Genesis Technologies APM1 Loudspeaker
Now this is fun! Getting to spend time with some of the best examples of speakers from any price class is guaranteed to be a good time, but getting to spend time with the better speakers from, let me say, "the more exalted price classes" is pure joy! Although I’ve been aware of Genesis Technologies for years, I’ve never had the pleasure of auditioning them before. So it was more out of curiosity than anything else that we sent a letter to Genesis requesting a review sample. We were quickly and enthusiastically offered an "APM1", whatever that was!
As it turns out, the APM1 is a speaker that has been available overseas for well over a year and is only recently being distributed here - in the good old US of A. While it is true I had no knowledge of the specific speaker, I knew quite a bit about the company and I expected good things. Unless you are really new to audio, you will probably know the principles of Genesis too. Arnie Nudell became one of the fathers of high-end audio when he co-founded "Infinity" in the seventies. In their heyday, Infinity was world renowned as an innovative and top shelf speaker manufacturing firm. Paul McGowen is another well-known staple of the high end. As the "P" of "PS Audio", his expertise and experience in electronics design needs no qualification to the veteran audiophile. Last, but not least, there is Mark Schifter. OK, Mark may not be as well known by name as Misters Nudell and McGowen, but I’ll bet you know of his work. Mr. Schifter was co-founder of Audio Alchemy - an extremely popular line of budget priced electronics which primarily dealt in the digital domain (unfortunately, the company met its demise shortly after Mr. Schifter left the company a couple of years ago).
Now that you know the three principles involved with Genesis Technologies, Arnie, Paul and Mark, you know where the model designation "APM1" comes from. The APM1 is indeed the product of a three-way collaboration. Mr. Nudell contributed copious amounts of technical "know-how" regarding speaker design. Mr. McGowen designed the electronics with regard to the 500 watt servo controlled active subwoofer and Mr. Schifter, with his marketing savvy and his sense for what people want, was largely responsible for the styling of the speaker which represents a departure from past Genesis designs.
General Speaker Description
The Genesis APM1 is a 4-way 5 driver speaker. At the bottom of the speaker is the 15 inch metal cone woofer with its 500 watt amplifier in its own sealed sub enclosure. Bridging the midrange and bass are two metal 6½ inch "mid bass couplers". Midrange is handled by a 5 inch titanium cone and the treble is accomplished via Genesis’ oft seen one inch planar magnetic tweeter. What looks to be the rear panel of the speaker is actually a grill cloth stretched around a frame. The rear of the speaker box is open allowing the backs of the speaker drivers to radiate sound directly to the rear of the room. As the tweeter is a closed back design for which rear propagation is impossible, a second identical unit is mounted on the rear. This creates a "dipolar" radiation pattern as the forward radiated signal is out of phase with the rear. Di-poles offer several advantages over mono-polar and bi-polar designs. First, as they make use of the rear signal bouncing off the rear wall and back into the room (albeit with an appropriate amount of time delay ensuring no image smear) they lend a definite sense of "space" to the music presentation. Secondly, dipoles create a "null" (the resultant severe decrease in output as the signal from the front of the speaker blends with the out of phase signal from the rear thereby canceling each other out) out to the side of the speakers. This sharply reduces the effects of potential side-wall reflections at the listening seat which aids both imaging and clarity. This makes possible in room speaker placement that may be problematic for other designs.
On the rear of the speaker are the single pair of binding posts. First, as the speaker includes a powered sub-woofer, by definition, they are bi-amplified, so a second set of binding posts is not needed. Secondly, Genesis does not see the need for an option for bi-wiring and I’m happy to take their word for it. They do however provide the option for connecting the powered sub section directly to the LFE output on a Dolby Digital™ surround processor. A flip of a toggle switch provides the break between the sub and the rest of the speaker’s drivers. For music, Genesis highly recommends feeding the APM1s with a single input via the speaker binding posts.
Aesthetics
I'll start with aesthetics first, because if you have to deal with a significant other, this speaker had better look good or how it sounds will not matter as you will never get a chance to hear it in your home! Perhaps some will think that the aesthetic properties of this speaker represent its biggest success and indeed, I think they may have a point. These speakers are large, make no mistake about that. A 220 lb. speaker with a 15 inch sub-woofer is a serious addition to any room! But with a beautifully finished cherry front baffle only 11 inches wide that gracefully "bows" a bit backward as you reach the top, these speakers are really something to behold. Additionally, once you get 25 inches off the floor, the depth of the speaker decreases to only 11 inches making their height the only potentially imposing dimension. At 64½ inches high, they could proudly take their place flanking today’s large rear projection TVs and look completely appropriate.
Initially, my wife freaked out at the sight of these speakers. They arrived the week before Easter and her first thoughts were of our expected guest’s impressions. Well, within a day or two and after some minor furniture shuffling on my part, she actually started to like their looks (she immediately loved the sound, which didn’t hurt matters!) and eventually remarked that they looked "classy". She was right, they certainly out classed the furniture in the room!
Sonics
Another reason I chose to talk about aesthetics first is because talking about the sonics of these speakers is extremely difficult as they test the limits of the critical ear. They are so good, so musically satisfying, so successful at what they do, one has to sit in front of them and say to him/herself, "OK, what can I nit-pick about these speakers?" One requirement of a speaker in this class is that it have no obvious character of its own. At this price level, a speaker should move out of the way leaving close to nothing between you and the music. At this the Genesis Technologies APM1 succeeds admirably.
These speakers are positively exhilarating. You sit before them in awe of their musicality, their lack of obvious colorations, their detail, "power", sound staging and their ability to just get the hell out of the way of the music. You would think that a speaker the size of the APM1s would live for large scale ‘bombastic" overtures and you would be right, but-oh…do they excel at small scale music. My first hint that these were truly wonderful sounding speakers came when I put on Jennifer Warnes’ "Famous Blue Raincoat".
Value vs Price
At $7,500 a pair, the APM1 is not a cheap pair of speakers, but depending upon one’s viewpoint and needs, they just may offer a heck of a lot of value. Consider the home theater enthusiast who loves good music too but has only room for one system. A good 15 inch sub-woofer for the theater will set him back close to $2,000. If he is a bass freak (there is one deep inside all of us!) he may even want two subs. His bill? Around $4,000. Instead of going the separate sub-woofer route, he can have a pair of APM1s with two 15 inch drivers and 1 kilowatt of bass power for the same money and for an additional $3,500, he gets a world class pair of music transducers too. Let’s not even mention all the floor space he saves in the deal. It’s something to think about for those to whom the price initially looks out of reach.
Conclusion
The Genesis Technologies APM1 is an excellent speaker with handsome good looks to match. They have an "out of the box" natural and neutral tonal balance that can be tweaked to compliment most rooms. The fully adjustable bass section means that you have all the flexibility of a subwoofer satellite system just about guaranteeing a sure fit into any surroundings or to any taste. With dynamic capabilities beyond what most people will require in real world listening rooms and with clarity and musical detail as good as anything, they are one of the most musically satisfying speakers. Even if you don’t think you are in the market, I highly recommend that you seek out a pair for a proper audition. Just for the joy of it!
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