Genesis RC-1 Owners manual

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Owners Manual and Set-up Guide:

Genesis Reference Center Loudspeaker

Contents

1 A QUICK START SET-UP GUIDE 3

1.1 U

1.2 P

1.3

C

1.4 A

NPACKING

LACEMENT

ONNECTIONS

DJUSTMENTS

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4

2 SETTING UP FOR MULTI-CHANNEL 5

2.1 P

2.2 P

2.3 L

2.4 M

OSITIONING FOR CENTER CHANNEL

OSITIONING AS MAIN LEFT/RIGHT CHANNELS

OUDSPEAKER CONTROLS

2.3.1 T

2.3.2 T

ASTERING THE REFINEMENTS OF THE SYSTEM

WEETER AND MIDRANGE CONTROLS

WEETER DEFEAT

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6

5

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3 THE TECHNOLOGY USED 8

3.1 D

3.2 T

3.3 C

3.4 V

IPOLAR CONFIGURATION

HE TRANSDUCERS

3.2.1 T

3.2.2 T

3.2.3 A

ROSSOVER

IBRATION-FREE CABINET

HE GENESIS RIBBON TWEETER

ITANIUM MIDRANGE

LUMINUM-CONE WOOFERS

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4 SPECIFICATIONS 11

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A Message from Genesis

Congratulations! You are now the owner of one of the finest
loudspeakers in the world. Based on some of the technologies
developed for our flagship Genesis 1, the Genesis Reference
Center Loudspeaker (RC1) is designed to be the perfect multi­channel complementary “convertible” loudspeaker to extend
existing Genesis legacy audiophile stereo systems into multi­channel.

We call it “convertible” because it can be used horizontally or
vertically. While the Reference Center is designed primarily as a
center channel speaker in a multi-channel music or home theater
system, it is also designed to be as flexible as possible. It can also
be used in a multi-channel system, where it can function as main
left/right speakers, monopole surround or monopole rear channels.

Sound structural engineering principles have been applied to make
the Reference Center cabinet rigid and well damped. The front
baffle holding the transducers is made of a full 2-inches of MDF.

The box and even the internal braces are made of 1-inch MDF and
have been “tongue and grooved” to ensure that the cabinet is the
best environment on which to mount the transducers. This results in
extremely low cabinet coloration, and excellent soundstaging and
imaging.

Please read this Owners Manual and Set-up Guide to get the
maximum enjoyment out of your purchase. Also, check out our
website at www.genesisloudspeakers.com for the latest updates,
tips & tricks and support for our owners.

Please write the serial number and purchase details of your Genesis
Reference Center here for future reference. Remember to send in your
warranty card as registration confers a 5-year transferable warranty to your
new loudspeaker. Please see the warranty registration form for more details.

Purchased at: _________________ Date: __________

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1 A Quick Start Set-up Guide

Now that you have your new Genesis Reference Center, we realize that
you can’t wait to hook it up and start playing! However, please read this
quick set-up guide (even if your dealer is setting it up for you) before you
proceed.

1.1 Unpacking

Your loudspeakers will come to you in a large shipping carton weighing
over 70lbs (32kgs). We suggest that two strong people move the
speaker carton around and to lift the speaker out of its carton. Even
then, use correct lifting techniques.

We will not be held liable for damage to either the speakers or your
backs during unpacking and setting up.

1.2 Placement

Used as a center channel, the Reference Center can be placed
below or above your screen. If you have a perforated, sonically
transparent projector screen, you may place it behind the screen. In
all cases, do not point the tweeter directly at the ears of the listeners.
Angle the speaker so that the tweeter points 12 inches (30cm) below
the ears or over the top of the head.

Used as main left/right speakers in a multi-channel set-up, mount
them vertically on either side of the projection screen. Toe the
speakers in slightly towards the listeners – by about 5 to 10 degrees –
no more.

If you are using the Reference Center as monopole surround or rear
speakers, and you are hanging them on the wall, you will need a
qualified installer to mount them on very strong brackets. The speakers
weigh over 70 pounds (32kgs) each, and can cause death or severe
injury if it falls on someone!

1.3 Connections

The speakers should be connected directly
to the speaker-level output of your power
amplifiers using high quality speaker cables
and the 5-way binding posts.

The high-level thru-put binding posts are for
connecting to a subwoofer. We recommend
the Genesis ServoSub™ 4/8 as the perfect

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complement to this speaker as the center channel, the Genesis G928
when used as main left/right speakers, and the ServoSub 2/12t corner
subwoofers when used as rear/surround speakers.

1.4 Adjustments

Don’t be too worried by the knobs on the back of the
Reference Center. Just set both knobs to the 12 o’clock
position. That is a good place to start. The Reference
Center will sound great, straight out of the box, set-up
like this. As you play your system for the next hundred
hours or so, the speaker will settle in and break in.

If you have at least 12 inches (30cm) of space
between the back of the speaker and the rear wall, the
rear tweeter should be left ON. Otherwise, turn the
rear tweeter off with the tweeter defeat switch on the
back panel.

Once you familiarize yourself with its performance,
putting a little bit of additional effort into tuning the
speaker properly for your system (which includes the
room), will give you greater long-term enjoyment and
benefits.

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2 Setting up for Multi-channel

2.1 Positioning for Center Channel

A good starting position is for the Reference Center to be placed
horizontally about 20 inches from the floor, and angled upwards by 3 to
5 degrees. This is assuming that the speaker doesn’t block the screen in
this position.

Use a good quality stand that is solidly built and as rigid as possible. The
Genesis ServoSub™ 4/8 is a unique subwoofer that complements the
Reference Center to turn it into a full-range absolute fidelity™ system,
and also makes a perfect stand for the Reference Center.

An alternative is to place the speaker horizontally above the screen, and
angle it downwards by 3 to 5 degrees. In either case, do not point the
speaker directly at the head of the listener, but either over their heads, or
at her chest.

With a perforated screen, the Reference Center can be placed behind
the screen. In this case, do not angle the speaker so that the tweeter
points directly at the head of the listeners.

As these speakers are dipolar with a rear-firing tweeter, there should be
at least 12 inches (30cm) of space between the back of the speaker and
the wall. If this space is not available, switch the rear tweeter off with the
tweeter defeat switch.

On the home theatre processor, set the speaker to “LARGE” as the
Reference Center plays to below 60Hz even without a subwoofer.
However, for a true full-range center channel, the perfect complement is
the Genesis ServoSub 4/8 which is designed as a “vocal” subwoofer for
the center channel. With four 8-inch woofers, it is phenomenally fast,
and plays down to sub-20Hz.

2.2 Positioning as Main Left/Right Channels

The Reference Center can also be used as the main left/right channels
of a multi-channel system. When used as such, place the speakers
vertically with the tweeter on the INSIDE towards the video screen. As
the Reference Center is shielded, they can be used beside a normal
CRT television.

2.3 Loudspeaker Controls

2.3.1 Tweeter and Midrange Controls

The two knobs at the top of the plate on the back of the speaker tailor
the mid- and high-frequency response of the Reference Center. They

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are subtle controls, but they can make a great difference in gaining that
last bit of additional performance in tuning your speakers for the room in
which you are using them. They can turn your system from very good to
exceptional, so take the time to work through this process.

The left knob marked TWEETER is a volume control
for the front tweeter. Turning this control clockwise will
increase the level of the tweeters. Use this control if
you need a bit more treble, or to increase the
apparent space of the soundstage. Too high a tweeter
level, and you can feel that voices are too sibilant.

With music, crashing cymbals are leaping out at you,
and nylon stringed guitars sound steely. Start with this control at the 12
o'clock position. There is about a ± one dB range for this control.

The right knob marked MIDRANGE is used to adjust the level of the
midrange. Start at the 12 o’clock position. Turning the control anti­clockwise will make the midrange sound leaner - turning it clockwise will
make the midrange sound fuller. A fuller midrange can also make voices
sound more forward. There is about a ± one-and a half dB range for this
control.

These two controls can also be used to fine tune the speaker when it is
used behind a perforated screen, which typically attenuates the mid- to
high- frequency response.

2.3.2 Tweeter Defeat

The Reference Center should be placed at least 12 inches (30cm) away
from the wall behind the speaker. If this is not possible, turn the rear­firing tweeter off to configure your loudspeaker as a monopole. This is
perfectly acceptable and will not compromise the performance for multi­channel surround movies.

2.4 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 your ear's 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 perfect your
set-up. Keep at it, and remember to enjoy your music as you work on
perfecting your set-up!

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If you have any questions, feel free to contact us at Genesis. Our
website is the first place you can look to for more information, but you
are welcome to either send us an email, or just give us a call!

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3 The Technology used

3.1 Dipolar Configuration

What a lot of people don’t realize is that the room is as big (if not bigger),
a part of their music system as are the loudspeakers. At Genesis, we
strive to get the loudspeakers and the room to work well together and
hence, design loudspeakers that interact with the room and have
enough of adjustment to make them work with most rooms in the world.

All rooms have floors, ceilings and sidewalls that distort sound because
of lateral, early-arriving reflections. We aim to suppress undesirable
contribution by reflected sound from these four surfaces (which is why a
lot of people put sound absorbers or diffusers at the first reflection point
of the room). In order to do that with a majority of rooms, we make our
loudspeakers dipolar.

Dipoles radiate the same, but out-of-phase, waveform from the front and
rear in “push/pull” fashion. Thus, the sound waves from the front and
back of the speakers cancel out as they radiate from the sides and tops
of the speakers which mean that there is minimum radiation of sound to
the sidewalls of the room.

The Genesis Reference Center uses the wall behind the speaker to give
more depth to the soundstage and “air” to the speaker without detail
robbing room reflections from the sidewalls. Hence, it has the
advantages of omni-directional speakers, without the disadvantages.

With fewer spurious reflections to confuse your hearing, the program
source emerges more clearly. Imaging is stable, sharply focused,
deeper and spacious. Transients are clearer and sharper.

3.2 The Transducers

The transducers in the 3-way Reference Center are all proprietary
Genesis-designed drivers manufactured to our exacting standards:

3.2.1 The Genesis Ribbon Tweeter

Reviewers in the audiophile press have often remarked that the Genesis
circular ribbon tweeter is the world’s best. It is a one inch circular planar
ribbon design crafted from an extremely thin membrane of Kapton® with
a photo-etched aluminium “voice coil” that is a mere 0.0005 inch thick.
The entire radiating structure has less mass than the air in front of it!
That is why it will accurately reproduce frequencies beyond 36 kHz.

The result of this design is a driver that has a rapid and uniform
response to high frequencies and has the speed of the best

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ribbon/electrostatic designs, without the high distortion and poor
dispersion that is typically associated with them.

The Reference Center uses two of these tweeters per channel. One is
front-firing and the other rear-firing; wired to the crossover out of phase
to the front tweeter, creating a dipole.

3.2.2 Titanium Midrange

We sometimes say that the midrange is a window into the mind of a
composer or a singer. And indeed, the midrange is where the “magic” is
in a well-recorded musical event.

The Reference Center uses a Genesis-designed proprietary 5 inch
titanium-coned midrange to cover this critical frequency spectrum.
Manufactured out of one of the lightest and stiffest materials known, this
low mass cone driver is one of the best midrange transducers ever
made, with nearly instantaneous transient response, enabling the
Reference Center to sound lifelike and effortless.

3.2.3 Aluminum-cone Woofers

The Reference Center incorporates two front-firing 6.5 inch metal cone
woofers. Made of a cone of solid aluminium, the suspension and voice­coil have been maximized for long, distortion-free excursion so as to
increase dynamic range. Our aluminium cones are a magnitude stiffer
than plastic or paper cones, and virtually eliminate the problems caused
by cone bending and break-up.

3.3 Crossover

If the servo-controlled bass amplifier is the heart of the loudspeaker, the
crossover is the brain. In order to manage and maximize the
performance of the extensive complement of transducers used in
Genesis loudspeakers, we spend more money on the crossover than
many other manufacturers put in their entire speaker.

Each crossover is designed by computer modelling plus years of
knowledge and experience. The inductors are made for Genesis with
OFC copper windings. The capacitors used are also custom made for
Genesis, using high-quality polypropylene-film and tin-foil. The
crossover of each Reference Center weighs over five pounds (2.2kg)!
L/C tuning is employed to extract the most bass out of the small cabinet.

More importantly, the crossovers are designed with many, many hours
of music listening and constant refining, tuning and tweaking of the
circuit. Out of this comes the “magic” that is a Genesis-designed
loudspeaker system. For example, by going the more expensive route

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of using several smaller capacitors in parallel instead of a single big one,
transparency and musicality were improved.

3.4 Vibration-free Cabinet

The cabinet was designed for aesthetics, but with an obsession to sonic
quality, vibration control, structural strength and rigidity.

In some parts of the cabinet where vibration would have been the
greatest, two inches (52mm) of multi-layer bonded MDF was used to
provide damping, structural integrity and a rigid platform for the drivers to
be located. Extensive bracing was carefully incorporated using 25mm
slabs of MDF to eliminate cabinet flex and panel resonance.

Incidentally, MDF was chosen as the material of choice for its damping
properties and its consistency in hardness, density and rigidity. It would
actually have been cheaper and easier to make the cabinet of solid
wood, but that would have been a compromise.

Genesis designed a unique tongue
and groove joint in order to improve
the structural rigidity of the cabinet.

Crystalline glue that dissolves into
the mdf was chosen to ensure that
the interfaces between two panel
pieces becomes as one. This
results in the entire enclosure
behaving as a single unit, with
seemingly no discontinuity in
material.

This results in a joint so strong that
when you try to rip the joint apart, it
isn’t the joint that would break. The
mdf would break apart first.

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4 Specifications

 Frequency Response: 48Hz to 36kHz, ± 3dB

 Sensitivity: 89 dB, 1 watt 1 meter

 Min/Max Power (Tube): 75/500 watts per side

 Min/Max Power (Solid State): 100/1000 watts per side

 Input Impedance: 4 ohms (Nominal)

 HF Transducers: Two Genesis 1” Circular Ribbon

Tweeters (front & rear)

 Midrange Transducers: One Genesis 5” titanium cone

midrange

 LF Transducers: Two Genesis 6.5” aluminium

cone

 Controls: Midrange Level, Tweeter level,

Rear Tweeter Defeat

 Inputs: High-level with 5-way binding posts

 Throughputs: High-level with 5-way binding posts

 Dimensions: H 11 ” x W 37 ¾” x D 14”

 Weight: 70 lbs (32 kg)

 Finishes: Premium Rosewood

High Gloss Piano Black Lacquer

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