Recording - March 2016 - 38
B Y M I K E M E T L AY
Small reference monitors have a lot of practical advantages for the
recording musician. They're easy to place and adjust, often quite
affordable, portable if need be, and can provide check monitoring
for larger systems without taking up a lot of space. All that being
said, there's one area in which small monitors fall short: bass reproduction. Small speakers simply can't throw low frequencies very far,
so they roll off below a certain frequency that's well within the pitch
range of many instruments. You can lose the lowest octave, or more,
of fundamental frequencies from low notes on instruments like grand
piano, bass, and kick drum, hearing only their harmonics... enough
so that your mix decisions are compromised, and your mixes end up
sounding either thin or boomy on more full-range speakers.
There are designs that use technical witchcraft to do an end run
around the laws of physics, and some of those have limited success,
but they still won't give you a full extension to the lowest bass you
need to hear. An alternative approach is to supplement small speakers with a subwoofer, but success with a sub involves a degree of
hard work during initial setup, and the various controls you might be
Genelec 7040A Active Subwoofer
Extend your small monitors' reach with this remarkable little sub
given for bass management may not be easy or intuitive to set properly. There's also the issue of size and weight-many subs can only provide really solid bass extension at the cost of large, heavy enclosures.
Leave it to Genelec, which seems to come out with startling speaker
innovations the same way other companies come out with new cabinet finishes, to design a new approach to subwoofers that combines
small size, light weight, powerful bass, and-perhaps most importantly-easy and reliable setup for accurate sound. The 7000 Series subwoofers have been around for a while now, but in this review I'd like
to focus on the newest member of the line, one that will be ideal for
many small rooms: the 7040A.
This sub is optimized for use with three particular sets of Genelec
monitors: the 8010, 8020, and M030. Paul Vnuk Jr. reviewed the
M030 in March 2014, and I reviewed the 8010A in March 2015,
but we didn't have either set of speakers any more, so Genelec was
kind enough to provide me with two sets of satellites for my review
sessions, the 8010A and the new 8020C (review forthcoming). Well,
perhaps "kind" isn't the right word, since I nearly cried at returning
the 8010A monitors I reviewed last year, and now they're back...!
A tour
The 7040A, like all of the 7000 Series subwoofers, is characterized by its Laminar Spiral Enclosure (LSE). This technology, exclusive
to Genelec subs, takes a very long bass reflex
tube and rolls it up into a spiral around the
speaker. This spiral tube has been designed so
airflow within it is very smooth and non-turbulent
(what acousticians call laminar flow). The end
result, in layman's terms, is insane amounts of
really solid strong bass from enclosures that are
relatively small and light.
The 7040A's 6.5" woofer, 50W Class D
amplifier, controls, and LSE are clamped
between two large MDF plates with spacer bars,
38
RECORDING March 2016
a unique look that has its handy side as well-the bars
make the 25-pound subwoofer easy to lift and move, a nontrivial task when adjusting its position for optimal performance in your room. The left side of the enclosure has the
open port, which must be given at least 7.5 cm (about 3")
of clearance from the nearest wall, and the right side has
the inputs, outputs, and controls.
The 7040A handles bass management for the satellite
speakers to which it's connected. The stereo output signal
from your console or interface is sent to the 7040A's balanced XLR inputs; everything below the crossover frequency
of 85 Hz is fed to the sub, and everything above it is
passed through to the satellites via balanced XLR outputs.
The provided controls might seem simpler than what you'll
find on other subs, but (especially when used in concert with
the Genelec speakers mentioned above) they're really all you
need, and in at least one case you get finer control than
many other subs provide. There's a recessed trimpot to control input sensitivity, and a set of four DIP switches to control
bass rolloff and phase alignment. A fifth DIP switch controls
the unit's ISS (Intelligent Signal Sensing), which sets the sub to
a very low-power standby mode if no signal is present for an
hour or more and reactivates it when signal returns.
Setup
There's no way around it: subwoofers are tricky to set up properly.
The 7040A takes some of the guesswork out of the process by setting a
fixed crossover frequency of 85 Hz,
which is optimal for use with the
8010, 8020, and M030 monitors as
mentioned above. From there, you
just have to make sure there's no
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Recording - March 2016
Contents
Recording - March 2016 - Cover1
Recording - March 2016 - Cover2
Recording - March 2016 - 1
Recording - March 2016 - 2
Recording - March 2016 - 3
Recording - March 2016 - 4
Recording - March 2016 - 5
Recording - March 2016 - Contents
Recording - March 2016 - 7
Recording - March 2016 - 8
Recording - March 2016 - 9
Recording - March 2016 - 10
Recording - March 2016 - 11
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Recording - March 2016 - 13
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Recording - March 2016 - 15
Recording - March 2016 - 16
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Recording - March 2016 - 18
Recording - March 2016 - 19
Recording - March 2016 - 20
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Recording - March 2016 - Cover3
Recording - March 2016 - Cover4
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