PRODUCTS
Genesis Prime:
Features & Details
THE GENESIS® PRIME IS A FOUR-TOWER LOUDSPEAKER SYSTEM FEATURING SEPARATE MIDRANGE/TWEETER “WINGS” AND SERVO-CONTROLLED WOOFER TOWERS.
This separation allows the mid/high frequency panels to be placed to optimize soundstage and imaging for the listening position, and the bass towers to be placed for smooth and extended bass response within the room.
The high frequency wings are dipole line-sources. That means that there is minimal vertical dispersion, and horizontal cancellation in the plane of the drivers. The result is minimal floor and ceiling “bounce” and very much reduced side-wall reflections, resulting in solidly pin-point imaging, and a wide and spacious soundstage. The Genesis Prime’s listening “sweet spot” is huge, which means there are several “best seats in the house” and you can enjoy the ultimate listening experience with friends and family.
Two of the new Genesis Servo-Controlled Bass Amplifier modules are supplied with each Prime system so that the woofer towers can be tuned separately. Dedicated cables are provided for all bass connection, providing great flexibility in placement and connection. This means that the separate bass towers can be correctly placed within the room without affecting the soundstage and image at the listening position. With a column of bass drivers extending almost the height of the room, there are no standing waves between the floor and ceiling. This results in tightly-controlled, extended, smooth, and dynamic bass response in any room.
The external crossover is meticulously hand-built and measured at every step to ensure that each pair is absolutely matched. Individual components are hand-matched to within less than 0.1% tolerance. The coherence between tweeter and midrange, and midrange and bass has been elevated to a seamlessness that has not been experience before.
In the Genesis Prime, we developed a constrained layer damping structure for both the woofer towers and the midrange/tweeter wings using many layers of carefully selected and precisely machined materials. Each structure stands at 7′ 3″ tall and the components are meticulously CNC machined, then hand-finished.
MIDRANGE/TWEETER PANELS:
These panels measure 42″ wide and house a 75″ ribbon midrange with 20 Genesis ring radiator ribbon tweeters on the front and 6 in the rear to form a near perfect dipolar line source array. Corian was used in the original G1 design for the panel holding the midrange and tweeters because of its inert qualities. A new high-density version of Corian is now used for the center panels as well as foundation bases for the towers and the wings. This same Corian is used to cap the wings and connects the wings solidly into the base.
Carbon fiber rod stand-offs are used to mount the tweeter bracket in the rear of the panel and serve to absorb and dissipate vibrations in the mid to high frequencies. This eliminates the very slight metallic distortion in the rear of the old speaker as a result of the rear midrange sound wave exciting the resonance frequency of the old aluminum rod stand-offs used.
WOOFER TOWERS:
The use of constrained layer damping and subtle changes in bracing has reduced modal vibrations and boxy coloration in the woofer tower cabinet to practically zero. This results in even faster, more dynamic, and better-defined bass. The number of woofers in each tower has doubled from the original. A total of twelve opposing woofers (six front firing and six back firing) per tower are now used so that the vibration generated by one woofer is cancelled by the opposing woofer. Each pair of woofers reside in a separate cavity and this has almost completely eliminated boxy coloration inside each cavity, resulting in better, tighter bass and a more complete coupling of the woofers to the air load in the listening room.
'… high sensitivity speaker cable simply had the most audible effect of any cable I ever tried, combining the speed and control of an ASI Liveline with the tonal lushness the brand is recognized for without dropping any resolution or transparency.'
– Frederic Beudot, 6Moons.com
CROSSOVER MODULES:
The crossover modules are housed in separate Corian enclosures for acoustic isolation. Individual components are hand-matched to within less than 0.1% tolerance and the units are tested at ever step to ensure that they are absolutely matched. Point to point wiring is optimized for minimal interaction between the various parts of the crossover and internal components, many proprietary to Genesis, are “bedded” in soft, vibration-absorbing silicon rubber within the solid Corian box. The external crossover features a single pair of input binding posts as standard and requires only a single high-quality power amplifiers. As each Genesis Prime system is commissioned, customers can specify that that external crossover be tri-amp ready.
INTERNAL WIRING:
The speaker is internally wired with a military-spec aerospace hook-up wire. The wire is made of highly polished silver-plated 6N copper strands. The strands are wound so tightly that the silver “imprints” on one another. This confers the qualities of solid-core wire to the stranded wire, without the disadvantage of extreme stiffness (it is stiffer than normal stranded copper wire but not as stiff as solid-core). The wire is then jacketed in the best possible dielectric material – Teflon – as the insulation. Teflon (or PTFE) is the best insulator for audio cables with excellent dielectric properties, low soakage and fast release. This results in a great increase in resolution and transparency in the high- and mid- frequencies as compared to copper, but without the brightness and leanness associated with pure silver wires.
SERVO-CONTROLLED BASS AMPLIFIERS:
The Genesis Prime features its own new Genesis designed Servo-Controlled Bass Amplifiers for the woofer towers. This means that there is no need to have to choose between using a muscle-bound amplifier with enough power to drive the woofers and a lower-powered amplifier having better harmonic, tonal and spatial characteristics. Taking advantage of the improved Servo-Bass Cable, the sensitivity and speed of the servo feedback control was increased. Servo-control results in extended bass response down to 16Hz, and vanishing low distortion throughout the range. New Class D modules with zero propagation delay and higher current capability are used.
The servo-controlled bass amplifier features a monoblock design consisting of two control modules and two amplifier modules plus two power supply modules and one set is provided for each tower. Each stack sits on a Genesis acoustic suspension system, ensuring optimal performance of the amplification. Dedicated cables are provided for all bass connection. This results in great flexibility in placement and connection. These amplifiers come standard with extended dynamic response and headroom, as well as longer cables for even more flexibility in placement.
FLEXIBLE CONTROLS:
The Genesis Prime provides the dedicated audiophile with ample means to adjust the sonic presentation: a tweeter pot tailors the high frequencies for different room environments; and in the servo-controlled bass amplifier, gain, low-pass filter, high-pass filter and phase adjustments affords ability to adjust the bass to match the listening room. A unique midrange switch allows for adjustment of soundstage height for personal preference. Some of us prefer the orchestra seats in a concert hall, others prefer the circle seats: the Genesis Prime allows you to pick your favorite.
MORE INFORMATION
Features & Details
Changes & Development (PDF 448KB)
Owner’s Manual (PDF 1.2MB)
Brochure (PDF 582KB)