Beautifull Speakers, Built Like a tank, Excellent Smooth Sound, The Best under 10 grand.

Heavy to move around! 90+lbs.

I am in total love with the high gloss piano black PSB Goldi's that I have and I also purchased the center 6i as well. I now need to purchase the rear speakers. The sound is awesome and incredible.
I just ordered a Sim Audio Moon W-5, so I can really exercise the full potential these bad boys have to offer. Currently have the speakers powered with a Denon 5800, which is an awsome excellent A/V receiver for home theater and music. But when I crank it up in the pure direct mode, the Goldi's due tend to suck lots of power making this monster receiver click into safety mode.
I completly recommend these speakers, they sound and look like $10 grand speakers!!!!!!
A must for anyone looking for a really great speaker.
The best in sound and solid build quality.

Similar Products Used:

KEF, Energy, Klipsch, Polk Audio

Neutral Midrange, reasonable bass

Imaging and detail

I've owned my Golds for over 5 years now...I originally bought them as dealer demos and got a sweet deal on them. At the time, I compared them to NHTs and was very, very pleased with them. I still am very pleased with them, but I've recently been listening to alternatives because I felt my imaging wasn't the greatest. My system:

EAD Ovation, October 2000 version
EAD Powermaster 2000, Year 2001 version
Kimber PBJ interconnects
Moonglo coaxial
Sony DVP7000
Source material: Various gold CDs, MSFL, DCC, etc)

I went to the local store and listened to a pair of Revel Ults and was blown away - I now see what I'm missing. Sound had "volume" and space...imaging was amazing. I've compared them to both the Aerial 8 and 10, and again, I realized the degree of detail I was missing.

I'm a huge believer in value, and the Golds are just that - really good value full-range speakers...Stereophile B listers. I just think that all the 5 star ratings for quality are a bit high...these speakers cannot hold their own in the class of speakers 2-rungs above their own price range. However, they dominate every speaker 1-rung above and every speaker in their own class.

As with all speakers, listen to everything. I have to say, for people on a "budget", PSB Golds are the best value you'll find if you like their sound. However, perform your due dilligence so you realize what you're missing by not spending a $4-5 thousand more. For me, I'm thinking of upgrading, but not everyone has my budget.

One of the best buys in its price class--better than many costing substantially more.

None

I want to place my vote with "The Equalizer"--nuisance reviews should be deleted by the site's management.

With little press for straight audio--Audio Magazine stopped publishing a year ago, and Stereophile doesn't seem too healthy--Net sites are important sources of information on stereo equipment.

This site takes it upon itself to rate products based on reviews submitted from all over. People's livelihoods can be affected by equipment reviews the same way that a Broadway play's success can be affected by newspaper reviewers.

It seems clear that John Otvos ceased making his Waveform speakers because of poorly conducted and mercurial reviews. The effect of the reviews was to deny his world-class speakers a fair hearing.

The same goes for Paul Barton's speakers. The PSB Gold is a superbly engineered product. Within it's conventional exterior is some very high-tech engineering.

Over time, the steady accretion of nuisance reviews distorts the numerical ratings of products so that people might not buy them and deprive themselves unwittingly of something that would have more than fulfilled their needs.

Similar Products Used:

Celestion, Paradigm, Thiel

Smooth, no fatigue yet detailed, very musical

none

These speakers are very highly recommended. They are dynamic and image wonderfully with tight, powerful bass, yet
are never fatiguing to the ear. If your system is bright,
it is not due to these speakers. If anything, I would characterize them as a little warm and slightly forgiving
but they never give up on detail. Every time I've upgraded
my system these speaks respond accordingly and reproduce faithfully what they are fed. Spring for the extra cash and
get the piano black finish (helps with WAF). Excellent value and I'm not sure why you would spend more. I like them more than the Wilsons which cost 3x more and which I owned for about 4 years.
Assoc equip:
Aragon Soundstage
njoe toeb 4000 CD player
Pass x150's biamped
PS audio p300
Alpha-core Goertz MI 2 spk cable
Wireworks balanced y-interconnect

Similar Products Used:

Wilson Witts, Klipsch heresy, Klipsch CF-3, M&K satellites

Tight Bass, accurate mid

People tend to write dumb reviews that don't show all the real value of these speakers... if you don;t like them, write why!

I had to submit a review 'cause the two previous one don't make sense. I do not own these speakers but they're my next purchase as soon as I get the money 'cause they are well worth their value.

I auditioned them for many hours using Bryston 4B-ST amp and B-60 integrated amplifier and I'm just blown away with the way they can reproduce the sound. Together (with Bryston) they are a great match and I would recommend them to any audiophile.

I know people will read pass those reviews rthat don't make sense but the ratings they give can't be cancelled which is just too bad and not constructive.

P.S. I strongly recommend that you bi-wire these speakers.

Similar Products Used:

PSB Stratus Bronze, Paradigm, B&W

strong tweets

well the box (the wood warps, the trim is put on with staples, they look like garbage cause they're stupid and mopy looking), the sub can't handle all the power they say it can, the mid melts, they're garbage.

to sum it up if i were to commit suicide it would be because of theses speakers.

Similar Products Used:

well optimus but... um... well.. no they're about the same actually um... optimus is a teensy better.

I don't own these speakers, but I my opinion they are simply the best speaker out there that I have heard to date. I have compared them to KEF Ref 3, Hales Rev 3, Martin Logan SL3, Vanderstein 3A, Paradigm Ref 100 (old ver), and various B&W's (CDM and Naut series). Not the absolute best in any of the critical areas, but as as whole, they a very hard to beat. They make it very difficult to justify spending $5k on speakers.

Deep rich sound

take up room and heavy

Great buy. I use mine with a Sunfire signiture subwoofer, B&K Sonata stereo amp 200W and B&K preamp pro-10. Have Audioprism Foundation III power and cables by Cardas, Transparent, Audioquest and Synergestic Resources. Digital was either Sony X55ES + Wadia 12 or Cal Delta & Sigma. They look great with the cherry wood finish in my living room also. You do need room. I was going to go with Joseph Audio, but I saved some money with the Status Gold and bought new cabling etc.
You do not gey a tinny sound from these speakers!

Similar Products Used:

Snell IIC

Price, midrange, upper bass, soundstage.

None in this price range

I purchased these originally for an audio system driven by Adcom gear, and loved them. They then became the fronts for a complete A/V system, and I loved them even more - great cinema impact. Now, they are in a dedicated 2-channel audio system driven by some of the best stuff available (Rowland amp, Wadia CD), and they are properly set up in a large listening room (10 feet from the back wall). Folks, they are absolutely incredible. On any well-recorded mix, they completely disappear and throw an incredible soundstage - "you are there". Jazz and rock recordings sound amazingly lifelike, particularly in the midrange. The low end is tight and realistic, if a bit light. Ironically, most people I know that have them stick them right against a back wall, and are missing out on all the magic. Do yourselves a favor - pull them out into the room - you'll be amazed.

I've had them over 10 years, and I've grown more respectful of them over time. I am replacing them finally with some speakers that are much more costly, but I cannot say enough good words about the Stratus Gold's. You simply can't go wrong.

Very solid bass, wonderful mid-range, decent top end, beautiful cabinetry work

Mediorce imaging, no depth at all to sound field, heavy, polite/slow/inept customer service by PSB

These are very nice speakers for under $2000. Their bass and mid-range are especially good and the high end is more than adequate.

They do not image very well in the plain of the speakers, however, and they seem incapable of giving any sense of depth, which is a pity. When I was shopping for these I also listened to NHT 2.9s and Paradigm Studio 100s and both of those could present a much better sound field. The Studio 100's could also present tremendous depth (sound seemed to come from even behind the wall well back of the plain of the speakers). Unfortunately, my wife insisted on a dark wood finish and neither NHT nor Paradigm come that way, so I got the PSBs. They are beautiful furniture and their sound is certainly very good. I do miss that illusion of depth, though.

Finally, the first pair of these I got had a finish flaw on the front edge of one speaker -- you could see bare wood. I reported this to PSB and requested some touch up stain from PSB. Well, they will not give you touch up stain, saying the finish is a seven layer process and you would not be happy with the result. They told me to contact the dealer for replacements under warranty. Well the PSB rep told the dealer who told me that there would be no problem with touching up the finish with some stain and that PSB would supply it. Only, of course they would not. After much in the way of e-mails and phone calls I finally got the speakers replaced some 3 months later. Everyone was always polite and concerned, but overall PSB's handling of the defect problem was very slow and inept at best. The new speakers are, by the way, perfect in finish.

By way of comparison, I bought some $200 NHT surround speakers some time ago and the mounting brackets were missing. I phoned NHT, told them about the problem and had new brackets from NHT a few days later. Didn't even ask to see a receipt.

- GRL

Similar Products Used:

Dahlquist DQ-10, large Advent, NHT SuperOne, NHT 2.9, Paradigm Studio/100