It could, in fact, be said with some truth that, if you wanted close-up,…
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An equipment reviewer for one of the consumer hi-fi magazines once confided to a manufacturer that he found it hard to like electrostatics because of the kind of people who usually like electrostatics. His implication—that certain kinds of people gravitate towards certain kinds of sound—is an interesting thought, and one that might bear some further investigation. But there is no questioning the fact that electrostatic speakers in general do have a particular kind of sound, that might be characterized as "polite."
Infinity sells the bass speaker and crossover for $800, so this plus one Model Nine system would total just a shade under $2000. Two complements of KLH Nines (four panels) will total about $2300 and, although they'll have much deeper and fuller low end than a single Nine, they still won't produce the awesomely deep bottom of the single-Nine-plus-SS-1-bass. On the other hand, the two Nines by themselves will not be subject to the subtle zippiness that is added by the SS-1 crossover.
Nonetheless, there is another advantage in using the SS-1 bass speaker: It makes it easier to obtain smooth…
Again, experimentation is very much in order. Infinity's suggestions for panel placement are just that: suggestions. Try placing the panels various distances from the rear wall and different distances apart, and use whatever sounds best with a representative sampling of program material.
For our tests of the complete Servo-Statik 1 system, we used the Crown DC-300 for the midrange electrostatics, and started yith the Crown D-40 on the tweeters. Both power amplifiers were operated with their own input gain controls full-up at all times. The bass commode was left in its previous position…
Generally, the SS-1's sound could be likened to that of a large horn-type system, in that brasses were superbly reproduced and the sound had some of that "authoritarian" quality that makes you sit up and take notice.
It also had another quality that we have noticed in large horn systems: it seemed to produce absolutely astounding dynamic range from music that should indeed have very wide dynamics. We suspect that this is because the fortissimo passages in large-scale musical works are comprised largely of energy in the so-called "presence" range (2-5kHz), where many modern direct-…
Manufacturer's Comment
Thank you for the extremely complimentary and comprehensive report on the Servo-Statik 1. We feel it is for the most part accurate, but a few points should be mentioned.
The Servo-Statik 1 panels are designed to utilize the reflections from the rear, and for best results should be placed 2-3' from the rear wall and at least 1' off the floor. This eliminates the slight "phase interference" phenomenon noted by the reviewer, and dramatically enhances the stereo imaging.
The peaks reported at 1kHz and at 8kHz must be considered debatable. There is a…
J. Gordon Holt returned to the Servo-Statik in the Summer of 1975 (Vol.3 No.9):
We have our own corollary to Murphy's law, which we read off like the Rights of the Accused to every manufacturer who sends us equipment for testing. It goes: "If one sample out of 50 off the production line is to become defective immediately after passing final inspection, that will be the one sent to Stereophile for testing.
In April 1975, Murphy moved in to stay. Our preproduction prototypes of the Infinity Servo-Statik 1A speaker system arrived, having been previously tested for only three months…
J. Gordon Holt wrote again about the Servo-Statik 1A in October 1975 (Vol.3 No.10):
For the benefit of readers who missed our last issue, this speaker system and the FMI J-Modular (see p.4 in this issue) are, in our judgement, the most accurate loudspeakers currently available, bar none. The SS-1A is substantially more costly—more than twice so—and must be biamplified. (The biamping is for the mid and high-range electrostatics; the 18" woofer is driven by its own 150W solid-state amplifier.) The FMI can be driven by a single amp. And then there is the question of dependability.
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Another problem we have observed with some Infinity dealers' demos is their tendency to set both the bass and treble controls (on the crossover) up too high, presumably to make a point of the system's phenomenal performance at both ends of the spectrum. The result, all too often, is bass boominess and that sizzly, biting high end that many audiophiles think of as "electrostatic sound." Some SS-1A buyers, too, will tend to fall into this trap, for statistically few audiophiles ever get to hear live, unamplified music, and have no idea just how sparse but tight live bass is, or how sweet but…
It should also be borne in mind that, in order to limit vertical stylus excursions to a realistic amplitude, commercial recordings have their stereo channels blended together at low frequencies, so there is no advantage whatsoever in reproducing them through separate bass speakers. Without resolving the question, then, we can only say that, regardless of how it is done—with one woofer or two—the SS-1A's bass is better, in terms of naturalness and range, than that of any other system we had heard previously, and is comparable to (although not the same as) that of the FMI J-Modular.
Apart…
In short, we were stupefied by the performance of the SS-1A, when reproducing decent material. But with typical recordings, we are sorry to have to report that the SS-1A revealed every nuance of what it is that ails most recordings: Steely, sizzly violins, whumpy mid-bass, pinched trombones, advancing and receding woodwinds, excessive closeness and lack of depth, and an overall solid-state hardness which soon had us working (not too successfully) with equalizer and treble control.
We couldn't help but speculate as to what those commercial recordings might have sounded like had the…