Herrmann Hoffmann erzählte mir, daß in den ersten 20 gelieferten SS1 eine bestimmte Type Baßchassis eingebaut wurde und dann kamen andere - zwar gleich große Chassis - von anderen Herstellern und dann wieder andere. Die einen hatten die resistente aber steife Leinensicke, die anderen eine weichere Gummisicke und wieder andere eine dieser zerbröselnden Schaumstoffsicken. In der SS1"A" war dann wieder ein anderes Baßchassis drinnen. Dafür waren es die gleichen elektrostatischen Hoch- und Mitteltöner, davon aber eine größere Anzahl.

Bei den elektrostatischen Mitteltönern ist mir damals bereits aufgefallen, daß die schalldurchlässigen Schlitze der Plastik-Halbschalen Verkleidungen im Vergleich zu der gesamten Mittelton-Fläche recht klein waren. Das bremste natürlich die Luft bzw. die Schallwellen - trotz der großen Fläche - und damit die Effizienz stark ab. Die Servo Statik war absolut ineffizient, wenn man einen DC300A (2 x 190 Watt an 8 Ohm und 2 x 300 Watt an 4 Ohm) nur für den Mittenbereich brauchte. Auch der Hochtonbereich sollte mit einer guten 2 x 50 Watt Endstufe betrieben werden.

Das alles im Vorgriff auf die Werbesprüche und Lobeshymnen des SS1"A" Prospektes in englisher Sprache.
.

.

.

• Not everyone is prepared at first to accept the transparent honesty of the Servo-Statik 1A - for it exposes every flaw in a bad recording, as clearly as it reveals every nuance of beauty in a good one.
• Not everyone can cater to its capability - and we hope never to hear that a Servo-Statik 1A has been imprisoned in a tiny room, or shackled to just ordinary components.
• And not everyone can afford it - few indeed are the music-lovers in a position to show that they really do appreciate the Servo-Statik 1A more than three thousand dollars' worth.
• If you are one of those few, read on. And listen with open ears. And maybe we can do business. If you are not one of those few, read on anyway. And some day ... some day ...

.

The electrostatic transducer is an exceptional sound-reproducer for three main reasons:
.

1. The moving system is of extremely low mass. The diaphragm of a midrange electrostat is extremely thin-about .0005". It therefore gives excellent transient response because the diaphragm can be accelerated very rapidly, while the resistance of the air load in front of the diaphragm damps out any overshoot. In the tweeters, the even lower mass of the diaphragm (.00025" thinness) can give flat frequency response beyond 30.000Hz - well beyond human audibility.
2. The electrostatic driving force is distributed uniformly over the entire diaphragm. As a result, "cone breakup" is virtually eliminated. (This distortion factor in conventional speakers is caused by the cone's being driven only at its center.)
3. Electrostatics produce constant energy output over their entire frequency range.

.
Beyond having these generic advantages, Infinity's electrostatics are vastly different from others:

They have exceptional high power capacity. Therefore they can handle the output of almost any amplifier. The grids on each side of the diaphragm are highly conductive rather than highly resistive. Therefore they give constant power output and exceptional articulation.

After ceaseless trial and error and discovery and refinement, our unique arrangement and phasing of the tweeters has eliminated the dispersion problem. And accomplished much more.

By arraying a narrow strip of tweeters vertically; by supplementing them with horizontally arrayed tweeters along the top of each screen; by adding the correct amount of reflected sound in the room (the screens radiate half their energy to the rear)...

We have created, through the Servo-Statik 1A, a totally accurate three-dimensional musical image from two recorded channels. When the room comes alive with the sound of the concert hall itself, you can literally place every instrument or section - left, left-center, center, right-center, and right. And in depth as well: foreground, middle and back.

(es geht um die Hochspannungstransformatoren in den beiden Paneelen)

These components may be left out of most discussions of electrostatic speakers, but their effect on overall sound quality is too important to ignore.

All ordinary electrostatic power supplies are one-half-wave rectifier bridges. They cause the diaphragm to ripple just a little, producing a slightly less-than-uniform flow of DC charge. For us, slightly is too much. So we designed in a costly full-wave rectifier bridge. And the Servo-Statik 1A inched closer to the goal of absolute freedom from distortion.

The matching transformers for the midrange and tweeter sections are truly state-of-art. We built and rejected 13 successively better midrange transformers before the fourteenth satisfied our stubborn insistence on the ideal. The silicon steel is processed for uniform magnetic properties. New close-coupled winding techniques are employed. And truly "colorless" transformers are a reality.
.

Only the finest associated components can match the fidelity of this sophisticated speaker system. Any audio specialist well-informed enough to handle the Servo-Statik 1A is qualified to help you select them.
Or drop us a note, and we'll send you our recommendations.

A state-of-the-art loudspeaker system should have separate amplifiers driving each section. For the midrange, RMS power of 100 to 250 watts per channel is recommended. The tweeter amplifier may be more modest in power output - 35 to 125 watts RMS per channel. Do not skimp on amplification; the Servo-Statik 1A will expose the limitations of an inadequate amplifier just as surely as it will expose the shortcomings of an inferior recording.

But get it all together, and there really is nothing like the Servo-Statik 1A music experience.

Distortion-free sound reproduction; the widest dynamic range ever achieved; the greatest frequency response in any speaker system yet manufactured - they all have their price. In the Servo-Statik 1A it comes to well over $ 3.000.
The listener with enough funds, enough space, and enough sensitivity to buy and appreciate this staggering achievement is to be envied. And will be.

The founding fathers of Infinity Systems created the progenitor of the Servo-Statik 1A to prove a point, rather than to sell.

Our point was this: "All existing speakers are guilty of distortion - some of them by design. We aerospace physicist music-freaks can apply some things we know about lasers and the like to building a speaker system with a whole new reason for being: accuracy. It may be too terribly expensive to sell. But it will advance the state of the art. And it will sound great in our homes."

The result was the original Servo-Statik 1, and as it happened, we sold as many as we could make. Thanks to a cult of Servo-Statik 1 worshippers, all pulling the coats and twisting the arms of music-loving friends to "come hear what / discovered" And thanks to almost embarrassing praise in the audio press.

Stereophile Magazine said, ".. the word that best describes the sound of the Infinity Servo-Statik 1 on large-scale choral or orchestral music is 'stupendous! It is a long time since anything we have heard has literally given us goose bumps, but the Servo-Statik 1 did it time and time again, until we found ourselves relistening to recordings we haven't pulled from the shelves for years, just to enjoy the sound of them"

And CBS Laboratories, upon measuring that original Servo-Statik 1 and finding its anechoic response to be 25Hz to 20,000Hz ± 3.5dB (a measurement never equalled by any other speaker until today) commented, "The complex orchestral and choral passages of Bernstein's demanding recording of the Mahler Third Symphony came through with a fullness, clarity, and sense of breadth and depth that were exhilarating. As one of those present commented, 'I doubt that Bernstein himself heard it any more clearly during the performance'".

We were more than gratified. But less than satisfied. Now, after six more years of discoveries in homogeneity of sound, evenness of radiation, and the pioneering use of new materials and electronics:
Infinity proudly presents the Servo-Statik 1A.