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The Image Series has recently replaced the Century Series. Some Century models may still be available at some dealers.  
The PSB Century Series is our backbone range of speakers. It is meant for serious listeners who are committed to high performance but want to enjoy it in products that fit gracefully into modern living rooms and non-disposable incomes. Any of the Century systems we are about to describe will slip smoothly into your life, at prices that leave you able to afford the rest of your lifestyle. All have a distinct reason for being, and the performance steps between them are meaningful ones scaled to meet different needs and budgets. Besides their physical family resemblance, what all the Centuries share is transparent, uncolored, natural sound that's the product of the engineering, research, and musicianship that our founder and chief designer, Paul Barton, brings to developing all PSB speakers. As we spell out at more length elsewhere in these pages, Paul has long experience not only as a design engineer and as a nonstop researcher (at Canada's unique National Research Council facilities in Ottawa) into how speaker measurements correlate with perceived performance, but as a violinist who has soloed with symphony orchestras. He makes it all count, and supplements his knowledge and experience with his tremendous persistence and willingness to fuss over the details of both design and production until things are absolutely the way his ears — and endless testing and re-testing — say they should be. In describing the Centuries on the Web, we will be talking mainly about our wide-range systems, leaving the specialized center-channel speakers and subwoofer for a coda at the end. At the risk of repeating what we say elsewhere, the critical qualities present in every Century model from the 300i to the 800i are: Tonal Balance: All of the Century models have a smooth, transparent, natural, and lifelike tonal balance from octave to octave across the range of music. Frequency and Dynamic Range: Every Century provides wide-range undistorted sound not only in its frequency coverage (from the lowest bass to the highest treble) but also in its dynamic range — from the softest to the loudest musical passages and ambient or transient sounds. Imaging: All Century systems also reproduce with high accuracy the placement of instruments and performers across a multi-channel soundstage. This is a product of outstanding dispersion and close matching from speaker to speaker off the production line. Whichever Century you choose, you can count on satisfying amounts of these qualities. As you go up the line from the least expensive 300i to the top-of-the-series 800i you tend to gain increments of bottom-bass response, maximum sound output, and high-frequency power handling. Efficiency (sensitivity) also varies, but not necessarily in proportion to cost. Please do not overlook the little italic i now the suffix for every model from the 300 through the 800. It is our quiet way of saying that these are new versions of the models originally found in our "PSB Series," with improvements such as radiused grilles (which minimize diffraction effects at high frequencies), new cabinet finishes (they now come in a choice of black roughcast or dark cherry), new port tubes (with still lower turbulence at high volumes), new connectors (with an extra pair on the 600i and 800i to permit bi-amping), and screwless backs. The new grilles and finishes make the Centuries sleeker and slimmer in appearance. The first three of the following are bookshelf-size systems that work well in typical against-the-wall shelf arrangements. They are at their best (for dispersion) when placed vertically, but will also yield good results in horizontal placements.
Probably the best thumbnail of the 300i is that its sound is very much like that of the amazing Alpha, but with deeper bass from its new, injection-molded 6-1/2-inch woofer and slightly more high-frequency power handling from its larger-dome (3/4-inch) tweeter — which is also a bit smoother at the top of its range. Like the more expensive systems in the Century series, it now has gold-plated binding posts. Specifications. The Century 400i The 400i is specifically designed for those who want the range usually associated with a big speaker system in one that fits on a bookshelf. With an effective low-frequency cutoff of 39 Hz, it competes nicely in low-end response with many far larger systems. (The trade-off is some efficiency; its sensitivity for typical listening rooms is 89 dB, as opposed to 91 dB in the less ambitious 300i and 92 dB in the far more ambitious — and expensive — Century 800i.) High-end response benefits from a new 3/4-inch textile dome tweeter also used in the 500i. Specifications. 400i Review by Stereo Review. The Century 500i This is the last of the single-woofer systems, and its simple two-way design using an 8-inch woofer is a classic one whose overall sound character many people who have participated in double-blind listening tests seem to favor. Thanks to its larger woofer and an internal volume almost twice that of the 400i, its low-frequency cut-off point is 32 Hz. And its power-handling is enhanced by a new voice-coil material and higher-temperature adhesives. Again, a new 3/4-inch textile dome tweeter produces silky highs. Specifications. 
Click HERE to go to our Century tower
and center-channel speakers.
Click here for the PSB Century Technical Specifications page, and here for a list of PSB dealers. | |
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