PSB Synchrony Two and Two B loudspeakers

Two B or Not Two B?

A couple months ago a press announcement was circulated that sent a collective shudder through the loudspeaker segment of the high-end industry. Flop sweat began beading up on the brows of audio engineers and acousticians. Marketing personnel reached for the Extra Strength Tylenol. What could possibly have implications of such seismic proportions? PSB was introducing an all-new line of speakers. Uh, oh.

PSB, named for its founder and chief engineer Paul Barton and his wife Sue, has over the years become known to rivals and allies alike by its underground alias Preposterous Speaker Bargains. But the newly announced seven-model series known as Synchrony is a bit of a change-up for PSB. Because while flattening the competition in the budget realm has been standard operating procedure for PSB, Synchrony is significantly more uptown—although not by some highend standards—with stereo pairs punching in at $1500 and stretching northward to an oh-my-god $4500.

The look of Synchrony is sleek and refined, as if every element came together organically. And clean—there are no sharp corners or exposed screws or bolts to mar a first impression. Even the perforated metal grille covers are pressure-fitted into narrow channels along the edges of the baffle. The double-walled, extruded aluminum of the front baffle and curvilinear rear panel seamlessly locks into the seven-layer MDF arched side panels. PSB’s goal has been to ensure enclosures that are as non-resonant and coloration-free as possible. Cabinet rigidity is an area where the entire industry has been undergoing a renaissance. Led by companies like Wilson Audio, Magico, and Thiel, computer analysis has ushered in a new era in resonance-control. Synchrony reflects this trend, and it only takes the classic knuckle-rap test to make the case. Enclosures built to a lower standard are often capable of playing a tune, indicating substantial variability in rigidity at different points. Tapping along the sides of the Synchrony Two and Two B produced the same, dull, high-pitched pop.

As for drivers, Synchrony incorporates PSB’s latest generation of extended- response titanium dome tweeters. They are lighter, with stiffer voicecoil components and enhanced mechanical systems geared to improving high-output linearity. Advancements in linearity and dynamic headroom have also been extended to the cone woofers that use a newly developed sandwich diaphragm of woven fiberglass and compressed felted-fiber laminate, and ultrarigid, cast-aluminum baskets. Crossovers are fourth-order Linkwitz-Riley type. At the rear, the dual binding posts are vertically inset and angled with wing-nut style fasteners to secure terminations.

Synchrony Two

The Synchrony Two is the smaller floorstander of the line. It’s similar in its overall design to the five-driver Synchrony One flagship, but with smaller 5.25" mid/woofers and no separate midrange transducer. In strictly technical terms the S2 is a two-way but it’s actually much, much more than that. Each mid/bass driver operates in its own isolated, independently ported sub-enclosure. The mid/woofs are spread evenly along the length of the baffle. They integrate via a crossover design that PSB terms a “transitional array”: All three drivers do the same work in the bass octaves, but while the uppermost woofer comes in conventionally to meet the tweeter, the bottom two drivers electrically transition at different high-pass frequencies. When dual midbass drivers are configured this way it is sometimes called a two-and-a-halfway design. The Synchrony Two takes this model and furthers it with the additional driver. It’s a technique Barton has found not only smooths response both on- and off-axis but achieves the additional benefit of moderating floor cancellations.

In terms of tonality, Barton clearly has no intention of upsetting the sonic applecart. The Synchrony Two remains a model of PSB balance and consistency. Actually you don’t just begin playing the S2 in the conventional sense. More accurately you ignite it!—the starter’s flag falls and it roars towards the first turn and doesn’t look back. The speaker is an extrovert laced with bonerattling dynamic excitement, with a dark voluptuous tonal balance that reaches deep into the lower midrange and bottom octaves. The triple array of midbass drivers throws a broad soundstage with superior coherence. There are no holes in the fabric of the S2’s bass response. This is sheer linearity that spells nothing less than “let’s get ready to rumble.” Integration with the tweeter is nearly seamless. Port and cabinet colorations are vanishingly low. However, there’s also an overall warmth to the S2 that makes it extremely easy to listen to. Inner details are laid out cleanly, yet without the kind of hyper-minutiae that borders on sounding twitchy.