PSB Gold Stratus
I have owned these speakers for 3 years. Previously I had Thiel 22,
Vandersteen 2ce, kef 104.2 and Rega Ela's.

The Gold Stratus is the best compromise for a small room 11x17 ft if you
want a full sound for Jazz etc. Th Vandersteen,s will image better but are a bit slow and have a forward midrange and recessed top along with a a very
warm mid bass. The theil's are faster in the midrange and a bit more transparent but seem to lack warmth in my room. Overall th PSB is a good compromise in that it has warmth but not excessive, it is smoother in the
midrange and has a good top. A very dynamic speaker , it can over power a
small room but sounds better than my Kef's at low levels. Overall for the
money it is well built and I could live with this speaker a long time. It
takes a long time to break in this speaker. Three years after I bought it, it still continues to improve on the image side as the cones and suspension
break in. Th louder I play this speaker the more transparent it sounds.
It would be a killer speaker in a large room.

PSB Gold Stratus
I have owned these speakers for 3 years. Previously I had Thiel 22,
Vandersteen 2ce, kef 104.2 and Rega Ela's.

The Gold Stratus is the best compromise for a small room 11x17 ft if you
want a full sound for Jazz etc. Th Vandersteen,s will image better but are a bit slow and have a forward midrange and recessed top along with a a very
warm mid bass. The theil's are faster in the midrange and a bit more transparent but seem to lack warmth in my room. Overall th PSB is a good compromise in that it has warmth but not excessive, it is smoother in the
midrange and has a good top. A very dynamic speaker , it can over power a
small room but sounds better than my Kef's at low levels. Overall for the
money it is well built and I could live with this speaker a long time. It
takes a long time to break in this speaker. Three years after I bought it, it still continues to improve on the image side as the cones and suspension
break in. Th louder I play this speaker the more transparent it sounds.
It would be a killer speaker in a large room.

This was going to be a short, to-the-point review, awarding 5-stars. Instead, I find the need to rave on and on about these speakers. Bottom line, if you're an ordinary person with an average appreciation for a variety of music and a reasonably demanding ear, check these speakers out. Sorry if I can't couch this more crisply in the approved audiophile terminology or if my tastes in music aren't esoteric enough, but I'll try to relate how we feel about the music we hear through these speakers (and the music IS what it's about, isn't it?) Bottom line: fantastic sound, even driven by my somewhat dated and modest electronics (see below). So let the story begin:
"Someday," I said, "we're going to get us a knock 'em dead stereo system," I told my wife back when we were just married and poor students. In the mid-'80s it was a Technics SLP-14 CD player, Yamaha RX-70 receiver, and Klipsch KG-4 speakers. For many years, not a bad sound. Not bad music. Pretty good music, in fact. But maybe something better is out there...? Like maybe the sound of those Paradigm Reference Studio 100s I heard at local audio dealer?

I was wavering on a serious upgrade until my wife and I had dinner at the house of friend, a serious audiphile. A pair Legacy Focus speakers driven by MacCormack monoblocks, sourced by a Mark Levinson CD player and preamp. An evening of "drop the needle" ensued, as I'd brought 50 favorite CDs in case we couldn't find something of interest in our friends', ahem, comprehensive collection of CDs covering the bettter of wall. Such sound! Such clarity and resolution! Such imaging! Such range! Suffice it to say it was an evening of good friends, fine wine, and phenomenal music.

OK, time to dust off the checkbook and start shopping. First stop, the local audio dealer, whose top of the line speaker was Paradigm's Reference Studio 100 v2, the flagship of their line. Very nice, but an indefinable something wasn't there.

Next stop: a local retailer of better mass market equipment. Listened to some Polks and Definitives. They might be OK for front channel home theater speakers, but for music they lack clarity and definition. All ranges seemed muddled. Tried some Klipsch KLF-20s. The salesman was concerned if "that horn sound" would bother us. I knew what he meant, but pressed him to explain. IMHO, "that horn sound" is the crisp high range that so many speakers lack (e.g., the Polks and Definitives). Turns out the salesman himself had some Klipshes. The KLF-20s were nice, but the strings on Mozart's Symphony 25 from the "Amadeus" soundtrack had a definite, disagreeable screechiness. Well, how about Boston Acoustics best? They were better then the Definitives and Polks, but still, not musical -- where's that clarity and definition we heard on our friends' five-figure system? Time to move on.

Then it was off to a local high end dealer who not only trades in new but is a broker with a vast business in quality used equipment. First we listened to a pair of Mirage speakers of "omnipolar" design. So unmemorable that we didn't even ask the price or model number.

Then a pair of McIntosh SL-6 speakers. OK, getting warmer. Then a pair of Thiel CS2.3 speakers, used but in mint condition. Nice definition in the vocals, but where's the bottom end? And even at the used price, not cheap. We left disappointed. The audiophile prices were there, but where was the vaunted audiophile sound? Ah, well, maybe the reviews are right... maybe the Paradigms are the biggest bargain going...

Down the road we went to Acoustic Images in Vestal, NY. We told the Don, the owner, that we were looking for a pair of speakers that were musical first, and suitable for later 5.1 home theater use. But the emphasis is MUSIC! Don says, "Well, I have something that's a little more expensive than the Paradignm's you've been looking at, but give them a listen." Do Don puts away the mini-monitors that had been placed in his audition room, and carefully places a pair of PSB Stratus Goldi speakers there.

We haul out our audition CDs and off we went. Within 20 seconds, we knew we were listening to a very special speaker. Sara McLachlan's "Angel" from her "Surfacing" CD floated through the room, enveloping us as she stood there about 10 feet away (uh, can you say "imaging"?) every nuance of her song voiced into the microphone, backed by the mellow notes of a piano. Wow!

Now let's check out some dynamics. How 'bout Jackson Browne's "Shape Like a Heart" and "Lives in the Balance", and just for fun "The Pretender" (OK, maybe not high falutin' music, but a favorite of mine, all off "The Next Sound you Hear" CD). The music comes on, I shut my eyes (new trick I learned... listen to your music with the lights off -- what a difference!) and next thing I know, I see Jackson in my mind's eye, up on stage, sitting on a bar stool, cigarette smoke wafting through the single spotlight illuminating him in stage. And what sound. A full, clearly defined, natural vocal. The drums and bass have punch and drive, accenting the music, never dominating. The crescendos in "Shape Like a Heart" and "Lives in the Balance" knock us back, stunning in impact. Remember the old Marantz ad, with the guy in the armchair with his hair blown back by the music. If they did the ad today, they should have the PSB Goldis in there.

Then came Loreena McKinnett's "Highwayman" from "The Book of Secrets" CD. Suffice it to say, my wife, a music teacher with a bachelor in music education who majored in voice, had shivers running up her spine (and tears in her eyes when we cranked up the "Hallelujah Chorus" from Handel's "Messiah" at home).

Mozart's Symphony No. 25 had the best rendering we've ever heard off the "Amadeus" soundtrack CD, a so-so recording, in my opinion. The screechiness of the violins, awful on some systems, was tolerable. And finally, some sense of a soundstage that pulled us closer to the orchestra.

Can these babies rock? Well, crank up "Straight Up" from Heart's "The Road Home", a live, near acoustic-only recording from a Seattle club, in the spirit of MTV's "Unplugged". As far as I could tell, I was listening to a live performance with electric bass. Again, lots of drive and punch, clean and tight and low, equal to all but the best of subwoofers I've heard. If they "boom" a bit, (as a few others complain a little) well then my taste isn't refined enough to tell. Now throw on Fleetwood Mac's "The Dance" CD to check out a couple of tunes. The drum and bass line on "Rhiannon" is right there. On my old KG-4s, it was overdone, just this massive rumble and thumping. Now, on the Goldis there's percussion. And Lindsey Buckhingham's classical guitar picking of "Big Love" is right there - every pluck of the string, scrape of a fingernail, reverberation of a string. It was nice of him to stop by and perform for us :-)

Then some samples from the Eagles "Hell Freezes Over" CD. All I can say is that this sounds as close to a live bar room rock and roll performance that benefited from a clean and sober soundman as anything I've heard.

Just for fun: a few bars of "Black Dog" from the newly remastered "Led Zeppelin". Yeah, these babies rock, alright.

So Don says, "whaddya think, take 'em home tonight?". Well, no, being the careful engineer, gotta go back and listen to those Paradigms again. So we take our leave, and off we go to audition the Paradigms again.

Yes the Paradigms are nice. They're not Goldis, but close. If the Goldis are "100", then we give the Reference Studio 100s maybe a 96 or 97. The difference? With the Goldis there was a feeling of excitement, of being "drawn into" the music. The Paradigms sounded nice, but that "toe-tapping, wanna sing-along" factor wasn't guite there. The Goldis are a few bucks more, but worth it. Every track we listened to during the audition of the Goldis revealed individual instruments and details we hadn't heard before. Folks, this is MUSIC!

So back to Acoustic Images we went, told Don "Wrap 'em up" (we bought his demo models to save a few bucks, plus they're broken in a bit, for what it's worth).
Unboxed them, situated them in the place of honor formerly held by the KG-4s, and connected them up. And they sound even more beautiful at home, where they can interact with wood floors and plaster walls and ceiling instead of concrete and acoustical ceiling tile. With the KG-4s, music came from a couple of boxes on the other side of the room. Now, music fills the room as we enjoy the presence of a singer, or combo, or orchestra just a few feet away. We're enveloped by the sound.

As I write this, I'm listening to the "Titanic" soundtrack CD. On the KG-4s, this CD is a bit "over the top". The low bass tones overwhelm and are in your face. On the Goldis, "Ahh...." they roll out so nicely, putting a solid underpinning to the synthesizer and chorus.

And now, for my system (don't laugh!)

A Magnavox 5-disc CD changer I bought on closeout at Lowes for $88

A Yamaha RX-70 receiver, 70 W/channel, a fairly decent mid-80s unit with good current drive and low impedence handling

6 feet of Monster cable.

Can't wait to see what happens with better electronics. Got my eye on some used Adcom 565s. Don at Acoustic Images loaned me some Gertz speaker cable to try, too. Gotta throw a CD on my DVD player and try the 24-bit DAC. Can't wait to see. But we're definitely up on the knee of the cost-benefit curve -- there's potential to spend more bucks, but not get much more bang. We're in the realm of tweaks and nuances, now, thanks to the PSB Goldis. Our "knock 'em dead" stereo system is now in our family room, courtesy of Paul S Barton.

By all means, we're completely happy with this purchase. And that's unusual for me, the King of Buyer's Remorse ("gee, maybe that other one would have been better.") Even if they're a bit above your budget, they're so good that it's worth the stretch or saving a bit -- they're so better than most of what's out there in the mid teens that they have few rivals. I thinke we'd have been happy with the Paradigm Studio 100s. But we're delighted with the PSB Goldis.

5 stars, deserving of 10. Happy listening!

Steve Czarnecki (Get the feeling we like these speakers?)

Price!

Moving my posts to the top, Please be sure to read my reviews below, I love these speakers, and everyone can have own them at a low Canadian price, just email, I will make sure I send you to my Canadian suppler!

Flagship speakers for small investment

As I said before, the Goldi's are perfect replacment for Energys Con-series,in the same ball park as the Veritas line(energy). I have Listen to these speakers for couply of months now, they are great performers in Home theater, there is no coloration in music, and you can almost get away without a sub. If you team up this with C6 center and stratus minis for rears, boy, have you got a system. If you want the prices I get, do email me, I will connect you to a Canadian suppler, who will ship anywhere, and give you the best pricing, with the us exchange rate, you get one heck of a deal!

Similar Products Used:

Energy Con Series

HiI might be the least liked person here but thats ok.
i was listening to my stepfathers psb's
he has like a 10,000.00 stereo
Carver amp Yamaha preamp and cd player
anyway, me and my cool best friend were jaming to some music and man these thing were dissapointing, first of all at high volume the woofers looked like they were ready to fold inside out. the rear of the speaker got so hot and the mid started to melt.
very dissapointing
we were pushing like 110 watts into em at the time
and its not the amp thats low powered studio eqiptmant carver 500 watts 250 channel

anyway these were quoted the 10,000 watt speakers
I DONT THINK SO
talk about pissing your money away, do that with the PSB
now anytime we see the golds we laugh uncontrolably
these are so pathetic my friends 100 watt optimus and genexxa were better!!
Im sorry but dont piss your money away
Have a good day
if u wanna spend money on a good speaker get the AL 1000
ok!
bye

Midrange, period.

Bottom end can be a bit undefined.

Simply the best all around speaker at this price, and above. Wanted to like the Hales but, couldn't. Loved the looks of the Aerials, but the sound came up short. The Paradigms nearly got me. After auditioning many speakers in the $2k - $5k range, this was the only speaker that I sat and listened to without comment. Every other speaker I auditioned (and Holmes that came along with me) I would say this aspect is good, that is bad. But I found myself making comments about the recording when listening to the Stratus Goldi. Simply drawn into the music. This is one smooth speaker.

Stratus Goldi
Bryston 4B ST
Adcom GFP-750
Cardas Crosslink Interconnects and Speaker line
Yamaha CD player

Similar Products Used:

Paradigm Ref 100v2, Hales Rev 3, Aerial 8B & 7B, and many others.

MANY TO NAME

NOT REALLY ANY

I AM A LUCKY AUDIOPHILE. I HAVE MANY YEARS EXPERIENCE IN SPEAKER DESIGN AND AND STUDIED SOME SOUND REPRODUCTION CLASSES WHEN WORKING ON ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING AND COMPUTER ENGINEERING DEGREE. LAST YEAR I WAS IN THE MARKET FOR SPEAKERS. I HAD QUITE A BIT OF MOMEY TO SPEND. TO MAKE THE LONG STORY SHORT, I HAD LOOKED AT THE PARADIGM REF.100 V.1 AND PSB STRATUS GOLD. IT WAS REALY NOW A MATTER OF PRICE. I BOUGHT THE PARADIGM. WELL 3 WEEKS LATOR A FRIEND WAS SELLING HIS STRATUS GOLD SPEAKERS. HE WAS NOT REALLY IN ANY HURRY BECAUSE HE WAS 50/50 ON SELLING. HE WAS PACKING UP BECAUSE HE WAS GOING TO BE GONE FOR THREE MONTHS. SO HE LET ME TRY HIS STRATUS SPEAKERS OUT. AFTER 1 MONTH, I THOUGHT THEY BOTH HAD MANY STRENGTHS. BUT MY FRIEND WAS SELLING THE STRATUS GOLDS TO ME FOR ABOUT 200 DOLLARS LESS THE THE PARADIGM THAT I BOUGHT. MY UNCLE OWNS THE AUDIO STORE AND CARRIES BOTH PSB,B&W AND THE OTHERS I MENTIONED ABOVE. AT THE TIME I THOUGHT THE PARADIGM WAS THE BEST VALUE. BUT MY FRIENDS PSB WERE EVEN A BETTER VALUE. SO I TALKED TO MY UNCLE AND SAID TO BRING THE PARADIMG BACK AND HE WOULD USE THEM FOR FLOOR MODELS. SO I TOOK THEM IN AND HE HAD THE VERSION 2 OF THE 100'S IN. HE SAID THAT THEY SOUNDED BETTER THAN THE V1. TRY THEM OUT FOR A MONTH. THEY WERE BETTER THAN THE V1. AND EVER SO SLIGHTY BETTER THEN THE PSB GOLDS. EITHER SPEAKER IS GREAT SO IT COMES DOWN TO WHAT KIND OF DEAL YOU GET. IIVE PSB 4.75 STARS IF I COULD AND PARADIGM 100 V2 5.

Similar Products Used:

PARADIGM STUDIO 100 V1 AND V2,B$W 801N-804N,CANTON ERGO 120; B&W 801 MATRIX,SNELL,TANNOY,REVEAL

Great sound

The way wiring Is connected to binding posts

Having owned theese gems for 6 months, I was appaled to find out the wiring going to the binding posts are loosely
clipped on. Remove 4 screws, cut the connectors and solder to posts, you will in return receive a HUGE sound Improvement. I was even more appaled to find out my Gershmans at 4.4k are clipped on also.

Enjoy The Music

Similar Products Used:

Pro Ac, Merlin, Magnepan, Gershman

Hmm... they play loud, big sound

sloppy bass, supressed midrange, dull treble

After reading all the good press these things have gotten I was very excited to listen to them. These were one of the first sets of speakers that I listened to, and also one of the worst. It just blows me away that apparently knowledgeable people (like the Stereophile review) like these speakers. I can certainly understand why your average consumer wound think that they sound awesome, and "better than my Pioneers at home!," but any scrutinizing listener should easily hear how bad these speakers are.

I'll start with the bass, which is plentiful, yes, but it's not very articulate at all, slopping all over the place. The main objection I had with these speakers was their boxy, compressed sound. I heard this throughout their whole line, all the way down to the Image 2s which a friend of mine was listening to. They all sound very boxy, have no transparancy, and offer little soundstage. The treble was also very boring.

The only good thing about these speakers is that they have a very large sound. But all of their flaws totally cancel out this one neat thing. In fact, I do believe these are the worst speakers I reviewed, and as you can see, I have done my homework with what's in this price range. People are probably drawn to these due to their "full range" capabilities, but please... every apsect of them is subpar. Do yourself a favor and audition some of the other speakers above. All of them will be better, with the Audio Physics, Sonus Faber's, and Thiels top at this price point.

3 stars for value simply because they are the only speaker at this price point that offers a full sound (don't require a sub), but once you hear what else is out there, you will see that the better sound you will get out of something smaller will convince you to just get the smaller speaker and wait a bit to save up for a sub.

Similar Products Used:

Sonus Faber Concertos, Concerto Grand Pianos, Avalon Avatar, B&W CDM7SE, Silver Signature, B&W Nautilus 801, 803, 804, 805, Thiel MCS1, Thiel 2.3, complete Martin Logan line, Magnepan 1.6, Magnepan MG3.6R, Vienna Acoustics Mozart, Beethoven, Joseph Audio RM22si, RM25si, Totem Acoustic Forest, Vandersteen 2Ce Signature, 3A Signature, NHT 2.5i, some $3,500 Linns, Audio Physic Tempo III