Review: P S B Stratus Gold Speaker
Category: Speakers
My musical tastes are across the board. I listen to a lot of Jazz but I also listen to classical, rock, classic rock, R&B, Dance, Hip Hop and rap. I even have a few country pieces. I prefer music in which people actually play instruments, and sing as opposed to singing over records. Examples of some of my favorites include James Taylor's October Road, Coltrane's my Favorite things, Mile's Davis's Kind of Blues, Yellow Jacket's Green House (One of my absolute favorites) I also love Joshua Redman. On vinyl Jacintha's lps for example Lush Life, For Ben (a tribute to Ben Webster on the Groove note label,Almost any Jazz Maple Shade puts out; Pictures of an Exhibition (classical) I have several versions of that piece including the JVC reissues of the Fritz Reiner and the Chicago Sysmphany Orchestra and a version by the Atlanta Sysmphany Orchestra both of which are great sounding, Tony Toni Tone (Nice old school R&B Groove, Al Green, Sade etc.
The most important aspects of sound to me are sound staging and imaging, followed by clarity and warmth and power (Visceral feeling). I like well imaged details which can be visualized across an imaginary stage. I like enough clarity to hear instruments and vocals clearly but not so detailed that it's fatiguing and I like enough weight in the music to feel the experience. Weight is especially important when listening to classical orchestral music.
The worst thing a system could do would be to sound to bright and be fatigueing or Thin and bassless or one dimensional in terms of the sound stage.
I have had these speakers 6-7 years. They replaced some speakers by a Canadian company called Neuman. The sound change was much fuller, much warmer, much better sound stage. More three dimensional sound. I also have had a pair of
thiel 3.6's which replace these but I was never sure I liked them better.
It's strengths are that is is a great sounding speaker with all kinds of music or movies, It's relatively inexpensive for it's size and ability, very high value, Makes all kinds of music sound good.
Weaknesses are that it is a large speaker, it was initially not very attractive to me (I cured that by refinishing them in a stain and urythane called Bombay Mahogany) They look beautiful now. They are not the last word in detail.
If money were no object I would probably still have a pair of these in the house. They also make fantastic home theater speakers because they sound so full and rich, they add weight and body to the home theater experience.
Associated gear
Krell KAV 300 integrated amp, Aragon 8008 amp and preamp, PS audio Classic 250; Audio Research VT 100, D130, and 100.2; Cal Audio Icon cd player with Alpha tube Da converter, Michell Gyrodec with RB 300 and SME IV tone arms; Clear Audio Aurum Beta, Rega and Grado cartridges; Alpha Core Goertz speaker MI 2 and MI III speaker wire, Tara AIR 2 interconnect Tara Decad digital interconnect
Similar products
Thiel 3.6; 2.3; 1.6; Paradigm studio 100; Studio 80s; B&W 802s and others
My musical tastes are across the board. I listen to a lot of Jazz but I also listen to classical, rock, classic rock, R&B, Dance, Hip Hop and rap. I even have a few country pieces. I prefer music in which people actually play instruments, and sing as opposed to singing over records. Examples of some of my favorites include James Taylor's October Road, Coltrane's my Favorite things, Mile's Davis's Kind of Blues, Yellow Jacket's Green House (One of my absolute favorites) I also love Joshua Redman. On vinyl Jacintha's lps for example Lush Life, For Ben (a tribute to Ben Webster on the Groove note label,Almost any Jazz Maple Shade puts out; Pictures of an Exhibition (classical) I have several versions of that piece including the JVC reissues of the Fritz Reiner and the Chicago Sysmphany Orchestra and a version by the Atlanta Sysmphany Orchestra both of which are great sounding, Tony Toni Tone (Nice old school R&B Groove, Al Green, Sade etc.
The most important aspects of sound to me are sound staging and imaging, followed by clarity and warmth and power (Visceral feeling). I like well imaged details which can be visualized across an imaginary stage. I like enough clarity to hear instruments and vocals clearly but not so detailed that it's fatiguing and I like enough weight in the music to feel the experience. Weight is especially important when listening to classical orchestral music.
The worst thing a system could do would be to sound to bright and be fatigueing or Thin and bassless or one dimensional in terms of the sound stage.
I have had these speakers 6-7 years. They replaced some speakers by a Canadian company called Neuman. The sound change was much fuller, much warmer, much better sound stage. More three dimensional sound. I also have had a pair of
thiel 3.6's which replace these but I was never sure I liked them better.
It's strengths are that is is a great sounding speaker with all kinds of music or movies, It's relatively inexpensive for it's size and ability, very high value, Makes all kinds of music sound good.
Weaknesses are that it is a large speaker, it was initially not very attractive to me (I cured that by refinishing them in a stain and urythane called Bombay Mahogany) They look beautiful now. They are not the last word in detail.
If money were no object I would probably still have a pair of these in the house. They also make fantastic home theater speakers because they sound so full and rich, they add weight and body to the home theater experience.
Associated gear
Krell KAV 300 integrated amp, Aragon 8008 amp and preamp, PS audio Classic 250; Audio Research VT 100, D130, and 100.2; Cal Audio Icon cd player with Alpha tube Da converter, Michell Gyrodec with RB 300 and SME IV tone arms; Clear Audio Aurum Beta, Rega and Grado cartridges; Alpha Core Goertz speaker MI 2 and MI III speaker wire, Tara AIR 2 interconnect Tara Decad digital interconnect
Similar products
Thiel 3.6; 2.3; 1.6; Paradigm studio 100; Studio 80s; B&W 802s and others
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