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End of an era: Genesis 500 servo amp died

I have loved my Genesis 500 speakers since I bought them new in 1994. Well finally one of them developed a problem--a hum in the right speaker. I got in touch with the company that took over Genesis and through them got a technical guy out to my house who removed the servo amp and transformer and shipped them out to Genesis in Seattle for diagnosis. Sad news is the amp can't be repaired. I was offered the option of replacing the amp in both speakers with the current version of the amp (which comes with the $32,000 current version of my speakers), together with replacing my woofers with the new current version, but the price is too high for me. It's not an unreasonable price but I can't see investing half of what I originally spent on these speakers to repair them. So for now, I have moved my ProAc D-13's from the living room to the basement listening room where the Genesis were, with my big BAT monoblocks (VK-55SE) and BAT VK-32SE preamp. The sound is OK but obviously nothing like what I was used to with the Genesis. Maybe I need to downsize everything at this point. I love the ProAcs, which were being used with an ARC CA-50 tube integrated upstairs, but they do not sound their best in this new configuration. They were better upstairs, with the integrated amp! I'm not sure where to go from here. I don't need two systems but now I have 1.25 systems and nothing sounds like I want it to. I could start over, building something around the D-13s. Or try another speaker with the BAT equipment--but I don't want to spend what I did on the Genesis (they were $15,000 back in '94). Any thoughts?
sc53

Showing 1 response by rhljazz

rhljazz
1,250 posts
 
Buying speakers is a pain. They need to match your taste in music, then they need to be compatable with the electronics driving them, and finally the match with your room.
You seem to be very comfortable with your current setup prior to the amp failure. You have already made a substitution which you find unsatisfying.
Get over the money part of the deal, ie how much the new amps and drivers are compared to what you originally paid for the speakers. It does not matter! For whatever fee that is, you retain all that you like without wholesale system changes. Perhaps, you might like the new amps and drivers even more.
Get your speakers repaired!
BTW I really like your amplification. I recently added a VK55 to my system and I find it a better match with my speakers than the VAC amp I was using.
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