PSB SPEAKERS the Alpha series of loudspeakers

The original Alpha was one of the most famous products in audio history. "Legendary" is not too strong a word for it. The original idea — to distill the elements of high performance and truly musical sound to their essence — has resulted in a whole family of pathbreaking compact monitors and subwoofers. Technical Specifications and US Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price

The first Alpha was such an obvious choice for the primary frontal speakers in a Home Theater system that it needed to be video shielded so that it could be placed right next to a TV monitor without its magnet(s) interfering with the picture. So we developed a special version, the Alpha-A/V, which, for only a few dollars more a pair than the original, supplies shielding and a new choice of finishes (black "rough cast" or dark cherry.) As it turns out, the new high-frequency driver Paul Barton developed for the Alpha-A/V was even smoother — by a slight but meaningful margin — than the original, which made the Alpha-A/V such an attractive speaker (at only a very slight premium over the original) that it has now taken over as "the" Alpha. The word from reviewers, including Audio's Corey Greenberg, is that it is even better than the original.

There is also a useful place in the world for still smaller and less expensive speakers to suit very tight budgets and equally limited listening spaces. There are "starter" sound systems that could use something a lot better-sounding than the usual appliance-style speakers. There are dorm-room systems that could stand combining ambitious sound with absolutely minimal space consumption. There is a definite use for extension speakers that don't give up what you wanted a speaker for in the first place. There are all those commercial establishments that now use techie-looking mini-speakers that sound like mush and badly need replacement by something good. (Wouldn't you rather hear music than indeterminate background sound?) And there is, probably above all, Home Theater. It desperately needs speakers that produce great sound without forcing you to spend more than you did for your car — and without consuming all space in your living room.

Picture of the mini, the mite, the subsonic, the midi and the a/v

Mini, Mite, SubSonic, Midi, Alpha-A/V

The Alpha Mini and the Alpha Mite, do an astonishing percentage of what the Alpha-A/V does, at still lower cost and smaller size. Both of them are the product of the same careful balancing of performance elements that went into the original, plus the added wrinkle of added cabinet depth for their size to give them more internal enclosure volume for bass response than speakers of their frontal area would normally have. (The depth in most shelving these days is more than adequate for the extra depth.) Both have the open, musical, neutral Alpha sound, and good bass impact at reasonable loudness levels. Since we are certain that so many of them are going to wind up, sooner or later, in home theater systems, we have video-shielded both and given them a choice of black or dark cherry finishes for decor matching.

Alpha Mini

The Alpha Mini sounds awfully close overall to the original, at two-thirds the size (6-1/2 x 10-3/8 x 9-3/4 inches) and a price of $199 a pair in the US. It combines a 5-1/4-inch woofer (treated fiber cone and rubber surround) with a 1/2-inch polycarbonate dome tweeter that is cooled with ferrofluid. When we introduced the prototypes at the Hi-Fi 96 show in New York, we wound up using a "No hidden subwoofer" sign to reassure the people who were stopped in their tracks by the Mini's sound. And we believe they will stand up to good, heavy bass material if you use them with a little discretion. Remember, for instance, that your living room or dorm room starts to seem more like a theater in size if you put a bunch of sound-absorbing, noise-producing people in it. The Mini will let you get punched by the bass drum at the end of Kodaly's Hary Janos or have your internal organs massaged by Ace of Base, but not at the level you can with the original Alpha and definitely not in a big roomful of people. The Mini is about 2 dB less efficient than the original, but still sensitive enough that you can use it with the kinds of receivers that make sense for its price range and level of use. Some reviewers, including the above-mentioned Corey Greenberg of Audio even prefer it to its bigger brother.

A Reviewer Speaks — Vehemently!
In what has since been joined by many similar reports, including the dynamite review in Stereophile Guide to Home Theater of our Alpha Mini/Mite Home Theater system, Stereophile's roving reporter (Richard J. Rosen) covering Hi-Fi '96'in New York had the following to say about his first exposure to the Alpha Mini in our exhibit room at the show:

"'Great-sounding' and 'laughably inexpensive' are phrases that came to mind in the PSB/Lenbrook room. I popped in Latin Rhythms in Hi-Fi to play Augie Colon's 'Tierra Va Tembla.' (This one of DCC's plain vanilla aluminum non-audiophile discs...) The whole room went Mambo-crazy and the PSB Alpha Minis had my toes tapping so wildly that, when I saw their $199 price, I almost kicked my own jaw across the floor. I'm getting a pair of these. How can you afford not to?"

Alpha Mite

The Alpha Mite comes in at roughly half the size (5-3/4 x 9-1/8 x 8-1/8 inches) of the original, and is priced at $169 a pair. It uses the same tweeter as the Mini, and a woofer scaled down to 4-1/2 inches. Its sound is once again unmistakably Alpha in quality, with far more bass than the twice-the-size commodity speaker systems you see in packaged mini systems at the buy-marts and electronics warehouses. Again there are limits (very generous, but present nonetheless) in the maximum loudness and room size at which you can expect great results. But treat the Mite with a little discretion — i.e. don't try to drive away your bad-tempered neighbor with it — and you will be delighted with the kind of sound it produces.

The other members of the Alpha Series: the Alpha Midi and Alpha Center center-channel speakers ($119 and $199 US respectively) and the Alpha SubZero and Alpha SubSonic 5 powered subwoofers ($299 and $449 US respectively) are designed around the needs of Home Theater. They provide the final touches of an Alpha Home Theater system that will, not to overstate the case, blow you away.

Alpha Midi

The Midi is essentially a Mini that we have equalized differently for its usual placement on top of a TV monitor. It is meant for small rooms, and provides accurate, detailed center-channel sound to anchor the definition of an HT system very securely in a tight space.

Alpha Center

The Alpha Center is designed to deal both with bigger spaces and with situations where still wider horizontal dispersion is needed — as, for instance, for a situation with lots of family spaced widely in a viewing area.

Alpha SubSonic 5

SubSonic 5 Panel
Click for detail-47K

The SubSonic 5, with a 10-inch woofer and built-in 65-watt amplifier, goes as deeply into the region of the lowest organ pedal notes and all the HT spectacles (the sound of crashing buses, thunder, jets overhead, Terminator cataclysms, stampeding mammoths, you-name-it) as any reasonable human being will probably ever want to go. And its improvements over the SubSonic 1, which it replaces, includes a terrific interface circuit that allows it to play lower, louder, and longer.

See also Subwoofers.

Alpha SubZero


Sub Zero Panel Click for detail-32K

The Alpha SubZero is for people who would like lots of low-frequency punch for a minimum investment of both money and living space. The SubZero produces amazing bass for its size and cost.

See also Subwoofers.

Where do these various Alphas stand in relation to each other?

Our thoughts are these:

If you want speakers for solidly satisfying performance in your living room or other main listening room, a pair of Alpha-A/Vs are one of the safest choices imaginable. All things considered, we ourselves would pick them as the long-range choice in the Alpha Series.

If you are looking for a starter or dorm sound system, or extension speakers, the choice is between the Mini and the Mite. If the $30 price difference between them is not critical and space is not at a critical premium, and if you want a little margin in overall bass and sound output, the Mini is probably the choice we would recommend. (But we would suggest listening to the Mite by itself first for the fun of it.) And if you want the best sound you can get for the lowest price and smallest size, then the Mite is an obvious and satisfying choice. Just treat it like the jewel it is and respect its maximum output limits.

If Home Theater is definitely a part of your present or future, then we suggest again that various combinations of the Alpha-A/V, the Mini, and the Mite — all of which have been carefully contrived to have the same balance and musical timbre, so that you can mix and match them with absolutely no worry about source-shift or other unwanted phenomena— will stagger you with their sound. For a price and space investment that normally would bring you "appliance sound" (in which crashing buses sound uncannily like collapsing kitchen shelves), you can put together genuinely awesome-sounding Alpha combinations.

Because the bass radiation of four good speakers combined for front and rear is so satisfying, either an Alpha-A/V (front) and Alpha Mini (rear) combination, or an all-Mini system will give you a full-weight experience. A Mini-Mite combination will be just a tad less heavyweight, and an all-Mite system will still remain leagues ahead of what passes for Home Theater in the mass market.

The value concept that drives us is such that we have no hesitation suggesting that if you want do your best on a tight budget, you can temporarily combine the various Alphas at the outset without using either a center-channel speaker or a subwoofer. To get the greatest precision, however, the Alpha Midi is a must before too long. And the SubSonic 1 is, when you can afford to add it, the element that will take an HT system over the top — from "amazing" to "incredible."

And consider this as well: The Home Theater system we would bet the farm on for spectacular sound at the lowest feasible cost is based on two Alpha-A/Vs, two Alpha Minis, the Alpha Center, and the SubSonic 5, at a total cost of about $1,000 (U.S.). And if you are pinched for finances and living space, you can substitute the Alpha Midi in the center and the Alpha SubZero as a subwoofer and still come out well satisfied. The added fillip is that if you want Home Theater in the most affordable increments, the subwoofer can be postponed temporarily, with its dollars going at the outset toward an HT receiver. That will yield a full combination of electronics and speakers for the $1,000 figure. Then add an Alpha SubZero or Alpha SubSonic 5 when you can and you will have eased your way into spectacular Home Theater. Click here for a revealing review of the Alpha Mini Home Theater System.

We offer you the Alpha Series of high-performance compact (and mini) monitors with confidence that the more critical you are, and the more you love and want to live with music, the more these remarkable speakers will bring to your life.

Performance and size information may be found on our Technical Specifications and US Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price page and the PSB Dealer list may be found here.

Alpha Specifications in PDF format.

Owner's Guide PDF available in: English (151K), French (169K), Spanish (172K).