Finnish monitoring veterans Genelec held the global launch of their two newest loudspeakers yesterday, at London's prestigious Metropolis Studios. The two new models — dubbed the 8331 and 8341 — join the earlier (and larger) 8351 speaker to complete a range now known as The Ones.
The Ones are so named because they share a 'point source' philosophy, in that they all feature a dual-coincident mid/high driver arrangement. They also all have in common the same integrated baffle and waveguide as the 8351; a unique arrangement whereby the front of the speaker is almost entirely taken up by a waveguide that obscures the low-frequency drivers, of which each of these new models has two.
The purpose of the enlarged waveguide is to provide extremely even dispersion across the frequency range — a fact Genelec were keen to demonstrate during their presentation, which featured detailed pink-noise measurements and recordings of the speakers in an anechoic chamber at a variety of angles. And this magazine, at least, was certainly convinced of the benefits!
During a Q&A session afterwards, Genelec's product manager explained that this careful consideration of directivity even extended to the properties of the mid-range driver: since it acts as the first part of the waveguide as far as the tweeter is concerned, its cone has been made more rigid at the centre than around the edges, providing a more stable area for the tweeter to radiate into while still providing a healthy output itself. The lack of a traditional roll surround for the mid-range driver, meanwhile, means that the central drivers and and front panel form a seamless continuous waveguide for minimised edge diffraction.
After the presentation, the press were invited to a listening session in Metropolis' Studio B control room, where all three speakers in the range were set up and fed from both the studio's Pro Tools rig and a lossless Tidal playback system, via an SSL 4000G. During the session (which featured a diverse range of music, from rock to pop to classical), we were able to switch between each of the three speakers seamlessly, thereby confirming that they all shared the same essential sonic characters: extremely solid stereo imaging, a large and stable sweet spot, and impressive low-end extension.
In addition to the extensive electro-acoustic engineering present in The Ones, these new monitors also feature the same comprehensive digital connectivity and DSP room tuning that we have seen in Genelec's designs over the last few years — known collectively as the Smart Active Monitoring (SAM) system. This not only allows you to adjust the response of the speakers using the Genelec Loudspeaker Management software (in conjunction with a measurement microphone), but it also means you can connect multiple speakers together over a network and optimise their combined performance, from two-speaker stereo to subwoofer integration, surround sound and beyond — with up to 40 speakers in a single network.
You can watch the presentation below, and we'll be reviewing the two new models in The Ones range in the next issue of Sound On Sound!
