Audio Video News

Loudspeaker designer Paul Barton of Canada's PSB Loudspeakers has been at his craft a long time. In his more than 25 years of research, a good part of it at the National Research Center, l he has reached some compelling conclusions about what sounds good. His latest creations, the Image Series, offer a solution for almost every home theater---from those created in old libraries with shelving on all the walls, to those custom-built from the ground up. No matter what size your room, some combination of Image loudspeakers is likely to work for you.

The series includes eleven models, from the 2B stand-mounted minimonitor, to the 1B bookshelf speaker, to the 5T and 6T tower models, to the SubSonic6 self-powered subwoofer. Center channel speakers include models like the 8C. The Image series is claimed by PSB to offer one of the best performance-price ratios in their price range. Many respected reviewers agree.

The company's concept with the new line is to allow customers to mix and match as they desire, with maximum compatibility among all the speakers in their systems. Toward that end, Image Series speakers are all made with the same types of drivers: 5-1/4-inch or 6-1/2-inch polypropylene-cone woofers with rubber surrounds, and identically optimized 1" aluminum-dome tweeters. The sonic similarity from one model to the next in the series prevents that jarring effect of having a mismatched center channel or surround speaker "stand out" from the rest of the system. The ideal is a convincingly realistic soundstage, for both movies and music.

Image Series speakers are all magnetically shielded to prevent magnetically induced distortion in CRT displays. They are also ported in the front, rather than in the rear, which minimizes bass-loading effects when speakers are moved close to the walls. Openness and transparency were Barton's goals in creating the series; the more expensive models simply offer more bass extension, better power handling, and sharper details.

PSB's website offers many suggestions for assembling satisfying systems from Image Series components. The "Image Small Tower Home Theater System," for example, includes a pair of 4T's in the left front and right front positions, an 8C in the center, the 1B bookshelf model as surrounds, and an Image SubSonic6 for low-frequency reinforcement. The next step up, the "Image Compact Home Theater System," keeps the 8C and subwoofer, but uses identical 3LR's for left/right front and surround channels. Your local PSB dealer will be happy to show you how you can get the best sound for your room and your budget by mixing and matching Image Series loudspeakers.