Genesis Advanced Technologies 500 User's Manual
Contents
1. A simple rule of thumb to follow is that focus will be achieved by placing the speakers closer together or farther apart and front to back depth can be adjusted by the distance from the wall behind the loudspeaker Further adjustments If the voice sounds thin or does not have enough chest to its sound turn the woofers amplifiers volume gain up till it does or at this point you may want to experiment with increasing or decreasing the low pass filter control This control will raise or lower the frequency cutoff point of the woofer If you find that the sound is thin or lacking in mid bass and that turning the volume of the woofer amplifier up to thicken the sound creates too much low bass this is a good indication that you may want to turn the low pass filter up instead This will extend the upper bass regions without affecting the low bass level Next set the woofers using more than just a voice Select some music that you know to have good deep bass Using the gain control on the back of the GSAT amplifier set the woofers for a natural and powerful bass sound Use a symphonic piece of music if you can or use a natural bass instrument for your guide Try to make it sound real You may have to return to the vocal to make sure you have not gone too far in one direction If at this point it does not have enough mid bass turn the low pass control to a higher position or alternately position the speakers slightly closer toget2. CONBSIS Genesis 500 System Owner s Manual Description Standing 44 inches tall and only 11 inches wide the Genesis 500 is an all new technology loudspeaker system capable of delivering live listening levels across the entire frequency spectrum By means of active servo bass response down to 25 Hz is achieved and the full range and impact of the symphony orchestra can be reproduced The Genesis 500 has two planar ribbon tweeters one in front and one in the rear To cover the midrange the Genesis 500 utilizes our revolutionary new 5 5 inch titanium coned driver and to cover the mid bass frequencies there is a 6 5 inch metal cone mid bass couplers The bass frequencies are handled by three 8 inch metal cone woofers that are powered by a 500 watt GSAT power amplifier built in to the back of the unit Like all Genesis loudspeakers the Genesis 500 s are a dipole design producing sound from both the front and the rear one out of phase with the other While the advantages of a dipole design are many the two main benefits are ease of placement in the room and a greater degree of spacious natural sound reproduction Dipoles achieve their superior performance because they create a radiation pattern such that the energy radiating to the sides of the speakers plane is nearly zero So with very little acoustical energy reaching the side walls of your living room not only is placement of the speakers easy but remarkably the listener is able to
3. experience the music unencumbered by the normal room aberrations which plague most other speakers The 500 s magic is in the drivers The tweeter used in both the front and the back of the 500 series has been described by many reviewers in both the American and foreign Audiophile press as possibly the world s best It is a 1 inch planar ribbon design and is hand crafted from an extremely thin laminated membrane of aluminum and Kapton and measures a mere 0 0005 inch thick The advantage of incorporating such an extremely thin membrane is that of low mass The result of this design is a driver that has a rapid and uniform response to Page 1 high frequency transients and has the speed of the best ribbon electrostatic designs without the high distortion and poor dispersion that is typically associated with them The midrange driver is truly unique and revolutionary Machined from pure titanium one of the lightest and stiffest materials known to man this new 5 5 inch low mass cone driver is one of the best transducers ever made with transient response nearly instantaneous enabling the APM to sound lifelike and effortless To create a sound bridge between the midrange and the servo woofer system the 500 series incorporates a 6 5 inch metal cone mid bass coupler This metal cone is an extremely light and stiff design capable of handling the huge dynamic range demands of the system while maintaining extremely low coloration and excellent transie
4. off and you are unable to turn it back on you have overheated the amplifier or have played it too hard It may take up to ten minutes for the amplifier to turn back on Be patient and turn off the music Let the amplifier rest and cool down The causes for this are typically too much volume Refer to the section on increasing the low frequency response of your speakers without turning up the volume control If the amplifier does not automatically come back on unplug the unit from the power receptacle in the wall and wait for a few minutes before plugging it in Genesis Technologies Inc of Vail Colorado 970 328 9515 voice 970 328 9522 fax Page 9
5. on as soon as you play music Page 4 e Roughing the system in We suggest that you start with a single vocal with instrumental accompaniment because the sound of the human voice is more easily recognizable than many instruments and is the least complex sound to deal with for most people Begin with the bass level Turn the volume control of the GSAT amplifier up or down until the voice sounds correct Concentrate on the mid bass regions as opposed to the very low bass in your recording to achieve a natural blend The voice and the music accompaniment should sound as if it were cut from one cloth not separate Leave the low pass filter alone for the moment as it should remain set at approximately 95 Hz This control will be addressed later If your vocal selection is a good recording like a Chesky label or Reference Recording or Sheffield the performer should appear to come from behind the loudspeakers and be at the appropriate height for a standing person If it is not there are several remedies which this paper will address 1 If the vocal appears to be larger than life you should first check the system volume Is it a volume that would be appropriate for someone actually singing in your room If there is too much volume the artist will appear too big and the opposite is true for too little volume If the volume is set correctly and the image is still too big toe the speakers in a slight amount or place them closer together a
6. provided with a long 10 foot power cord to connect power to your Genesis 500 s GSAT amplifier Use this provided power cord if at all possible If the power cord is not long enough and you must use an extension cord make sure the extension cord is as short as possible and at least 14 gauge or heavier the lower the number the heavier the wire i e 12 gauge is heavier than 14 gauge Page 3 Be careful not to connect the power cord to a switched outlet one that can turn off with a wall switch Before plugging the power cord into a power receptacle look at the switch on the back of the GSAT marked voltage select and insure it is set to the proper voltage Most countries in North America plus Taiwan and Japan will require the 115v setting Most European countries and other Asian countries will require 230v Check with your local power authorities for the correct voltage in your country Initial settings On the back of the Genesis 500 there are four control They are labeled tweeter Midrange Gain Low pass Tweeter controls the volume level of the front tweeter There is about a one dB range Initially set this control at the two o clock position Midrange controls the volume of the midrange driver There is about a dB and a half range Initially set this control at the one o clock position Gain controls the volume of the woofer amplifier Begin with this control at the one o clock position Low pass this controls how h
7. such information 2 If you find that the sound is not spacious enough or you are not getting enough front to back depth pull the speaker away from the wall towards the listening position This is typically preferable to separating the two speakers too far and will almost always give you better depth and soundstage information A word of caution however if you move the speakers too far from the wall behind the speakers you may lose focus 3 If you find there isn t enough deep bass your first remedy is the volume control on the woofer amplifier This has several limitations First turned up too high you may get some distortion on very low frequencies Secondly you may make the mid bass produced by the top of the woofer out of proportion with the mid bass produced by the bottom of the midrange driver This would tend to sound boomy in the mid bass regions A good tule of thumb is to first set the volume control of the subwoofer for proper midbass rather than low bass The theory is if the midbass is correct then the low bass should be very close to correct If the midbass is proper and the low bass is still not right here are some other suggestions Page 7 Push the speakers back towards the rear wall This will increase the coupling of the woofers to the room Do this procedure in small increments approximately one inch at a time and return often to the recordings you have used to adjust the front to back depth and soundstage p
8. e biggest mistakes we find customers making is too many changes at once Make one change then listen 4 A common problem we find with many setups is a tendency to separate the speakers too far from each other This gives an unnaturally wide soundstage between the two speakers and creates problems beyond the unnatural width of the center stage The key problem is a lack of soundstage information beyond the left and right sides of the speakers Another is improper focus of instruments and voices which is typically corrected by the user with too much toe in Yet another problem is a lack of mid bass energy In order for the appropriate amount of mid bass energy to be present the speakers should be close enough together to achieve proper coupling of the titanium midrange driver Coupling is desirable in the lower frequencies and simply means that the left and right drivers work together as opposed to working separately In order to achieve what the speaker is capable of we suggest you focus your efforts on a proper balance of soundstage elements that includes information beyond the left and right sides of the speakers front to back depth well behind the speaker excellent focus of instruments and voices with proper vertical information and mid bass fill A Genesis loudspeaker system correctly set up can and should provide a soundstage that is wall to wall and with pinpoint focus the speakers disappearing completely on a recording containing
9. e listener and the loudspeaker Itis where the sound from the loudspeaker first hits the side wall then bounces to the listener This reflection is undesirable because it is slightly delayed from the original sound This point on the side wall can be easily determined with the help of a second person and a mirror Sitting in your listening position have an assistant hold a mirror up on the side wall Move the mirror along the wall until you can see the tweeter This is the point of first reflection A diffuser see your dealer an absorptive material or even a piece of furniture can help break up this point of first reflection Mastering the refinements of the system Fine tuning an audio system is an art that will take time and patience It can be one of the more rewarding learning experiences you will have in the pursuit of music and its enjoyment One of the best pieces of advice we can offer is that you take advantage of the ears ability to identify similarities in sound This ability is useful in fine tuning your system because if every recording you listen to has a similarity of sound too much or too little of a certain frequency for instance then you can be fairly certain that you have yet to Page 8 EE perfect your setup Keep at it and remember to enjoy your music as you work on perfecting your setup If you have any questions feel free to contact us at Genesis Note Should your woofer amplifier unexpectedly turn
10. ed for cable lengths longer than 10 feet We recommend in most instances that you rely on the existing internal connection provided by connecting the power amplifier to the 500 as described above If you choose to connect your 500 in this fashion use a good quality interconnect cable to connect your preamplifier s output to the low level input on the back of the 500 marked input We strongly recommend that you do not use interconnects longer than 10 feet 3 2 meters to connect the preamplifier outputs to your Genesis 500 On many preamplifiers use of an interconnect that is too long will negatively affect the performance of your preamplifier because of the high capacitance of the cable across the output of your preamplifier Connect the input of the GSAT woofer amplifier to the output of your preamplifier If your preamplifier has only one set of balanced outputs and one set of unbalanced RCA type outputs choose balanced for the connection of the amplifier that is driving your main speaker Use the remaining set of RCA outputs to feed the GSAT amplifier If your preamplifier does not have two outputs use a Y connector to split the signal The GSAT amplifier presents a high impedance very easy load to your preamplifier and can easily be used with the Y connector with no degradation to your main signal Once connected you must place the switch marked input in the on position Connect the power to the GSAT amplifier You have been
11. her in order to achieve better mid bass coupling between the speakers If it sounds too fat turn the low pass control down or adjust the volume This can also be accomplished with the midrange control on the rear of the speakers At this point it is suggested to use the low pass filter control until you get to the refinement stage Low bass With the speakers positioned in the recommended placement low bass in the room should not be a problem Should you have too much bass simply turn the volume down on the GSAT amplifier Too little and the opposite will apply In some problematic rooms a resonance may develop at one or two frequencies that is unnatural to the music By moving the speakers closer to the rear wall or farther from the rear wall the resonance may be reduced at the listeners position There are no absolute rules concerning problematic rooms so do not be afraid to experiment with best woofer placement The Refinement stage After following the rough setup guide above your speakers should sound great However it is always a good idea to put the finishing touch on your system To that end we offer some of our experiences Page 6 Note One rule of thumb you should always keep in mind Make one change at a time Do not for instance change position of the speakers and make an adjustment to the amplifier all at once Make each of these changes separately and note the difference by listening with each adjustment One of th
12. igh the woofer goes in frequency At the low extreme of 71 Hz the woofer will go as high as 71 Hz and then begin rolling off or reducing its volume Recommended beginning position for this control is 95 Hz This is the 12 o clock position and you will feel a small stop at the center position Input is a switch marked on off This switch selects where the woofer amplifier receives its input In the off position the woofer receives its signal from your power amplifier and is the recommended setting When the switch is in the on position the woofer receives its signal from the RCA input to the left of the switch marked input Power is the on off switch for the power amplifier We recommend that you leave the switch in the on position always The GSAT power amplifier has an auto off circuit that will shut the amplifier off when there is no music being played for approximately 10 minutes The amplifier will immediately come back on when there is music Red light next to input You may notice that there is a red light next to the input When you first turn the GSAT power amplifier on this red light will not come on Only when you play music will the light come on The light is the auto off indicator It indicates when the amplifier is on and ready to play music The light will automatically turn off as will the amplifier after a period of approximately 10 minutes of no music being played The light and the amplifier will automatically turn
13. nd re listen Repeat this process till you have it right 2 If you are not getting enough front to back depth not appearing behind the speaker sufficiently pull the speaker away from the wall a little bit at a time If you do not have them pulled far enough away you may not have enough front to back depth Find the best compromise for your room your tastes and your space requirements 3 If you are not getting proper focus on the voice you may place the left and right speakers closer together until you have a properly defined center image or toe them in a bit more angled toward the listener If the speakers are too far apart you will lose the side image and if they are too close together you will have too small a center stage We recommend you begin with six to seven feet apart two and three quarter meters as measured from tweeter to tweeter If you still do not get enough turn the midrange control counter clockwise ever so slightly When properly set up very little sound should appear to come directly from the speaker instead the sound stage should extend far beyond the left and right edge of the loudspeakers and they should have tremendous front to back depth When the recording is close miked when the instrument or performer is very close to the recording microphone the music may appear to come directly from the loudspeaker This is normal Typically however the sound should appear to be detached from the loudspeakers Page 5
14. nt response Servo control of the woofers and metal cone technology is key to the phenomenal bass performance of the Genesis 500 In a traditional woofer system heavy soggy or boomy bass is present to some degree because the woofer has high mass and therefore high inertia causing poor control and high distortion In a servo bass system complete control of the woofer is made possible by the addition of a motion sensor accelerometer mounted directly on the woofer itself Lower distortion greater frequency extension and tight control yield musically accurate yet floor shaking bass The metal cone servo controlled woofer system of the Genesis 500 is driven with a built in amplifier of unique design Known as GSAT the 500 utilizes a technology of amplification first introduced to the audio world by Genesis co founder Arnie Nudell and is known as a switching amplifier Acclaimed for their performance by virtue of their perfect linear response near perfect efficiency and slam factor switching amplifier technology is clearly superior to almost any other form of amplification Set up the speakers A good starting position for the Genesis 500 s placement is about 20 the way into the room as measured from the wall behind the loudspeakers you can place them much closer to the rear wall if you wish If you have placed the speakers closer to the rear wall a good rule of thumb is to try and sit approximately ten to twelve feet from the speake
15. r Generally speaking the speakers should fire into the long dimension of the room Measure the distance between the left and right tweeters Start with approximately six to eight feet apart two and three quarter meters if your room dimensions will allow Begin by pointing the speakers towards the listener 5 to 10 degrees toe in When positioning your speakers make sure each speaker is within 10 feet of a power receptacle so you will be able to plug the GSAT built in power amplifier in Connecting the 500 s There are two connections that need to be made to each channel of the 500 One is the output of your power amplifier and the other is the power cord for the GSAT amplifier Using a high quality loudspeaker cable connect the left and right channel outputs of your power amplifier to the 500 s speaker input binding posts Make sure that the plus or positive red terminal of your power amplifier is connected to the plus or positive red terminal of the 500 and repeat the procedure for the minus or negative black terminal Connecting your power amplifier up to the 500 will also automatically provide a signal to feed the built in GSAT woofer amplifier of the 500 This is the recommended hook up both sonically and for convenience Make sure the switch labeled input is in the off position down If you wish you may use a long interconnect to connect your preamplifier to the 500 directly although this method is not recommend
16. roperties of your system It is easy yet unproductive to go too far in one direction and if you move the speakers too far from the rear wall you may lose low bass extension A good balance between proper low bass extension and a deep and spacious soundstage needs to be established to optimize your new speaker s performance Room Treatment No room is perfect To optimize your sonic presentation it may be helpful to treat your room Here are some guidelines 1 This loudspeaker is a dipole and therefore there is sound coming from both the front and the back of the speaker How the wall behind the loudspeaker is treated or not treated is important Generally speaking the Genesis loudspeakers prefer a live wall behind the speaker and a dead wall behind the listener By these terms we mean the amount of reflection of sound A typical wall of glass or brick cement or drywall material is a reflective surface A heavily curtained or sound proofed wall would be considered a dead wall or a non reflective wall A normal thin curtain across a window causes only a small amount of absorption 2 Because the speaker is a dipole it is less sensitive to the side walls However as a tule of thumb it is a good idea to keep the speaker as far away from the side walls as is practical With this in mind it may be helpful to add some damping material or diffuser panels to the point of first reflection This is a point on the side walls between th
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