2021 has been a year of great acquisitions for me, both hardware and software. My favourite purchase this year was my Genelec monitors. They represent the purchase that has been present in all my projects since I bought them in early June.
I wanted clarity and overall sonic precision for some upcoming projects for which I had little margin for error. The Genelec 8351B SAM Studio Monitor with the Smart Active Monitor (SAM™) Systems offered me superior performance, as compared with my former set of monitors, the Genelec 1031A’s.
A mainstay of my career throughout the late 90’s and mid 2000’s, I bought my 1031A’s when I first went freelance, as I was familiar with their sound and could make reasonable balance decisions with them. Here’s a picture of me in 1999 working in CBC Toronto’s Studio 46 with a pair of Genelec 1030A’s, which sound very similar to the 1031A’s. Not a word about my lovely hair please.
If I calculate that I have used 1030A’s and 1031A’s since 1997 until this year, it’s easy to estimate that I’ve mixed something like 1000 hours of programming through this line of speakers. The level of trust I gained from these loudspeakers over time meant any replacements would need to provide an even greater sense of reliability. Here I am in 2012, again, relying on Genelec monitors to see me through a mix.
I decided I wanted something modern to replace them with and maybe improve my overall sense of balance. The programmable 8351B’s were ultimately the best choice for my price range and studio needs.
Since I bought them, I’ve mixed something like 40 hours of TV, film, corporate, and podcast content through the Genelec 8351B’s. I’ve been extremely busy this year and I’ve had to play back my mixes at other facilities on many occasions. As compared to my former Genelec 1031A’s, I am now doing very little compensatory EQ on my mixes. The EQ compensation I now find myself making is solely due to listening fatigue, not because of my loudspeakers. My new monitors are now my main ally and I fully trust them to help me make critical balance judgments.
I’m planning on slowly building a replacement 5.1 system around the 8351B’s. I’ve ordered the Genelec 7370A SAM Studio Subwoofer to mate with an eventual array of 8351B’s. This will phase out my older surround system over time and allow for well-aligned, perfectly balanced monitoring. I chose this subwoofer because of its ultra low end frequency response, its support for up to 7 loudspeakers and the fact I can use my GLM Kit and software to align it.
Personally, I’ve never heard a better sounding set of monitors in a home studio setting and I’m hard-pressed to recall anything but maybe a pair of SOTA CF750’s that I’ve liked more in my career working in professional recording studios. The punch, the clarity, the air: It’s all there in the Genelec 8351B’s.
The Genelec Smart Active Monitor range is well worth a listen if you’re looking for something new. In my booth I’ve a smaller system built around a pair of 8320A SAM Studio Monitors and a 7350A SAM Studio Subwoofer. This budget conscious system is a perfect satellite for my assistant to use with complete confidence, knowing his decisions will translate to the control room nicely. I actually used this system in my control room prior to buying my current 8351A’s to vet the technology. The tight timing and excellent imaging really helped me come to a decision about how, what and when to replace my aging monitors with a modern, truly luscious sound system.