Recording - November 2015 - 22

Genelec 8351A Studio Monitor

8351A spent time trying to peer
inside the top and bottom slots on the
MaxDCW to see what was driving its
thunderous low end!
Those lows come from a pair of oblong
81/2" x 4" Acoustically Concealed
Woofers (ACW). Each is located on one
end of the enclosure, behind the slotted
openings on the top and bottom of the
cabinet. Conceptually the ACW array
works just like a 4 x 10" bass cabinet,
which offers more surface area than a 1
x 15" bass cabinet while producing a
tighter and more controlled low end. In
effect, the two ACW speakers act like
one giant woofer in terms of size and
directivity, and like two smaller speakers
in terms of imaging (and possibly transient response as well)-the best of both
worlds. Genelec states that while the two
speakers have a combined area roughly
equivalent to that of a 10" woofer, their
positioning gives them the directivity of a
15" woofer.
Around the back
The backside of the 8351A's cabinet
sports a bass reflex port and a large
selection of features and inputs. There are
two RJ45 sockets for use with the GLM
system, an XLR AES input as well as an
XLR AES digital pass-through, a balanced
XLR analog input and an IEC standard
power socket. Speaking of power, the
8351A is triamplified: 150W for the
woofer, 120W for the mid, and 90W
for the tweeter.
Rear panel controls include an input
level knob with 12 dB of attenuation
and two rows of DIP switches.
Singularly or in combination these
adjust tone and other settings on the
monitors. The top row contains the
tone controls with settings for Bass
Roll-Off (-2, -4, or -6 dB), Bass Tilt
(-2, -4 or -6 dB @ 800 Hz and
below), Treble Tilt (+2, -2, or -4 dB @
5 kHz and above), and Desktop (-4
dB at 160 Hz). GLM connection supersedes these controls.
While these are 3-way monitors,
they are similar in size to, if not slightly smaller than, the average nearfield
box. They are equally at home on a
desktop, meter bridge, or professional
stands. The manual offers great suggestions and tone settings for each.
The second group of switches offers additional volume control with System Level settings of -10, -20, and -30 dB. There are
Mute switches for the woofer and coaxial
mid/tweeter, AES/EBU routing switches,
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RECORDING November 2015

and a last switch for selecting whether the
monitor uses manual or stored settings. These
DIP switches are also deactivated when the
speaker is connected to a GLM network.
The 8351A comes equipped with
Genelec's Intelligent Signal Sensing system (ISS), which places the monitor into a
sleep mode when no audio is present and
then reawakens it when a signal is present. When in "sleep mode" the monitor
consumes less than 5 watts of power.

In use
I was quite excited to get the 8351A in
my studio; I put them up next to my usual
monitors and spent about a month tracking, mixing and listening to music on
them. The first thing that I noticed was
their tremendous output. The 8351A is
loud and powerful, requiring a lot
more attenuation than I expected to
line up with my other monitors.
Sonically these monitors definitely
exhibit the detailed top end that Genelec
is famous for, but compared to other
models I have heard and used over the
years, I hear it as a continued refinement
of said sound. They are bright, but in an
open and dimensional way with a very
3D "reach out and grab it" soundstage.
The upper midrange is slightly set back,
which adds to the depth and openness
of their soundstage as well. The low mids
are thick and full, and the low end,
well... wow.
This is easily some of the fullest low
end I have ever heard in a nearfield
monitor of this size, period, exclamation
point. It not only compares to many dedicated subwoofers that I have used and tested,
but easily bests some of the budget models!
The low extension rumbled not only my
room but a fair bit of the rest of the building
when liberally cranked. In fact, its low round
thump could be felt in the adjoining house.
While it is very sublike in its extension, it manages to remain tight, focused and forceful
rather than exaggerated and muddy. When
listening at moderate volume levels, it never
gets out of hand or seems exaggerated.
The sweet spot is very even and wide,
with little sonic variance in highs and high
mids as you move around the space. Like
most monitors, though, the low end
blooms as you move back in the room.
Listening to favorite tracks including
jazz, R&B, to classic and modern rock,
and classical, all the way to atmospheric ambient music and more, I found the
8351A to be a very immersive highfidelity listening experience.
When mixing my own tracks, I
admit that there was a bit of a learning curve as I became comfortable
with how the highs and lows translated in and out of my room. Once I got
the hang of their sound, I found my
mixes translating quite well across the
board on my home and car systems
with very few secondary fixes. These
are the type of honest monitors that
love to point out flaws in your tracks,
and I am positive that the more I'd listen to and mix music with these speakers, the better my mixes would become.
Conclusions
Hmmm, how do I sum up these monitors?
They are impeccably built, highly configurable, and sound amazing. They have a
great balance of the sound Genelec is known
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Recording - November 2015
