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Switch from Genesis V to ???

We moved from a big house in Houston (huge listening room with 11 foot ceiling) to a smaller house in Los Angeles. My current listening room is 13' wide by 23' long, 8' ceiling.

The problem is my main speakers, Genesis Vs, sound "congested" in this new environment. I don't know if it is because of the room dimensions or the composition of the walls/floor/etc., but I'm not nearly as happy as I used to be with these great speakers.

I have lately begun to think about going with something smaller with a decent sub to give me some of the bottom end I'd be missong without the Gens.

So what do I do - try to tweek the room and the speaker setup, or swap out speakers? I have to admit that all the press and positive comments about the Merlin VSM line has piqued my interest. I do like a speaker with a lot of detail and musicality, but I also like plenty of slam (I'm a professional musician and like my music LOUD).

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Jim
jwilt
gregm
3,410 posts
 
Jim--
I had V's and found them an excellent all 'rounder, not cheap to surpass overall. As you're a musician,here's my opinion.

OPTION 1 is to change spkrs, going for "better" rather than "different".
Target should be: increased "dynamics"/ transient impact + better rendition of detail (and tweet extension, if possible). One easy rule to follow is (apart from the actual tuning any speaker) to short-list a more sensitive (+94db/1w/1m) design, OR choose active spkrs. Remember, sensitive spkrs will easily play "loud" before reaching their mechanical & electrical limits.
Target COULD also be: open baffle /dipole (the V's are a bipole design).
Finally, subwoof in stereo is essential (you have that, presently).
CONCLUSION: a few ideas are, the Genesis 6.1 (expensive), open baffle like Bastanis "Air-force" (cheap and excellent performer; check Bastanis out @ AA), or the Linkwitz "Orion" (active & expensive, but outstanding sound -- far superior to our V's -- site). OR, a monitor + sub combo, of which there are many (ATC comes to mind, but myriads other choices out there). Expensive solution.

OPTION 2: play around w/ yr Vs before you send them packing.
Turn mid-range control to 1, the bass to default vol ~20, phase to 0, hi-pass to 25-30, lo-pass to 80, and the tweet to 12". Place spkrs 75-80" apart & about the same fm back wall (measuring fm middle of front woofs). Tune the sound for the best sounding bass & treble detail -- moving the spkrs closer together or vice-versa in very SMALL increments. When you've found the best compromise position, THEN play with the spkr controls to further tune the sound to yr liking.

I'd of course go for option 2 before considering 1 (but I guess you've already done that!). CHeers
jvogt
212 posts
 
Consider a TacT Audio RCS 2.0S room correction system.
I have a complete Mark Levinson system with Magnepans
and the TacT was by far the greatest improvement in
my system. It will dramatically improve the coherence
and imaging of most systems. I've heard Genesis V's
and they are a lovely system. I'd look at fixing the
room before dumping the speakers.
richards
145 posts
 
I had Genesis V some years back in a problem room, and found them to integrate better in that room than several other speakers (BTW, The Genesis are dipoles, not bipoles). You need to give more details about the room, your equipment and the problem your having.

If you have a suspended wood floor, you may be getting bass boom that's 'muddying' the mids. I'm not sure a monitor/sub system will help you here. The servo-controlled, dipole bass in the Genesis is one of the cleanest around, and tends to work better than most in a narrow room. I found that putting a 1.5" thick square of polished granite under the speakers, and some Aurios or Nordost points between, helped quite a bit.

Something else to try, if you can, is putting the speakers on the long wall, but the Genesis weren't really designed as close listening. I had some Dunlavys I set up this way, sitting against the back wall with the speakers far apart, and it worked pretty well.

Much of what you're probably up against is the room itself, and you may have trouble getting anything to sound as good as in your previous place. The room is as significant a contributer to the sound as anything else in your system. You may find some luck with bass traps or diffusers.

I tried different cables and amps to tame my congested mids, and had eight Room Lenses in my room at one time, along with Echobuster bass busters. It all helped some (until my wife nixed the experiment). My ultimate solution, however, and the one that helped by orders of magnitude better than anything else I tried, was to get a Tact 2.2x for room correction. It really opened everything up, like a blanket was lifted from the speakers.

Good luck.
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