Floorstanding loudspeakers — Genesis G7 Minuet

The G7 Minuet is the smallest and least expensive model in Series 7, the entry line of Genesis Advanced Technologies, a loudspeaker maker founded on the legacy of Arnie Nudell and led since 2002 by designer Gary Koh. Genesis classes it as a floor-standing loudspeaker, and it rests on an integrated suspension frame. It is a sealed two-way built in Washington State, USA, and a 2024 US price list showed it at USD 9,800 per pair, below the Tango and Foxtrot.

Key specs that matter

Inside the bamboo cabinet sit one 5.5-inch mid-woofer with a solid titanium cone plus two 1-inch Genesis ring-radiator tweeters, one on the front baffle and one on the rear. Rated extension reaches E1 (41.2 Hz). A rear knob adjusts the tweeter output over plus or minus 4.5 dB. Height is 1070 mm, width 305 mm and depth 370 mm, the weight is 27 kg per speaker, and each ships in a 32 kg carton. The standard bamboo finish can be replaced by a custom finish on request.

Engineering and use context

Genesis calls its tweeter a ribbon, though it is a circular planar-magnetic unit. Its thin membrane carries a photo-etched voice coil only 0.0005 inch thick, and the moving part is a ring 3 mm wide with less mass than the air in front of it. Genesis states it reaches beyond 40 kHz and keeps point-source dispersion, whereas a 1-inch dome holds that pattern only to about 13 kHz. The same tweeter is used from the Prime down to Series 7. The rear unit has its own crossover and runs out of phase with the front one, making the Minuet a dipole in the treble, which reduces output toward the side walls and ceiling. The grille is permanently fitted and was included in the voicing. The integrated suspension has three elements - neoprene absorbers that decouple the cabinet, a skeletal frame that acts as a tuned absorber, and spikes that couple the frame to the floor and allow azimuth and tilt adjustment through carpet or on hard floors.

Pairing

Genesis quotes 85 dB at 1 W and 1 m with a nominal 4 ohm load, the lowest sensitivity of the four Series 7 models. The manual asks for the speaker cables to go straight from the power amplifier outputs to the 5-way posts.

Alternatives

The G7 Tango keeps the width of the Minuet but grows taller, adds a second titanium mid-woofer and quotes extension to D1 (36.7 Hz).