Brings out inner detail in recordings, affordable, smooooth treble

none found so far.

I had decided a while back that my new speakers would either be the Image 2B's or the new B&W DM 303's. After listening to both, I felt that for my tastes the the PSB's were the better of the two speakers in terms of overall sound quality. What really impresses me is the way that the inner detail of most of my recordings stand out compared to my old Infinity's. For example, on B.B. King/Duets track two "The Thrill is Gone" with Tracy Chapman, the hammond organ really comes to life. Also, I have noticed that you can really get a sense of the size of the room that the track was recorded in! I was a little concerned with other reviews about how harsh the treble can be with these speakers. I was advised by my dealer that they can be a little harsh but my NAD gear would do a good job of softening up the sound as well as breaking them in for about 72 hours which I did uninterupted with pink noise over a long holiday weekend while I was away from home. After that, the treble was as smooth as could be. I did find that for my tastes, a powered subwoofer is needed for frequencies of around 75hz and below. The B&W speakers were close to the PSB speakers in all respects but in the end, I found myself more involved in the music while listening to the 2B's. Overall, I am very impressed with these speakers and they will remain in my music sytem for many years to come. My budget system consists of:
NAD C520 CD Player
NAD C340 Integrated Amp
PSB Image 2B's
Infinity BU-120 Subwoofer
Kimber Hero Interconnects
Kimber 4VS Speaker Cables
Vibrapod Isolators on NAD gear

Similar Products Used:

Infinity SM-165, B&W DM 303

Sound!! Price! Size, build quality, looks,etc........

none that I can think of.

Man!! I ordered these to use as my rears but received them before I received my fronts. The only receiver I had at the time was a little sony so I hooked them up to give em a listen, WOW!! I couldn't believe what I was hearing. They sound beautiful. Room filling sound and from such a small speaker. I couldn't stop grabbing old cd's and popping them in the player! I don't think you could touch the quality and sound of these speakers for this price, probably not for less than $500. I am very happy with PSB's sound and quality. The 6t's and 9c(center) are just as good!! If you want some excellent sounding speakers for about half of what you thought you were gona have to spend rush out and get these babies, they rule!!

PS-I would also like to say that my experience with Michael at Hificiti.com was A++++++ Highly recommended!!

Similar Products Used:

Sony,sansui,yamaha,bose,etc........

Can be placed close to the back wall as the ports are on the front baffle.

Could have better internal bracing.

While contemplating upgrading my home theater, I entertained the idea of getting separates so I could have great audio and a great home theater. A recommendation to build an audio-only system and the cost of HT separates changed my mind. The audio-only system concept won.

My first objective was to find a pair of speakers. Small speakers would suffice if they could blend well with the extra subwoofer I had. I auditioned a lot of speakers to get a feel for what I would have to live with. Many of those speakers were near the high limit of my budget.

I was favorably impressed the first time I listened to PSB's Image 2Bs, but I wanted to "listen around" before I got out my wallet. I delayed buying for several months to audition many other speakers, but came back to the 2Bs.

That's not to say the others are not as good as the 2Bs-they just did not physically fit into the listening environment or I could not justify the difference in cost between the 2Bs and the others. (The Paradigm Studio 20s were too bright for both my wife and me.)

I have experimented extensively with placement and now have the 2Bs 12" from the back wall without any toe in. (Your results may vary-your room probably doesn't look like mine.)

I believe good speakers should accurately reproduce whatever they are being fed. "Musical taste" has no bearing on accuracy. Having said that, my taste includes "classical", "jazz", and "new age"-just so you know a little more of my musical perspective. Solo instruments, symphonies, and synthetic are all welcome.

After extended listening, I am highly pleased with the 2Bs and highly recommend them.

Symphony orchestras are presented as a collection of instruments-not a homogenized smear of sound. Individual instruments can be readily pinpointed-the imaging is absolutely glorious. Male and female voices are extremely lifelike and percussion (except for big drums) is very convincing.

The 2Bs can play loud enough for me, but I only have 100 W/ch. I doubt the 2Bs can reproduce a full symphony or a rock band's earbleed riffs. That's not a fault, just an observation.

I do not expect much low end from small speakers, but I do expect small speakers to behave themselves. The 2Bs low end is devoid of artificiality. By themselves, the 2Bs do a marvelous job at reproducing most of the music I throw at them. Add a subwoofer and "most of" becomes "all".

I will not be returning these.

Similar Products Used:

Used: Boston HD5 (in a home theater)

Auditioned: Athena Technologies S1/P1, Boston VR-M60, Paradigm Studio 20, Sonus Faber Concertino, Vandersteen Model 1C, and too many others to mention.

Imaging, tight bass

None

The best $324 I've ever spent on any a/v component. Even though one of the speakers came shipped with a dented tweeter (apparently a factory defect), they still sounded phenominal. When I got the replacement tweeter, the difference between the broken-in speaker and the new one was very obvious. They tend to be a little brash on the high ends until they've been used for a while. I currently have them placed only 2 feet apart (dorms suck), but their superb imaging creates a sound stage thats seems 3 times as wide. The only disadvantage I could find, is that they expose how crappy my amp is, where other speakers wouldn't.

Similar Products Used:

Boston CR7, B&W 602

Bass, imaging, over all sound, and they look great with the grills off

100 hours break in time

I bought these a long with the 5t's for the front, and the 9c center.

PSB speaker are by far the best sounding, best looking for the money.

I have listened to music and they sound very nice but they shine in home theater, they image so well, you could shut your eyes, and still be in the movie.

I got all 5 speakers for $1030 from Jea Wong at this email DIAMONDNO1@aol.com He can make you a good deal on any PSB speaker system.

Midrange Clarity, Smooth Treble, Amazing bass definition for such a small speaker!!! very musical...

well it does cost $450 CAN, compromises have to be made at this price point.

Great sounding speaker right out of the box. Not an analytical speaker but conveys the message beautifully. Bought the speakers with NAD separates and have heard them with some pricer components from REGA. The biggest strength in these speakers is that if your strapped for cash and cannot afford to dive into hi-fi head first, then you can buy better source components to pair with these, and then upgrade the speakers later when you have a little more cash. These speakers are transparent enough that you will hear the difference between budget and higher priced components. But do give them some nice stands!!! In comparison I liked these more than the Mini Monitors and the 602S2's and as you would expect the Stratus Mini's were superior. (I had the money for the Mini's but felt that the difference in sound quality wasn't great enough to justify the extra $700.) The Totem's are of a different breed providing an abundance of detail and expansiveness but at the cost of the weight and authority of the music.
If I were a jazz enthusiast I would prefer the totem's, but my taste in music range's from classical to rock and the PSB's are the type of speaker that sounds good with every type of music. When it comes to the best sound that your money can buy, nothing compares to Canadian built speakers, period.

Similar Products Used:

Paradigm Mini Monitor, B&W 602S2, Totem Mite and Rokk, PSB Stratus Mini.

Attractive. Quite uncolored and accurate. Very good bass punch for a speaker it's size. A very good price/performance item.

None.

I purchased a pair of these for use in a home theater system. It's an inexpensive system. I'm using a 200 dollar Kenwood VR-309 along with these acting as the front mains and an Image 8C in the center. I have a pair of Yamaha 528's in the rear for surround and no subwoofer. The total cost of this system was less than a thousand dollars. The system is dedicated to HT and performs quite well in this regard. The 2B's really are terrific performers. They have a nice punch. I was so happy with them, I purchased a second pair for my 2 channel system. My listening room is not very big, and the 2B's do every thing I could ask for. I'm really impressed by how smooth the mids and highs are. The bottom end is not very extended, but it does hit hard all the way to the lowest point it goes. They match up extremely well with the Bryston 3B-ST I'm driving them with. For price/performance in HT and two channel I have to give them 5 stars. If you're in the market for a smaller stand-mounted speaker, you owe yourself to audition these.

Appearance, size, frequency range for the value.

Zilch.

Wow!

What a value for what you get.
A great speaker for small to mid-size HT setups.
At times, I'm taken aback as to whether the sound effects are coming from the DVD source or outside my pad. I quite literally have to mute the source, and every time, it was generated from the source. Exceptionally good reproduction of bass and treble. Looks like i'll upgrade to a pair of 5T speakers this year to get the extra .5-way for mid-tones and added bass response. A definite buy to any person getting into the Digital home-theatre age with limited revenue sources.

Similar Products Used:

KEF Reference, PSB 500i, Dynaco.

Great sound for a small price.

None.

I'm really happy with these speakers. After months of reviewing systems, I was leaning toward the Studio 20's. In the bookshelf category they are hard to beat for under a grand. The Aegis One's are simply amazing for $299.00, but they aren't in the same class as the 20's. Since I had decided on the Studio 20's, I had to wait a while so I could save up enough money for them. In that time I happened across the PSB Image Series. Wow! For the money, I'd be hard-pressed to come up with anything remotely competitive. I wound up getting a pair of the Studio 20's and the Image 2B's at home for an audition. The list price for the Images was $369 vs. $750 for the Studio 20's. Based on this, I wasn't really expecting much of a contest. Boy was I wrong! The Images did everything the 20's did. Both image well and put up terrificly deep, wide soundstages (for bookshelfs). Both put out relatively large amounts of bass, but the Image seemed to hit a bit harder. Of course, these are bookshelf speakers, so the bass extension wasn't comparable to a good floorstander, but it was still pretty good. I would say the voicing of the Image was fairly aggressive, though not extremely so, in that listening is not fatiguing.

Right now, these are running on a two-channel system powered by a Luxman LV-109 Integrated amplifier. My CD player is a Nakamichi, I'm unsure of the model. I'm extremely happy with these speakers, and eventually I intend to use them as rears in 5 Channel setup with 5T's or 6T's up front, a 9C Center and a subwoofer TBD later.

Similar Products Used:

Paradigm Reference Studio 20, Acoustic Energy Aegis One, B&W DM302, NHT SuperOne.

Sweet, balanced sound at an unbelievable price point

Well!!!!!!!!!

I had to give up my Mirage M3si's when I moved to a new home - they simply didn't fit in and the room was too small to accommodate them. Since I was in no hurry, I switched a pair of Royd's out of my home theatre set-up, semi-temporarily, and bought the Image 2B's, somewhat on a whim to replace the Royd's until I could get happy with a bookshelf or mini-monitor.

The local store sold me on these little babies. I must admit, I did not appreciate their finesse when I heard them. Truthfully, I wasn't listening that hard and a NAD set-up is too harsh for my ears. So, was I blown away when, for fun, I connected these gems to my system - Linn LP12, Anthem Pre-1 Phono stage, Sonic Frontiers Line 2, Bryston 4B and Sonic Frontiers SFCD 1. I must admit, it's an incongruous and unlikely match. However, these things sing. No, they probably don't extract the last amount of detail, they're not reaching down to that last octave (and I use a sub for that purpose anyway), but they significantly best the Royds and somebody at PSB has an uncanny talent for selling more for less.

I probably won't live with these for ever - I never do with anything, But they have taught me to listen with my ears and not my pocket book.

Finish is not superb, but the design is fun and they're a little lightweight. However, I've got them on stands and I'm going to be bloody fussy, short term, in finding exactly what I want, cos I can sure live with these for a while. If I were on a tight budget, I could definitely get hi end sound from a low end pocket book.

High;y, high;y recommended.