If you thought that your Junior can get expensive sometimes, get a load of the Genesis Junior. For those who can't quite provide the space requirements (nor the credit limit) to bring home the massive Genesis 2.2 four tower reference loudspeaker system ($78,000/pair) Genesis Advanced Technologies just announced availability of its new 2.2 Junior line-source floor-standing tower loudspeaker system, a more compact version which you can take home for the bargain price of just $49,000 per pair.
First announced at last month's Consumer Electronics Show (CES), the Genesis 2.2 jr is a smaller and less expensive alternative to the company's existing Genesis 2.2 four-tower line-source system, but the company says it doesn't sacrifice much if anything in the way of performance compared to its bigger brother. Apparently, packing that type of technology into a smaller system wasn't such an easy task.
"It looked and sounded easy when my dealers first asked for it, but the integration of the line-source midrange/tweeter with the point source bass took the better part of the past year to get it to sound just right," said Gary Leonard Koh, President and CEO of Genesis. "When you don't do it right, it can sound thin and lean due to the different way that a line source and a point source propagates sound and hence how the speaker interacts with the room."
The Genesis 2jr speaker features a 48-inch ribbon mid-range driver, 12 (twelve!) 1-inch tweeters mounted on a 1.5-inch-thick cast-acrylic baffle, and another three 1-inch tweeters on the back to complete the dipole design. There are also two 12-inch woofers per channel, each of which has its own accelerometer and 600-watt amplifier.
"The speaker does things only hinted at by conventional loudspeakers," added Carolyn Koh, VP and COO for Genesis. "When you go from a cone loudspeaker to the ribbon line-source G2, the sense of effortlessness on musical peaks, the huge dynamic contrasts and the ability to resolve the smallest musical details is just shocking on first listen. It is able to present the crescendos of a symphony orchestra at full tilt with lifelike levels. This was the first thing that struck me hearing this new model for the first time -- it brought me back to the time when I used to sing as a soloist standing in front of a symphony orchestra."
Genesis offers the 2.2 Junior system in high gloss acrylic black. If you want to snag a pair, be prepared to pay the price, as well as call in a pro. The Junior is currently an exclusive for the company's worldwide dealer network (sorry, folks, you can't buy these guys on Amazon).
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