So.
I just got my pair of Genelec 1032s.
Previously, I have been intimate with Event 20/20s and Yamaha HSM80s. I had found nothing offensive about either model... I prefer the Yamahas but only by a slight margin because of it's 'clarity'.
I purchased the Genelecs because we are in the process of building a new control room that is easily three times as large as our previous control room, and wanted a speaker that can hang with the volume.
The new control room is not completed, but naturally I want to hear the new speakers, so we wired 'em up and gave them a go.
My initial reaction was: "wow. these are bright". I promptly used the high shelf to mellow them out a touch. After a few hours of listening to some of my favorite tracks and some current projects, I can say without a doubt I have never heard something so crisp and detailed in my life. Period. It's like a whole new ball game.
Songs that I was familiar with intimately revealed entire layers and panning I had never known to exist previously. The comparison I keep coming back to, is that "it's like going from a bone saw to a scalpel."
Coherent is a word that gets tossed around a lot. Clearly, I understand the meaning of the word... but until I gave these speakers a listen, I don't think I fully understood the translation of the word into a critical listening situation.
My current mixes are quickly revealing their short comings. There's a "honkyness" I had known to be a problem because of multisystem playbacks, but wasn't really able to pin down at the desk. There it is. Moreover, the interest in stereo imaging that I am hearing on commercial releases that I need to figure out how to achieve.
The silence between drum hits on Phoenix's "lisztomania"... perhaps I have never REALLY listened so closely, but I had always just assumed gating. The transient response I am now hearing tends to suggest radical fader automation.
I really wish I had the opportunity to now go back and re-audition some gear that I had previously written off as "too little a difference" to be worth purchasing.
Or maybe now the real illness of G.A.S. is about to set in, and these Genelecs will end up being the catalyst.