I am using the Genesis V with a cj Premier 11A and Audible Illusions Mod 3A. I have found bass adjustment to be a matter af trial and error. ake your time. Also, I found it important to change one parameter at a time.
The first step is speaker placement. The speakers should be about 6 to 7 feet apart to achieve proper mid-bass coupling and good imaging. Depending on your room toe in may be helpful. Try pointing them straight ahead with the first reflection point on the side walls damped. Then toe them in a little at a time. Note, they can sound excellent with the tweeters aimed at your ears when you are in your listening position. I have used the speaker placement recommended at the Cardas website with good results. Or try the rule of thirds. The speakers should be 1/3 out into the room, and 1/3 away from the side walls. Note, do not place them so the speaker to back wall distance is the same as the speaker to sidewall distance.
Now adjust the bass settings starting with the gain. This will be room dependent, for my room I find 34 to 36 good. Adjust the frequency to 84 to 86 hz with the phase angle at 0 degrees. Listen to acoustic music with male and female vocals, i.e. Holly Cole, Cassandra Wilson, Kendra Shank, Diana Krall, or Harry Connick Jr. Adjust the gain for proper vocal foundation. What you want is some chestiness to the voice. Focus on the voice, not bass. This will take some time, and it is not unusual that you will be adjusting over several listening periods. It is important to take your time. With the gain adjusted for try acostic music with cello, bass and piano. Listen for instrument body. If the speakers sound bass heavy adjust the gain down and the frequency up slightly until it sounds right. Go back to the vocals and adjust again. Now you should be close. Adjust the phase angle using cello or male vocal, I find these to be the best for this adjustment. Adjust for a seamless transition in the cross over region. Mine is set at 45 degrees. Now listen to music with great dynamic and frequency range. I highly recommend the Gladiator sound track. The foundation of the music should be good but not boomy or exagerated. If it is bboomy start with the gain and reduce it. Then adjust frequency and phase angle. Again go back to simpler recordings described earlier. One way to minimize bass exageration is to move the speakers away from room boundaries. Of course you'll have to readjust all your settings.
I have found setting the Genesis V bass to be fairly straight forward, but don't rush it. Minor changes have an impact. Also, you may find the bass exagerated on some recordings but not others. Many recordings have the highs and bass goosed up. If the extereme bottom end is emphasized adjust the gain for the particular recording and return it to the original setting when done. Note, donot focus on adjusting the subwoofers for low bass, i.e below 40 hz. The sound will be poor in my experience. Adjust for the 60 to 100 hz range. Everything should fall into place. If your room is too small, you may not be able to eliminate low end frequency emphasis.
Interconnect cables and your primary speaker cables will also impact frequency response. Your settings may vary based on the cables you use. I'm using Nirvana cable through out. My final settings are Gain: 35, Frequency 86 hz and phase angle: 45. Again speaker placement is per the Cardas website recommendations +/- 1/4". Let me know how it turns out and happy listening. Toe in is set with the tweeters firing at the listening position. This gives a rock solid center image with room filling soundstage. In my case the soundstage is wider than the room and quite deep.
My room is 16w x 33l x 10h.
