It's the summer of 2020, and I'm just now reviewing my PSB 500 Centurys. Bought em back in 1994 at a big city, high end audio equipment store. A/B switch listened to the legendary B&W 801's against several affordable speakers, including the PSB's, repeating the opening notes of Sir George Solti and the Chicago Symphony performing Beethoven's 7th symphony. Perhaps obviously, the soundstage on the 801's made me think I was in Chicago's symphony hall, listening live. The PSB 500's were far and away closest in soundstage and imaging (can pinpoint where the timpani are in the back of the stage, the woodwinds, the cellos, the first violins) to the $3,500.00/pair B&Ws, so I bought the 500's--- then at only 400+ dollars. Probably well more than I could afford way back then, but worth it. To this day (2020) I won't even think of trying to replace them with something newer/better.

Only weakness is I had to add a subwoofer (now ancient Velodyne 18" sub, which I'm also not going to replace) to get that extra bass kick. I listen to 70's Rock, pipe organ music and Classical. I need rich bass for all of those.

bought them because they where made in canada and well built no china junk here the sound quality is as good as any at there price range.

Great for music

Not as good as the 600i's for home theater if you have a good sub woofer.

I own pair of the 500i's and the 600i's that iI drive with a Pioneer elite vsx-07. The 500's are without a doubt the best $500 speaker on the market. I listened to many brands high end brands and while there are better speakers out there you will have to pay closer to $1000 to match these. While they sound fantastic at high volume, what realy impressed me was their ability to have full sound at the lower volumes. The only drawback with these speakers is the clarity when watching movies or tv. For home theater I would recommend the 600i's (which I now use) even though they lack the bass and and full sound the 500i's have for music.

Good clean highs and mids and good moderate bass. Very well made and cabinets are very attractive.

Blew one of the woofers within 10 minutes of moderate listening. This woofer did not give the usual warnings and rattlings. Anyway to make a long story short; PSB would not help and I did some research and found that they had many problems with these 8" woofers coming loose. They tell me they now use Vifa's in place of the ones they used to use so they will hold together. Several people have told me that they have had to replace them many times so obviously a weakness existed. I replaced mine with some 8's I bought out of Canada. With the good woofers, these sound as good as any speakers I have listened to in the $600.00 to $800.00 range. They now kick like a mule. So if you are not into good solid bass and like to listen to your music at low levels, these are very good. But if you like it loud and hard, you will be shopping woofers like I did.

I bought a pair on E-Bay and was impressed upon opening them. They are very well made and the cabinets are very nice. The inside of these things is impressive. i hooked them up and started to turn them up to listen to some music with moderate bass. Found that these the woofers could be overdriven real easy. The sound was very smooth and the highs were very good.I Noticed that the woofer travel was not good.

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I have listened to and own many sets of floor standing and bookshelf in the $300.00 to $1200.00 range and these are now my favorite set of bookshelf. Although they are large for bookshelf. I use mine

Warm, pleasant, easy to listen to sound. Easy to drive and sounds good with inexpensive electronics.

Poor binding posts. Lack of lighter color choice of finish.

I just bought a brand-new "A" stock pair from Dmc-electronics.com for half of retail price. They were still available in either black or dark cherry. If you''re in the market for some nice sounding speakers for a very reasonable price give David a call. These speakers have a very pleasant and easy to listen to sound. They present a easy load for your amp to drive. For the money, I can not find fault with these speakers. They are a rather ackward size and I would recommend stands 12-16" tall. Overall, built quality seems good, exempt the binding posts could be of higher quality. (One of the binding posts would not tighten down on bare wire. I''m hoping to resolve this issue with a new lug nut.) I recommend this speaker highly. I have found that Kimber Kable 4VS works well w/ this speaker.

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B&W, Snell, JM Lab, Spendor.

Great bass for such a small speaker

Rather closed in treble

My mistake was buying these without hearing them - not that they are bad speakers, but they didn't mate well with the NAD C340 I had on hand. They were too dark sounding with the NAD. I ended up buying a Rotel RA-971 and the top octave opened up a bit but the speakers are still a little rolled off on top. The bass is excellent and the midrange is more than adequate, I just miss that sparkle in the upper treble.

I think the speakers are very well made and certainly a bargain at the price I paid. Quite frankly, I think they are a great speaker for their original list as well. Lovers of rock, rap and electronic music will be well served but even orchestral music sounds fine.

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Paradigm, Sound Dynamics

Cheap, great sound, good for louder music with demand for bass

Had to replace a few woofers, midrange is very good but its bass and high end are what excell

It was 1994 and I was a student ready to invest in a system. I allowed $1000 for speakers. I spent weeks at all the shops testing out everything very carefully. I found that all the bookshelfs had no 'balls' and I did not feel a subwoofer was the way to a satisfying balanced system.

These sounded best overall. The imaging was verygood and the bass response was rewarding. And only $350/pr!

I listen to a lot of reggae,dub and rock at very loud volumes for many hours a day. These dont dissapoint.

All the reviews at the time favoured these as great values.

In the first 2 years blew 5 woofers, 4 were replaced free and the 5th at $40. It was easy to replace myself.

Since then I have punished the speakers with no problems.

The bass can distort when really pushed...but any speaker of this size would.

I am reccomending this as an excellent speaker, especially if you want more 'balls' in a speaker around this size and price. If you have more money to spend, give them an audition, they make a good comparison.

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JPWs, B&W 600, Paradigm, Energy, Mirage

I bought my PSB 500's in 1993 to upgrade from speakers I will not mention.Until recently I powered them with the Sony STR-AV910 and loved them! They
provided excellent clarity and imaging that can occasionally reach beyond the
physical separation of the speakers.

A month ago I replaced my Sony with B&K AV5000 and WOW!! The added dimension of depth is amazing, and the highs are beautiful with no harshness of excessive
sibilance. Just listen to Sarah McLaughlin and you'll know what I mean. Be aware
that they possess a bit of boominess in the bass, and tend to falter with source material that has poorly reproduced midranges.

Eventually the PSBs will be replaced as mains, but I'll try to keep them in my
system as rear speakers.

The sound is complete, smooth, crisp, clear and bold.

Not Yet Found

After bought a JBL AC model speakers set last month, I found that the sound of the JBL was rather too crisp not smooth enough to my ear, so I went to audio shop to find a speaker that sound smooth but still clear and crisp.

I tried to listen bookshelf speakers like Aegis One, QLN, Mission, Jensen, Paradigm, and none of those speakers was match to my hearing. In other shop, I found a quite big speaker, PSB Century 500i with 8 inch of woofer, and I tested it, and found the sound imaging was great, smooth, crisp and clear, so I took it for $240.

At home, I compared the PSB 500i with JBL AC-310 (HLS-610), and found the PSB 500i was better, the mid & bass were bold without using a sub.

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JBL AC-310, JBL-AC-Center, JBL-AC Surround, JBL S/W Digital 12, Harman Kardon AVR7000 amplifier

The look, also the sound is clear and crisp lows are not bad for a small guys PSB is tops

I cant fine any

Between my Sony sub,Polk RT800i and Klipsch KSC-C1 which are good speakers in there own rights. I would pick my PSB 500i to be my best speakers in my system.

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Polk, Klipsch Sony sub pushed by Denon 3000