The Hong Kong High End Audio Visual Show 2013

[garylkoh]

The Hong Kong show is one of the largest in the region. Often attracting tens of thousands with long queues to get in. It is held in the Hong Kong Convention Center - this year from Aug 9th to 11th.

Here's the official website: http://www.audiotechnique.com/av_show/hifi_show.htm

Our Hong Kong dealer and China distributor is doing something bold, risky, but potentially ground breaking. The Genesis Dragons are large line-source loudspeakers. This means that theoretically, in a large room it will work far better than a point source loudspeaker. With a cylindrical radiation pattern, theoretically at a 8m listening distance, the line-source Genesis Dragons will be 12dB more efficient than an equivalent point source loudspeaker. This means that for the same electronics, in a very large room, the Genesis line source loudspeakers will be more dynamic, have better clarity, etc.

Theoretically.........

To test this theory, we decided to put the Genesis in a real theater with a seating capacity of 300. The speakers will be used for demos as well as to support live performers. Being on a stage, the line source radiation pattern covers a 6-foot vertical span, which will mean that it will be ear-level for all seats in the theater.

......... fingers crossed.

 

[LL21]

Niiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiice!!!!! now THAT is one worth waiting for! look forward to hearing all about it! Good luck. There are very few speakers I can think of that could properly attempt to fill a room that big. Good luck!!!

 

[LL21]

Any chance you can get a high quality recording of the session and post it here?

 

[garylkoh]

Any chance you can get a high quality recording of the session and post it here?

I'm going to try. I'll bring my Canon 5D for HD recording. Now hunting for a good hot-shoe mounted mic.

 

[garylkoh]

My daughter's favourite singer is the opening act!!

 

[LL21]

i'm going to try. I'll bring my canon 5d for hd recording. Now hunting for a good hot-shoe mounted mic.

great!

 

[FrantzM]

Hi

I haven't auditioned a Genesis speaker for a while now. I am however a fan. I had some misgivings about earlier Genesis midbass: I thought the trade-off between low bass extension and just adequate midbass not entirely to my liking. I had in awe he Gensis 1.1 but did find the 5 and later the 501 more to my liking (no they are not comparable !!) ..Which remind me to seriously audition the G5 as one of the speaker to include in my search for my next dedicated room ... Gary, PM coming up ...
This said I agree that the Genesis 1 and the Dragon are among the few speakers that could energize such a large room. The darn thing is that in my experience the Gen 1 and II (200 too) worked very well in much smaller rooms. What is so different about the dragon so that it requires a very large room?

Now this next question is asked with all seriousness: In a room that can seat 300 people, do the current rules of "small" room acoustics apply?

 

[cjfrbw]

That Hong Kong audio scene makes the rest of us look like feeble beginners. What a treat to hear that demo.

 

[LL21]

Hi

I haven't auditioned a Genesis speaker for a while now. I am however a fan. I have some misgivings about earlier Gensis midbass I thought the tradeoff of more low bass and a just adequate midbass not enitrely t my liknig. I had in awe he Gensis 1.1 but di find the V and later the 501 more to my liking (no they are not comparable !!) ..
This said I agree that the Genesis 1 and the Dragon are among the few speakers that could energize such a large room. The darn thing is that in my experience the 1 and II worked in much smaller rooms very well too. The question is asked with all seriousness in such a room does the current rles of "small" room acoustics apply?

Which remind me to seriously audition the G5 as one of the speaker to include in my search for my next dedicated room ... Gary, PM coming up ...

I think if you listen to a lot of propulsive deep house, electronic, you will want to make sure you focus on getting the 4-tower Genesis setup right. The deep, deep bass is pervasive, but I have read about people not being able to control the midbass and thus losing the propulsive 'snap' that is crucial to getting deep house/electronic right.

In fact, I think this is one of the areas where Gary's latest 1.2s was supposed to address this with different cones, and very different amplification.

~Frantz - could not quite read some of your text above...were you saying that the Genesis 1s DO work well in smaller rooms? I would have thought to be very difficult to achieve, but perhaps you've heard it for yourself (I admit I have not). What kind of dimensions are you speaking of when you say 'smaller' room?

 

[garylkoh]

The integration and crossover between the mid-bass and lower bass is an area that I had been working on for the past 7 years. I think that the current models have fixed that to a huge degree.

You see, the problem is that the servo-feedback loop is continuous, not discrete. When you take the servo-feedback up to 160Hz, there is a risk of going into oscillation. (Old Genesis owners will recognize this as squealing when they shortened their 30ft long servo-bass cables in ancient Genesis speakers.) We fixed this so that the new servo-feedback is stable up to 180Hz.

Then, when you have the mass and momentum difference between aluminum 12-inch woofers and the almost massless ribbon midrange, you have a different set of problems that needed to be fixed in the midrange crossover.

 

[LL21]

The integration and crossover between the mid-bass and lower bass is an area that I had been working on for the past 7 years. I think that the current models have fixed that to a huge degree.

You see, the problem is that the servo-feedback loop is continuous, not discrete. When you take the servo-feedback up to 160Hz, there is a risk of going into oscillation. (Old Genesis owners will recognize this as squealing when they shortened their 30ft long servo-bass cables in ancient Genesis speakers.) We fixed this so that the new servo-feedback is stable up to 180Hz.

Then, when you have the mass and momentum difference between aluminum 12-inch woofers and the almost massless ribbon midrange, you have a different set of problems that needed to be fixed in the midrange crossover.

Always good to read your posts, Sensei! Thanks.

 

[garylkoh]

Picking the music to bring with me...... no vinyl as they are not sure that the turntable will survive on a stage with singing and dancing girls.... so high rez music.

Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon is one of the best selling albums of all time. In 2003, for the band's 30th Anniversary, they issued a re-mastered SACD with a new 5.1 channel mix by James Guthrie. The original quadraphonic mic by Alan Parsons was never endorsed by by the band.

On the SACD is also a fabulous 2-channel stereo mix from the original tapes (not the re-mastered 2011 mix).

This is one of my favorite SACDs - played either as a surround mix, or as my preferred stereo mix. I also love how they did the new cover graphic.

 

[garylkoh]

A ripped DVD-A, one of my favourite blues albums is Eric Clapton and B.B.King - Riding with the King. 24/88.2

 

[garylkoh]

Since Roger Waters skipped Hong Kong for their latest tour (last time they played there was 2007), I'll bring along the ripped SACD of this. With music from Dark Side of the Moon, The Wall, Wish You Were Here and also Water's solo Amused to Death, there's surely something for every Pink Floyd/Roger Waters fan here.

The SACD was roundly panned and given bad reviews when it was released. I don't know why as I thought that the recording and performance was pretty awesome.

May be if you were at the concert and felt the energy of the live performance, this might be a let-down. But it's live as can be from a recording. With the huge Genesis Dragons, this might just re-create "live".

 

[thestewman]

Since Roger Waters skipped Hong Kong for their latest tour (last time they played there was 2007), I'll bring along the ripped SACD of this. With music from Dark Side of the Moon, The Wall, Wish You Were Here and also Water's solo Amused to Death, there's surely something for every Pink Floyd/Roger Waters fan here.

The SACD was roundly panned and given bad reviews when it was released. I don't know why as I thought that the recording and performance was pretty awesome.

May be if you were at the concert and felt the energy of the live performance, this might be a let-down. But it's live as can be from a recording. With the huge Genesis Dragons, this might just re-create "live".

View attachment 11004

I wonder who ripped that for you ?

 

[garylkoh]

I wonder who ripped that for you ?

Thanks, Stew for ripping my SACDs for me..... guess what? I found more

 

[garylkoh]

With an event like this, I "knew" that the speakers would easily do it, but until you actually do it, there is always the element of fear. After the first day, I can breath a sigh of relief and happily conclude that a pair of Genesis 1.2 Dragons would absolutely be able to fill and fulfill the musical duties in a theater seating 300.



Despite the size of the hall, and the bodies absorbing bass, the speakers were just loafing along. Relaxed and unstressed. Because of the nature of the line source, it was not too loud in the front rows, and not too soft in the back. This lovely lady ended up hugging one of the speakers and telling the audience how much she loved hearing herself sing through this fantastic system. What an endorsement!

By the 3rd and last show of the day, every seat was filled - including all the floor space on the stairs up the middle, down the two sides, and people standing in the rear. I had to leave the room because I thought that we were seriously running out of oxygen! (and I'm not claustrophobic.)



Today is just the first day. I don't want to know how the organizers are going to go about controlling the crowd tomorrow! Seriously!

Carl is right on the money here.

That Hong Kong audio scene makes the rest of us look like feeble beginners. What a treat to hear that demo.

Even in a large room, we were so happy to get an audience of 15 people for a demo at a show in the US. Here, we had over 300!

 

[MasterChief]

Congratulations to you Gary, would have been fantastic to hear the big Genesis in that theater. Seems that you will have an epic backlog very soon. :b

 

[LL21]

W-O-W ! ! ! Now THAT is a speaker system!!! Congrats Gary. Many of us know how hard it is to run a business, and to run one at the world class level is even harder. That must have been a satisfying and gratifying day...well deserved without any doubt. Congrats. I hope you get a lot of orders out of this one.

 

[LL21]

Did you manage to get a recording snip to post here? Would love to hear something!