Infinity Reference Standard 1 (c. 1977–1978)
The Infinity Reference Standard 1, usually just called the RS-1, was the largest and most expensive speaker Infinity had made up to that point. It was one of the most ambitious four-piece systems of the late 1970s. It was in production for only about two years, starting around 1977/78, and cost $6,750 per pair. That bought a massive setup: two bass modules and two midrange/tweeter columns. Each bass module weighed 100 lbs and the whole system came to 230 lbs. The system stood 52-1/2 inches tall, with each bass module measuring 25-1/2 x 17-1/2 x 24 inches and the column 30-1/4 inches high.
The driver lineup is where the RS-1 gets interesting. Bass came from two 12-inch Watkins woofers, a dual-coil design with two sets of windings on the same voice coil, which gave it unusual flexibility with amplifiers. Above that sat two 6-1/2-inch midrange drivers, one EMIM planar midrange, and two EMIT tweeters. The EMIT was Infinity's ribbon-type planar tweeter, and it showed up across their high-end line. The crossover used a multi-tapped auto-transformer with points at 240, 3000, and 6000 Hz. The whole system was rated at 120W max. Frequency response was quoted as 20Hz to 20kHz. Finish choices were walnut or teak.
The RS-1 was rated at 120W max and was built around the Watkins woofer and planar drivers rather than metal cones.
J. Gordon Holt reviewed the RS-1 for Stereophile in 1978 and was largely impressed. He called the top end the cleanest he'd heard, with electrostatic-quality treble and none of the stored-energy coloration that plagued most dynamic tweeters. He found the midrange excellent too, free of the cupped-hands coloration some planar speakers had, though a little hard and forward compared to the Quad electrostatic. The bass was very tight and well-defined, but had a slight bloom around 50-80 Hz with the control set flat. His verdict was a great speaker, superb in the areas that matter most, but one that demanded a very large room and a very clean, high-power amplifier. He also admitted he wouldn't buy it for looks. It was big and black, a studio-monitor aesthetic with none of the furniture appeal of a Quad or AR.
Collector accounts from audioheritage.org say much the same. Owners describe an almost holographic soundstage and rank it among the best speakers they've heard, while conceding the size and weight make it impractical for most rooms. A mint pair with all original packaging and documentation, plus an extra pristine pair of EMIT tweeters, sold via Bring a Trailer at some point, though the final price isn't recorded. Classic-audio.com estimates current value at $75,000, but that's a single-source estimate, not a documented sale.
The original crossover used multi-tapped auto-transformers. There's mention of an aftermarket modification to bypass the passive crossover on the woofers for bi-amping. That appears to be a third-party or user modification, not an official Infinity offering.
Surviving documentation on the RS-1 is thin — no sensitivity rating, no nominal impedance, no production numbers, no service manual that I've been able to turn up. What the record does show is a flagship speaker that represented the state of the art at Infinity in the late 1970s, built without obvious compromise, and one that still commands serious respect — and serious money — among collectors who've heard it.
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