With Rocky Mountain Audio Fest set to begin in Denver on September 6th, manufacturers are starting to pull the curtain back on some new products that will be introduced for the first time this weekend. PSB Speakers; which is owned by the Lenbrook Group (parent company for NAD, Bluesound) will be in attendance and introducing two affordable subwoofers as part of their Alpha line-up. The Alpha S10 ($549.95 USD) and Alpha S8 ($449.95) are joining the successful Alpha line-up which include the P3 and P5 bookshelf loudspeakers.
A pair of Alpha P5s have been under review for the past few weeks in my office system and are proving to be quite the over-achiever for only $400. Both the P5 and P3 are not designed to deliver a lot of low end response; hence the need for an appropriate subwoofer to fill out the bottom end.
The PSB Speakers Alpha S10 and S8 are fairly compact subwoofers and look like a viable option for those looking to augment the bass response of their existing Alpha loudspeakers or other bookshelf loudspeakers. $549 for an active subwoofer with a 10″ long-throw driver built to PSB’s usual level of quality should be an attractive proposition for music and movie nuts with smaller budgets to work with.
The subwoofer category is getting very crowded with a number of affordable options from SVS, REL, and Klipsch earning high praise from the press and consumers. Music lovers who have a firm budget of $1,000 for loudspeakers have more options than ever if they are leaning towards bookshelf/subwoofer combinations. The PSB Alpha series only expands the level of choice even wider.
From the press release:
“The S10 and S8 are DSP-controlled powered subwoofers utilizing long-throw drivers and efficient, bass-extending bass reflex enclosures. The built-in high efficiency digital amplifiers deliver 210W of dynamic power for unconstrained deep-bass peaks and musical accuracy.
The Alpha S10 and S8 subs are both bass reflex designs with a rear port housed in compact cabinets of black woodgrain. The S10 features a 10” woofer with polypropylene cone and rubber surround while the Alpha S8 sports an 8” woofer. Other than woofer size, the two new PSB subs have similar feature sets and utilize the same 150-Watt digital amplifier and variable crossover from 50-150Hz.”
On the rear panel are volume and crossover controls, phase switch, low level input, autoOn/standby switch, gold-plated RCAs, USB power jack for RT100 wireless accessory, and supplied rubber bumpers and spikes allow for installation on hardwood or carpeted floors.
DailyHiFi has already requested a review sample of the PSB Speakers S10 for late-October and we’re looking forward to hearing how the Alpha subwoofers measure up.
For more information: PSB Speakers
