PSB Synchrony line discontinued??

You show a pair of 2.5's in your system. I think they are much better than PSB.

I was afraid somebody would say that.

I got the Proacs (from Arnie of Accutronics of Ann Arbor before he founded Audiogon) because they sounded great and mated very well with the Cary. (I understand Deja Vu of Maclean still demos their 300Bs with newer Proacs.)

In the medium term I'm thinking of downsizing the Cary and the two-chassis SF pre-amp to a hybrid integrated (possibly the Rogue Pharaoh) and was thinking the extra power would permit a different speaker with those last few Hz on the lower end that I've been hankering for for a while.

This in turn led me to the auditioning that I recounted in my other recent thread.

Unfortunately I do seem to have a preference for a particular sonic signature that for want of a better term I'll call Old World (mostly UK speakers, Dynaudio, etc.) over New World (some US and Canadian [e.g. Paradigm]), though the Old World models often seem to achieve that at the cost of ultimate low-end extension. I was hoping that the PSBs, or the perhaps Revels, might be--to continue the metaphor--a bit more mid-Atlantic in nature, but I guess not.

The Imagine T2 Tower is newly released for the same price as the Synchrony Two and seems to have replaced it. It's a similar design, but includes a dedicated midrange driver which the Synchrony lacked.
The Synchrony One also has the midrange driver.

"In the medium term I'm thinking of downsizing the Cary and the two-chassis SF pre-amp to a hybrid integrated (possibly the Rogue Pharaoh) and was thinking the extra power would permit a different speaker with those last few Hz on the lower end that I've been hankering for for a while."

You should be able to take care of that with an amp upgrade. You are only going to get so much out of a 15 watt amp. Here's a list of some amps that I've heard the 2.5's on with excellent results.

Quicksilver V4, ARC VT100, Pass Aleph 0's, Rowland 10, 12, 112, Anything Ayre (Current production), Bat tube and ss. VAC 30/30

I've heard quite top notch Synchrony demos in recent years, results that I could easily live with, but not any newer models.

I'd be curious in what direction the newer similar models might go and if they continue to stack up well in terms of value with the competition.

"The Imagine T2 Tower is newly released for the same price as the Synchrony Two and seems to have replaced it. It's a similar design, but includes a dedicated midrange driver which the Synchrony lacked.
The Synchrony One also has the midrange driver."

Thanks for the input. I'm beginning to see the situation a little differently.

I found on another forum (a dedicated PSB thread) complaints about some models only being available henceforth in the black ash and not the dark cherry.

Also, when you look at PSB's website, "tower speakers" are listed in a single column as Synchrony One, Imagine T2, Imagine T, etc. Clearly, then, the T2 ($3950) has replaced the Synchrony Two ($3500), and the T2's speaker array comes closer to the Synchrony One's. For the moment, though, the Synchrony One is still the flagship model, and I wouldn't be surprised eventually to see a new top-of-the-line Imagine T model (T1? T3?), though it's hard to gauge whether this might be in the short or medium term.

If you have a large enough listening room, the Synch One is the speaker to get. Deep bass, lush sounding with a huge soundstage. Any shops near you to audition PSB?

BTW, a shop near me lists the T2 at $3500. And it will be interesting to see if there is a change to the top tier of spkrs.

Twoleftears,

I know you had a chance to listen to some PSB speakers. You did talk about your goals with regards to bass, but what about the highs? The aluminum tweeters PSB uses sound very different than the soft dome tweeters in your 2.5's. I was just wondering which one you prefer?

No, the PSBs were/are on my shortlist for auditioning, but I haven't heard them yet. From a lot of past experience, I'm definitely a soft dome kind of guy. I was hoping the PSBs might be on the sweeter side of some others. Also the Revel F208s.

So far I've heard CM10s, X38s, Treos, and Venere 3.0. X38s came closest with musicality, Treos definitely all the bass you could want and more. I'm looking for that chimaera that's under 5K, and combines the top end of the X38 or the 2.5, and the bass extension of the Treo. I'm 90% sure it's not out there.