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Vintage PSB Speakers

Francis55

Francis55

Active Member
All,

OK, I have a mystery situation. I picked up some old, HEAVY PSB tower speakers a while back--just got around to testing them, they sound great. BUT, there are almost no identifying marks re: what model they might be. I did read somewhere that the earliest models of PSB speakers were often not clearly identified. In fact, the only way I could tell they were PSB speakers was the one driver on each unit that indicates this. So, with that out of the way, here are some pics that I hope will allow someone out there to tell me what the heck I have here! Many thanks for any help anyone can provide!

Francis
PS As you can see below, one of the woofers has two cuts in the rubber surround--could I buy some silicone glue and brush over those cuts myself, should I have a professional do this, or should I just leave them alone?
 

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Yep, Stratus Gold. Likely from around 2003-4 or so. Quite a bit more than "decent". I owned a pair of Stratus Silvers some time back, only replaced them when I lucked into a pair of Focal/JMLab 816s (which I still have),

I'd try rubber cement or silicone on those cuts in the surround before I went any further....

https://www.psbspeakers.com/50years/iconic-products/

https://www.psbspeakers.com/50years/iconic-products/

iconic-products
 
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I heard a pair of Golds years ago while picking up some Rotel power amps from a gentleman that had upgraded to some Krell monos.
VERY nice.
You really should find proper surrounds for them although it might be a challenge. A friend of mine had a heck of a time finding surrounds for his Thiel 1.2. He finally found some and it was well worth the effort.
Repair and ENJOY
 
Terrific speakers. Definitely keepers. Inspect crossover capacitors. If they're electrolytics, they may need to be replaced.

Since the woofer surround is rubber and the hole is relatively small, you might try an inner tube repair kit for bicycles. Use a glue on patch, not a self stick type. Cut the patch a quarter inch or so larger to overlap the tear about 1/8" on all sides. If you don't want the patch to show, pull the woofer and work from the back side.
 
homebrew said:
Terrific speakers. Definitely keepers. Inspect crossover capacitors. If they're electrolytics, they may need to be replaced.

Since the woofer surround is rubber and the hole is relatively small, you might try an inner tube repair kit for bicycles. Use a glue on patch, not a self stick type. Cut the patch a quarter inch or so larger to overlap the tear about 1/8" on all sides. If you don't want the patch to show, pull the woofer and work from the back side.
Click to expand...

Very creative idea--and yeah, from the back for sure. I think I'm gonna give this technique a try.
 
Francis55 said:
Possible that these are not original to the speaker? I can pull it and see what that shows.
Click to expand...
Show us some pictures, its been a long time since I had mine out but I could pull one to compare.

These are fantastic speakers, smooth, flat midrange, and deep powerful bass.
You might be shocked.

Look at them, the top is a mini-monitor, and the bottom is a 10" low tuned vented subwoofer with
an excellent seamless crossover to link it to the top.
 
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Pete B said:
Show us some pictures, its been a long time since I had mine out but I could pull one to compare.

These are fantastic speakers, smooth, flat midrange, and deep powerful bass.
You might be shocked.

Look at them, the top is a mini-monitor, and the bottom is a 10" low tuned vented subwoofer with
an excellent seamless crossover to link it to the top.
Click to expand...
will do!
 
Pete B said:
Show us some pictures, its been a long time since I had mine out but I could pull one to compare.

These are fantastic speakers, smooth, flat midrange, and deep powerful bass.
You might be shocked.

Look at them, the top is a mini-monitor, and the bottom is a 10" low tuned vented subwoofer with
an excellent seamless crossover to link it to the top.
Click to expand...
 

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Picture of the pulled driver! Right, got it. Remarkably labor intensive to unscrew those screws, good lord. Should have it out by tomorrow, pics to follow.
 
Your latest woofer picture looks correct, not sure why the earlier ones didn't.
The woofer screws go into rubber shock mounted nuts and I do remember that
they were a real pain. I wasn't sure if they were getting old and needed to be
replaced or what. I think that they are a standard motor shock mount nut but
again not sure.
 
I've told this story before but your speakers add a bit to it:

I bought my Stratus Golds used to have as a reference but also to reverse engineer
and learn from them. I removed the woofers and measured the T&S parameters finding
Fs to be very close to 50 Hz, 49. something from memory. I expected something closer
to 28 Hz or nearly half that. I wrote a letter to PSB and I think that they ignored the first
one probably thinking this guy doesn't know what he's doing or that the info was proprietary.
So, I sent the letter again registered mail and Paul Barton the, owner and designer, called
me at work. He said that's way off and said it should be nearly half that, he said to send
them back and they would look at them - which I never did. I got what I wanted which was
the correct Fs, he confirmed what I thought.

He suggested that I was measuring them incorrectly and I told him that Fs is not difficult to
measure and that I used a computer based measurement system that works fine with other
woofers. I said that I could see white poly fill that seemed to be loose behind the port, I
think he said to push it back away from the port with a ruler or something. Then he asked
me where do you think is the best spot for the damping material, I quickly said the center
of the box where the air velocity is highest, he expected me to get it wrong and said yes that's right.

I had done a lot of listening to these speakers and A/B compared them and
used them to improve the voicing on one of my own big designs (two 12" woofers per side).
I said did you know that the woofers experience thermal compression when you push
them really hard (325W/ch clipping on bass peaks)? I said you might want to use a metal
former in the woofer if you do not already. I also said, have you read the JBL AES paper
on thermal and port velocity compression?
https://www.aes.org/e-lib/browse.cfm?elib=5251
The port velocity is huge on the original design. I have a feeling that he thought about this
because the Goldi version has a bigger port, and slightly narrower enclosure which I also mentioned.

BOTTOM LINE:
I measured these woofers when they were probably less than 10 years old and the surrounds
were more than 3 times stiffer than they should have been. Yours are probably cracking because
this is what another 20 years of aging does to them. I still have not redone mine so I could/should
measure them again.
It is a common problem with rubber edges hardening with age and Wintergreen oil is commonly
suggested for softening them. I've done this with other woofers and while it works it only lasts
about a week or so. I'm going to try brake fluid but thought, in the past, that it would be too harsh.
It is probably worth trying on these PSB woofers, keep away from the paper cone. I'd give them
a few treatments with it, let them dry and then do the repair with a rubbery glue probably silicone,
I would not back it with anything, just glue.

Edit: You could try to find the correct rubber edge and replace them, make sure they are soft and
not 20 year old or more old stock. Or Miller Sound might be able to fix them.
 
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