I bought a pair of Genelec 8040A last summer after trying out Mackie 824s and 624's, KRK V8 MK2, Event ASP8's, as well as the 8050a and 8030a's.
I liked the new Genelec series from big to small over all the others mentioned above that i tried, and took a pair of 8040a's home with a smile.
Heres my personal opinion on the 8000 series: REMEMBER IMO only
8030a
I found them very sweet (the top end) and musical to listen to, and they were smooth with a suprising bottom end for the size, but i wanted bigger.
8040a
Again very similar in tone to the 8030a, goes louder and the bottom was huge (almost like a sub in the background). However over the 8030s, 'i' found slight colouration in the sound, like a slight bump in the mids. Snare drums came out with that 500-750hz snap (or whatever). During my various CD tests, i also found that vocals came out very nice and smooth.
The stereo image was pretty wide and the speakers sounded very sparkly and sweet to listen to (no ear fatique)...i was pretty much sold.
8050a
Although at the time these were out of my price range, i thought i would still give them a listen. I found these similar to the usual bigger 8 inch monitors like the 824's, with a very large sound. The top was very similar to the 8030s and 8040s (being sweet as i say), but i found a 'hollow' gap in the mids, again only my opinion.
The same snare drum snaps i heard on my test cds with the 8040s was not the case with the 8050s. Good or bad, i wasnt sure. Like i said at that time (a year ago) i wasnt looking in this price range.
The 8050s bottom end was nice, it was well balanced and controlled not over bloated and i didnt jump with any suprises, it goes plenty deep.
After spending a few days of visits, i settled on the 8040a's for overall price / performance ratio, and they were Genelecs, so i trusted the name and the rest was history...
Ok, a few days later i was still 50/50 and the brand new 8040s were still sealed (even though i could of opened, tried and returned if i change my mind). I got a phone call from my pro audio freind from the store, and he mentioned Adam monitors to me, and i had never heard of them. He just got them in, and said you gotta try em.
After alot of talk on the phone, i just had to go back and atleast try them. I didnt like them at first (Adam P11a's, same kind of price range as the 8040s), i found them quite boring, dry, and not sweet like the genelecs.
I was confused

, i had already purchased the 8040s (and all because i liked them alot), and didnt want to accept anything else. After a short break I closed my eyes and heard all my test songs again with both the demo 8040s and the P11s and each time i prefered the latter. I heard more detail (like into the mix kind of way), and things i had never heard before (like headphone spill, distortion), i thought i was actually going mad
So in the end i took the P11s over the 8040s...and now im on the P33s (dont ask).
To this day i still cannot fault the 8000 series...very nice, but it seems i cant get away from the Adams.