First Listen: PSB Image B4 Desktop Speaker
Designers have gotten adept at doing this, but it leads to an issue in nearfield listening. In nearfield listening, you hear more of the direct (on-axis response) and less of the reflected sound (power response) that you would in normal in-room listening. The result is that many speakers listened to in the near field have a sharpness or sense of elevated response in the midrange that can give them a glassiness or edge.
Sorry for that detour into speaker geekery, but it may be helpful in understanding why I feel somewhat entranced by the Image B4s. The B4s have less of this midrange spikiness than most other speakers I’ve used in a desktop setting. In part that may be due to the small woofer employed here, which has good off axis response up to fairly high frequencies. It may be due to special crossover sauce. In a conversation with Paul Barton, he pointed out that he spent extra time making sure he reduced what is called vertical "lobing", or the existence of hot spots and dead spots as you move your ears up and down (not that you're bobbing and weaving, but lobing can lead to unpredictable response depending on your installation). In any event, the B4s give a sense of smooth, even midrange that is very helpful in transcending is obviously a material distortion in desktop sound present in many speakers used on the desktop.
I also found that the imaging of the B4s in desktop mode was pretty convincing. Lateral spread is excellent and the speakers get the image off the boxes like champs. Of course we’re speaking here within the confines of speakers that are about two feet apart on a desktop.
Put all of that together and you have a genuinely musical desktop speaker. Or at least that’s the way it seems with the music I’ve listened to so far. Stay tuned for our full review.
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Comments
It's amazing how much time Mr. Barton appears to put in at NRC when Lenbrook could likely build a much fancier facility closer to home. I've owned many different models (20MkII, Alpha, Alpha B, Alpha AV, Century 800, Stratus Mini, Silver, 2 pairs of Goldi) over the years and have never been disappointed. Kudos to a pioneer in Canadian speaker designs and one of the best in the business.
So how would the B4 do in a 2.1 setup in a mid-size room? If crossover is approx 80-100Hz, would there be any reason to use B5 or B6 rather than B4? THANKS for the review!
PSB is sending a sub so that we can try such a setup. That said, with a crossover at 80hz, the main speakers still have substantial work to do below that point, so the larger models may still have a bass advantage.
CEO and Editorial Director, Nextscreen LLC
Great! Looking forward to your thoughts on that setup.
Tom, would you say the B4 is a better desktop speaker than the B5 or B6? Or do the B5 and B6 also lack that "sharpness or sense of elevated response in the midrange that can give them a glassiness or edge"?
Thanks, Jay