Напольная акустика — Genesis Forté

The Forte is a two-tower loudspeaker system from Genesis Advanced Technologies, custom built in the USA, which Genesis calls its most compact line-source system, intended for listeners with smaller rooms. It continues a series of line-source designs about 1.8 m tall that Genesis started in 1994 with the II.5 and followed with the 350SE in 2000 and the 2.2 Junior in 2011. Pricing is on application, and the speaker can be ordered in almost any finish, with high gloss black acrylic as standard.

Key specs that matter

Each side combines a hybrid line-source and point-source layout. The treble is carried by fifteen 1 inch ring radiator ribbons of Genesis design, of which twelve form a forward vertical line and three point backward. A single 48 inch Genesis ribbon covers the midrange, and two 12 inch ribbed aluminium cone woofers handle the bass. Genesis quotes 16 Hz to 40 kHz within plus or minus 3 dB, sensitivity of 90 dB at 1 W and 1 m, with 4 ohm given as nominal impedance. The system for a stereo pair consists of four towers measuring 190.5 cm high, 53.3 cm wide and 71.1 cm deep, while each side weighs about 104 kg.

Engineering and use context

The woofers are driven by a built-in servo-controlled bass amplifier rated at 500 W per side, which senses cone motion and corrects it, with a revised Dynamic Power Delivery System. That amplifier works only on the bass section, and the ribbons above it are passive. Bass controls cover gain, phase, low-pass and high-pass settings, while crossover adjustments allow the rear tweeters to be changed by plus or minus 1 dB and the upper midrange contour by plus or minus 0.75 dB. Cabinets use constrained layer damped composite construction, and the crossover was revised to avoid vertical lobing at the seated listening position.

Pairing

Because only the woofers are powered, the Forte needs an external stereo power amplifier or integrated amplifier for the ribbon midrange and tweeter arrays. A solid state amplifier comfortable with a low nominal load suits the ribbon arrays best. The high-pass setting lets the system integrate with a separate subwoofer if desired.

Alternatives

The Genesis Maestro is a smaller five-way floorstander with four 8 inch servo woofers, a 4.5 inch titanium midrange and two ribbon tweeters in one cabinet per side.