Sure .
I should note that since this is only my 2nd pair of legitimate speakers, the reference point is still lacking. Nonetheless, it did not take very long to understand what it is I like about the PSB's so much. Here is some of what I've learned and some of what I like...
These monitors lack nothing in the way of fullness compared to tower/floorstanders. I have not really experimented with other monitors, but I guess anyone who claims that monitors cannot provide an encompassing sound should probably listen to these.
The sound as a whole is extremely full, very present. The brick wall behind them might be attributing to this as well. I do sense that I'm getting some reflection off of it, and when I play music that expresses some form of echo in the recording the sound is just incredible. Best example so far would be "The House of Healing" from the Lord of the Rings: Return of the King Extended Soundtrack. Liv Tyler's voice is really something in that track, especially for an actress.
Soundstage is great; if there's one thing I really like about my living room it's that I have enough length to really get space between them. Width is close to ideal for me at the moment, depth is tricky but I think I have it about as dialed in as I'll be able to get it. If I move them any closer to the wall the low-end can get a little too bloomy on some of my heavier-hitting albums.
Freq. range stuff:
- Treble can get a little overboard at times. I attribute this to the general balanced presentation of the speakers, and much like the balanced headphones I have heard/owned (HD580 and HD600 in particular) the treble is generally ideal but does feel somewhat bright on occasion.
- Midrange really is about clarity in this setup. It's not leaning either direction to "warm" or "cold". In the past I'd have said I prefer a "warm" sort of midrange but now I am not so sure. I think my Nakamichi receiver and the Parasound are helping a bit here; Nak has never seemed to be very analytical from my gathering and the Parasound expresses some analog qualities that I think help with musicality in the mids. Whatever is going on, I do like it.
- Bass is decent. Not excellent, not terrible. Yes, this is where monitors do give something up to floorstanders, but it's not awful. For bass I always go to metal as my reference genre, specifically I test for double bass drum rolling. With All That Remains' "The Weak Willed" (from the album The Fall of Ideals") this double bass is pretty excellent all things considered. Great impact, very accurate, no bloat, and not overbearing on the rest of the sound. At certain times the bass is full enough that it sounds as if I have a subwoofer in the rig, at other times I can clearly hear the drop-off in the bottom end and know that there is a piece missing. I will say that the M2's bass, even when lacking, still rapes my old Cicadas.
Well, with that in mind, I guess I'll just say that the sound is very balanced. I hate the word neutral and refuse to use it. If I had to say that any particular headphone were similar it would be a mix of one of the Sennheisers and a Grado. The PSB's have that balance that I loved about the HD600, with genuine soundstage (hello depth), the texture of a Grado, and at times bass that is similar to a Grado (can be bloomier). Add with that all the benefits of speakers in general (cough imaging cough) and that is fairly close to what they sound like imo.
I am much happier with these than the Moth stuff, and I know that Sherwood is in heaven with the Cicadas, so all in all it was about as good a swap as I can make.
Hope these impressions made some sense.
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Reks - thanks for the comment, I knew you liked your Strat .
Right now there are two separate Nak PA-5's and one Nak CA-5 up for sale on eBay, all separate sellers. I could grab them as a pair for around $700, trying to find reasons why I shouldn't at the moment. There has not been a single bad thing I've heard about either the Nak PA-5 or PA-7; everyone raves about the Stasis elements and Pass's contribution and says "buy it buy it buy it!" A man can only take so much before he falls into the trap and drops the dough...
I should ask if anyone has a recommendation on a very cheap preamp. I'm talking like less than $300. The Nak CA-5 made sense because it was supposed to be matched with the PA-5/PA-7.
