specialized2 Posted August 30, 2005 Posted August 30, 2005 First, the good news: Walking the dog this morning I found a pair of nice PSB Alpha A/V speakers on my neighbor's curb. Asked him about them, says they were +/- $300 a while ago, and that the cone on one might be cracked. Really heavy, at least 2 feet tall, better than my stock Sony stereo speakers, thats fo' sho! For free, I thought, hey, good for music and maybe even studio monitor applications (yes, I know they'll color the sound, etc...) Bad news: Checked them out, seemed fine, even did the 'cone tapping' to see if they were intact, which was the advice of a studio-owning friend. Well, upon hooking them up, one in fact does buzz after a certain volume, especially at lower and lower-mid frequencies. So I think I'm gonna have to replace the cone, which I assume has a crack somewheres. However, trips to Best Buy, Tweeter, and Radio Shack (hey, I was desperate!) all led nowhere. It seems unless your buying a new product from these stores, you're S.O.L. So I know I need a 8" cone replacement, otherwise I'm clueless... No idea if there's a specific model, wattage, etc... I did find a site that reviewed the speakers and posted specs: http://stereophile.com/loudspeakerreviews/241/ I seem to recall some HFC members being knowledgable about home theatre sound in addition to guitar amp stuff, so I thought I'd throw this on out to you guys. Apprecate the help!!!
Buzzy Fretts Posted August 30, 2005 Posted August 30, 2005 Nice find.No practical help here. But I'm a big fan of Paul Barton's work. I replaced my venerable JBL LX44's with a 5:1 system that is primarily PSB Image series, with the smaller Alpha surrounds. Great stuff. Here's a link to some literature. You might need to figure out whether your find was the older version or the newer. PSB Speaker Manuals
Guest galejt Posted August 30, 2005 Posted August 30, 2005 I bow to JohnnyB but here is one source.http://www.partsexpress.com/webpage.cfm?we...ectGroup_ID=489
tomteriffic Posted August 30, 2005 Posted August 30, 2005 This may be a case of sending it back to PSB for repair or replacement. I'd guess they may have custom drivers for those, or ones that are out of the normal range for the manufacturers they use.Still, great find, and even with a repair, a helluva deal.
killerteddybear Posted August 30, 2005 Posted August 30, 2005 Are you talking about replacing the driver (cone, basket & magnet) or reconing?If you have an upscale stereo shop nearby they may be able to recone. BUT, if it's a custom speaker it may alter the tone between the two cabinets.
El Kabong Posted August 30, 2005 Posted August 30, 2005 This company is great, but they are in Vancouver, Canada:http://www.speakercity.ca/services.html
Guest galejt Posted August 30, 2005 Posted August 30, 2005 This may be a case of sending it back to PSB for repair or replacement. I'd guess they may have custom drivers for those, or ones that are out of the normal range for the manufacturers they use.Still, great find, and even with a repair, a helluva deal. Good idea. It's worth giving them a call. Course,,,they're Canadians so (insert favorite Canadian joke here) Ha ha ha ha!
JohnnyB Posted August 31, 2005 Posted August 31, 2005 Since the speakers you picked up are heavy and at least 2' tall, these are not the PSB Alphas, which are about 10w" x 12.75" h. They're a somewhat older model higher up the line. The bigger cabinet will give more bass extension than the Alpha, which is one of the entry-level darlings of the high end, along with fellow-Canadian Paradigm Titan. Your speakers will give you all that and more when the woofer is replaced.I don't think PSB uses off-the-shelf drivers for its speakers. They either make their own, have them custom-made to their design, or modify off-the-shelf drivers. In any case, you won't get a worthy replacement from Rat Shack, Best Buy, or the other vendors you checked.You lucked into a great pair of speakers, and I highly recommend you contact PSB Speakers (go to www.psbspeakers.com) to find out how to get a replacement driver. They'll let you know if you have an authorized repair station in your area. Otherwise, you may have to mail order a replacement from them and put it in yourself or hire a competent tech to do it for you. There are so many variables in woofer design and construction that you can't just throw a replacement cone in there of the same diameter and expect to bring the speakers back anywhere near their potential. They have a specific free-air resonance that's matched to the speaker box's volume, and sensitivity (efficiency) matched to the crossover. You may spend as much as $100 to replace it right, but it's well worth it to restore these gems to their specified performance. As for their accuracy and linearity, I'm not sure why you don't think they'd work as monitors. PSBs are notably smooth, transparent, and linear, free of random box resonances, with a very clear midrange and clean extended bass for their size. If anything, they'll be more accurate than many entry-level monitors from music stores because the midrange will be linear instead of peaky, and the overall response curve will be smoother and better balanced.
Guest galejt Posted August 31, 2005 Posted August 31, 2005 I like the shit out of my Stratus Golds. Not i's unfortunately. What I really want are a pair of Target stands sporting Totem Mani-2s. ummmmm
JohnnyB Posted August 31, 2005 Posted August 31, 2005 I like the shit out of my Stratus Golds. Not i's unfortunately. What I really want are a pair of Target stands sporting Totem Mani-2s. ummmmmStratus Golds are amazing speakers, and they perform far beyond their asking price in transparency, linearity, and extension.What electronics (and cables) are you using to drive them? I'll bet you could tweak your setup to get them close to the speed and transparency of the Mani's.
Guest galejt Posted August 31, 2005 Posted August 31, 2005 You're on. Give us a minute to collect the info.And thanks for the offer.
specialized2 Posted August 31, 2005 Author Posted August 31, 2005 Thanks guys for all the help... even with the slight buzzing, I feel pretty lucky to have found these The buzzing is only at higher volumes in response to bass anyway, I tried calling PSB today, but all the numbers I found were either disconected or fax lines. I guess I'll shoot them an e-mail, plus try to contact a local home theatre repair place. My experiences with calling the standard 'hi-end electronics' store is that, unless you bought or plan to buy new from them, they couldn't care less. Thanks again for the support, Ima go listen to some My Bloody Valentine in h-fi
Guest galejt Posted September 18, 2005 Posted September 18, 2005 I like the shit out of my Stratus Golds. Not i's unfortunately. What I really want are a pair of Target stands sporting Totem Mani-2s. ummmmmStratus Golds are amazing speakers, and they perform far beyond their asking price in transparency, linearity, and extension.What electronics (and cables) are you using to drive them? I'll bet you could tweak your setup to get them close to the speed and transparency of the Mani's. Okey Dokey. Found the specs. I got off the audiophile train with this purchase. Sold a set of Shahinian Arcs and a lot of Audio Alchemy stuff. The AA stuf was extremely detailed on the verge of harshness and the Arcs were superbly flat with great presence, but the sound stage was to diffuse. I hauled it all up to the dealer and the system I have now blew it away. Surprisingly the Arcs did not stand up to the Golds when driven by the Denon/Rotel combo either.Rotel RB-990BXDenon DCD-S10 (same specs as a DCD-3000?)Denon PRA-S10Cables areTributaries SCA-200 XLR to XLR CD to PreampTributaries SCA-100 RCA to RCA to RotelTributaries SP5 ribon cable bi-wired Rotel to PSB Stratus Goldshttp://www.tributariescable.com/Any assistance would be appreciated.Jim
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