PSB Speakers Today
More than 45 years after PSB Speakers was founded in a small, rural Canadian town, a few things, like new ownership by Lenbrook International and expanded global distribution of the brand beyond North America, has changed. But Paul continues to play a key role in product development as Chief Acoustics Designer, and it’s still the case that all PSB speakers are voiced in the anechoic chambers of the NRC in Ottawa, Canada, thereby staying true to the brand’s core values to create the most natural sounding speakers that research can yield.

Beyond the Passion – Scientific Support
One of the main reasons Paul designed his speakers is because at the beginning of his career there was no speaker that he can consider as natural sounding that is also affordable. As a violinist, he wants the type of speakers that are “inspired by nature.” However, subjective listening is not enough.
One aspect that PSB Speakers considers of utmost importance is their dedication to psychoacoustics research. PSB’s relationship with the NRC (National Research Council) is their foothold to producing high performing, reliable loudspeakers.As Paul Barton once stated, “Perfecting a listening experience, we find, cannot be done by simply listening, but by measuring the loudspeaker and by controlled listening tests –  double blind tests.”

A lot of the design direction and philosophy has come out of what people’s preferences were when listening in a double blind screen listening environment. And, of course, that changes all the time. Listening preferences… dispersion, dynamic range, the ability to play the softest versus the loudest passage in music, and the bandwidth – which means how deep does it go and how high does it go. And certainly everything in between is only as good as it can be.”

Our Philosophy: Performance & Value
To offer high performance solutions at a reasonable cost.
PSB, like any company, points to four attributes for their products: Performance. Appearance. Value. And Reliability. Performance is the main objective in delivering products. PSB evaluates loudspeakers in an anechoic chamber, and compares them with room measurements and listener preferences in various rooms. Value is equally important. Appearance is also very important. Everyone has different tastes and PSB works hard to supply a broad range of sizes and applications (in-room, in-wall/in-ceiling, and in-cabinet styles) to appeal to everyone.
Reliability – it has to work. Along with performance, reliability is equally on the mind of the consumer purchasing audio equipment. With the endurance tests that we put our systems through on a daily basis, with high highs and deep lows, it’s got to withstand. PSB’s psychoacoustics research includes testing the critical interaction between loudspeaker, listener and room acoustics.