I had a few issues getting AES (digital) to work that weren't immediately obvious going through the manuals or the FAQ. It might be helpful to create one or two FAQ entries for AES newbies like me. Genelec support is great (thanks again for the quick help and follow-up on my last request), but I hate having to ask for help with basic things.
Cables
The first hurdle was how to cable an AES digital setup. Turns out, you can wire up the speakers however it best fits your layout, so long as the cables are rated for AES. GLM doesn't even need to be connected in the same order. I wish I knew that before I moved equipment around to follow the order described in the manual.
Digital A/B
Next was setting the switches on the monitors correctly (Digital A and Digital B). In the GLM manual, if you stick to the chapters on stereo (GLM system operating manual, "4.2.5 Digital Audio, Stereo with a Subwoofer") you'll miss that you need to turn the left speaker Digital A switch to ON and the right speaker Digital B switch to ON. It is mentioned later in the section "4.2.10 Digital Audio, Stereo with a SE7261 Subwoofer" and the 5.1 example. Setting neither switch means no sound, even with the GLM group configured to digital. It would be nice if the GLM application could warn you if you add a speaker that is not listening to any of the digital channels in a digital group preset.
This youtube video by AdrianMilea helped me out a lot with this one.
73xx Subwoofer
Don't forget to set the SAM group to digital when you edit the SAM group settings, as is also mentioned in the video above. See "7.17.5 Input Mode". There is however a caveat that seems specific to GLM 5. Setting the group to digital no longer automatically sets your 73xx subwoofer to digital as shown in the video (GLM 3). Worse, if your sub does happens to produce sound (in my case after a factory reset), the checkboxes are cleared again after calibrating, making the sub go silent. Edit the group preset, click on the sub and under the section "Digital Input" check A and B (or just A or B if you have a stereo sub setup). See "7.17.8.6 'Digital Input'" in the GLM manual.
9320A I/O
After that I struggled a bit with the 9320A itself. It's super important that you check the I/O settings page (click on its icon in GLM, then pick settings), then click on I/O. This will show the input and output settings. Remember this page, you will want to go back here when you level-match headphones and the different inputs. Under output settings there's a heading called "Digital Output". It had defaulted to "Adjustable" on my system. You want this set to GLM (fixed).
Info Screen
If you're troubleshooting, on the main GLM 5 screen there is a drop list on the bottom left (switches between Solo/Mute/Info/Edit), which you should set to "Info". Then, when you click on the speaker you're having problems with, it will show you the input status and you can mute or solo the speaker as well. (see "7.11 Displaying monitor and subwoofer data in GLM"). The default was "Edit" on my setup.
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It took me a few evenings of troubleshooting before I got the digital setup to fully work. It's all in the manuals once you know what you are looking for, but not in one place.
I hope this helps! And don't hesitate to contact Genelec support if you get stuck.
Comments
Thanks for taking the time to share all of this information with us, Walter! Of course, you could have contacted us to check everything together. The DIP switches actually have no function the moment you use GLM, so there is no need to set these for digital A/B. This is also true for the STORED mode, using the settings stored with GLM. And setting up a digital group with a subwoofer should always set it to digital A+B by default if you place it in the standard cell on the grid. Just let us know if you have any more questions! All the best!
Interesting. Going back over my steps in GLM 5 the problem is perhaps that I added the 7360 later (it was on back order) and there was no designated slot in my grid for the sub. I probably should have done a complete wipe of all group presets and started over.
Yes, if you add it to an existing setup later, you may need to adjust it manually.
Greetings!
Thanks for the explanation, Walter. I just setup a 9320a controller and this is my first time using the digital connection on my Genelecs.
I also had some trouble with understanding the AES output settings, and took a bit to figure out to set to GLM (fixed), after some trials.
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