Prior or current owners of PSB Stratus Gold

I have owned a used pair of the PSB Stratus Gold I version, which I bought on A-gon four years ago. I have been happy with the speakers broad range of talents; they may not be outstanding in any one single area, but they do an excellent job overall. I have them in a relatively small room, 15 feet deep and 12.5 feet wide, with the speakers at either side of the short wall; the front of the speaker is 3 feet away from the back wall. In such a small room, it helps to have that forward-firing bass port. I enjoy concert music from Baroque to Stravinsky, jazz, male and female vocalists, Gilbert and Sullivan, traditional folk, country/western, bluegrass, and 60's, 70's rock and roll. I initially drove the speakers with a McIntosh 7100 amp (100 watts into 8 ohms;150 watts into 4 ohms), but that wasn't enough power, so I now use a McIntosh 7300, with 300 watts into 8 ohms, 4 ohms, and 2 ohms, through Mac's autoformer. I don't fuss much with cables; I just use Blue Jeans 12 gauge speaker cables and Blue Jeans interconnects. These speakers sound great with all of the different music I play, whether it's cranked up for the full experience, or toned down for evening listening. I have auditioned other speakers, including the Harbeth SL5 and the new PSB Synchrony 1, but feel no reason to move up.

I have the original golds. I feel they sound better than the I model. I have been listening to many speakers at many price ranges for the last 30 years. I feel that there is no reason to upgrade. It would cost me over 10x the money for a 1% performance increase. I use Stratus Golds for front and surrounds in my HT. I use the stratus C6i for a center. As far as amplification goes: I am currently using the NAD M25 to Bi amp. I have used many others such as Carver, Adcom, Anthem, and more. I have been most pleased with Anthem and NAD. I have heard PSB driven by Mcintosh and the results were very good. Other speakers in the category are rare. I do like the Tyler D20, KEF Blade, Reference, and Q900, Dynaudio C4. The Magico Q3 and Q5 are great but exponentially more expensive.

I recently picked up a pair of used and well cared for Goldi speakers from the AudioGon market. I love them. Two things I did notice is that they require allot of power and placement with these speakers is very critical. I'm powering mine with a Parasound Halo A-31. I was fortunate to find a third Gold speaker that is now my center channel.

My room has never sounded this good!

This is an old post but I thought I'd put in my two cents worth. I have a pair or original Golds. Many years ago as a college student I would drive around Denver and listen to HIFI stuff. The Golds (I don't remember if they were the i version or not)were high on my "gotta have those some day" list. If my memory serves me they had Audible Illusions pre-amp and McCormick Power. They were amazing.

In my system I have them bi-amped with NAD 2100 for the mids and highs and an NAD 2400 THX for the bass. I've got an NAD 1600 pre/tuner and Kimber 8TC and 8PR and Kimber from my pre to power. For subs I have 2 Def Tech subs. One 15" sealed and one 12" ported (one on each channel).

I've always liked my music on the warm side and this certainly does it. I think if I were after more detail I would first look to the upper speaker cable them perhaps my CD player (currently Rotel) I've got the subs each turned down fairly low and crossed over as low as possible (50hz on the 15 and 40hz on the 12). It is surprising how much the subs help in the very bottom reaches even with such a capable speaker as the Gold.
The room is an open Kitchen dining living arrangement that is less than perfect but all in all they sound awesome.

I had them next to some Maggie MGIII speakers for a while. The Maggies are AWESOME speakers but with kids and what not they were just a little too delicate. I'll own another pair though some day.

The next thing I want to try is a nice set of mini monitors with a sub to compare and contrast. I've got some B&W 601s upstairs that I'd like to compare to the Golds.
...One of these days.

ANybody know if PSB still services parts/drivers for Stratus series? Also, a good used price for the GOlds?