Yamaha HS80M or Genelec 8030A active monitors?

Posted: Mon Feb 19, 2007 9:22 am

Which are considered better?

I haven't heard or used either but have the opportunity to buy either pair for roughly the same price, the Genelec's are slightly more expensive.

Posted: Mon Feb 19, 2007 11:19 am

I've never been able to say "better / worse" when it comes to monitoring solutions unless the models in question are in obviously different price/performance classes. That being said, I think that the HS80M's and the 8030a's are in different classes, with different philosophies in mind for each.

My personal vote is for the 8030a's. I bought a pair of them after looking into Adam A7's, Dynaudio BM5a's, and JBL LSR4326's... In my smaller room they sound beautiful - sometimes I just sit there listening to music - they're THAT sweet sounding in my room. (Side Note - Jellyfish's Album 'Spilt Milk' is a great one to test out nearfields with)

I've used the HS80M's a half dozen times in the past few months at my friend's house. I didn't mind NS10's, as long as they weren't my primaries. They made for a better bass-deficient solution for most of my work, but they are strikingly good at providing an accurately flat eye into your mix. Great for A/B.

The HS80m's didn't knock my socks off the way that the Genelec's did. Yeah, Yeah, Yeah... Genelec, love them or hate them... in the end I think it all comes down to what you feel more comfortable working with. If you dig the razor-flat sound of the HS80m's (and to much extent, the older NS10's), then by all means.

But in my experience, the Genelecs took far less time for me to get accustomed to than the HS80m's.

Besides, if you truly CAN get a pair of the 8030a's for the same price as the NS10 clones, you'd be crazy to pass it up, no matter what your position on Genelec is.

aqualand666, how wrong am I this time? Laughing

Posted: Mon Feb 19, 2007 11:29 am

I gotta agree with this assessment .

I cant imagine anyone thinking that these are anywhere near the same as far as sonic response goes. I would never use the Yamahas (I've owned NS10s) as a primary monitor source. There simply isnt any bass. When I had my pair, they were great for getting the mids in order. And then listening back on the big JBL's to confirm the balance of the mix. After a while I only needed the JBL's since I had learned where everything sat ...so goodbye Yamahas.

Its all relative to your experiences anyway, and if you dont have experience with either set, buy the Genelecs.

Posted: Mon Feb 19, 2007 9:27 pm

JIT wrote:

Which are considered better?

I haven't heard or used either but have the opportunity to buy either pair for roughly the same price, the Genelec's are slightly more expensive.

Right now, I find myself in a quandry between the Dynaudio BM6A's or the JBL LSR4328P.

I was pretty set to go with the Dyns, but recently I have been considering the new JBL because they have that room correction gizmo.

The control room I am in is a tad small, and I have been thinking that JBL's room correction gizmo can help correct for the errors in my room. I still feel that the majority opinion out there now is that the Dyn's are where its at, as people now seem to prefer it as "the standard" in that price range, even moreso than the Adams which have long been favorites. I dont know if the room correction gizmos benefits outweights the supposed accuracy of the Dynaudios.

I was looking at the Gene's also... I'd probably take them in a heartbeat if somebody offererd them to me cheap... but my only beef with them is people have long complained that they sound "too good" in terms of the supposed sweet spot they are supposed to have. Makes for great sounding playback which impresses the hell out of people, but perhaps at the expense of supposely 'flat' response which is reeally what I am looking for to up my mixing accuracy.

Ho humm... just thinking to myself... aloud... tossing around ideas in my head as I am pumping another 13 grand into my studio within the next few months to update things for a change in the way I do business.

Posted: Tue Feb 20, 2007 2:21 pm

Gizmo-s are gizmos. Room correction does work to a sort, but does not help in correcting you room to make you mixes better.

Gunnar

Posted: Wed Feb 21, 2007 2:57 pm

Hi
I have been doing a lot of research between the HS80M, BM5A, BM6A, Genelecs.
If you have the opportunity, go test the new models from Dynaudio, which are the BM6AMKII and the BM12s.

Better low end, output power and prices are a bit lower.

Posted: Fri Mar 02, 2007 7:21 am

Still uncertain but i'm now considering Genelec 8020 or 8030, would there be a major difference between these two?

I'd be getting a matching Genelec subwoofer in the future.

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