I am thinking of purchasing another pair of monitors. What are you guys' general opinions on the 8030 and 8040 nearfields??

I have heard complaints about Genelecs that they are too colored and thus not as accurate to the source as they could be. I've never mixed with the 8000 series so I don't know what to expect.

My monitor budget is $1000-$2500 max for the pair.. any other monitor suggestions would be appreciated as well.

Thanks,

J.D.

Everything you've ever heard about Genelec's has nothing at all to do with the 8000's IMO. Totally new monitor.

I have the 8040's - amazing. The stereo image is insane.

Highly recommended! But I guess everyone loves what they own right

Rez

i have the 8040's--they're fantastic. i've had them in several different rooms--mostly pretty bad rooms and they've never let me down.

Another big up to the 8040s. They took a little getting used to in the mids, but now... LOVE them. I take 'em everywhere. Fishing, the car wash, prom, everywhere.

Another thumbsup to the 8040's...

8030 + 7050 sub here.

I have not been thinking about monitors since I got them.

What the others said, fantastic monitors.

I don't like them

I have noticed in other threads that certain people have commented that the 8040s sound superior to the 8030s, and not just because they have a bigger woofer. Has anyone listened through both the 8030s AND 8040s??

I hear so many good things about the 8040s but not so much about the 8030s.


Thanks,

J.D.

Can you give us a reason?? It would be helpful...




J.D.

i have a pair of 8040s as well,it's really great.
but i have got a problem during vocal mixing,i can't hear clearly when it's too harsh in mid,so i need another monitors to get a balance.not sure if it's because of my room.
i also compared 8030 and 8040.their sound is very close except 8030 has less low end.maybe you can get the sub.

I auditioned them with the K+H 0300D's. Done very extensive tests with them both.
I ended up buying the 8050a's. ****ing remarkable speaker!

K+H had a better low end. Slightly tighter and you could hear the notes as opposed to felling them down at 35-hz -45hz. But the 8050a is no slouch here at all. Bear in mind the K+H is infinite baffle and the 8050 is ported it's still incredibly tight and the K=H is a three way monitor costing almost twice as much. The K+H is awesome. It was a tough descision.

The top end of the 8050 is so much smoother than any of the older Genelec series. These are really a massive improvement over an already fantastic monitor.

The best bit is the stereo imaging. WOW!!!!! And the depth. WOW!!!!

You have to audition these babies.

I adore my 8050a's.

Paul Blenn

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.

Also found this frequency plot for all 3 models from Genelecs website:

Not shure if this explains why i found the 8040s to have a slight bump, and found the 8030s & 8050s to be more flatter.

thank you KoS for the experience you shared. The 8030s are attractive to me price-wise, the 8040s are just what I can afford, and the 8050s are out of my budget now. I too would love a pair of ADAMs (I would like an S-Series model) but alas cannot afford it.

J.D.

I was in the same situation half a year ago. Wanted the 8050's but didn't have the money. I'd seen George Massenburg go for them for his new studio, after he had tried them out for a while and my rationale was: Good enough for George must be good enough for me.

I waited a while and out of the blue the local distributer launched an x-mas sale on different products, the Genelec line included, at about half the price. Bingo!

They took a bit of getting used to, and I was close to exchanging them for the 8040's the first week I had them. After experimenting more with the position in the room I found what I had been looking for. Today I use them flat in a medium sized room, no attenuation on the bass or treble trim controls on the back.

I second what Paul Blenn said. Fantastic tools!

cheers

Jørn

I second the 8040's. I'm getting fantastic mixes from some very talented high end mixing engineers using the 8040's. If I were mixing and didn't have a top-notch mastering room and Lipinskis to audition, I'd pick the 8040s over a lot of other choices.

My second choice (or possibly first choice, depending on the room size) would be the Dynaudio BM15As. If you can't swing for the BM15as due to size or price, I'd move to the 8040s NOT the smaller Dynaudios. The 8040's have surprising bass extension for such a small speaker. Just don't play them loud! They're meant for medium level mixing in a medium size room.

BK

Thank you so much, Bob, for weighing in with your opinions on this. I had considered the smaller Dynaudio monitors and now I can scratch them off the list. I think I will just go for the 8040s after all. I have a medium-sized room in which I have a "project studio".... not anything too professional but until I start raking in the dough, it's what I have to live with. I will also make sure to demo the BM15As before I choose, but I think they may be too large for my space. They have 10" woofers, right?? I could just get the 8040s and then if I feel I am lacking in LF response, invest in one of Genelecs subwoofers (BTW, would you go for the 7060s, 7070s, or 7071s in a medium-sized room??)...

Cheers,

J.D.

The Genelec 8040's rock, flat detailed response. I had some trouble with the low end on mine, but it turned out to be my control room. In a properly treated control room where the low frequencies are tamed, I get a nearly perfect mix on them, even without the "recommended" subwoofer. They reproduce the full audio spectrum in a very uncolored manner.

I use the 8030's with a 7060 sub and love them. Terrific detail and imaging. I didn't think there was a meaningful difference between the 8040's and 8030's when working with the sub, but they are significant without the sub.

Out of curiousity, Bob, and following your logic here: have you gotten any mixes from equally talented mixing engineers using the 8050's?

Have the 8050 mixes tended to be problematic for reasons you see as being down to inherent problems with these monitors. Would be interesting to know.

Regards!

Jørn

And if it's possible, than which will be better for a smallish room?

Genelec 8040+7060sub
or
Dynaudio BM5A+bm9s sub

They differ in many ways and I always got different answers, but without any opinion. So please if you suggest either one, please tell me why.
Regards Tamas Dragon

Sorry I forgot, or a single pair of dynaudio air 6 without sub?

i'd recommend the 8050 without sub! no crossover hassles, but a two way fullrange system that still goes down to 30 hz... thumbsup

Having just halfway 'recovered' from some pretty big (for me) gear updates, this thread should be locked because I'm getting an uncontrollable urge to get to get the 8040s.

I work on 1029As and really like them, if only they had a bit more bass extension. Being so used to having learnt to 'read' the 1029As , please don't tell me now that the 8040s would be exactly what I need........

And what about air6?

i dont like the 8050's. I a/bd them with 1031's hr824s and i bought the hr824s. I found the 8050's very hyped in the upper mids and the top end very harsh. I actually hated them after about a minute of listening. They sounded much worse than the original 10 series speakers.The 824's seem much easier on my ears and my mixes translate great. People just hate them cos they say mackie on em!

My 2 pennies worth!

i can't imagine how you can come to this conclusion! the 8050 have by far the flattest frequency response of the whole 8000 series. in fact, they are unbelievably flat...

Nobody heard the dynaudios? Seriously I don't really know what to do. Do I need a sub? Or just an air6? or 8050? Or something smaller with sub?
Regards Tamas Dragon

I came to that conclusion because to me they sound like crap.

I dont care what their frequency response is.

Do they sound good to my ears? no
Do they sound good in my treated room? no
Do they translate well? no

my conclusion: no good for me.

and no im not deaf!

Your going to need a sub if you're doing any surround work so maybe it's wise to get a sub now and get it wired into the system/room. I feel it's pretty standard these days to have a sub and reference with it regardless.