PSB speaker quality ?

[greystoke144]

Any quick opinions on the quality of the Canadian made speakers - PSB - on the whole?
Anything to look out for in bad/good models? Great buys - Turkeys?
Thanx, Greystoke

[kexodusc]

They're not turkeys, that's for sure...I'm sure they have their share of defects, but everything will.

I mentioned recently about the PSB Alpha's...with the exception of Paradigm, I can't think of another, high-quality, decent sounding speaker below $300 that's been around as long, received as much praise, and remained as competitive as PSB. If you find the right dealer they can be a helluva good buy. And there's always lots of good PSB speakers on the used market.

You could definitely do worse...I don't recall quality being a major issue for them, but then again, I don't recall many speaker companies having quality issues.
Whether their sound characteristics agree with you or not...only you can decide that.

[JSE]

I listened to them several times back when I made my last speaker purchase. They are well made and well respected and offer great bang for the buck. They just were not to my liking in terms of sound compared to a couple of others that made my final list. But, that does not mean you or anyone else would not like them. In terms of quality, I would have no qualms about buying them at all. It just comes down to whether you like them in terms of sound.

JSE

[Pat D]

Any quick opinions on the quality of the Canadian made speakers - PSB - on the whole?
Anything to look out for in bad/good models? Great buys - Turkeys?
Thanx, Greystoke

PSB makes accurate, well-designed and well-built speakers. Whether you like them better than others is up to you.

I like the Stratus line and our Stratus Minis (plus a subwoofer) sound very fine to us, as good as several well-regarded speakers that cost up to 5 times the price. But the same could be said of speakers made by several other Canadian manufacturers.

[topspeed]

I dunno...

After this thread, I'd be looking at other companies. There are simply too many choices available to have to put up with what IamCanadian did.

[Lord_Magnepan]

Just hear them for themselves !! Many forums/threads praise certain speakers which to my ears sounds like complete trash. I once heard a small PSB and liked it, but then again i didnt compare them either.

Cheers

[RGA]

Well I had the PSB Alpha B on my short list several years ago and could have gone that way. They seem reasonably well built - the Stratus Silver sounded pretty good - so did a lot of speakers in that price range though. I don't remember saying wow this is the best in the class - but I've never heard one that made me say wow this is totl rubbish for the amount of money. The Stratus Gold (and this was circa 1996) I remember was expensive and sounded rather sloppy. But it's a fairly popular floorstander.

[Pat D]

I dunno...

After this thread, I'd be looking at other companies. There are simply too many choices available to have to put up with what IamCanadian did.

But Paul Barton solved his problems, and I see no evidence that the sort of service described is typical. Indeed, it is about the only time I have heard of bad service on PSB speakers.

The delivery on my Stratus Minis was efficient enough, and our local dealer doesn't even carry the Stratus line--special order. Unlike some, I do not tout my choices as better for everybody and diss other fine products, but it's a really fine speaker and a very good value. The Stratus Silver-i and Stratus Gold-i (I've never heard the Stratus Bronze) are also excellent speakers.

[topspeed]

But Paul Barton solved his problems...

True, but look what the poor guy had to go through! PSB may very well build some the best speakers at their respective price points (TAS seems to think so), I just think a company should stand behind their product with more confidence and compassion than they did in this case.

[kexodusc]

I haven't heard many bad examples from PSB, I have heard a few cases where Mr. Barton looked right after customers. I doubt you'd find a company anywhere that doesn't have at least ONE example of a customer case like IamCanadian...Still, this might be something to watch out for in the future.

[jrflanne]

I've owned a pair of Stratus Bronze for the last 1.5 years and find them excellent for the $$$ (<$1000/pr.). Granted, I didn't audition a whole bunch of speakers but I did listen to quite a few. Build quality seems very good. Then I went out and got a pair of Image 2B's and an Image 9C center for HT. I actually liked the Bronze's better than the Silver i's when I demoed them at the store. They paired up with my old Nad HT receiver, and not so good with my Lexicon DC-2. This setup sounds a bit harsh for some reason (the Lex, I do believe).

I guess I would like to point out that I listened to Polk and Boston Acoustics monitors, Mirage floorstanders and a whole bunch of others. I even listened to B&W 601's (I think) and absolutely hated those. It's all about personal preferences and value for the money. For that, PSB is hard to beat if they sound good to you and easy to beat if they don't.

What I really wanted were Vandy 2ce's but my room wasn't good enough and also want to go HT.

[bmw-k]

I rarely post here, not much need to with so many good posters here already. But since I do own a set of PSB Silver i's, the C5i center, and the Sub 7 15" sub, I thought I would chime in (a bit late though).

I compared the PSB's against B&W, Monitor Audio, Mission Audio, and Paradigm. My ears led me to buying the Silver i's even over PSB's own Gold i's. I found that the Silver i's with the Sub 7 had better dynamic range than the Gold i's and had better punch as well. Take that with a grain of salt as the Sub is crossed over at 40hz and therefore the AVR isn't powering the heavy low notes...

Now, this is the most important part of my purcahse. The Silver i's sounded great when I bought them. I brought them home and set them up on my then current Yamaha RX530 AVR. Previously I had a set of Bose 901's on them. The PSB's sounded increadible compared to the 901's. Still, something was missing.

I upgraded my AVR to an NAD T762 (100watts/channel, 6 channels vs. 55 watts per channel...). The PSB's simply came alive. The difference was nothing short of stunning. To be honest, I had no idea at the time that an AVR upgrade could make that much of a difference.

PSB + the NAD makes for a fantastically smooth combo. Not overly bright, and perhaps more important to me, very, very smooth in terms of crossover ranges.

It is very possible that Lensman listened to the PSB Silvers on the wrong amp. In addition, the PSB's I have did take about 40 hours of playing for the Tweeter to smooth out.

PSB is well worth a listen.