PSB celebrates its 50th Anniversary with an all-new Synchrony line that includes the T600 Tower Speaker I’ll be reviewing today. It’s a ground-up design that packs all of Paul Barton’s vast experience into a single product.

PSB Synchrony T600 Tower Speaker

The PSB Synchrony T600 Tower Speaker takes everything Paul Barton has learned over 50 years as a speaker designer and packs it into a single product. With carbon fiber drivers, a five-way transitional array design, a milled aluminum faceplate, and special isolator feet from ISO Acoustics, it takes the Canadian sound to a whole new level.

Highlights

PSB Synchrony T600 Tower Speaker

  • Tower speaker with three 6.5” woofers and a 5.25” midrange driver made from carbon fiber
  • 1” Titanium dome tweeter with neodymium magnet and ferrofluid damping
  • Five-way transitional array design
  • Bass reflex design with three ports extends bass to 24Hz
  • Amplitude-perfect Linkwitz-Riley 4th-order acoustic crossover
  • Isolator feet from ISO Acoustics
  • Milled aluminum faceplate
  • Premium finish available in gloss black or walnut veneer
Introduction

For PSB, the Synchrony line has always held a special place in the hearts and ears of Canadian speaker fans. I’ll come clean right up front; I am one of them. The neutral and balanced sound that comes from this school of speaker design is something I always go back to. I review and listen to many different products but returning to my Axioms is like coming home after a long journey.

Paul Barton, founder, and chief designer at PSB is part of this school that began with Floyd Toole and continues today in the designs of Ian Colquhoun, Kevin Voecks, Matthew Polk, and others. You’ll hear this philosophy not only from PSB but also Axiom, Revel, Polk, Monitor Audio, and many other companies.

This latest iteration of the Synchrony line first appeared in 2021. About a year ago, I reviewed the B600 Bookshelf Speakers and enjoyed their accurate and neutral sound with controlled bass and beautifully detailed mid and high-range presentation. I was also impressed with their construction which comes to me again today as I unpack a gorgeous set of T600 Tower Speakers. They were the flagship of the line until recently when the larger T800s were announced. For my modestly sized room though, the T600 is just about perfect. With a five-way transitional array that includes three 6.5-inch woofers and a 5.25-inch midrange with carbon fiber cones along with a single 1-inch titanium dome tweeter, managed by a 4th order Linkwitz-Riley amplitude-perfect crossover, I know I’m in for some addictive listening. Let’s take a closer look.

PSB Synchrony T600 Tower Speaker Specifications
Type:

Five-way transitional array bass reflex tower speaker

Woofers:

3x 6.5” carbon fiber, cast basket, rubber surround, individually chambered

Midrange:

1x 5.25” carbon fiber, cast basket, rubber surround

Tweeter:

1x titanium dome, ferrofluid damped

Crossovers:

3rd Order Butterworth – 450Hz, 4th Order Linkwitz-Riley – 1,800Hz

Ports:

3x rear facing (port plugs included)

Frequency response:

24-23,000Hz (+3db)

Sensitivity:

89dB anechoic, 91dB in-room

Impedance:

4 Ohms

Input power:

20-300 watts

Dimensions:

9” W x 41.25” H x 13.5” D

Weight:

77lbs each

Finish:

Satin Walnut, Gloss Black

PSB Synchrony T600 Tower Speaker Price:

$8,999/pair

Company:

PSB Speakers

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Design

PSB Synchrony T600 Tower Speaker at a glance

Though Synchrony speakers have been with us for some time, the latest generation which includes the B600 Bookshelf and today’s subject, the T600 Tower, takes the lessons of past designs and adds the latest materials and a major effort to isolate the different components from each other, from the cabinet and from the floor.

PSB Synchrony T600 Tower Speaker Subwoofer

Starting with the drivers, with lightness and rigidity as the primary goal, the woofer and midrange cones are made from carbon fiber with rubber surrounds. This makes them extremely quick transitionally, with the ability to go from loud to soft in an instant, all without any audible distortion. It also makes them easier to control by the motor. Cast baskets keep everything together and help isolate the drivers from the cabinet. This isolation is furthered by a milled aluminum front baffle. It’s five millimeters thick which may not sound like a lot but believe me, when you’re talking about a metal plate, that’s thick. For reference, a typical car body is only one millimeter thick. The baffle is anodized black, then the borders and driver cutouts are milled to expose and polish the natural aluminum underneath. The visual effect is stunning. The baffle is black whether you choose the gloss black or walnut finish. I received the former for review and it is premium all the way, like high-end furniture. The grill is magnetic and covered by a thin acoustically transparent fabric. In my observation, it made no sonic difference on or off.

PSB Synchrony T600 Tower Speaker Exploded View

The three 6.5-inch woofers each have their own chamber with a port in back to extend them down to 24Hz. Two port plugs are included in the box to tailor the sound to your room. I put the T600s 16 inches from the back wall and didn’t need them. Bass is extremely well controlled.

The 5.25-inch midrange shares its internal chamber with the one-inch titanium dome tweeter. It projects from an acoustic waveguide and is ferrofluid damped and cooled. There are two crossovers, a 3rd Order Butterworth at 450Hz and a sophisticated 4th Order Linkwitz-Riley design, at 1,800Hz.

PSB Synchrony T600 Tower Speaker Exploded Feet View

A major feature included with the T600s are the ISO Acoustics Isolator feet. The subject of how to decouple speakers from the floor has been discussed at length by many enthusiasts and engineers. The bottom line is that you don’t want any vibration from the cabinet to get to the floor. Speakers like the T600 already have very inert cabinets but there will always be some vibration, especially at high volumes. Most people with carpets use spikes but I have found better and tighter bass by using the biggest rubber feet I could find. PSB obviously agrees with this philosophy as the ISO Acoustics Gaia IIs included here are quite substantial. They bolt to an outrigger-style base plate made from thick metal. The feet have an internal mechanism that separates the bolt from the rubber base and can be used to level the speakers if needed. I’m confident that this was why I didn’t need the port plugs. My room has a bass mode at around 35Hz but for the T600s to excite it, I had to turn the volume up past a comfortable level. It’s like free room correction without the deleterious effect of digital filters.

PSB Synchrony T600 Tower Speaker Exploded Back View

In the back, you can see the three bass ports, one for each woofer chamber. The three sets of binding posts support tri-amping or tri-wiring. A triple jumper comes installed and if you’d like to bi-wire or bi-amp, a double jumper is in the box. The ports are also anchored to an aluminum plate which helps them remain stable. They never chuffed or honked during my listening sessions.

Setup

The T600s arrived in large boxes which mercifully opened the long way allowing me to easily extract the heavy cabinets without having to lift the boxes off them. Everything is well protected by flexible foam, not the crumbly kind which I loathe. The feet and jumpers are in a separate box as are the grills. I threaded the feet into the already-installed metal baseplates, then added the retainer caps on top. I didn’t need to level the cabinets as my carpet covers a uniform concrete floor. The tweeters were almost exactly at the height of my ears when seated.

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I left the triple jumpers in place as I attached a single pair of cables to each tower. The binding posts are of very high quality and easily accepted my locking banana plugs after I picked out the little plastic bits that come in every speaker’s binding posts these days. 10AWG Blue Jeans cables were attached to an Emotiva XPA-5 power amplifier with an Anthem AVM-70 Preamp/Processor connected via Blue Jeans XLRs.

I used Apple AirPlay as the music source. My entire library is ripped CDs, so the streams are bit-perfect representations of the original discs.

In Use

I always spend my first few listening sessions with classical music. It is the most difficult genre for any speaker to reproduce, especially when the listener is in the business. I have heard and played so much music in so many settings that it’s rare that I ever say, “That was a first!” anymore. When I listen to a recording on a revealing speaker, I can immediately picture the hall, the stage, and how the musicians are seated.

Matthias Racz’s

Matthias Racz’s “Bassoon Concertos”

The first album I auditioned was Matthias Racz’s collection of bassoon concertos. He is a good example for me because his tone is very familiar as we play on the same brand of bassoon. The T600s told me everything I needed to know, what alternate fingerings he used, how he was situated relative to the orchestra, and even his phrasing and breathing patterns. Of all the Canadian speakers I’ve heard, the T600s most define the sound I’ve always loved.

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Various

Various “Mendelssohn Symphonies”

Moving on to an orchestra selection, I went through my new set of Mendelssohn Symphonies performed live by the Chamber Orchestra of Europe. It was clear that a lot of post-production processing had been done to eliminate the audience sounds because the recording sounded quite dry. The instruments were clearly presented, and it all sounded very musical, but the ambiance and airiness of the performance were absent. I used this opportunity to try the port plugs in a few different configurations. With two plugs and three ports per speaker, you have some options. In my room, all they did was remove the spaciousness from the music. I had no bass issues to tame in the first place so after a bit of trial and error, out they came.

I turned next to the flowing lines of Chopin and Idil Biret’s album of his best-known works. The long phrases of Fantaisie Impromptu moved delicately with no blooming or strident notes. The piano’s tone is very thick here with lots of high partials that sometimes pop out of the texture. The T600s kept this tendency under control. The detail level was so fine that I could hear the soft thud of the damper pedal as she moved between different phrases. I could also clearly tell that the recording space was large, like an empty recital hall or perhaps a big studio room. It wasn’t too reverberant, but the appropriate wetness was there.

I finished my classical listening with a trip through Rossini’s Bassoon Concerto performed by Italian bassoonist Sergio Azzolini. His sound is very different from Matthias Racz’s being a more dark and European tone. His instrument is quite different from mine and the T600s made that obvious. He was nicely separated from the orchestra, but I could hear the accompanying bassoons playing as if they wanted to be up front. Strings were far from the mush I often hear with nice detail and separation. I could almost count the number of violinists. Details like the soloist’s breaths and key clicks were a clear and welcome addition to the presentation.

Greatest Hits / White Album

Queen / The Beatles “Greatest Hits / White Album”

To answer the question, “Do the T600s rock?”, I turned to some classic selections. Trying to avoid over-processed and synthesized music, I started with The Beatles’ White Album. Tracks like Revolution and Back in the USSR had their familiar sound but with far more bass than I usually hear. Thinking back to previous auditions of this music, I remembered that I usually had to adjust the floppy bass away to prevent it from overwhelming the rest of the mix but with the T600s, bass control was simply on another level. I could hear the plucking of Paul’s strings as each pitch sounded with its own personality. This is the best-controlled bass I’ve ever heard from a full-range speaker, bar none.

Listening to Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody and Another One Bites the Dust, the bass was again uncannily detailed. It was loud for sure, but it never sounded out of balance. I wasn’t using any room correction, nor did I employ the port plugs. The bass quality was just outstanding. It would satisfy any bass head while keeping its place in the mix.

Nirvana

Nirvana “Nevermind / Unplugged in New York”

Nirvana is another example of pure analog music, recorded thoughtfully. The bass and kick drums sat in the back with lots of presence but were also tuneful and musical. So many rock songs make the bass part of the percussion to where you can barely distinguish the bass strings from the bass drum. The T600s turn the bass guitar into a melodic instrument. I’m not sure I’ve ever said that before. I certainly have never felt it before.

I also listened to Nirvana’s MTV Unplugged performance to get a bit more raw music into my ears. Though the acoustic guitars are clearly amplified in this performance, they played with a lot of honesty. The percussive elements became part of the melody rather than simply mixed in with the drums. Dave Grohl’s kit playing was almost mesmerizing in its balance and precision.

Conclusions

PSB SYNCRONY T600 TOWER SPEAKERS Full setup

While the PSB SYNCRONY T600 TOWER SPEAKERS are a premium purchase at $8,999 a pair, they easily exceed the quality of much more expensive speakers, some costing many times more.

Likes
  • Balanced and neutral sound
  • Fantastic bass control
  • Stunning fit and finish
Would Like To See
  • No flaws in my observation

If you are a fan of the Canadian sound, I strongly urge you to give the PSB Synchrony T600 Tower Speakers a listen. They play with unfailing neutrality, perfect balance and the best-controlled bass I’ve ever experienced in a single cabinet speaker. With fit and finish to rival the very best and most expensive speakers available, they almost seem a steal at $8,999 a pair. That’s a premium purchase for sure but honestly, I can’t imagine better sound at even twice the price.

PSB has literally put everything into these speakers. They’ve been designed from the ground up and no detail has been left unaddressed. From the precise drivers to the stone-like cabinet and its isolated aluminum front baffle and high-tech feet, everything here is devoted to delivering the best possible audio performance.

The PSB Synchrony T600 Tower Speakers are quite simply, the best speakers I’ve ever heard in my home. While I’ve had the chance to audition some frightfully expensive speakers at shows or in specialty shops, none have left so many positive memories as these.