psb Speaker
PSB Synchrony S
PSB Synchrony S
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About the PSB Synchrony S
Experience truly enveloping sound with these innovative surround speakers
PSB's Synchrony S speakers give you seamless surround effects along with flexible setup and placement options. Your eyes will appreciate this speaker's simple, sophisticated looks, and your ears will appreciate PSB's precise driver design. They feature two aluminum baffles set at an angle to each other, each containing a 1" tweeter mounted below a 5-1/4" woofer. Their Tri-mode Surround™ design means you can wire them in three different configurations, depending on your setup:
- dipole: gives you diffuse sound, ideal when the speakers are placed to the sides of the listening area
- bipole: more direct sound, better for when the speakers are placed behind the listening area
- dual monopole: wire one set of drivers to a "surround" channel, and the other to a "rear" channel on your receiver — lets you take advantage of 6.1- or 7.1-channel sound using only a single pair of speakers in the back of your room
PSB's Synchrony speaker family (Synchrony S shown far right)
"The Synchrony S surround speakers were equally adept...I heard very nearly zero discontinuity from center to fronts to surrounds, which approaches the finest performance I've encountered."
—Dan Kumin, Sound+Vision, November 2007
Great sound begins with quality driver materials
The titanium dome tweeters are carefully crafted to produce smooth, accurate highs free from distortion and grain. The woofer cones are made of fine-weave fiberglass, which creates a stiff, self-damping cone. You'll hear exceptionally clean mids with excellent detail and tonal accuracy. Extra-large voice coils and virtually distortion-free motor structures help preserve clarity and detail. Plus the rigid, cast aluminum baskets are magnetically inert for maximum efficiency.
The woofers use lightweight, rigid fine-weave fiberglass cones for exceptionally smooth response.
The tweeters use high-flux neodymium magnets to maintain clear, accurate highs, even during dynamic peaks like explosions or cymbal crashes.
Top-notch crossover ensures optimal sound dispersion
PSB's years of design experience and tireless testing at the National Research Council in Canada have led to a superior crossover design. The high-quality components are carefully picked to create the fourth-order crossovers that go into Synchrony speakers. Meticulous engineering ensures minimal driver overlap, with precisely chosen crossover points to maintain proper dispersion. The result is a smooth frequency response over a wide "sweet-spot."
A solid cabinet with a luxurious, real-wood veneer finish
Extruded aluminum front and back panels hold the curved, seven-layered side panels in place, creating an incredibly rigid, acoustically inert cabinet.
Heavy, rigid cabinets helps eliminate vibrations to to keep the sound pure. The double-walled aluminum side surfaces hold the curved wood panels in place. Each wood panel is constructed using seven layers of MDF, each one individually laminated to improve the panel's stiffness and absorb sonic energy that might otherwise color the sound. The top and side panels are clad in real wood veneer that's hand selected for its beauty and quality.
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Product highlights:
- frequency response: 62-23,000 Hz (±3dB)
- sensitivity: 88 dB
- 4-ohm impedance — suited for high-current amplifiers
- recommended power: 15-150 watts
- two 1" titanium dome tweeters with neodymium magnets
- two 5-1/4" fine-weave fiberglass woofers
- rigid cast aluminum baskets
- bass reflex (ported) design
- hand-selected, real wood veneer finish
- dipole/bipole/dual channel monopole wiring options
- two sets of gold-plated five way binding posts — can be bi-wired
- 11-1/8"W x 13-1/4"H x 7-3/4"D
- MFR # Synchrony S BK
What's in the box:
PSB Synchrony S owner's manual
- 2 Dipole/Bipole surround speakers
- 4 Grilles (installed)
- 8 Adhesive backed rubber feet
- 4 Input terminal jumpers (installed)
- 4 Input terminal jumper wires (each is 3" long and has spade connectors on both ends)
- 2 Wall mount brackets
- 8 Drywall anchors
- 8 Drywall screws
- Owner's manual (English/ French/ Spanish)
- Wall mounting template
- psb website information
Features & specs
| Enclosure | Acoustic Suspension | |
| Bipole or Dipole | Switchable | |
| Tweeter | Dome | |
| Midrange size (inches) | --- | |
| Woofer size (inches) | 5-1/4 | |
| Connector Type | 5-way posts | |
| Power Range | 15-150 | |
| Sensitivity | 88 dB | |
| Impedance (Ohms) | 4 | |
| Frequency Response | 62-23k Hz | |
| Height (inches) | 13 1/4 | |
| Width (inches) | 11 1/8 | |
| Depth (inches) | 7 3/4 | |
| Weight (pounds) | 20 | |
| Mounting Bracket Included | Yes | |
Driver Technology
Surround Design: A Synchrony S speaker is two 2-way speakers built into one triangular shaped cabinet; each having its own woofer, tweeter, and crossover. The drivers are mounted on baffles facing in different directions, approximately 120° apart. Because the two speaker sections are wired to discrete terminals there are multiple ways to connect the drivers; as a dipole speaker (out of phase using the included jumper wires), as a bipole speaker (in phase using the factory installed jumpers), or as two separate channels. If you're mounting the speakers on the side walls in line with your listening position, the dipole mode will create a diffuse, ambient soundfield. If you're placing them behind your listening position, the bipole mode fires the drivers in phase to flood the area with surround sound. It's also possible to use one pair of Synchrony S speakers for both surround and surround back channels, wiring the forward firing baffles to the surround channels and the rear firing baffles to the surround back channels.
Cone Design: The woofer cones are a laminated sandwich design; each has a fine weave fiberglass layer along with a compressed, felted natural fiber laminate. The result is a rigid cone with added damping properties. The central dustcap offers a second connection to the voice coil to improve bass and midrange control. The inherent distortion resulting from the magnetic field generated by the input signal reacting with the field in the magnetic structure's air gap and the self-induction and impedance that varies with cone movement are addressed using an aluminum shorting ring within the magnet structure, an aluminum phase plug on the pole piece, and a shorted copper turn on top of the pole piece. The aluminum phase plug also mechanically smoothes the response and acts as a heat sink for the voice coil, reducing power compression. The drivers use cast aluminum baskets and rubber surrounds.
Tweeters: The 1" titanium, Ferrofluid cooled dome tweeters have a neodymium motor structure and an aluminum heat sink. The mass (low) and stiffness (high) are optimized for the required wide frequency response.
Crossover Network: The crossovers (two networks per speaker) are 2-way acoustical fourth order Linkwitz-Riley type with a 24 dB/octave slope. Tight tolerances were used when choosing the crossover components; heavy multi-laminated iron cores are used for large value inductors, high gauge wire air core inductors are used for medium and small values, all the capacitors are low loss and film capacitors are used for the midrange and treble frequencies.
Enclosure Design
Cabinet: The cabinet is an integral part of speaker design and has a dramatic effect on the overall sound of a speaker. PSB uses a combination of aluminum and wood in the construction of the Synchrony S. Both speaker baffles are made of double wall aluminum extrusions. The aluminum panels are very rigid and precisely machined with contours to preserve the sonic characteristics of the drivers. The front, top, and bottom panels are seven layers of 3mm MDF, curved for added stiffness, with a wood veneer exterior. While rigid, MDF also has inherent damping properties to absorb energy that might otherwise color the music.
Connections
Dual Binding Posts: The dual 5-way binding post input terminals are located on the lower rear of the speaker cabinet. Out of the box the two sets of binding posts are shorted together (in phase) by gold-plated jumpers. With the jumpers removed the two sections of the speaker can be wired out of phase (dipole) using the included jumper wires, or wired to separate channels. The binding posts will accept spade connectors, single or dual banana plugs, pin connectors, and bare wire up to 8 gauge.
Mounting Options
Mounting: The Synchrony S can be wall mounted using the included brackets. The bracket adds approximately 3/16" to the depth of the speaker.
Specifications
Frequency Response:
- On Axis @ 0°: 62-23,000 Hz (+/-3 dB)
- On Axis @ 0°: 65-20,000 Hz (+/-1.5 dB)
- Off Axis @ 30°: 65-10,000 Hz (+/-1.5 dB)
- Low Frequency Cutoff -10 dB: 55 Hz
Sensitivity:
- Anechoic Chamber: 86 dB
- Typical Listening Room: 88 dB
