The sheer number of incompetent reviews at AR continues to amaze me. These so-called "reviews" are either of equipment that is poorly set up or matched, or even worse, sometimes the products are not even owned by the "reviewer" but simply what they heard in passing in some informal setting. Read my lips -- if you don't own the product and have experience with it in a properly set up system with good electronics and software, you should not be doing any "reviews." That said, with regard to The Defiler's (this name says it all) "review" of the Stratus Gold i's, these findings are the opposite of what long-term PSB owners and the audio magazines have experienced with the product. Many magazines have all found this speaker to be excellent, with neutral midrange, clean treble and potent, detailed bass that does not need augmentation by a subwoofer. Stereophile Magazine even found the midrange of the Gold i's to be better than that of the $14,000/pair Eggleston Works Andra speaker. The Stratus Gold i's must be properly set up and combined with the best electronics and recordings to get the best out of them. You can't evaluate audio products with crappy recordings. U2 does not cut it in this regard. I am not knocking the group or pop music as I own a wide range of music genres that include pop, rock and R&B, the quality of which is not always the best. With the PSB's you get garbage in garbage out. When I listen to a pop CD like Clapton's Pilgrim for example and hear hollow sounding tubby bass, I know it is the fault of the recording engineer, not the equipment. If I want to evaluate a product, I won't use Pilgrim, I will select a better, well done recording that will result in an accurate portrayal of the product's true character. The Gold i's are quite insensitive, present a low impedance and severe phase angle to the driving amplifier. This means that the amp must be powerful and capable of driving difficult loads at high level without getting into trouble. Brand name alone does not cut it. The amp must demonstrably have the balls to do the job.
My music system:
Classe CA-300
Classe CP-45 w/MC phono
Classe CDP-.5
PSB Stratus Gold i's
Denon DP-59L modified, w/AT-OC9 MC cartridge
AudioQuest Indigo speaker cables w/Kimber PostMaster .33's.
Goertz TQ2 silver balanced interconnects
Goertz MicroPurl silver balanced interconnects
Chang Lightspeed CLS-6400

Very clear midrange, excellant bass, no subwoofer needed. Smooth sound that is at home with all types of music.

They will physically dominate the room but so what.

I purchased these speakers as a replacement for a pair of Polk Speakers that I purchased in 1980. A few years ago, I purchased a M&k subwoofer and lived happily with that combination.
I have had the PSBs for about 2 months now and I am extremely pleased with their sound quality. Bass is reproduced cleanly in my listening area and I have not felt the need to hook up the sub. Midrange is natural and uncolored and the upper frequencies are all there without sounding bright. I would recommend a good size amp to drive them with, though they arn't as power hungry as I expected them to be.
The speakers were purchased at Audio Alternatives in Lilburn, GA where I had a terrific buying experience. i recommend them to any Atlanta area audiophiles in the market for gear. Or even if you arnt in the market for gear.

Similar Products Used:

Polk, M&K, also auditioned Mirage, Magnepan, Paradigm and a bunch of others.

Smooth response, midrange excellence, bass excellence, power handling, good for all genres of music, plays loud.

4 ohms, getting down to 2 ohms in the bass. It needs some current down there. Not the most exquisite in the highs.

I don't believe you can find a better all around speaker for the money. Very good transparency and transient response. Excellent bass and power handling. It can play as loud as any sane person could wish in the home. Good on all types of music. Symphonies can bloom with power and jazz combos sound like they're with you in your room--vocals and piano are right here, with a beautiful sound if the recording is beautiful. Rock concerts, you are there, 110 db +, yep. This is not a wimpy loudspeaker.

You'll look long and hard though to find recordings which will exceed the capabilities of these speakers. Does this mean anything to anyone?

There are some exquisite loudspeakers that excel in one or another area, but for me, none is overall as good, in this price range, or even higher.

Every component is a compromise in some degree. For me the PSB compromise is one that I've been able to live with. I have no desire to upgrade the speaker after more than a year of listening. In fact, with each upgrade of electronic component the sound from the speakers gets better.

For most sane individuals these will be enough as long as you have adequate power at low impedances. For me it's a Bryston 4B ST.

Similar Products Used:

auditioned Martin Logans, Vandersteens

None

All

The PSB Speaker company reminds me of another few companies out there. Companies like, Nuance, Optimus, Jensen, ect. They especially remind me of Nuance. The psb's use power sucking crossovers on all the drivers which make these speakers seem like they use alot of power. Try this; Push 200 watts of UNDISTORTED power to them for about an hour, feel the back of the cabinet!! Hot isnt it???? well this is because, (quote the SONY STORE <--- low fi store, i wonder why the PSB's are sold there?? haha) "The heat is from the crossovers, they are removing portions of the signal creating heat. This might be true, but they also get so hot because the crossovers remove sooo much signal you are left with little DB rating. Hook up a pair of Paradigm Monitors and play them at a volume level on a high quality power amp, then play the psb's on the same amp, ame level! The PSB's will be way quieter!? Why? The crossovers filter out lots of power from your amp, merely turning it to heat, to make it look like they handle alot.

Secondly, the sound is very hollow, and there is too much uncontrolled flappy bass. We played them on good amps, CARVER, BRYSTON, but the bass was always flappy, (pusing amps a bit over 1/4 of their clean power rating)
it was terrible.

Inconclusion
PSB=RIP OFF

Overall natural sound. Full range. Exellent vocals.

No major ones. Very slightly lean on high end and they like being feed power

You would have to search long and hard to do better in this price range and you could easily do alot worse. If you like chamber and acoustic music, make sure you audition electostatic speakers before buying anything. The companies I listed above all make fine speakers in this $ range and are worth hearing if its possible. My referance speakers are the Psb gold i. They reproduce the source being feed to them very well very naturally.

Similar Products Used:

Wharefdale,Celestion,Martin Login,Legacy,Hales,B&W

Clean powerful sound with classical

Not so great sound with any thing else

I picked up the psb from sound city mail order (i picked them up in person). I heard them in a local dealer hooked up to a parasound amp and arcam cd player with Bonnie Raits
nick of time playing. The speakers sounded a little bright and the consonants were exagerated but overall they sounded good so i went for it. I was not that impressed once i got home the speakers they sounded shallow and undetailed with contemporary jazz and classical rock , but were just great with classical (impressive). I however am not a big classical fan and darn good recordings sounded kind of like bad ones.
classical, even from the tuner sounded great.I gave them 3
weeks and threw in the towel. These are great speakers for classical but marginal for other types of music. The speakers need an amp that is high current and costs as much as the speakers $2,500. But with the right electronics and recording can be dam impressive. I was Bi-amping These and the mid-high amp was an old carver m-200t 130 watts at 8ohms 200 at 4 ohms and it kept blowing fuses powering just the mid and high. The m200t aint the greatest but it aint that bad, these speakers need current. I have used that amp to run many different speakers and it has a sweet sound and plenty of power but did not work well with PSB goldi.
New Sunfire signiture coming soon , wonder what they would have sounded like VS parasound in showroom. PS Dont care for the sound of titainium domes. Later......

Similar Products Used:

Klipsch Klf 30, AR 1, AL1000

Very smooth, accurate sound. Looks great in Cherry. Should keep me satisfied for a long time. Also appears to be well built.

Costs a lot, big and heavy. Takes a big amplifier to make it go-from what I've heard. Hope not though, All I've got to use for now is a Marantz PM-57 70w/channel (4ohms) integrated amplifier.

I first noticed this speaker on my radar screen after reading all the great reviews here. Originally I wanted to get the Paradigm Studio 60 or 80. But the local dealer was just too much. The only dealer I really liked was Allstar Audio in Houston. Super friendly and was willing to do what it took to make me happy. Unfortunately they don't carry the Studio 60, just the others in the Studio series.
I started looking at other speakers here in Austin and narrowed it down to Stratus bronze or silver.

Well, to make a long story short, the place where I went had the Gold i's hooked up in the same demo room. So I listened to all the Stratus series and the Gold i's stood out way in front of the others in terms of quality of sound.
I brought several Telarcs and Tomita "Snowflakes are falling" demo cd's to the audition. The Tomita is from the early 70's, but I wanted to see how old stuff would sound.
The Telarc cd's sounded spectacular and really impressed the salesman. The Tomita cd came off okay as the synthesizers really showed what the 10 inch woofer was capable of.

It was obvious the Stratus Goldi's were the best in my price range. The midrange is the best I've ever heard while the highs are basically accurate. The lows are handled fairly well. Overall, the sound was very close to what I've been looking for my whole life.
So I bought a pair and they should be coming in this Tuesday. May God bless Paul Barton for designing such a wonderful speaker like the Goldi. Or maybe HE already has.

I give the Goldi a 5 for value and 4 for overall. That's because I know there are better speakers out there- but for a whole bunch more money according to the latest Stereophile
recommended components issue that just came out this week.

Outstanding dynamics, Solid mids, Wonderfull detailed highs, Great Depth and soundstage, can Handle HUGE amounts of power

Need a larger room, Need a high powered amp.

Right from the start I fell in love with these speakers. As much as I tried I simply could not find a speaker in this price range 1.5-3.5 to seriously challenge these speakers. Yes, there are better speakers out there but unless you plan on spending at least six grand, save your money because everything under six grand is very comparable to the Goldi's to the point that its a plain waste of money to spend more.

Similar Products Used:

B&W, Snell, Vandersteen, Martin Logan, Mission, Alon,

Previous reviews say it all

still reviewing

I am looking at buying a pair of these speakers in the near future, but i have a concern with some of the reviews i have read regarding the over heating in these speaker. Is this normal, and if so why? Could you post your answer on
this site so others can either agree or disagree.
I have old luxman equiptment.
M03 power amp 200 watts per channel / 8 ohms
C03 pre amp
arcam cd player
How do you feel this equiptment will sound with these speakers? Looking forward to reading your reviews.

Similar Products Used:

I have owned Tannoys for over 25 yrs, Ardens & windors

DOES EVERYTHING WELL. EXTENDED BASS, UNCOLORED MIDRANGE AND EXCEPTIONAL TREMBLE

NONE

i PURCHASED THE GOLDS FIVE YEARS AGO AND USE THEM WITH HIGH END ELECTRONICS. mY TUBE AMP IS THE CJ PREMIER 11A, caT SL 1 SIGNATURE MK11, cLASSE CDP.5 ALL INTERCONNECTS ARE SILVER AUDIO 4.0 BULLETS AND MIT 750 PLUS TUBE TERMINATOR CABLES. IN SUMMARY YOU DONT NEED HIGH POWER JUST HIGH QUALITY. THESE SPEAKERS ARE BETTER THAN MOST 7K SPEAKERS I HAVE HEARD. I CANT BRING MYSELF TO BUY ANOTHER SPEAKER. WOULD HAVE TO SPEND 8K TO GET BETTER. THEY IMAGE WELL AND BASS IS WELL EXTENDED. COMPARE THEM TO THE BEST YOU WILL BUY THEM. REMEMBETR I HAVE 15K IN ELECTRONICS DRIVING THEM AND I SEE NO REASON TO REPLACE THEM. PAUL BARTON YOU ARE MY HERO

Similar Products Used:

COMPARED TO VANDERSTEEN 3A, THIEL 3.6, MATIN LOGAN AVALONS ETC.