That I'd like the Genuin FS1 Mk2 was, perhaps, a foregone conclusion. Not only had I written up the Genuin FS2 some 2.5 years ago which I fondly remember; I listen a lot to the Dynamikks Monitor 8.12. That also German design dips deep into the same gene pool as the Bavarians: tweeter horn, high sensitivity, properly grown-up paper woofer. Pretty much on the nose, there are €10'000 separating the Genuin 1 and 2 (the latter came down in price since our review) whilst the correlation with my Dynamikks exceeds 2:1. This raised an obvious question. If one really enjoyed the smaller boxes already, how much more luv would shine on down after such a significant extra investment? The shortest possible answer: more of the same stuff one already digs, particularly dynamics and resolution, but sadly not twice as much if one endeavoured to quantify the extra. Diminishing returns forbid it. Before I pull back for the longer answer, a few words on setup. I'd not really consider this speaker for much below 20-25m² . Whilst it might come off, I'd expect the smaller Genuin 2 to perform every bit as well if not better. Space and big speaker do belong on the same postcard. You'll want some distance from the front wall to prevent bass dominance and also between you and that tweeter horn. As much as I appreciate its principle, I'd not want to snuggle up to it. In my ~30m² room, the Genuin could properly stretch its legs. After a bit of moving about, I ended up where I usually do - about 3.6 meters to the seat, 1.6 meters to the front wall, 1.1 meters to the side walls and lightly toed in to have the horns just aim past my ears (hence not directly on axis). That layout went to town!
 
Since the previous page ended on a bass note, let's pick up the thread there. Lack of low bass isn't really the central challenge of this speaker. The proud future owner will be busier avoiding room modes. Once in the final position, I measured the same output at 25Hz as I did at 200Hz. This also has to do with my room's first mode which isn't played with the same abandon by most other speakers. With the right music, one quickly notices just how mighty a speaker this Blumenhofer is. Take "Quiet Corners" from Nils Petter Molvaer's Switch where his ethereally overblown trumpet floats above periodically erupting angrily growling bass. With such fare, you'd have noted not entirely PG13-clean moans from this reviewer's sweet spot. Mind, I'm used to excellent bass. The Dynamikks Monitor 8.12—those numbers represent its driver diameters—is my main squeeze. Many of her prominent virtues the Blumenhofers mirrored. Be it articulation, immediacy and that particular fleet-footedness whereby bass transients flash into the room without any effort... I had serious déjà vu. If anything, I now had even more nonchalance, more self-deprecating ease. People can claim ad infinitum that excursion compensates for lack of cone surface. It's nice in theory but blown to bits in real life.
Apart from such overlap, I also had a certain divergence. Where the Dynamikks are somewhat wirier than dead neutral, the Genuin 1 played it a bit more substantial and juicy. Call it 'neutral plus'. This small quantitative extra also pooled into quality. In the mid-to-upper bass, the Dynamikks was a bit more defined and pummeled harder yet for certain listeners might be perhaps a touch too taut and sparse. For all its well-structured definition, here the Blumenhofer was the more generous disher. I particularly noticed this with early Cake efforts which tend to the leaner side of things. The FS1 moved them into greater neutrality which simply meant, more bass hence more fun. And that was just one example.


Aside from this juicier texture, another difference lived in the directness of LF impulses below 60 cycles. Back to Nils Petter Molvaer and "Tron" from his Khmer album. The e-bass waves which kick into this generally calmer number at about 4 minutes truly blew me away. Simply put, this was even more spectacular than I usually hear. Even live doesn't do it with more power or physicality, at least not during the concert I attended. In fact, there it wasn't as clean. Devilish fun! More spectacular and dynamically even more liberated - those did seem to be the punch words du jour. Yet tonal balance didn't bend out of shape which was particularly vital for the midband and male vocals like Leonard Cohen, Howe Gelb or Bonnie 'Prince' Billy which had proper sonority. Female counterparts were open and free just as they ought to be. Admittedly the frequency extremes snuck in a tick extra but that's not illegal. And where the top octaves were concerned, I must qualify that statement with my listening distance, my very resolute electronics and the neutral setting on the Genuin FS1. Alter one of those parameters and that observation changes too. Thus my Musical Fidelity monos were brighter than NAD's recently reviewed M22. A swap of speaker cable weighed in instantly. This speaker is exceptionally transparent. Hence it's most practical that the treble balance may be directly affected at the terminals to compensate for recordings or playback SPL.

Apropos, a small footnote: Upon first setup, I'd gone with the -2dB treble contour to be happy. A few days later, I investigated the horn's time alignment which after all is adjustable with that movable sled. This option predominantly affected the stage's depth illumination and outline sharpness aka the plasticity of individual sounds. But it also pooled into my perception of relative treble strength. One can dial the horn for 'hyper crisp'. And at first that was me. That extreme focus was impressive just then. After a bit though it began to wear and to feel like an image that's been photoshopped for extra sharpness, with that unnatural edge pixilation as a result. Exactly that disappeared when the time alignment locked in properly. Think rounder edging which was more natural than the laser-cut bits. This also benefited the illusion of three-dimensional voices and instruments. Where I was really going with this is that the scalpel-crisp version also was tonally brighter. I thus recommend to spend some time on this time alignment whilst paying particular attention to focus, definition and spatial illumination. When those values fit, the last thing to trim is the perfection of the tonal balance.