PSB Alpha P3 Review (Bookshelf Speaker)

[Wolf]

I lost a lot of respect for PSB a few years ago when they started using a rebadged Tymphany/Vifa DQ25. It's a (last I knew) $20 tweeter that sounds broken with broadband glare that I can't stand. Even if they anodized it for this model, it definitely shows why it's garbage.

 

[pseudoid]

@amirm your lead statements imply $249 each maybe change to $249 for 2

Ignoramous me would pull the number 99% (out of the thin blue sky) for those who purchase speakers in 'pairs'.
I notice that the latest marketing-ploy has become to show price for a single speaker.
I'd eat Alice Cooper's hat if @amirm is that kind of a marketeer!

 

[ROOSKIE]

Ignoramous me would pull the number 99% (out of the thin blue sky) for those who purchase speakers in 'pairs'.
I notice that the latest marketing-ploy has become to show price for a single speaker.
I'd eat Alice Cooper's hat if @amirm is that kind of a marketeer!

Many speakers sell in singles. It is common to identify if the price is for a single or a pair. Many comments here assumed $249 for single when in fact that buys a pair.
At any rate I worked in hifi and while many speakers are indeed sold in a box of two, we also sold sold thousand of speakers by the single and this is very very common. No way your 99% figure is correct, in fact for floor standing speakers and larger monitors nearly all of them are sold by the 1.

 

[Dave-Oh]

Well I made the “mistake”of buying a pair of these without seeing the ASR review. On sale for $209 a couple of weeks ago. They were exactly the right size for my desktop. I have them on little 4 inch high stands which brings them relatively close to ear level and relieves a little bit of bass boominess that I noticed when they were sitting on the desk. And they sound… fabulous. Really. The first thing that struck me was their uncannily natural reproduction of voices. I listen to them nearfeild at low to moderate volume. Turn them loud and they do distort across the band. But as long as they’re in their comfort zone they have a relaxed presentation with pleasant, punchy bass and a very detailed and natural mid range. I tried swapping in a pair of Martin Logan bookshelves that were about twice the size and three times the cost and I preferred the P3’s in every way. The P3’s base appeared to extend lower and was livelier. I see all those jaggies in the 1 to 2 kHz region, but if you look it’s almost all within 5 db across the range. Spikey anomalies in the response curve may be harder on the eye than on the ear because they are by definition narrow. In my experience PSB is able to create a relaxed and engaging sound and they pulled it off even in theses little guys.

 

[DavyRockstar]

i want to put my 2 cents here in PSB defense
listening for both the p3 and the p5, i felt a better mid range in the P3, i wanted them as a desktop "remote" pair for my amp (i have some: marantz 2230 restored, kenwood KA-880D restored 80's monster amp, and nakamichi amplifier 1 high end entry level integrated, and Pro-ject prebox digital as DAC) i love music, but this pair is for multimedia and gaming mostly and also to put my other speakers to rest (vintage technics, restored... and i still love them for some types of music actually) i love how music plays in nearfield but i wanted something more modern and modern means better, right???.... right??
before talking good about them i will talk about the bad things so
the bad:
- this ARE NOT NEAR FIELD SPEAKERS, they are not designed for that, the bass is really boomy and makes my head to ache (maybe the monitor audio radius 90 could work, but not this ones) nor mini monitors (or are they??? )
- yes, the port resonanses are heavy in this ones (and so the bass output) but by far not as bad as shown in this review, i've done some tests and i can prove it
- very hard to drive... most people won't use a >100WPC amp but if you do THEY WILL BLOW YOUR BRAINS OUT!!!!
- will only sound nice with a flat response integrated amp such as yamaha, etc... anything that enhances bass will ruin the experience
- they suck at low volume, very dull
- to be honest, specially compared with my tehnics (SB-F1 and F3) they suck at imaging and lack of a wide scenario; it is really descent, though... this are not the type of speakers that disappears, wich is rare for the size and also... i think the drivers are not in phase, it is easy to distinguish what the woofer does and what the tweeter does in near field, but not bad by any means, it is just that they are so small i tought they should be better at that
- lots of bass but lacks of extension, kinda obvious

the good:
- for a near field experience you need a magic trick: JUST SEAL THE PORTS!!!! the resonanses go away and so the mid range improves a lot, is cleaner and clearer... even for open field in a room, doing this improves the presentation of the speaker and while the bass gets dry, it gets some extra extension so more detail to the bass... anyway, you can seal the ports and add +2 or +4 db in bass for compensation, and if you EQ, things can get really suprising for the bass extention you might get... in near field there won't be any need for a sub, also this are so low sensitivity that even if you use a dirty sounding amp it will sound dead silence
- yes, is weird, but the mid range is actually smooth and lay back while maintaining some expresion in vocals, specially once a mid volume is reached and beyond... the 3K peak is non existent and i know that 'cause heavy metal guitar solos sounds so well even at loud volumes, expresive but far from harsh or fatiguing and i am really sensitive in those frequencies
- for me, the tweeter is amazing, the star of the show, you get really nice sharp and metallic tone experience while not fatiguing.... cymbals in acoustic jazz sounds amazing, they sparkle very nice and gentle once they wake up with some volume (close to sonus faber).... also, the detail resolution is very good... i mean, this is not a high end experience or anything but i really think is good
- they can play LOUD if you have the gear.... i mean, i get scared for how loud they can play while i get 0 mechanical distortions from the bass driver and no one seems to care about this fact... the mid range don't lose quality (the port gets chofy, though.... get the port sealed and issue solved!!)... i push hard with the marantz 2230 but with the knob at 1 or 2 o'clock 30W is enough to fill a mid bed room with >80db and i can't belive how the drivers move while not having mehcanical distortions
- this things KICKS, the bass is bloated in 200 to 100Hz region but it does not sound dry (unless you seal the ports), it sounds kicking and with a nice sence of power, the only issue here is the mudded mid range, speacially at near field as i just said

i will show how i like to EQ em with ports sealed, the sensitibity gets lower at 80dB, but at near field you don't need that much power or loudness... in open field i get scared, really for how deep they can play... the box starts to resonate and creates the "acoustic suspension", of course they should have a HPF that prevents excessive excursion

lastly: THIS IS NOT A SPEAKER FOR THOSE WHO SEEK PRECISION IN SOUND.... i see this speakers as little bass mosnters that are for those who seek for the "american" type of sound, still hip-hop music plays at the upper octaves of the bass region 'cuase yes there is a lot of bass but a lack of extension BUT:
for those who like heavy metal, and classic rock music and pop from the 70's, 80's 90's, EDM and that stuff midi-fi, low-fi music, you will love them, 100% recomended, speacially for metal heads... still not bad for high quality records too BUT i almost never get a goosebump

graphs: using blue yeti and HQ pink noise the bass is a mess with this mic... ignore <100Hz freqs
1- near field no EQ
2- 5 feet away, ports sealed and EQ (sorry for not having a test with only ports sealed and no EQ, the sound should be cleaner) BTW you can see there is a peak at 40Hz... and while far from precision we can see the mic is reacting to very low frequencies
3- EQ preset using foobar

BTW the nakamichi amplifier 1 is lean in mid bass, so maybe this is why we don't see such a bloated bass, but still, hears heavy

 

[Teeter]

@DavyRockstar I am happy you are good with the P3 as that is all that matters to your ears. Not everyone's ears are the same. You have to try for confirmation or not.

 

[DavyRockstar]

@DavyRockstar I am happy you are good with the P3 as that is all that matters to your ears. Not everyone's ears are the same. You have to try for confirmation or not.

well i think there is a lot of psycho acoustics in the design of this things, is like "cold engineering" vs "engineering focus in client preferences", measurements vs ear tuning (or what sounds better for the designer with a designated budget) so i can really understand the headless panther here, but i think is fair to say that the actual experience provided is really nice
i have listened to the alpha B1s.... and, at least with a entry level gear, is amazing how loud the P3/P5 can play without being fatiguing so, even if the B1 have better measurements, fot me is a win all the way for the newer P models, specially if you like rock & roll and regular to mediocre records... the b1 is very "in your face" type of sound in comparison (maybe with higher tier components the B1 could sound better, but the same can apply with the P models... and as i said synergy with a lean in bass integrated amp is important)

 

[ricardomontalbahn77]

Thanks for measuring these. This is a surprising result. I had the Alpha P3's in for a few months and truly enjoyed my experience with them. At around the same time, I also had the SVS Ultra Bookshelf speakers, and there was nothing I could do made the Ultras sound half as good in my room as the PSB Alpha P3's.

I've noticed that objective performance of the SVS was quite good here. Somehow, this did not translate to my room and system while the PSB was great. The SVS had kind-of a hooty upper midrange that especially affected female vocals. I had them on 26 in. Sanus stands. Perhaps the tweeter height was too low for the Ultra's when I evaluated them? The tone and timbre of the PSB's sounded "just right."

These results are a bit head-scratching, but the numbers don't lie.

I agree with the poster above. The measurements that you perform are impressive. Despite the results, I got a pair of Alpha P3 and for their size they really sound smooth. have had 100s of speakers and several PSBs and not heard a PSB speaker that I didn't like. The P3s seem well suited to listening to vinyl as I believe has been noted in the other positive reviews shown at other sites. They also need good power. I just joined this site for the reason that I find it interesting that several reviews if I recall correctly, (alpha p3, Kefq100, elac ub5 ) had poor/mediocre ratings in your tests yet I found they sound very good. This is intriguing and speaks to the fun of this audio hobby as what may sound good to one person may not sound as good to another. There are also many variables including the quality of the amps etc.. Happy Listening!

 

[4Real]

Thanks for measuring these. This is a surprising result. I had the Alpha P3's in for a few months and truly enjoyed my experience with them. At around the same time, I also had the SVS Ultra Bookshelf speakers, and there was nothing I could do made the Ultras sound half as good in my room as the PSB Alpha P3's.

I've noticed that objective performance of the SVS was quite good here. Somehow, this did not translate to my room and system while the PSB was great. The SVS had kind-of a hooty upper midrange that especially affected female vocals. I had them on 26 in. Sanus stands. Perhaps the tweeter height was too low for the Ultra's when I evaluated them? The tone and timbre of the PSB's sounded "just right."

These results are a bit head-scratching, but the numbers don't lie.

numbers can lie. I have P3s and they are awesome near field speakers Believe your ears.

 

[4Real]

I rated this a "Poor (headless panther)" - just way too expensive for a speaker showing so many flaws combined with being very difficult to drive.

have you ever listened to these speakers?

 

[ricardomontalbahn77]

have you ever listened to these speakers?

They are very good sounding speakers to my ears. Never heard a PSB speaker I didn't like. PSB 300 is still one of my favorite classic bookshelf speakers.

 

[Robbo99999]

have you ever listened to these speakers?

It didn't measure well and didn't perform well in Amir's listening tests, hence a poor rating from me in vote, that's completely normal. Nope, you don't have to listen to a speaker to vote in the poll, the poll is people's opinion & judgement based on the facts of the review.

 

[GrayA]

Cheapaudioman says they are end game

 

[4Real]

It didn't measure well and didn't perform well in Amir's listening tests, hence a poor rating from me in vote, that's completely normal. Nope, you don't have to listen to a speaker to vote in the poll, the poll is people's opinion & judgement based on the facts of the review.

wow

 

[4Real]

Near field measurements are not calibrated. Distance from driver varies and i mess with them a bit by eye.

those are fantastic near field speakers

 

[amirm]

Cheapaudioman says they are end game

He is fun to watch. Take his videos as entertainment and not any truth telling about high fidelity and you will be good.

 

[4Real]

He is fun to watch. Take his videos as entertainment and not any truth telling about high fidelity and you will be good.

he says they are end game under $250. you left that part out. they are excellent near field speakers for that price. if you are trying to fill a large room with speakers that small then that is on you.

 

[amirm]

he says they are end game under $250. you left that part out. they are excellent near field speakers for that price. if you are trying to fill a large room with speakers that small then that is on you.

I don't care what he says about their sound. His assessments has no reliability associated with them. He either needs to measure or test in a controlled manner to produce useful information. And no, these speakers are not end game in any scenario, near or far field. Objective measurements show it to be very flawed.

 

[cbracer]

Excellent video..... I can't wait to finally put my pair up for sale! If anyone thinks these are the "end game" then please make me an offer....
There are songs that sound great on any set of speakers. Especially this one. But for my likes I want a speaker that can sound good with all songs. Not just one or two. If you like a thump bass (with a small speaker?) and don't care about missing some low middle frequency pocket of sound then these are great. And cheapaudioman even said this set of speakers is missing some frequencies, and that's what I heard too. I actually do like the guy and his videos, taken with a grain of salt, he does have some good recommendations. For me he confimed my thoughts on listening to music at a low volume, that is you need a little extra bass because the bass goes away more than other frequencies when the volume goes down. So this set of speakers with extra bass will avoid that pitfall when listening to music at lower volumes on your desk. I've experienced this problem with any normal / large bookshelf speaker. But if you want balanced sound that doesn't change the way a song was suppose to sound, then these are not the "end game". But for a specific type of music they probably sound good to a lot of people. So who wants mine? Perfect condition, original box, played for only a week.

 

[4Real]

I don't care what he says about their sound. His assessments has no reliability associated with them. He either needs to measure or test in a controlled manner to produce useful information. And no, these speakers are not end game in any scenario, near or far field. Objective measurements show it to be very flawed.

the only thing flawed here is your narrow minded assessment. I've heard these speakers in the near field. They are excellent no matter the price. I've known other people who have heard these speakers who also love them. Lastly he did measure them. He measured them with his ears.