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The Genelec subwoofers are really good .
I would say at least as good as their monitors .
We have compared with very expensive REL:s and also SVS and the Genelecs in the same pricerange has, the way I listen , a better sound . A tighter, deeper bass with less distortion.
I was very skeptical in the beginning that Genelecs subwoofers could play at the same quality level as SVS , but then I have heard the 7050c and 7360 SAM and they are both better to play music than SVS PB2000 and REL S5.
The 7360 SAM can play VERY loud ( louder than SVS PB2000. ) and the 7050c can, despite the small 8 inch driver, play as loud and clean as bigger subs from other brands at the same pricerange.
Ilkka Rissanen is a genius at constructing subwoofers , - he was earlier the subwoofer constructor of hometheatreshack.
Couldn't disagree more. The Genelec subs severely lack performance in comparison to other subs around the same price(I own both). Their value lies in their ease of use with GLM. You almost can't get a bad integration with the 7370/8351, and a bad subwoofer with great integration beats a great subwoofer with bad integration. I actually tried switching from 2 RS2s to 2 7370s when I got my 8351s, so I could use Dirac in my office and GLM in the main multichannel room. That didn't last long, though. It was obvious very quickly that the 7370s were not even in the same league as the RS2s(even tested both 7370s against 1 RS2), despite costing more. The Genelec subs are in the office now, where they satisfy me perfectly(much smaller room).
That said, I don't think Genelec sub performance is necessarily out of line. If you compare their subs to their major competitors(Neumann, Dynaudio, Adam, etc.), the prices are competitive. Also, compared to more traditional hifi brands, like Revel, they too are similarly priced. It's these subwoofer "only" brands (HSU, Rythmik, Monoprice, PSA, JTR, etc.) that came out in the mid 2000s who's prices are bucking the trend, in a good way. The fact that you can get a 600/2000watt, 15" ported reference capable sub with 16Hz tuning from HSU for less than $1,000 is incredible, and they even give you much more relevant and detailed measurements(CEA-2010). You have to jump up to the 7380 to get similar performance with Genelec.
These subwoofer first companies entered the market offering 2-4x the subwoofer price/performance of and the older "speaker first" brands. Genelec/Neumann/Revel haven't adjusted their subwoofer prices to compete, and they likely won't. Why should they? People are still buying their subs at those traditional prices. These subwoofer first companies are small fry, and most in the market for (Genelec, Neumann, etc) speakers/subs don't even know they exist. No reason to lower prices 2-4x to try and compete with someone most of your customers have never heard of .
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