Friday last I was conscripted (actually nicely asked) to detour over to Michael Lundy’s home and shop to help manhandle a GR Research Servo Sub Five from workshop to listening room. This commission by a Chicago area customer to Uilleam Audio for a pair of the GR Research Servo Sub Five stacks the 3 x 12” woofers in an H-frame with the servo amp built into the base. The amp is often housed in its own box yielding a shorter tower but this client wanted an all-in-one solution. I found the resulting taller tower to have very pleasing tall proportions in the statement HiFi aesthetic category. A pair of these in your listening room will impress even before the music or movie starts.
While Michael finished wiring the servo circuit I got a close up look at the SW-12-16FR drivers. Impressive, looks more like a $500-$1000 sub driver rather than the $249 DR charges. I like the spring loaded connectors that will tightly grip the wire throughout their life despite the high vibration environment it is their lot to endure.
With wiring completed it was time to earn my keep as we moved sub #1 off the workbench into the listening room and sub #2 onto the workbench. This reminds me to mention that Danny Richie and Michael Lundy are
raving maniacs! Lundy has used (and Richie I know you put him up to this) TWO layers of ¾” MDF so this sub has ONE AND A HALF INCH THICK baffles and sides. Moving them wasn’t quite at the piano mover league, but getting there. Planning, leverage, teamwork and a moving dolly were required.
Michael was looking for a functional test so we moved the ‘5 tower’ into his living room home theater system not his state of the art upstairs man cave (man loft?) system that includes Servo Sub 4s. A conventional box sub was disconnected and the 5 tower plugged in. After some sweep tests Michael queued up the Blu-ray of “Live at Montreux 2004 by Phil Collins”. I believe it was cut 1 that starts with Collins soloing on his drum kit, then joined by the second drummer on his kit, then a third drummer on Latin drums and percussion, and finally the rest of the band. Wow and WOW. The 5 tower was behind the sofa where I set in the sweet spot, throughout the session all the bass appeared to come from the front soundstage. Very impressive for an uncalibrated sub plopped down in a random location. As I enjoyed the demo what really impressed was the tactile way I felt the drum hits in my chest. The volume was loud but not too loud to talk. This was unique in my experience to feel the bass at not-ear-endangering SPLs. Three 12s is BIG FUN, I envy the owner who will get to fine tune and enjoy SIX.
