PSB Imagine T loudspeaker

[Κώστας Φ.]

The Imagine T, available in black ash or dark cherry, is a stunner. The veneer is real wood—no tacky vinyl. The speaker is fairly small: 37.2" (945mm) high by 8.25" (210mm) wide by 13.6" (346mm) deep. Fit and finish are exquisite—more on the level of $5k than $2k speakers. How do they do it? By making them in China and selling them like hotcakes...or egg rolls. Plenty of other speakers are now made in China, including some from brands you think of as British: B&W, Epos, KEF, Mordaunt-Short, Quad, Wharfedale.

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The cabinet combines computer-controlled machining with handcraftsmanship. Each enclosure is curved on all sides, heavily braced internally, and acoustically inert. The front baffle is 1.5" thick, with sides, top, and bottom built up of seven laminated layers of 3mm-thick MDF. That's how they achieve those sexy curves: very thin layers of MDF. I've seen other manufacturers do something similar—there's probably no other practical way to make a curved cabinet—but not in a $2000 pair of floorstanders. For that money, you usually get a squared-off box with the attendant problems of internal standing waves—something Paul Barton isn't standing for.
There's something else you won't see on most $2000 speakers: drivers mounted flush with the cabinet with no visible fasteners. This is said to improve the speaker's high-frequency response and horizontal dispersion.
Each Imagine T has two ports on the back. Generally, the upper port is closed with a molded rubber plug that can be moved to the lower port if that results in better sound. Additional plugs are available from the factory if you want to fool around some more. Use two plugs and constipate the sound. (Just kidding.) Or you can keep both ports open, so each speaker has two ways to [ahem] evacuate the bass.

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The Imagine Ts provided excellent imaging and a broad, deep soundstage. The placement of instruments and soloists across that stage was remarkably precise—so much so that I wonder whether home-theater buffs will really need a center-channel speaker. I also loved the seamless quality of the T's sound: I heard a coherence from bottom to top, almost as if the T were a full-range electrostatic or a single-driver speaker. This coherence held up in the nearfield, at 6' away from my listening chair as well as 9'. I did not get a sense of listening to different drivers.
— Sam Tellig

The PSB Imagine T is a wonderful loudspeaker. Set a pair of them up right, feed them some good recordings, and they'll deliver a clarity and a balance worthy of any music. I thoroughly enjoyed them with jazz, pop, and most classical. If you love any or all of those musics, I can think of no speaker in the $2000/pair price range that I'd rate higher. And if, like me, you're a glutton for the truly massive, they could be the foundation of an outstanding multichannel system.
—Kalman Rubinson

Overall, PSB's Imagine T demonstrates superb measured performance that lives up to its pedigree.
—John Atkinson

Περισσότερα: Stereophile.com