You do know that the RS-1b's were his personal choice for his reference speakers.
He had this to say about them.
The Sound
Pardon my digression. A gentleman should not concern himself with how a thing is done so long as it
is done; this is why God created servants. Let me briefly summarize what you will hear when you and your staff have finished the tasks outlined above.
The imaging "floats" one of the most natural soundstages of any speaker at any price over a wide listening area. The result is a large soundstage, life-size in character, but that doesn't widen solo voices or instruments. Depth is excellent and natural, without cave effect or foreshortening.
The resolution of detail and transients rivals that of ribbon speakers and is far superior to that of electrostatics. Dynamics are superb: you can get all the details of a lute or harpsichord, and still hear the full impact of the dead cat being thrown through the bass drum on
Däfos. (Cannons, are after all, distinctly middle class.)
Bass power and resolution are not quite up to the IRS III or the WAMM, and I've heard it bettered by the best of the VMPS speakers and some subwoofers. It is, however, excellent and well-integrated. Only the Apogees—with far more complex amplifier arrangements—have surpassed the Reference Standard 1Bs as a fully integrated loudspeaker system. The main problem with the RS-1B is a slight loss of tightness and control, but power, ability to drive a room, and clean discrimination of even the deepest bass notes are excellent.
The midrange is sweet and natural, provided one uses a tube amplifier.
Treble is flat and extended—almost too much so—at the flat setting on the treble control. There are, however, no rough spots or signs of resonance, and the two treble adjustments on each midrange/treble panel allow you to adjust the upper octaves to your heart's content.
There is excellent overall timbre, with the exception of the bass/midrange crossover area. The superb performance in other areas is not matched in this region, and I have the feeling that the EMIMs may not be behaving well as far down as they are asked to reach.
In short, this is definitely a speaker for our Class. One can't
always have live musicians, and it is vital that sensitive people not suffer from those tiny boxes on stands that lack full concert-hail dynamics, exclude 30–% of the bass energy present in live performances, sound "small," fall to resolve every musical detail, and involve compromises of economy rather than taste.
My only word of caution is that Sir Gordon-Holt, Bart., feels a properly equipped video room requires three pairs of the IRS-IIIs for the best surround sound effect. He is, however, a mere border baron. More to the point, I would recommend the RS-2B for your smaller guest rooms. A good home may require up to four or five pairs of Infinity's '1Bs, but let discretion be your guide. Excess is tacky—everything should be done in proportion.—
Anthony H. Cordesman
Sound Quality
I won't say the Premier Fives transformed the RS-1Bs into a WAMM or into Infinity's own IRS system, but for the first time I began to understand why people have been willing to spend $5295 on this system. These are among the few speakers I've heard in ages that can stand my hair on end!
First of all, the RS-1Bs seem to have no practical upper limit of power-handling capability! They will play at very high levels (like 110dB on peaks!!) without a trace of strain or hardness, assuming of course that you throw enough power at them. (The Premier Fives can throw 200Wpc.) Talk about "digital-ready"!
The RS-1Bs image about as well as any large loudspeakers I have heard. This puts them in the class of the WAMM and the IRS, both of which I consider to represent the state of the art for soundstage presentation and reproduction of depth. The RS-1Bs are the first speakers I've had in my listening room that actually put some of the soundstage (on appropriately-miked recordings) beyond the lateral limits of the speakers—something I did not believe possible except in a room with highly reflective walls (mine are not). They are bettered in imaging specificity by a few tiny satellite speakers and, I suspect, by some curved-panel electrostatics, but only by a small margin.
These are
big-sounding speakers, with a gutsy forcefulness that I do not recall encountering in any audiophile system. When a trombone speaks from these, you sit up and pay attention! If you wished to reproduce the voice of God, these speakers could do it. Bowed cellos, synthesizer grunts, and piano bass strings had just the right amount of attack and delineation, and with balance controls properly adjusted, all other musical timbres were reproduced with superb accuracy. No instrument was slighted, and—despite the complexity of the crossover network—the drivers meshed almost seamlessly. (The only discontinuity I could hear, and then only on piano, was the transition from the EMIMs to the cone woofers, at which point the piano strings seemed to lose a little of their "twang.") Massed violins were gorgeously smooth, yet with all the fine-grained gutty edge of the real instruments. Brushed cymbals were open and natural-sounding, and brass and steel were easily distinguished.
The system's low end was particularly impressive. I have never before had a fullrange system in my listening room that would put out a full-level 30Hz signal, but, with their LF response set for Flat, these do it. In the +3dB (at 30Hz) position, the 25–35Hz range was, believe it or not, excessive! Bass quality, too, was excellent, although not quite as controlled as I have heard on (rare) occasions from big transmission-line systems such as the behemoth that Irving Fried used to demonstrate at audio shows. But don't misunderstand me: the RS-1B's bottom is excellent, having immense impact and awesome range. The cannons from Telarc's 1812 CD produced what felt like shock waves!
In fact, impactive sounds are one of the RS-1B's strongest points. The attacks of hard transients—snare drums, rim shots, and xylophone strikes—are razor-sharp, yet the speaker is entirely free from the exaggerated hardness and stridency found in most other speakers with comparable impact capability.
The only areas in which I have heard the RS-1Bs bettered are transparency, realism, and high-end openness and delicacy, all of which are better presented by some fullrange electrostatics, notably the
MartinLogan Monolith. For example, the RS-1B's rendition of detail, while awesome, sounded a little heavy-handed, as if sharpness were substituting for delicacy. And while its high end was very smooth, the sound lacked the suavity and musical sweetness of the electrostatics. In the area of realism—the ability to give the impression that real, live instruments are playing—the RS-1Bs did very well, but were not equal to the best I have heard. In comparison, the RS-1B tended to fill in the spaces between bursts of musical sound.
Yet, I continue to be immensely impressed by the sound of the RS-1Bs, and that is what I felt ultimately to be their most outstanding characteristic: they have an "impressive" sound. They are awesomely exciting to listen to, and do an incredible job with bombastic, massive works like Mahler's Second Symphony and the
1812 Overture, and with high-powered recordings like Sheffield's
Track and Drum records. But I found them rather less satisfying when reproducing smaller-scaled, more intimate material, such as chamber music and solo guitar. With that kind of music, they still image superbly, making a well-miked guitar sound like a mono recording with stereo ambience (which is exactly right). But that "impressive" quality remains, the music losing some of its gentleness.
There are a few other problems with the RS-1Bs, not the least of which is their setup. These speakers offer so much potential for superb sound quality that all the tweak factors, of little importance in mediocre systems, assume paramount importance. To set up the speakers according to the diagram in the manual, set all controls for Flat and let it go at that, is to throw away half the potential (and half the considerable cost) of the system
J. Gordon Holt
