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It was similar on "Ancient Wall of Flowers" from Marcy Playground’s self-titled effort. The opening guitar is captured exceptionally crisp, clear and sprightly – exactly where speakers with too much energy in the upper mids can get piqued. Not this one. "She doesn’t have to turn up the presence band to suggest extra clarity, everything’s already clear as day" was my quick mental response to the shocking resolving power in the mid/treble range that remained subservient to integration always. Individual frequencies or tone colors didn’t turn into spot lights, the lighting was perfectly even. And I shouldn’t have to add that it was daylight rather than a dimmed club atmosphere. Fuzziness and veils were banished. Outlawed. Even costlier speakers mostly don’t manage this level of ultra transparency. It’s a true forté for the N°1.


This resolution and transparency coupled to a neutral tonal balance enforce unavoidable visibility of the ancillaries. If you enjoy sorting through different speaker cables to track differences, this speaker is the perfect microscope. Smaller nuances and tendencies are served up so fearlessly as to become critical to ongoing satisfaction. This applies also to recorded quality and preceding electronics. I’d go for clean components without hardness, tonally neutral or perhaps slightly warm. The N°1 is ultra transparent but doesn’t cater to beauty. That’s part of the deal. Garbage in and out.

Quality fare like "Karmosis" from Tord Gustavsen Trio’s Being There impressed mightily. The percussion and cymbal chatter and tinkles of the intro were knee-weakeningly gorgeous, so immediate, filigreed and dynamically cresting from nothing as to be rare large-screen cinema. But lovelessly overproduced mainstream Pop quickly turns off. This isn’t an equal-opportunity employer.

Setup meanwhile was surprisingly uncomplicated. Dipoles have quite the rep of divas in that regard but that wasn’t my experience. Or perhaps I was simply lucky with my room. After just a few attempts the Silberstatic hunkered down about 1.3 meters from the front wall, 1 meter each from the side walls – but even half those values didn’t imply colossal sonic alterations and worked as well. Due to carelessness I first set up the N°1 wrong, i.e. with the bass panels facing inward. If you ask me, ‘wrong’ was pleasingly sonorous, ‘right’ applied greater focus and neutrality. If you fancy it a bit warmer, feel welcome to disregard the manufacturer’s preference and swap out the speakers. Quite lovely that a bit of tonality is so easily adjusted.
an external 12V PSU supplies the N°1 with power
Jesberger called it a ‘full-range ‘stat’ to beg the question, what’s going on down low? Return to Francoiz Breut and her songs "Ma Colère" and "Le Nord" which don’t merely feature the French gal’s beautiful pipes but also really fat relaxed rolling bass. Whoa on bass quantity. This I didn’t expect from a panel this size. Even on price I thought bass amplitude neutral if perhaps with a small leanish tendency. Clearly the same purse can go after speakers which pressurize more but could just as well end up with less. The Silberstatic splits the difference.

Not bad at all but even better than sheer dose was quality. This bass was highly instantaneous and quick and its timing perfectly meshed with the musical action. Nothing hung over or lagged and the depths were well differentiated. And there was an added bonus of great personal appeal. The bass never congealed or fattened up. It remained fleet of foot and feathery which had already enthused me with the recently covered Dynamikks Monitor 8.12 (there to an even greater extent). Perhaps I shouldn’t have been that surprised. The N°1 applies 2 x 0.42 square meters to the task. Inspired I dug for more challenging tracks than sparse Neo Chanson and ended up with Burnt Friedman & The New Dub Player’s album Just Landed. Hey, we’re a review magazine, not a lounge …

Geezus, killer, those gnarly infrasonic assaults fell so casually out of the pockets that I couldn’t believe it. "Louder" was the only acceptable response. The answer followed in short order. Click left, click right. Game over. Bloody hell! Skip to the preamp, down with the level. First suspicion? "Damn, I fried the foils. How stupid could I be? Dub and stats!!!" Click left, click right. Back in biz. Phew. Ah, no grilled foils but madame electrocuted my monos. There’s a reason for amplifier protection circuitry after all. About time I saw that in action.