Less than three years on from the original unveiling of The Ones at Metropolis Studios in London, we were thrilled to be back again to celebrate the expansion of the family to include the new 8351B, 8361A and W371A models – bringing point source precision to a much wider range of room sizes, listening distances and SPL requirements, from ultra-nearfield through to mastering-calibre and main monitor applications.

Metropolis Studios is located in the spectacular Powerhouse building, an amazing Grade II Victorian structure built in 1900 to power the trams of West London (which alas stopped running many years ago!) before becoming a studio complex in 1989 and hosting the likes of Queen, U2, Adele, Rihanna and more. The size of the studio complex allowed our guests to experience the new Ones models in three different environments: a stereo set-up in the control room of Studio B, a 7.1.4 immersive system in the control room of Studio E, and an intimate small room set-up in mastering engineer Stuart Hawkes’ own suite – which provides critical listening without the large-console reflections that a main studio control room unavoidably introduces.

Events like this - where we have just a few hours to set up almost 40 monitors across three rooms, in both stereo and immersive formats - is the perfect testament to the power of our GLM software, which enabled us to configure, calibrate and control every monitor, giving us the confidence to know that each system was tuned perfectly for the room.

On the day, we ran two presentation sessions - one in the afternoon for press guests, and a second in the evening for engineers, producers and reseller partners - and each session commenced with words of welcome from Genelec MD Siamäk Naghian before the new models were unveiled, and Senior Technologist Thomas Lund and R&D Director Aki Mäkivirta then went on to explain the significant perceptual and performance benefits of The Ones’ point source technology.

Genelec's Senior Technologist, Thomas Lund

R&D Director, Aki Mäkivirta

After some interesting Q&A, guests then circulated between the two stereo rooms, to hear the 8341A and 8351B three-way coaxials working both with and without the W371A adaptive woofer system. The neutral LF performance of the W371A integrated beautifully with Ones models to create a seamless full-range system uncompromised by detrimental room acoustics, while the flagship 8361A was run in standalone mode in both rooms to demonstrate how we have managed to successfully scale-up our point source performance to offer exquisite precision even at much higher SPLs and listening distances.

Then, in the 7.1.4 immersive room we ran 8351s in both LCR and surround positions, with 8341s as overheads and a pair of 7380 subwoofers handling the LF (since the W371 is designed for stereo formats only). The new expansion of The Ones family means that we can now offer all-Ones immersive systems like this for much larger room sizes, so we were keen to showcase their performance by treating guests to an eclectic selection of high quality music, movie and ambient immersive content.

As VIP guests listened, mingled and chatted, we started to hear extremely positive first impressions of the new monitors, with LA-based engineer/producer Warren Huart and Metropolis staff engineer Alex Robinson also joining us to share their thoughts with Darren Rose as part of our Facebook livestream, via which we introduced the new Ones to the wider world!

Thank you to everyone who joined us personally on the day, and via our livestream too, and we look forward to bringing the new Ones models to local launches and exhibitions across the globe in the next few months.