Any current or former PSB Stratus Gold i owners here?

Cold_Forged

My 20 year old PSB Stratus Gold i tweeters are showing their age and I am going to replace the ferrofluid to see if that revives their diminished output. I tried replacing the original Vifa aluminum dome tweeters with Peerless silk domes, but their output was at least 2db too high and a good Mundorf Resistor L-Pad is in order to balance them (another tentative project if the ferrofluid replacement doesn't revive the old Vifas).

In the meantime, I have ordered a new pair of LSiM 703s for only $800 CDN / $600 USD from Best Buy Canada. They are probably much better suited for my 11' x 17' listening room anyway. Has anyone else replaced large towers with the 703s? They will primarily be used for 2-Channel music and no subwoofer is planned.

rooftop59

If you have a good strong amp and good sturdy stands, those lsims will fill that room nicely. You will lose some bass but you will be shocked how much bass those bookies put out...


I think you got your money’s worth at 20 years 😂

Cold_Forged

rooftop59 wrote: »

I think you got your money’s worth at 20 years 😂

Thanks, and yes, $125 per year for ownership of an audiophile grade speaker is not too bad
However, I am tired of moving the 96 lb behemoths around, which is why I am going to try the 703 bookshelf speakers.

In a smaller to medium sized room the Stratus Golds tended to be rather bass-heavy.
My old Adcom GFA 5800 was good at controlling the bass and keeping it tight, but it died recently due to leaking capacitors (dissolving and shorting the circuit boards). I'm hoping my Yamaha R-S700 with 100 wpc and relatively high current output (for a receiver) will be adequate to drive the 703s.

Word of Warning to Adcom amp owners: If the amp starts popping when you turn it on/off or if it starts smelling like rotting fish...something bad is about to happen! Get the capacitors replaced before the circuit boards are irreparably damaged.

Cold_Forged

My LSiM703s were delivered in perfect shape by Canada Post just 2 days after ordering from Best Buy.

It took a few hours before they started to sound good and the imaging became cohesive. Initially the upper and lower frequencies were somewhat restricted, but they have opened up nicely. They don't have the subsonics like my Stratus Golds, but the bass they do present is deep and tight. When listening to Stepping Out by Diana Krall it would seem that the portrayal of stringed instruments such as double bass (whether plucked or bowed) and cello is more realistic than on any other speaker I have owned. Female voices like Diana Krall and Norah Jones are liquid smooth without being strident or overly sibilant. Cymbals shimmer and decay very realistically.

Overall I am very pleased, except for a buzzing cabinet resonance that started in one speaker when I played Into the Labyrinth by Dead Can Dance. After taking the entire speaker apart (except the cross-over), the culprit seems to have been a loose woofer. The screws were only finger tight and the flange gasket had shifted allowing the flange to directly contact the cabinet in 2 places. I added some more foam gasket tape, tightened the screws, and all seems good now. Polk has chosen to cut costs by using very coarse and short wood screws (whereas my PSBs have nutserts and long machine screws). Based on this experience, it is quite likely that I will need to check all the screws in both speakers periodically to make sure they haven't loosened.