PSB Imagine T3 Tower Loudspeaker Preview

[gene]

The Imagine T3 is PSB's new flagship loudspeaker and continues the legacy of Founder and Chief Designer, Paul Barton. The T3 is a sleek, five-way, five driver, transitional design loudspeaker that's triple ported, ti-amp capable, and has lots of options to fine-tune the sound to your room.

The Imagine T3 has a usable bandwidth specified down to 24 Hz.

Read the PSB Imagine T3 Tower Speaker Preview

What do you think?

 

[3db]

I wish I could afford them.

 

[class a]

Heard this speaker about 4 months ago when Mr. Barton came to demo the T-3 at a local dealership in NH. Excellent top end to bottom end sound. Easily contends w/speakers in the $10-$20,000 category. It was played w/out a sub and it gave plenty of tight low end sound.

 

[Trust Your Ears]

The PSB T3"s are definitely impressive on paper, including the reviews of them. I was very excited to get the opportunity to listen to the new T3's (floor models so they were already broken in). I listened to the speakers on the NAD Master series amp and preamp. PSB and NAD are kind of sister companies and are distributed together to many hi-fi stores.

In any case, NAD's top of the line electronics and PSB's top of the line speakers... What could be better, right? Well, I picked some source material that I am most familiar with (some of my favorite CD's). Don't laugh here, but Adele and Everlast are great for testing the different sonic characteristics of speakers.

Two minutes into the Adele piece, I asked the salesman to switch over to the Everlast piece, which he happily did. Two more minutes into the Everlast piece, I asked the salesman to shut the sound off. I looked at him incredulously and simply said "These speakers sound like crap; they are really dark." Since they were broken in, I figured the salesman would come up with some other excuse as to why I was wrong. Then something really funny happened... He agreed with me. He said "You're right, they do sound like crap."

I asked him if it was the electronics, and he said "no." I asked him if he could think of anything else, and he said "no." He just said that the older PSB speakers sounded better, you know, the ones made in Canada instead of China.

So, he had a pair of old PSB Stratus Goldi towers in cherry sitting in the corner. I asked if we could fire those up. He said yes, and we did. We listened to them for a 1/2 an hour. For some reason, I thought I needed some extra bass, so I bought a PSB sub-woofer to go with my new / used set of speakers. When I got home, I discovered that these speakers didn't need a sub in my listening room. So, I turned it to it's lowest setting and it adds some nice oomph, but takes up a lot of space.

In this case, I trusted my ears, and the dealer had a set of 2 generation old PSB's hanging around (the Stratus Gold's were before the Synchrony series and the T2, T3 series.

The moral of the story? Trust your ears, not the reviews or the specs. Companies buy ad space in stereo magazines, and there's an inherent conflict of interest when they go to test the gear of their advertisers.

In this case, I saved myself upwards of $5,000 and have a better pair of speakers than I would have if I just bought the T3's based on the reviews.

When I left the stereo shop, I couldn't resist, so I asked the salesman how they planned to sell the T3's. He told me that a lot of people don't trust their ears. Rather, they buy gear based on reviews. We both shook our heads and kind of smiled.

Enjoy your search, and please remember; trust your ears, not the reviews.

 

[Beave]

^You told us the amp - as if that is going to have a large impact on the sound quality - but you neglected to tell us about the room and the speaker location in that room - things that DO have an impact on sound quality. You also failed to mention anything about usage of the port plugs or whether or not the bottom woofer was engaged. That tells me you listened and made a judgment too quickly.

The T3's are very good, but they need to be set up correctly or they can be bass-heavy. In smaller rooms, the bass can overwhelm. That's where the port plugs and the bottom woofer option come into play. Plug the ports, disengage the bottom woofer, and now suddenly they're no longer dark at all, but perhaps a touch bright (depending, again, on the room). Engage the woofer and plug maybe one or two ports, and now they might be just right (again, depending on the room).

In other words, it's an excellent speaker and one that is versatile, but it requires a little effort and optimization to get it to sound its best.

It's a shame neither you nor the dealer put that effort in.

 

[Trust Your Ears]

Hi Beave, Thanks for the kind words and inquiry. The room was a pretty standard (close to square) sound room, about 18 x 18, if memory suits me. The plugs were not used, and the speakers were about 2' from the back wall. We sat in a near equilateral triangle, about 8-9 feet between speakers and 8-9 feet from each speaker to listener. The problem didn't seem to be with the woofer or low end sound. Rather, it was the mid and tweeter totally lacking in clarity.

In thinking about it, don't you think a stocking dealer for PSB would do the most he could do to optimize the sound of the speakers.... say for the motivation of selling them?

I drove 2 1/2 hours to hear them. I think I put the effort in.

Now Beave, you don't happen to have a pair of T3's or work for PSB, now do you?

Again, trust your ears... and I guess enjoy the trolls.

 

[Beave]

A room that is "close to square" is terrible for bass response. And the mids and highs lack clarity when the bass overwhelms them. You assume that the dealer did his best to optimize the speakers, but my experience with dealers is that they often don't know how to do so, that is, when they actually even bother to try. Not using the plugs, or even offering you the option of using them, tells me it was a half-assed demo at best, regardless of how long you drove to get there. It would be like demoing an integrated amp and not bothering to notice that the bass knob had been turned to max.

Do I have a pair of T3s? No. But I did used to own Synchrony Ones, a similar design. And I know from experience that when the bass is too strong, the mids and highs seemed veiled. That was the case with all three ports open. But in my room, plugging one or two ports made them very well balanced. Plugging all three ports made them slightly bright. I could tailor their sound to be how I wanted it to be. I sold the speakers and no longer own them, but they were one of the very best speakers I've owned.

And I've heard the T3s at a dealer, and they sounded great to me (it was a large room and not square, and no port plugs were needed).

And I don't work for PSB.

As for trusting your ears, sure, but make sure your ears aren't being deceived by your eyes.

Or by dealers who don't bother to show you the options a product has available.

Or by posters who are brand new to a forum but refer to other posters as trolls. Those guys are the worst.

 

[Trust Your Ears]

Beave, I am pretty sure the bass wasn't turned to the max. And I am pretty sure my ears weren't deceived by my eyes, although I don't know what that means.

What I do know is that a stocking dealer, who has been in business selling high-end hi fi for more than 30 years couldn't get these speakers to sound even decent for a demo, and it was in his best interest to do just that. In any case, I am happier with my old PSB's than I would be with the T3's. And his best self-admitted hope is to just get somebody to buy them based on the reviews, because if they actually listen to them, there's no way they are going to buy them.

I remember it was TAS that talked about these speakers being a "game changer" which I why I devoted so much time to giving them a listen. It's the last time I listen to a professional reviewer. The huge disparity between what they were extolling about the T3's and what I experienced was a "game changer" for me. It finally go me to understand and believe my ears and not what's printed.

Maybe you should buy a pair of T3's; dealer cost is around $4,200. I think the cherry would make better plant stands and the piano black would be good for marble busts of important historical figures.

Beauty is always in the eye of the beholder.

Cheers,

 

[Beave]

As far as the speakers go, yes, the bass was turned to the max (so to speak).

Look at the measurements for the T3s. No reviewer hype needed.

 

[Beave]

As for the TAS comments about the speakers being game changers, I'll be the first to agree that's hyperbole. Hyperbole and TAS go hand-in-hand. That magazine is more full of you-know-what than any audio magazine this side of What Hi Fi.

But the T3s are very well-engineered speakers. They just require more set up than just plopping them down in the room.

 

[Trust Your Ears]

Wouldn't it stand to reason that a dealer that's been selling PSB speakers for years, as is evidenced by the pair of Stratus Goldi trade-ins they had in the corner, would be inclined to set the speakers up as well as they could? I mean, after all, they are in the business of selling them.

Again, I encourage you to buy a pair if you like them so much. Me, I think they are way, way overpriced Chinese-made junk.

Maybe if you wait a while you can get a deal when they are discontinued.

Meanwhile, I'll trust my ears and save my money.

 

[3db]

Wouldn't it stand to reason that a dealer that's been selling PSB speakers for years, as is evidenced by the pair of Stratus Goldi trade-ins they had in the corner, would be inclined to set the speakers up as well as they could? I mean, after all, they are in the business of selling them.

Again, I encourage you to buy a pair if you like them so much. Me, I think they are way, way overpriced Chinese-made junk.

Maybe if you wait a while you can get a deal when they are discontinued.

Meanwhile, I'll trust my ears and save my money.

So here we have one troll's opinion which differs from many listeners opinions out on the world wide web stating that these are state of the art.

I have heard them personally myself and it differs so much from what you state. You couldnt be more wrong about anything in your life as the crap you're trying to sell on this thread. You are only confirming what everyone rlse suspects, tgat your are a troll. I have trusted my ears and thankfully not listened to your crap.

 

[Trust Your Ears]

Now that post was just plain mean, personal too. My comments have been specific to the deficiencies of the PSB T3's, which are valid.

Again, if you love these speakers so much, and trust your ears, go ahead and buy a pair and hook them up to your Yahaha receiver. You'll hear everything you want to hear.

 

[ATLAudio]

Trust your ears, while your brain falls out.

Then use meaningless words to describe audio, like "dark," and thinks country of manufacture matters.

 

[ATLAudio]

Wouldn't it stand to reason that a dealer that's been selling PSB speakers for years, as is evidenced by the pair of Stratus Goldi trade-ins they had in the corner, would be inclined to set the speakers up as well as they could? I mean, after all, they are in the business of selling them.

Again, I encourage you to buy a pair if you like them so much. Me, I think they are way, way overpriced Chinese-made junk.

Maybe if you wait a while you can get a deal when they are discontinued.

Meanwhile, I'll trust my ears and save my money.

No, my experience even with high end dealers doesn't suggest this. There's a million reasons why, mostly due to floor space being a premium to demo as many models as possible.

Your insulting hyperbole doesn't help. You sound like an old man in the 70/80s who didn't think Japanese could make anything of quality. Nevermind your insulting racist and nationalist language.

We all use our ears when we demo audio products, genius. But we don't let our brain fall out with your obvious type of bias and absurd logic. Wether you liked something cheaper or more expensive is irrelevant to someone who likes the T3 better.

 

[3db]

Now that post was just plain mean, personal too. My comments have been specific to the deficiencies of the PSB T3's, which are valid.

Again, if you love these speakers so much, and trust your ears, go ahead and buy a pair and hook them up to your Yahaha receiver. You'll hear everything you want to hear.

To be honest, your comments are invalid because the measurements taken by Soundstage.com suggests just the opposite, a well presented mid range and an open high end. The problem is either with your hearing or the acoustics in which the speakers were placed. Your posts only demonstrate your complete lack of knowledge on the topic and shows your propensity to be a troll.