Prior or current owners of PSB Stratus Gold

The Golds had a 10 year run, counting the Goldi, which is quite a long time for a unit from a high production outfit like PSB. The new top of the line Synchrony One is built in China, has a completely different cabinet structure with completely different drivers and I suppose, reflects Paul Barton's latest thinking on the state of the art in affordable speakers. I have seriously considered buying a pair, but have no ability to audition locally. I have heard and read that they are more accurate, but maybe not as warm as the Golds. While I can appreciate the design concepts used in the Synchrony One, I wont spend that kind of money without an audition.

I still own my Gold I's. My amp is a Bryston 4B-sst2. Very compatible together. I like to crank my music occasionally. Currently very satisfied after spending lots of money on lots of other combinations. I too am looking for an upgrade to the Gold I's, but it always seems like I need to spend >7K (to include tight room-shaking bass), which I cannot afford at this time.

I believe the reason PSB stopped making these is due to the size and width of the speaker, causing a low WAF. So glad I got a pair near the tail end of line offering. I wish speaker companies would ignore the WAF thing and just make some affordable full range stereo towers with front firing ports and woofers :)

For now I stick with the Gold I's. I enjoyed reading about other's suggestions. I may try a couple out in my casual search.

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!