Genesis Advanced Technologies G2.2 owner manual Woofer Tower

absolute fidelity

The concept of our servo bass system is an easy one to understand: It employs an accelerometer as a sensor to constantly monitor the movement of the woofer cone and continuously compares it to the input signal. This comparison circuit instantly identifies any deviation from the input and applies a corrective signal to compensate for any deviation, resulting in the virtual elimination of the inherent distortion of the woofer.

As an example, when you have a high-impact, low-bass signal that starts and stops suddenly (for example a tympani), the inertia of the woofer cone makes it slow to start moving, and then after it has started moving, the momentum of the cone makes it continue to move after the signal has stopped. The sonic result is softness, overhang, and bloat in the bass. This results in a perceived lack of tautness and definition, and a blurring of dynamic impact.

With the servo system, the circuit senses that the woofer is not moving as fast as it should, and it instantaneously applies much more current to make it move faster. When the signal stops, it predicts that the woofer will continue to move when it shouldn’t be moving and applies a counter-signal to stop the woofer faster and more effectively than an open loop woofer could possibly respond.

Thus, the servo-drive reduces distortion and improves transient response by making the woofer appear to be massless. Typical non-servo woofer systems have distortion levels that exceed 10% at even moderate levels. The Genesis servo bass system reduces this distortion to below one percent at almost any output level. The system also drives the woofer to constant acceleration, which makes the frequency response of the woofer anechoically flat to the lowest frequencies.

The Woofer Tower

The transducer used in a servo system must be strong enough to withstand the high current approach of the servo, and yet delicate and light enough to react extremely quickly. The G2.2 features a total of four front- and four rear-firing 8-inch woofers per channel – a total of sixteen woofers in the system.

While the servo system is able to ensure that the driver works linearly as a perfect piston, it is unable to correct for distortion caused by cone wobble, bending, and break-up. Hence, the drivers were designed to minimize these non-linear distortions.

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