the 8040a?

btw I thought the "apm" was for the genelec model that has the room compensation feature. has anyone tried that model? are they as good as the regular 80XX???

are the 8040a the flattest?
to those 8050a owners, since the gen 8050 are so bass heavy, do your mixes ever end up too thin? how loud are these 8050a?
btw how loud can you crank a gen within safety? 7 or 8? and for how long?

[danasti]

Originally Posted by fuzzface777

pmc? what are those? same price as the 8040a?

btw I thought the "apm" was for the genelec model that has the room compensation feature. has anyone tried that model? are they as good as the regular 80XX???

are the 8040a the flattest?
to those 8050a owners, since the gen 8050 are so bass heavy, do your mixes ever end up too thin? how loud are these 8050a?
btw how loud can you crank a gen within safety? 7 or 8? and for how long?

The PMC I bought used. New they are significantly more expensive, about $6k per pair.

Like I said my choices came down to a few speakers which were basically 8040/8050, Dynaudio Air 6 or PMC TB2s. The ALM1 I got a good deal on and couldn't pass up.

I love the 8040 and the 8050. The go real deep, the amp his high power / high current. Instruments don't sound as natural as on Dynaudios but they present a better much bigger soundstage IMO, at least until you get into the Air series or M series. PMC is the the happy medium between the Gen and Dyn for me.

I feel like the 8040 and 8050 are same except for the 8050 goes 10db lower for its +-2db point. I'm sure there are slight differences in them but that was not audible to my ears and having a larger woofer at the crossover point will always make for some differences. The both sound awesome. If I were you I would pick the biggest speaker my room could handle and enjoy them. All Genelec are pretty flat and the 80 series really deliver.

[kingofswing]

IMHO the 8040s are great speakers, but they do have a slight midrange bump over the 8050s.

I have used and owned both, and still have my 8050s.

FWIW have a look at the Genelec frequency plot on the 8000 series. It clearly shows the midrange bump on the 8040s over the other 2 models.

[Bat Head Sound]

Originally Posted by fuzzface777

btw I thought the "apm" was for the genelec model that has the room compensation feature...

Nope, you're thinking of the 8200 series. Genelec's room correcting feature is called "Auto Cal."

[fuzzface777]

oh, so what do you guys think of 82XX series? IS it worth it?

[gainreduction]

Originally Posted by fuzzface777

oh, so what do you guys think of 82XX series? IS it worth it?

YES ! They're like double the amount of sex with half the amount of foreplay.

Seriously, just a couple of days ago I had a guy from Genelec demoing the 8240 for me in my studio. It was very interesting to get the demo in my own, familiar listening environment.

My room measures well and everybody comments on how good my 8030/7050 combo sounds. They were also calibrated to Genelec's measurements in my room so I didn't expect much more from the 8240's.

Well, we hooked them up and did the measurement/calibration procedure (which is quite fascinating). Then I listened to a ref CD without the autocal activated. Things sounded familiar. Then the Genelec rep switched it on... HOLY SHIT. It's one of the most mindblowing audio experiences I've had in a long time. Now I know what two speakers *exactly* in phase sound like. The difference is not by any means subtle. I've been measuring the placement of my speakers very carefully but obviously you can only get so close.

ok, the 8240 compensates each speaker individually, so whatever assymmetry or constructional difference you may have to your left or right is compensated for differently on each side to give you a flawless sweetspot. Also, and this is the REAL beauty of the 8240, it compensates for time difference between the speakers. It measures the distance to the sweetspot and makes sure both speakers reach there at the exact same time.

After listening to the compensated 8240's for a while getting used to the ultra-fabulous imaging then the autocal got switched off again. It felt like the stereo image tilted and phased out to blurryness. Now this sounded very good before we activated the autocal.

I can't describe how good they sounded, it was out of this world. My room sounded like it got $100k added acoustic treatment. It almost wasn't funny. I could hear so much detail, true spectral balance. Like finally seeing the zoomed in picture instead of seeing the one you thought was allright. Just awesome.

Needless to say, I ordered a pair immediately. 2 weeks delivery time, can't wait. I'm not recording one single note until my new darlings get here.

I'm not easily fooled and the 8240's knocked me over.

[fuzzface777]

wow these things sound killer! Anyone else try these monsters?

[fuzzface777]

anyone feel that the 82XX series kill the 8xxx series?
funny I checked out some on line stores for the 82XX, but I found that they aren't readible to buy....

[gainreduction]

The 8240 and 8250 are available, I know since I just ordered a pair. I just don't think every on-line dealer carries them. Contact your national Genelec distributor.

[fuzzface777]

Has anyone anyone else tried or own the 82XX Gens?

[Mr. Dreq]

I'm also interested in other reports! This sounds just a little bit too good, but if it would be true I would get them!
Also, I could someone explain how the compensation of time differences between the speakers should affect the sound? The two speakers have the same distance to the sweet spot anyway if they are placed correctly?

[gainreduction]

Even a very small difference in placement affects the phase relationship between the speakers.

Add to that whatever reflections and other anomalies you might get from your room and your stereo image is no longer accurate. Left and right are just not behaving the same way. You would need an 100% symmetrical room (including everything in it) to achieve that.

The 8240 corrects this for you, giving you an amazing stereo image and even frequency response.

A cool thing that happened in my room is that the 8240 used some weird sub frequency behaviour to their advantage and managed to reproduce even the lowest freq's extremely well We got all the way down to 30 Hz. Flat and clean. The Genelec rep said this is possible with the autocal and that you get very clean, low distortion LF when they're calibrated.

A week ago I helped a friend of mine, who also was at the demo and who also immediately ordered a pair.., to soundcheck drums at his studio. I've done it lots of times and I'm familiar with his room and gear and the 8030's that used to be there. With the same gear but this time with the 8240's I suddenly made quite different decisions. And it was a lot easier and faster. I never felt I had to 2nd guess anything, I felt so confident in what I was hearing, which of course helps making decisions.

My friend called me the next day to say how extremely satisfied both he and the producer was with the improved sounds and he had recorded stuff there just a couple of weeks before.

I know this all might come across as another snake-oil thing to the sceptic audio society so I just recommend everybody to contact your local Genelec rep and see if you can get a demo.

Another cool feature is you can store different settings and make whatever spot in your room the sweet spot. So measure the left side seat of your couch in the back of your control room, store it as a setting and if the A&R person takes that seat, just switch to that setting...

Another advantage I can see is if you're an engineer working around in a lot of different studios you can bring your monitors, calibrate them and feel at home.

According to the Genelec rep, the autocal was originally designed for making peoples 5.1 systems sound like they should since most people don't get the speakers placed correctly. Those who have heard a 5.1 demo of the 8240 with the new digital sub that is supposed to be self-correcting phase to the rest of the system have been pretty much lost for words. I'd love to hear that myself.

I think Genelec has a winner. thumbsup

[gainreduction]

And this is how you do it...

The speakers have a LAN connection. You connect them in series, one to the other and then to a PC running the autocal software. You connect Genelec's measurement mic to the PC aswell.

The software recognizes each speaker and the mic and their serial numbers come up in the software where it can compare to the frequency response of each piece when tested at the factory.

Then the software plays a sweep in both speakers, one at a time, and then starts calculating. A couple of minutes later you're done.

The software and the mic is not included, has to be bought separately or you can get this service from Genelec if you have a dealer in your city.

Now, of course there's a limit to everything. They won't make your bathroom sound like Ocean way but if your room sounds fairly good, it will make a quite dramatic improvement.

[gainreduction]

And to clear one last thing up, they have both analog and AES/EBU digital inputs.

[vls]

But i thought it corrects only dips/peaks in the frequency range? How can a speaker achieve such a phase coherence? Sounds very interesting...

[Mr. Dreq]

Does someone know the price of the GLM System (mic+software+interface)?
Can't find it anywhere.

[JesseJ]

Beyond the fact that I have a funny feeling about magical self calibrating speakers (82xx).. and 8050s I worked with a lot is that...

I would rather save the money and get some of the Pro Studio series speakers from Profel. They are far more pleasing to work with unless you really want to go to that surgeons blade sound of the Genelecs (Which is as fun a genereal anaesthesia).

Profels might be hard-to-get for now in the US as there are no retalilers for what I know, but the general opinion here in Finland (Genelec is from Finland) and Sweden (Land of the Nobel Prize, ABBA and erotic films featuring swedish blondes) is for what I know and from blind-testing sessions is that Profels beat out Genelecs 7-0, eventhou Genelecs are really damn good speakers.

I say take a look and try to get your hands on these:
http://www.profel.fi/home.html

[john caldwell]

What are the limitations wrt connecting cable length for the LAN and mic, if you happen to know? My CPU is 60 feet from my control room. I wonder if this would be an issue.

I wonder what the complete 8250 system costs.

John-

Originally Posted by gainreduction

And this is how you do it...

The speakers have a LAN connection. You connect them in series, one to the other and then to a PC running the autocal software. You connect Genelec's measurement mic to the PC aswell.

The software recognizes each speaker and the mic and their serial numbers come up in the software where it can compare to the frequency response of each piece when tested at the factory.

Then the software plays a sweep in both speakers, one at a time, and then starts calculating. A couple of minutes later you're done.

The software and the mic is not included, has to be bought separately or you can get this service from Genelec if you have a dealer in your city.

Now, of course there's a limit to everything. They won't make your bathroom sound like Ocean way but if your room sounds fairly good, it will make a quite dramatic improvement.

[fuzzface777]

jessej, what model were you trying? do you own them? how much do they cost?