Help-Genesis Digital Lens

Maybe you can find an inexpensive programmable remote, $10-20 or so, and have someone local program this with their Genesis remote. I have the Genesis Time Lens and I am in Minneapolis if you are anywhere close. If you have no luck, email me and we can do this by mail.
John

Now that this thread has turned into a pissing match on what upgrade company is superior to another for products that have nothing to do with this thread, does anyone have quantitative or qualitative information as to any mods they have had done to a Genesis Time Lens?

Kevinkwann - What exactly is the value of your response here?

Kana813 - Thanks for the offer to share some tweaks. With the Genesis long out of production and the company not willing to share the schematic with even a respected modification/repair company like GNSC, once a Genesis has a failure, most likely it's bound for the scrap heap....and that's unfortunate.

Since the Genesis brings on a huge improvement in my system, I am reluctant to do any tweaking to risk damage or failure. I did take it to GNSC and Steve Huntley felt there was not enough room under the hood to address some changes he would otherwise have done. And his concern of possibly causing damage was also there.

If someone would be willing to report the actual before and after differences, pros and cons, it would give a Genesis owner greater insight as to whether or not to take the risk to modify the unit. Until I can get a handle on such sonic benefits, I do not just want to start soldering away with a handful of component changes.

John

Millenium - I am in the process to audition an updated Genesis directly to my stock unit. This is THE only way to get a handle on how any changes might result from the upgraded unit. I already know the value of going through a modification process vs. starting from scratch with a "new and superior" product.

I sense just a little bit of anxiety in your response, as if there is some history with you having unsatisfactory results with modded gear ... and it took Aberdeen to finally do this "correctly". I will wait to hear a modified piece in the context of my system and pass judgement only then.

As for the use of the TACT products, I have read about them but not heard them. I enjoy CD playback but it is secondary to my LP playback system. And this with the Aesthetix front end into CAT amps and SoundLab speakers is not likely to change anytime soon. Putting A/D and D/A conversions in my preamp/amps is not likely to happen anytime soon. So for me anyway, if a digital bandaid from a decade ago can improve the sound of CD playback, and get me closer to the 3-dimensionality of my LP playback, AND .... only costs me $400-500 (typical cost of Genesis on the used market), then you better believe I'll go for it. And oh my, now I am considering a modification to the bandaid. Stay tuned.

Why not write Mr. McGowan to get the answer to your final question? His company is quite successful with a new line of amps, cables and PLCs, etc. I suspect he already has his hands full with all these new devlopments. What may have been an exciting engineering challenge for him then with the Genesis, may no longer peak his interest at all. Or maybe there's not enough demand to work on a new generation of such a product. It could be due to anything here. So why not write to him and find this out for yourself? Why did Goldmund so obruptly stop the Reference TT shortly after Harry Pearson reported the Versa Dynamics to be the superior TT? The audio scene is full of unanswered questions.

John

Bill - The opportunity to hear the modified Genesis to my stock Genesis will not happen. My attempts to email the seller appears to have not been a success. It looks there was an email tool and/or filtering problem where my incoming emails were likely tagged as spam and thus were never received by the seller. My payment was received but I just learned that the unit is no longer available for my evaluation. Oh well....onto Plan B....or C.

I will not persue more Genesis upgrades; there are clearly a lot of opportunities to refine one's digital setup. I did check out the Aberdeen site and mauimods but it is not clear what products they modify other than the few brands they sell as new. I will have to call them for details here.

The Pioneer PD65 I have owned since 1993 continues to perform at an incredible level. And this with the Genesis into various DACs has resulted in impressive CD playback vs. my Clearaudio LP playback system. If there was a transport solution in the <$1500 range, I would give this serious consideration over the PD65/Genesis pair. But if not, I am thinking more and more to go with a music server on my wireless network. This would then drive a DAC (maybe through the Genesis!) into the audio system. As this "technology" matures, I might wait another year or so before I go this route, provided I have no digital component failures in the meantime.

John