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Genie! Out of bottle?
Aug 28, 2009 04:15 PM 32035 Views

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I am a regular reader and admirer of Mouthshut, after surfing through this speaker review section I found there is no review on any Sonodyne product! Being a long time user of this speaker I thought to share my experience about this speaker with all.


First of all let me mention that the system I am using is the entry level stereo system offering from Sonodyne, the Genie Power Pack, which consists of two Genie 1 satellite speakers and one subwoofer with an integrated stereo amplifier. I had purchased this product way back to October 2001, and replaced my old Philips powerhouse AW616 with this.


Now you can ask why Sonodyne? Well, being a Kolkata based organization it was well-known as a good and quality music system manufacturer in this region (nowadays its somehow different and Sonodyne is doing some aggressive marketing throughout India, but still they need to do some mass promotional campaign to reach prospect buyers),


I can remember a good pair of big bookself from this brand, my uncle used to listen in 80’s! Anyway after keeping itself low profile for a decade or more time it started to revamp its product portfolio and introduced some new product in early 2k’s, Genie Power Pack was one of them. As my room size was moderate (approx.10’ by 10’) I went for this product, and bought a Thompson 5in1 to drive it, well it’s a speaker system with integrated amp, you need a CD or DVD player to drive it.


Aesthetic And Build: By the time this product was released aesthetically it was really ahead of competition! It’s having a good blend of sophisticated modern look as well classiness of 80’s; two satellite speakers (mine is black colored) with their stand mount with careful touch of curve can still match quite comfortably besides any modern day plasma or HDTV, whereas round knobs of volume and other controls on matte finished aluminum front panel.


And outlined with straight lines the big black subwoofer express the classiness and the very purpose of this instrument to reproduce the music perfectly! As far build quality is concerned the first thing comes in mind is a Tank! Yes its build like a tank, touch it anywhere and you will feel what I am trying to convey you, satellite speakers are made of aluminum and not by plastic like others, you will find four spikes to mount the subwoofer on it and those are build very tough, too.


Sound quality: the ultimate criteria you would like to judge your music system is the quality of the sound it represents, so how does Sonodyne perform? Well according to me it’s better to listen various music troughs a system for long period and feel, if you had the opportunity with various music systems and setups you will be able to realize how you felt with them and easily find what suits you better, actually its seems tough to put the feelings down on the paper, anyway I had the opportunity to listen various music systems and would like to say you this way- as far Genie Power Pack is concerned you know that it’s a satellite subwoofer system.


Where subwoofer takes care of lower frequency and small satellite speaker produces mid and high frequencies, Sonodyne manufacture excellent quality subwoofers, my subwoofer generate really deep, laidback, natural feeling bass, to get the best of it you must experiment with it’s placement as well your sitting position, as its really responds to some real low frequency the placement is really important, even after placing it at a particular place I found the feel of bass differ when I change my sitting position. When it’s come to Genie satellite speaker, it’s really rocks!


You have to listen it to believe that how loud this small speaker can be! Nowadays lots of world renowned speaker manufacturers are introducing their small lifestyle products in India, Genie generate comparable sound energy. Its high frequencies are quite perfect to me, it’s integrated, produce the right amount of highs and definitely not harsh as other satellite speakers used to be. Midranges are the most important area to consider for any reproduction of music, from this system vocals are crisp clear, airy, instrument sounds good, too, for example strumming of acoustic guitar in Pink Floyd’s ‘Wish you ware here’ or Led Zepp’s ‘Babe I’m gonna leave you’ sounds great!


Overall the sound is integrated, remember the sweet spot of this speakers is narrow so give some effort to find it with your sitting position. So does not it lack anywhere? Well then you have listen it after a full range book self speaker at least, if it can produce highs, lows and upper mids quite comfortably it lag behind to produce lower mids to upper lows with same authoritatively, for example drums though deep but doesn’t have the byte or punch as you get from a full range book self or tower, I believe its due to physical characteristic of sat-sub systems, but remember the deficit is only compare to full range speaker system, actually even much pricier sat-sub system may will encounter the same problem.


Reliability and Service: After using it around long eight years I still have not counter any problems, only supplied RCA cables developed some problem which I replaced with Monster Cable RCA few years back, and now its working perfectly. I have never asked for any services still now, but let me inform you that one of my friend bought the same system recently that was generating some ‘hiss’ ( remember this amplifier normally shouldn’t generate noise other than any recording problem, otherwise call for services immediately, ) , after complaining about the same Sonodyne has taken prompt measurement and rectified it.


Conclusion: Frankly im quite satisfied with this, if you have money and space, go for full range tower or book self speaker, but then you need a good amplifier and may be a good subwoofer which extend your budget, on the other hand if you have 18-20k budget and searching for a good stereo system go for it, I still listen it for 2-3 hours continuously without generating any ear fatigue, enjoy music, cheers.


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