ServoSub-Loudspeaker Interface Cable

Genesis advocates that the subwoofer is to be placed at the end of the reproduction chain. Having a speaker-level pass through at the subwoofer to drive the main loudspeakers that the subwoofer is assigned to enhance the bass, will result in two additional connections, and a consequent loss of transparency.

Hence, the subwoofer is ideally driven in parallel with the main loudspeakers that the subwoofer is assigned to enhance, and the ideal electrical interface for the subwoofer is at the speaker binding posts of the main loudspeaker. It is intuitive that using the signal that drives the main loudspeaker to also drive the subwoofer will result in a greater chance of better integration between the subwoofer and the main loudspeaker.

Unfortunately, this creates a dilemma in the choice of cable to use between the main loudspeaker and the subwoofer. The subwoofer is electrically a power amplifier, and not a loudspeaker. Hence, a nice fat loudspeaker cable is actually going to sound pretty bad. It's like trying to use loudspeaker cable as interconnects between your CD player and the preamp! You will have more success using interconnects, cutting the RCAs off at both ends and using that as a jumper.

However, that's still not ideal. Interconnects are designed for high-impedance circuits. Loudspeaker cables are designed for low-impedance circuits. So the output of the main power amp driving the subwoofer amp's input is a low-impedance to high-impedance circuit.

The Genesis ServoSub Interface Cable (SSIC) is a specialized cable that is designed for this interface, between a low-impedance output, and a high-impedance input. It is the ideal interconnect cable for driving all Genesis ServoSub models using the speaker-level binding posts.

Connectors

The SSIC cables have spades on one end and bananas on the other for flexibility. For example, if your loudspeakers have 5-way binding posts, and the loudspeaker uses bananas, then you connect the spade connection of the SSIC at the loudspeaker and the bananas at the sub's high level input. And visa versa if your loudspeaker uses spades. So, you install them the way you want initially based on your connection requirement and then let them break-in. If you change the orientation in the future, then they require break-in again.