I could consider my Genelec system an [early] christmas gift for myself. It’s a pair of 8030A monitors matched with a 7050B subwoofer.

Actually, I already had the 8030s since late October and didn’t plan on getting a sub as the 8030s could stand on their own. But since the stocks for the sub were arriving December, I had time to think about ¹ And more importantly, save up for considering getting the sub. So I guess the sub is really the Christmas gift in that context

However, there is one more toy arriving which will complement the system, and which I’m most excited about. It’s the JBL MSC-1 monitor system controller.

Ever since I can remember, ² Or at least ever since I started taking audio seriously Genelecs were my “dream monitors.” Preferences for nearfields can be a very personal thing. While the goal of all monitors is to be transparent. The fact that debates on which which monitors sound “flattest” never ends is an indication that even that can be a subjective thing.

Having said that, it would be pointless to try convincing anyone to consider one brand over another. The best is to listen to as many as you can, and pick the one you feel will best serve your ears when mixing. And long story short, for me, I would always go back to the “Genelec sound” ³ e.g. when I listen in studios equipped with them

Still, wouldn’t it be great to be able to “calibrate” the speakers to be as flat as possible? After all, not everyone could afford to have a room built that is acoustically perfect. ⁴ I do my recording at home, which isn’t even acoustically treated! So just like how we could calibrate computer screens/monitors to be “accurate” with colors, it would be nice to be able to do the same with your speakers’ response curves.

Unfortunately, Genelec’s DSP line that features such “calibration” possibilities is ridiculously expensive! The cheapest offering they have is the SE DSP System Triple Play package which costs $5.6k! My setup, which is basically the analog version of it costs half that. So you’re paying an extra $2.8k just to be able to calibrate your system.

MSC-1

The trouble with Genelec’s offering (apart from being astronomically priced) is that it’s too proprietary; you only have certain speakers that will work with certain subs… and all have to be from the DSP line. It would’ve been better if they built some kind of centralized console/hub that could handle any type of speaker they have and calibrate the whole system from there. That way you don’t have to re-invest in a DSP system if you already have an older system.

The MSC-1 does exactly that, plus it was designed to to work with any [analog] speaker system. RMC-enabled ⁵ Room Mode Correction, which is JBL’s counterpart of Genelec’s DSP outputs for 2 speakers and a subwoofer. So plug in any 2 speakers and sub on it and it will calibrate them no matter what band they are.

It gets even better! I use a Hackintosh; my DAW ⁶ Digital Audio Workstation partition is running on Windows, but my “work” partition’s on OSX. Because it’s a hackintosh, when booted on OS X, I’m limited to using my motherboard’s built-in audio – whereas on the DAW partition, I’m able to use my M-Audio Audiophile 192 card. Having to physically switch the cable connections based on what partition I’m booted on poses a big hassle. Fortunately, the MSC-1 can handle up to 3 inputs and switch between them with the press of a button – problem solved.

Lastly, it also supports secondary speaker outputs – so I can plug in cheap speakers and do a quick A/B to check if my mixes translate properly to even low end speakers. From the product page it seems I can also quickly disengage the RMC calibration and subwoofer output as well, which means more “configurations” to test out the mix with – which is somthing I’m sure any audio engineer would like to have readily accessible.

The best part: It only costs $400! It basically gives me much more freedom, at 7% of the price I would’ve had to pay for a DSP system.

Merry Christmas indeed!