Genelec 8330A SAM Series 5" 2-Way 100W Active Studio Monitor (Single, Raw)

These are great monitors

I spent time listening to these against their more expensive three-way siblings, the 8331, and found that the difference between them was very slight. Even so I was tempted by the Ones and worried I might lament not having that marginal difference. Two years on, I’ve been using a pair of 8330 with no regrets. Easy to use and listen to, with a calibration system works incredibly well, and excellent translation to other playback systems, they’re everything I hoped for. I expect them to be in use here for a very long time. I find them very accurate and revealing. If I can get a recording or mix sounding good through them, I trust it to sound good on anything else. They’re also non-fatiguing. Two primary things I want from a monitor. They’re also well-made and have good company support. The aluminum housing is extremely strong, durable and handsome. The interactions I’ve had with Genelec have been very gracious and helpful, and it’s clear they stand behind their products over the long term. The SAM system is the killer feature for these monitors, and it would be very foolish to buy them without it. Room correction is vital for accuracy, and the SAM system (unlike Neumann’s) works brilliantly well and is very user friendly. No one else comes close to competing with Genelec in this department. I work in classical and acoustic location recording, which generally requires less bass. These have surprisingly great low end for nearfields of this size and I can easily do without a subwoofer most of the time. Depending on the genre, you may require a subwoofer for full range mixing. I consider this is the smallest of the 8000 series that can be reasonably used for professional mixing. I own and have experience with the smaller sizes (8010, 8020), and while they’re great reference in the field and punch way above their weight, they can’t quite match the larger ones. The 8330 are also the smallest that allow an AES digital connection, bypassing at least one D/A conversion stage and allowing more functionality. For the price, these are an amazing value. I would recommend them to just about anyone.