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REVIEW: PSB Gold i Speakers

Model:	Gold i
Category:	Speakers
Suggested Retail Price:	$2850
Description:	3 way Tower
Manufacturer URL:	PSB
Model Picture:	View

Review by Don T (A) on April 17, 2007 at 14:44:13 IP Address: 207.114.157.122

Add Your Review for the Gold i

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First off let me say I didn't like this loudspeaker, second let me say this is a review of the Gold not the Gold i. I completely enjoyed the PSB Stratus Mini's that came into my system before them and the Spendor SP100s that came into my system after them. I had had $1400 to purchase a new pair of Vandersteen 2C loudspeakers and for $200 more my dealer offered me the oppurtunity to own a pair of PSB Stratus Golds. Having been enamored by the Stratus Mini's and only upgrading because in they lacked bass in my large room. The Golds seemed to be the right thing to do. I bit.

These floor standing speakers came with a great oak finish. I drove them with a variety of power amps. These speakers were very sensitive to the amplification in front of them. First thing I noticed was the high frequency roughness and grain. Took awhile but I eventually solved this with a pair of $1200 Transparent Audio interconnects. Next the bass didn't seem right. Spiking the speakers and placing 30 lb. weights on top went along ways toward getting them listenable.

Overall I thought these speakers had the most fantastic of dry hi ends. Honest I really liked it. The midrange was ok but the bass/lower ranges could be powerful and articulate but were problematic. The best amp I found for taking advantage of the strengths of these speakers was a Parasound HCA 1000. The bass of the Gold was very powerful and extended. With any of the Parasound amps I tried it was awesome and powerful. Unfortunately with the Parasound amps images jumped out into the room as a jumble mess. I don't like this kind of perspective but what was even worse was that the speakers images seemed to be locked into the cabinents port.

The 35 watt Exposure XV integrated could drive these speakers to reasonable levels. However the 88 db per 1 watt Gold really want more power and the character of the XVs bass was not suited to the Golds. Driven by this amp the Golds could reproduce the sound of the XV to a reasonable volume level - this was good because the XV sounds good. However much the XV liked the high frequencies of the Golds, nor how much this listener liked the sound of the Golds when driven by the XV, it was very clear that this was not the intended purpose of the PSB loudspeakers which are IMO about loudness and power. I bought the higher powered, 60 watt, 6/7/18 combo because the Mini's wanted more power and had hoped it would have been enough to get the bass I wanted.

I sacrified some of the bass energy and power and held on to the 60 watt Exposure VI/VII/XVIII combo in order to get a musical perspective that seemed reasonable. This combination was actually quite good though limited in loudness and bass power due to only having 60 watts. Don't get me wrong, this thing still played loud and Pink Floyd "machine" could rattle things off the wall, shake the windows and/or cause records/cds to fall of the tops of the speakers.

At all times I was aware of the speaker port. Music was presented with great presence and power but it lacked the drive, complexity and sophistication I find with other systems. Yea drums beat, singers sang and sounds could be heard but these musical components never really came together as a musical whole. Sure things like shaking the walls, a vocalists spit or tonsils, bells, whistles, recording flaws, etc. seemed to be more prominant and obvious. But I consider these things artifacts of the recording and only significant within the context of musical expression - which unfortunately I found lacking with the Stratus Golds.

I tried a variety of amplifiers and I'm sure with more money to invest in higher quality amps I could have gotten better performance. But after 3 years it became clear to me that it was a struggle I wasn't in the mood to complete. Recommended highly as video monitor but for my tastes it's easy for more to pass on them as 2 channel music reproducers.

With these speakers I found myself very limited in the recordings I listened to. I bought tons of audiophile reissues and this seemed to help. One of my dealers was pleased to coming along just fine as I struggled with his version of high end audio. During my ownership of these speakers I replaced my Sota Sapphire/Alphason Alpha/Monster Alpha Genesis rig with a Rega Planar 3 - an awesome improvement as the Sota had been shown up by a $100 Sony CD purchased in a black hole. But it wasn't until I dumped the Gold's could I free myself from the audiophool mode I had trapped myself into and begin to buy stereo gear that actually was capable of reproducing music.

All that being said I still consider the PSB Stratus Mini a great musical speaker for the money and believe I could have gotten better perfomance out of the Golds if I wanted to make a substantial investment in application. And when I say substantial I mean to the point if one could afford the amps required I doubt they'ld have much interest whatsoever in owning the Stratus Golds.

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Product Weakness:	IMO - more like a video monitor than a music monitor.
Product Strengths:	Nice high frequency with work. Awesome bass power and extension.

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Associated Equipment for this Review:
Amplifier:	Exposure XV, Exposure 18, Adcom 5800, Parasound HCA1000, 1500 and 2200.
Preamplifier (or None if Integrated):	Exposure 6/7
Sources (CDP/Turntable):	Rega Planar 3, Sota Sapphire
Speakers:	PSB Stratus Minis
Cables/Interconnects:	Exposure, Kimber
Music Used (Genre/Selections):	pop, rock, alternative
Room Size (LxWxH):	15 x 15 x 8
Room Comments/Treatments:	none
Time Period/Length of Audition:	3 years
Other (Power Conditioner etc.):	none
Type of Audition/Review:	Product Owner
Your System (if other than home audition):	same

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