Genesis System

[garylkoh]

Dripping >or substitute flooded, torrential downpour, monsoon< with $$$. A "little island" is only geographic.
zz.

Haha! You know Penang well

That's why I was there.

 

[zztop7]

Haha! You know Penang well

That's why I was there.

Very intelligent man!
zz.

 

[LL21]

Dripping >or substitute flooded, torrential downpour, monsoon< with $$$. A "little island" is only geographic.
zz.

...and with AWESOME food. AWESOME...

 

[LL21]

Great read Gary...totally agree in terms of my own personal experience below 30hz...but always nice to learn 'why' from the experts and professionals.

Glad to see the lesson comes from yet another fantastic Genesis system. From the little that i have personally experience with the big 1.1s...yours are surely one of the all time greats and have been part of 1 of the top 2 systems i have ever heard anywhere in Hong Kong, NY, CT, MA, Istanbul, London, Madrid, Netherlands, and a few other spots.

Here's a dream set-up at a dealer's showroom comprising four brands not commonly seen in the USA: Genesis G2Jr loudspeakers, Gryphon Mephisto power amp, Viola Cadenza preamp and CH Precision C1 DAC. Source was either my home-made Genesis Music Server or the Gryphon Mikado used as a transport.

We inadvertently caused some ripples in a quiet pond with my visit to the little island of Penang in Malaysia. If our competitors have to resort to saying that a hi-fi loudspeaker only needs to go down to 30 Hz for a full sound and going down to as low as 16 Hz is not necessary and may be counter productive - I call 'sour grapes'!!

A Bosendorfer Imperial grand piano has a lowest note with a frequency of 16.5Hz. The listener will hear and feel this note when struck, but will not hear it as a pitch. Even when this note is not played, a Bosendorfer Imperial sounds richer and fuller than an ordinary Bosendorfer. The extra strings below the standard 88-key piano's lowest key of 27.5Hz resonate when other keys are struck and contribute to the piano's sonic character.

We can easily demonstrate how clearly audible the loss of the lowest octave of music is as both the Genesis One and Genesis Two have a high-pass control. This control allows the user to cut off bass below frequencies from 16Hz to 32Hz. When you set this control at 32Hz, you hear it as a loss of richness in orchestras, pianos (even not the Bosendorfer), double bass, etc.

However, more important than being able to reproduce the notes of a Bosendorfer Imperial grand or a pipe organ, is the ability to produce the sub-harmonics that are the basis of recorded ambience and hall-sound.

The sense of scale is carried by the lowest frequencies. 30Hz has a wavelength of 37ft and 16Hz has a wavelength of 70ft. When you are listening to music being recorded in a large venue like a concert hall or a cathedral, it is the ability to reproduce the low frequencies that gives you the sense of grandeur and reproduce the ambience of a large symphony hall or live rock music in a stadium.

With an excellent recording of solo piano in a large hall (an example is Ms. Ito Ema playing Bachs Goldberg Variations on a 1903 Steinway & Sons Model D Patent Grand in The Harmony Hall, Matsumoto, Japan) you hear the rich presence of the piano in the large acoustic space. Raising the high-pass frequency from 16Hz, by the time it gets up to 25Hz, the richness of the piano and the ambience of the hall starts to diminish. By 32Hz, you might as well be listening to a cheap piano recorded in a studio. There is no longer the sense of space of the hall, or richness of the sound of the rare vintage piano.

The Genesis 2.2 Junior is our smallest speaker that will go down to a true 16Hz. Currently on demo at HiFi Choice, Midlands Park Centre, Penang, Malaysia.

View attachment 17947

 

[garylkoh]

...and with AWESOME food. AWESOME...

Lloyd, you know Penang well. It is a hidden gem with some of the best food in the world. Unfortunately, the very best aren't exported, or even sold in retail locations other than the one shop that has been there for 50 years.