Stereophile GUIDE to HT-Platinum
Published by: Stereophile GUIDE to HOME THEATRE
Date of Issue: January 2004
Reviewer: Wes Phillips
"…The M2’s open, airy, silky-smooth top end .... clicked on virtually all program material."
| M2 SURROUND SEPAKER SYSTEM PSB Platinum M2 I’ve had a soft spot for PSB speakers ever since I received the first Stratus Gold for Stereophile back in 1991. Counting updates (the Gold I was introduced in 1997), the Gold has been PSB’s flagship speaker for 12 years. That’s quite a run in speakerland, where new models sprout like mushrooms. PSB’s flagship series is now the Platinum, introduced in late 2003. The new line is the product of several years of design effort involving the latest techniques, including Finite Element Analysis, laser vibrometry and computer optimization. …the S2 apart form being one of the most solidly constructed surrounds I’ve seen…. …is also one of the most flexible. The two pairs of rear terminals are not biwire connections, but direct connections to each woofer-tweeter set. Depending on how these terminals are jumpered, the s2 can be set up to operate as a bipole (both driver pairs operating in phase) or dipole (the driver pairs operating out of phase,  productin a null at the front). Another surround option is possible: power the two driver sets in each S2 separately in a 7.1-channel system. This eliminates the need to purchase (and find space for) and additional pair of surrounds – although PSB would, of course, be happy to sell three or four S2s with each system for a 6.1- or 7.1-channel setup! The excellent owner’s manual includes detailed connection instructions for all of these options. …and put enough time on the final Platinum configuration to have an appreciation of how good the system was. I spent a good deal of time, as I always do, listening to 2-channel music, driving just the left and right front speakers and sub-woofer. “Now we’re cooking,” my review notes declared early on, as I auditioned a variety of male and female vocals to check out the M2’s midrange – the heart of any speaker. The little M2s had an easygoing, relaxed, yet very detailed sound. And provided the program material itself cooperated, I heard no colorations – no boxiness, no nasality, no heaviness on male vocals, no edginess on female vocals. With the subwoofer properly dialed in, voices and instruments were naturally balanced through the midbass. The soundstage was tightly drawn, depth was natural, and centrally prominent pop vocals were so firmly anchored in the middle that the center channel might well have been operating – but it wasn’t. The M2’s open, airy, silky-smooth top end also clicked on virtually all program material. In fact, the speaker’s highs were so clean that it encouraged high playback levels, particularly when mated to the SubSonic 10 to diver the deepest bass away from the M2’s small mid/bass driver. The bass from that SubSonic subwoofer was also impressive. …once the challenges climbed above 25Hz or so, the SubSonnic 1- came into its own. Kick drum sounded punchy, double bass was clean, and bass drum was aggressively solid. Apart from those notes at the bottom of the lowest bass octave, organ and synthesizer shook the floor convincingly. With all five channels (plus the sub) singing, the M2 system pulled off that most difficult of balancing acts: It reproduced the most cacophonous sound effects and the most subtly shaded music and dialog with equal ease. From the roar of the opening flyover of Senator Amidala’s ship in Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones to the concluding battle scenes, it provided all the excitement I could handle. The same as true with the explosive effects and wide dynamic range of Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines. There was no sign of dynamic compression, congestion, or distortion – the destruction and mayhem were appropriately raucous. But the music in both films was open and airy, with a natural sense of depth and an evenly distributed soundstage, all of which made a real contribution to the impact of T3, particularly its poignant conclusion. Dialog was also clean and natural, with none of that subtle muting of intelligibility I often hear at my off-axis listening position from center-channel speakers using horizontally configured drivers. The results show that the PSB M2 and C4 are both well-designed speakers. While there are surround speaker packages that offer a more up-front, dynamically in-your-face presentation, and bass that rolls more thunderously into subterranean regions, there aren’t many that provide greater overall satisfaction with music and movies of all descriptions than the Platinum M2. With a delicate, extended treble, clear, uncoloured midrange, and solid, extended bass, it leaves little to be desired. I can’t finish any discussion of the sound of the M2 system without mentioning its performance with the soundtrack of The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (standard edition, Dolby Digital). Yes, it handed all the dynamic over-the-top sequences convincingly. But the soundtrack engine that drives this movie – and the whole Ring trilogy – is Howard Shore’s music. It takes you to another world, suspends your disbelief, and brings the whole fantasy to life. Whatever the scene calls for, whether it be a full-throated orchestral crescendo, the cry of a solo instrument, or an ethereal chorus, the score washes over you like a gentle rain or hits you like a tsunami. And through the M2 system, that music is magical. |