From tiny Silverline's to slightly bigger PSB's

ALL three times I have owned PSB Stratus Mini speakers, they have never once ceased to blow me completely away. Sounding WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYY bigger than they really are.

These PSBs are one of my favorites I've heard in recent years and a great value. I don't see how one can go wrong with them.

Heard good things about SIlverline's but have never heard them.

the new psb synchrony line is pretty incredible. sound, build, etc...all three models are competitive with the best thats out there in new stuff.

Agree with Jaybo.

The larger Synchrony floor standers is what I listened to when auditioning the Audio Research pre-amps recently at my dealer's, prior to buying. I could find no fault with them running on Rogue tube power amplification in conjunction with the ARC pre-amp (a small REL sub was in use also however so I have not heard how these do the lowest octave on their own though). I just wanted to crank these up higher and higher and keep listening. The PSBs never winced in the slightest in this setup.

I preferred them over Usher monitors and by just a tad over the large Magnepan 20s based mainly on dynamics.

The only other dealer systems I've heard in recent years that sounded as good to me was $100000 worth of VAC, VTL, DCS and Magico gear at a well known high end shop in Manhattan and a similar cost pure MBL (save phono) system .

Were I in the market for new speaks, this might be where I look first.

I have heard the Minuets and other PSB speakers, but not the Syncrony line. FWIW, I always find PSB speakers too forward in the upper-mids/lower treble. Also, I would not describe them as "smooth." Of course, the Syncrony might be better, and Jolida makes a nice smooth-sounding amp, so YMMV. What don't you like about the Minuet that you think the PSBs will improve?

My take is exactly in line with Bondmanp's. I have not heard the Synchrony line, but I've never been too crazy about the PSBs I have heard. In contrast, I think the Minuet is a remarkable little speaker.

All of that is to suggest that you listen before you buy. And the Minuets are so small, you can just drag them along for an A/B.

the synchrony line is as balanced as anything i've heaed in the last ten years.

PSBs are incredibly linear at all their price points, with a nice, natural room-filling dispersion. In general PSB and Paradigm sound better than their asking prices would indicate, as they use Canada's National Research Foundation's sophisticated psychoacoustics studies and R&D facilities, dramatically reducing the R&D costs in the selling price.

"What don't you like about the Minuet that you think the PSBs will improve?"

The Minuet is an over achiever, but it can't fill my large listening room. This is not the fault of the Minuet, it is user error in not matching a speaker to listening space. I'm guilty of this. For desktop, small to medium room, near field listening - the Minuet is an absolute joy to behold, a reference/recording monitor selling for a song. My search for a used speaker system for my large listening room that matches well with my Jolida JD 302 continues on..

How big is your listening room, and how contained is it (4 walls, vaulted ceiling, open architecture, etc.)? The Minuet has two problems in filling a large space: 1) Its radiating area is tiny with a single 3-1/2" woofer, and 2) its measured sensitivity is a rather low 85 dB. That means that with a 50 wpc amp, and a listening distance of 8-10 feet, it can only put out a clean peak or crescendo of 99 dB.

If you really like the sound of the Minuet you might be able to fix this with a powered sub to offload the LF duties, increase overall radiating area and open up the Minuet's dynamic range.

Another approach would be to get more power. Silverline claims the Minuet can handle up to 300 watts.

A third approach would be to replace the Minuet with a small-footprint floorstander that provides more room-filling radiating area. For little more than the price of the Synchrony Two B, you could get the PSB Imagine T Tower with 8"x13" footprint. Notice that both of these PSB models have a nominal impedance rating of 4 ohms, so you should use the Jolida's 4-ohm taps.

If you are considering Johnnyb53's suggestion of a small floorstander, and since you like the Minuet's sound, the prelude would be the natural step up. Very small footprint, twice the mid/woofers, and a larger cabinet. IMHO, the Prelude offers more of what's good about the Minuet. In any case, you should focus on high-efficiancy speakers, whether monitors or floorstanders.

Johnnyb53:

"If you really like the sound of the Minuet you might be able to fix this with a powered sub to offload the LF duties, increase overall radiating area and open up the Minuet's dynamic range."

Johnnyb53: Already doing this with my old PSB Subsonic 5i (powered). My listening space is b-i-g. I mean big as in 34 x 15 with elevated sloping ceiling and right side open to other rooms. Problem is my other rooms are too small to move my system into - it's either the cavern or the closet for me here.

I have wanted to sell for a year and a half and leave this redneck burg (but not possible until housing market recovers w/o giving my house away), and buy a home with a more appropriate listening area of say 20 x 15 or so. So, I either buy another speaker system that is more appropriate for my big listening area now (and also works well in a smaller listening area I move to in the future), or hold off and try to tweak what I have now until I can move. Speaker systems I have had my eye on are used: Devore Nines, Zu Essence, and PSB Synchrony's. It's probably best to wait until the reseller market matures anyway for these speakers, as few are going to be put up for sale by their original owners for a year or two at least. The speakers are still relatively new to the audio market.

Adding a good sub is certainly an option if you like the speaks but they just are too small to pressurize the room.

"Why not consider something like a used pair of Klipsch Forte II? "

I have and still may some day.

15x34 with vaulted ceiling and open wall is a friggin' big room!

That calls for a line array, but even the "economical" ones are $6K. Even DIY kits run $2K and up.

While we're on the subject of a high sensitivity horn system (Klipsch Forte), consider the Cerwin-Vega CLS-215 at around $1K-1.2K/pair. Although they have twin 15" woofers making bass down to 26Hz, the high end reviews (Soundstage, TAS) also stress that they do solo vocals and intimate music surprisingly well. They could definitely fill the room. And as long as there's a frat house somewhere, you'll always find a ready market when it's time to sell.