I have owned these speakers (Gold/i's) for six months and I am well pleased with them. They are being driven by an Aragon 8002 amp, Aragon 24K preamp, Luxman PD-300/Sumiko FT-3/Grado, Marantz CD63se. The speakers are astonishingly neutral on all types of music; rock and roll, jazz, vocal, classical, exotical, easy listening, lounge (but no hip hop). My room is barely big enough for the bass capabilities of this speaker and for some recordings with a lot of energy at particular frequencies they are BOOMY but, this applies to only a few recordings and a fairly narrow frequency range. Compared to the Meadowlark Heron's ($4000+), the Heron's are bit airier in the top end and better controlled in the low octaves. The Gold/i's give up nothing in the midrange compared to the Heron's. Construction-wise, you can see that corners are cut by use of simple to make joinery, while they are not Avalon's, they are well made and I have no complaints. The dark cherry veneer is very nice and makes an imposing statement in my living room.

Well these babies sound Great! But be aware they require a substantiat burn in period to smooth that tweeter which can sound a bit dry at first. Midrange is as neutral as some of the best. After attending this winter's CES I can say that in order to find better sound, (or alot better sound) and yes it is out there, just listen to a well tuned pair of the German Acoustics or for that matter, the "Big" Dunleavys you have to spend at least two to four times as much. The PSB's are a superb value!!!. P.S. it is a bit hard to find these speakers to listen to in the S.F. Bay Area. A call to P.S.B. lead me to Total Media Concepts in Foster City. Their staff treated me with the utmost of respect. They took me to their private showroom which mated the PSB's with some excellent electronics. The sound was glorious and the glass of Chateau Montelina Cabernet was a nice touch. Thanks Guys!! I love my PSB's.

To quote Roger Stevens - "After lots of reading here and elsewhere on the Net, I finally visited a local PSB dealer (Steve at Country Video, 610-828-2600)." Thanks Roger for the pointer and Steve for the goods! (It was more than worth the slight delay in shipping once I finally started listening :>) )
There isn't much sense in recounting my life story or describing the history of my audio equipment purchases. I believe that taste in sound is too personal and dependent upon "non-equipment-related" factors (your own hearing capabilities/preferences and the shape of your head/ears make more difference to how you perceive sound than any amp or cables!) for that to matter much to anyone else. Suffice it to say, the PSB Stratus Gold i speakers are clearly superlative speakers based on their design and execution and measurements (a bone for the pure objectivists :>) ) and dozens of "official" reviews and all the feedback here but I'm going only by the fact that I REALLY LOVE THEM! THEY SOUND NATURAL AND REAL! to me and make me want to listen to music more and revisit my substantial collection. I can't ask for more.

If you are looking for high quality speakers give them a listen (or the Silvers or any of the PSBs). You might end up loving them or choosing something else --- the only mistake you could make is not hearing them at all to judge for yourself.

I happen to think that movies are the best way to testspeakers, because of the wide dynamics of movie
soundtracks. Music is usually very compressed and
lacks the "punch" and "rumble" of movies, hell even the
orchestral film scores in movies sound better than
orchestral music on CD, IMO. That is why I believe
movie soundtracks are more demanding, and the truest
test of a speaker system.

Now, that having been said, I find it quite amusing how
the majority of "audiophile" speakers have a VERY
difficult time reproducing dynamic movie soundtracks
without badly distorting at the peak bass punches or
soaring sound effects that make them resonate, while
some of the least expensive hometheater speakers out
there handle these same sound effects with identical
amplification without any such distortion. Things that
make you go hmmm....

Then I read a review here that said, "With movies, they
(PSB Golds) didn't do so well." "I wasn't sure if I was
damaging the speakers." ??? I wonder what he heard that
made him think that these were being damaged? Perhaps,
I fear he may have heard what I've heard all along with
"audiophile" grade speakers. They just don't handle
dynamics well, because most audiophile companies make
speakers that "compress" the sound in order to make you
hear more sounds in the mix, and therefore think it
sounds better, when in reality, it's dynamically
compressed. Put a really dynamic piece of material on
a poorly designed (undynamic) speaker, and you'll get
distortion, howl, and cone breakup. Audiophile speakers
are notorious for this, and usually lack any and all
low frequency extention, or the ability to handle high
peaks at low frequencies with strong amplification
without distortion. I've found mass market companies
have often provided better designs that have been a
mainstay for generations because they work. A three-
way big box design will always win in sound quality,
whether it's made by Cerwin-Vega or Snell. The reason
is simple and proven engineering mathmatics as they
equate to cabinet design vs. driver performance.
Even in sub/sat designs, the same principles apply.

I find it amazing that a sub $1,000 Cerwin Vega
4-way speaker can easily handle and reproduce what
a multi-thousand dollar "audiophile" speaker struggles
to achieve both in design and performance.

PSB and every other "audiophile" snake-oil company
ought to be ashamed of themselves for selling such a
"cheap" design and drivers for so much. This is a
good speaker, but it's only a good speaker in the
sub $500 price range for the PAIR. Save your money
for some REAL speakers in the multi-thousand dollar
price range like Polk's SRT System, or Snell's Cinema &
Music Reference THX System. These two systems are the
best I've heard in years of searching for the best.
They far outperform any "audiophile" junk I've heard at
AES or CES. Get something that can blow the doors off
your house, and whisper with quiet purity, and then
you'll have a TRUE Audiophile speaker system that
meets every listener's standard across the spectrum.
Without uniform compatibility with hometheater AND
music reproduction, your just fooling yourself if you
think it's "audiophile".

The PSB Gold's get 3 stars because they aren't priced
in the proper catagory for their performance. They
should be less than $500 considering the cabinet
design, and the drivers used, it speaks like a mass
market system to me. A JBL, Cerwin-Vegin look-a-like
if I ever saw one in better looking clothes no less.

Timothy

OK, truth-telling time. First, thanks for the nice mention from Chris Gaynor, and I guess I could say, "You're Welcome", even though I deserve none of the credit for these speakers or Steve at Country Video's easy style.
Second, I should say that for some time I have been struggling with a 60 Hz peak in what I always felt was room response with respect to the PSB Goldi's, and had to resort back to the Alesis 1/3-octave EQ to fix it. BTW, an EQ can help a peak by nulling, but it doesn't work very well in the opposite application--peaking up a frequency to compensate for a suckout. But I digress.

So, I finally pulled the studio console, computer and keyboard desks farther away from the speakers so I could move them another foot or so out from the rear wall, built a bass trap in the closet between them with some Sonex, and now I can finally lose the EQ on most material. In fact, I even lost the DAC on the output of the CD player it sounded so much better (I had a better place to put it). I also finally solved the protection circuit cutout problem with the Hafler 500 driving these PSB Goldi's by moving it back out of the rack so it could get a better flow of cooling air (it's air inlets are on the sides--not good for rack use). Now I can juice it good, and I'm seeing over 110 dB SPL clean at a meter distance with average source material.

Third, I'm hitting these things with probably over 400 watts per channel, and they absolutely do not compress. This isn't surprising to me, as even the review in Stereophile said that they could take over 10,000 watts at frequencies over 100 Hz, and while that seems hard to believe, show me ONE that has had a blown driver that wasn't fried by a hard-clipping solid-state amplifier, which can generate harmonic rf energy well into the several-hundred kilohertz range. For that matter, show me ONE that has had a blown driver at all!

Also tell me how you design a speaker to compress? Good trick. Might deserve a patent. Let's see, what could we call it? Dynamic Compensation. That's it.

Also, show me a time-honored design from a mass-marketeer who has the equal of the test equipment, credentials, experience, quality assurance, warranty, and dealer support that PSB has. This is not a snake-oil company--they don't sell out of a white van and they don't misrepresent their products. Maybe if they did and asked four times their price, they would impress the naive and uninformed.

I've had a few laughs up here but none have prompted me to respond until now. The truth is in the listening--not the telling. Even so, to me, these are still, along with their brethren, the best sounding, most amplifier-independent, and value for the dollar speakers made. But that's me. I could be wrong.

They do need some power, though. Five stars, nonetheless.

Be a tissue and organ donor and tell your family you mean it.

73, Roger

I really found this pair of PSB speakers one of the best souding performerClean sound,impresive midband,good bass and extended.

I hated myself for buying these -- at first. The mid-bass was overpoweringand the mid-range was too harsh. After more than 200 hours of break-in,
spiking, placement experimentation, and $500 in cable, I decided that it was
a great investment afterall. Now I'm planning to upgrade my amp, and
probably my pre-amp. So, if you consider $500 in cable, $1,500 for an amp
(I'm considering a Bryston 3b st, or Arcam Alpha 10), the cost is closer to
$4,500. Therefor be warned: if you have older equipment and buy these
speakers you will want to upgrade other components just to hear how good
they can be. 5 speakers for the performance -- 4 for the aggravation.

Just replace my Bose 10.2 with a pair of PSB Stratus Gold "i". What a change in sound I've got. Those speakers really sounds great. When I first played them, they were irritating for my ears, but after playing them for an hour they begin to sound better and after 3-4 hours it was a pleasure to listen to those box. They still improving from day to day. I though that speakers break-in was just a gimmick, sure was wrong. I use an Adcom GFA-555ll power amp with a GTP-450 preamp-tuner and an Adcom GCD-700. I liked my Bose very much but now ...

PSB Gold may not be a perfect speaker. But being honestly, it may deserve more star that Tom gave. I would suggest Tom to put B&W and PSB at the same price to AB them. But before doing so, see a ear doctor and measure your ear health first. Since ear aging may degrade your hearing sensitivity.

Well, I just listened to the PSB Goldi. Amazing Speaker! It is truly a world class performer without taking into account any price considerations. After seeing the price I could not believe it. The tonal quality of these speakers were excellent and depicted each and every instrument. When I was listening to some classical music the sound from these speakers transcended the boxes. They are truly world class performers. Great job PSB. I am now saving to buy a pair.