Professional’s Score
Professionals
- Very natural-sounding audio replica
- Enticing, small enclosures will match on any bookshelf
- Broad help for streaming providers, plus analog and digital inputs—together with HDMI eARC
- Onboard pre-amp for a turntable
Cons
- Activating tone controls considerably cuts most quantity degree
- Wants a extra highly effective turntable pre-amp
- You’ll need hardwired community connectivity in the event you intend to function greater than a pair BlueOS elements
Our Verdict
With pure, nuanced, high-resolution sound; help for nearly all of your favourite streaming providers; and turntable connectivity, PSB Audio system’ Alpha iQ powered speaker system is a near-knock-out punch.
There’s a candy new entry within the universe of all-in-one streaming audio techniques: the Alpha iQ, from PSB Audio system. A possible charmer for many who recognize exact sound in a stylishly small, grille-free design, these are true bookshelf audio system, measuring 9.6 x 5.7 x 7.6 inches (HxWxD). They’re simply positioned and designed to sound their greatest in a smaller lounge, den, house workplace, or bed room.
For quite a lot of causes, the Alpha iQ might be the convincer that lastly turns many an old-school analog music devotee to the methods of 21st-century music supply. Additionally they have “constructing block” potential. Paying allegiance to the BluOS working system, these entertainers could make a really good begin or addition to a house setup the place like-minded BluOS gear is put in in different zones. In my house they’ve been mixing it up with a NAD C700 receiver and one other new member of the family I’ll be reviewing quickly: a Bluesound Pulse M tabletop speaker. Every of these elements hail from the Ontario, Canada-based Lenbrook Group.
Jonathan Takiff/Foundry
Because the first-ever PSB-branded streaming speaker, Alpha iQ takes that veteran maker a number of digital steps ahead (internet connectivity, performance-nudging digital sign processing, and extra) while additionally glancing again with lodging for classic analog gear, together with your favourite vinyl document participant. The Alpha iQ is the uncommon streaming speaker that may accommodate a turntable with a shifting magnet cartridge while not having a phono stage in between—the speaker housing the electronics has its personal pre-amp.
Does the Alpha iQ’s capacity to play your favourite vinyl (I served it platters of David Bowie, It’s a Stunning Day, Gil Scott-Heron, and AC/DC) add sufficient worth to warrant its $1,499 price ticket? Sure, and perhaps. Even hooking as much as a bargain-priced Audio-Technica AT-LP60X, this method made a convincing “vinyl simply sounds higher” argument with its straightforward heat and unforced readability. There have been occasions, although, once I wished the Alpha iQ’s inner pre-amp might crank up extra quantity from a low-impedance phono cartridge. If you happen to’re seeking to pair this method with a turntable, I’d recommend inserting the combo in a smaller area.
Jonathan Takiff/Foundry
Quantity ranges aren’t a difficulty with streamed variations of the identical music, and customers can be onerous pressed to not discover what they’re searching for on that rating: Greater than 20 music and web radio providers can be found, together with the lossless, ultra-high-resolution renderings (as much as 24 bit/192 kHz) available by way of Wi-Fi from the likes of Qobuz, Tidal (together with MQA decoding), and Amazon Music. If Apple Music is your factor, nonetheless, you’ll must push it to those audio system by way of Airplay 2. There’s additionally help right here for Spotify Join and Tidal Join, plus two-way, high-quality Bluetooth with help for the AptX HD codec.
Whereas the Alpha iQ lacks an onboard microphone, you may go alongside some primary operational instructions to the audio system by way of different units answering to Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, and Apple Siri. The system can be built-in into good house techniques from the likes of Control4, Crestron, Elan, RTI, and URC.
PSB Alpha iQ in comparison with the SVS Prime Wi-fi Professional
Jonathan Takiff/Foundry
I in contrast the Alpha iQ with the equally specced however roughly 20-percent bigger and 40-percent (or so) cheaper SVS Prime Wireless Pro I just lately just lately, as that system additionally has a high-resolution (24-bit/192kHz) DAC, even when it will probably’t play MQA recordsdata. Evaluating the fantastically engineered Keith Jarrett album Belonging, the SVS system portrayed an even bigger studio area and advised extra ahead and aggressive members. It doesn’t harm that these audio system can crank as much as 100 decibels (albeit a bit fuzzily at peak degree), versus the Alpha iQ’s 90dB max (though the PCB audio system are whistle-clean to the peaks).
If you may make do with much less quantity, the Alpha iQ brings a shade extra nuance to the celebration. It took me deeper contained in the gamers’ heads and strategies with extra tactile, emotive keyboard and sax dynamics; stand-up bass strings that resonated extra vividly; and percussion that splashed and thudded with a tad extra element, density, and drama. Listening to an English Chamber Orchestra recording of Ralph Vaughan Williams’ Concerto for Oboe, nabbed from the VPR Classical radio stream, the SVS audio system delivered the string part with a plusher, extra romantic sweep, whereas the Alpha iQ excelled a delivering a more true illustration of soloist Emily Pailthorpe’s oboe. Listening on the SVS set, I may need misidentified her instrument for a clarinet.
The BluOS app in comparison with the competitors
There are variations of the BluOS app for Android and iPhone, however discovering and sharing content material between BluOS audio merchandise takes a couple of extra faucets than I’d like. That have must be streamlined when BluOS 4.0 is launched this spring. Lenbrook says customers will be capable of swap, handle, and management streaming providers extra rapidly; add or take away favorites with a single click on; and swap between playback units extra simply. Even in its present state, BluOS is far more refined than the DTS Play-Fi platform SVS depends on, though neither ecosystem is as polished as what Sonos has to supply, or as easy to make use of because the Bose Music and KEF Join apps.
Jonathan Takiff/Foundry
Along with the phono enter I discussed earlier, the Alpha iQ can also be outfitted with an optical digital enter, a 3.5mm aux enter, and HDMI eARC, must you determine to make use of these audio system together with your TV or video projector. Whereas the pair gained’t suffice for a 12-seat hometheater, movies like Prime Gun: Maverick and Babylon cranked with sufficient sonic pleasure to the vibrate partitions and flooring of my 250-square-foot listening area—even and not using a subwoofer within the combine (the system does have a pre-amp sub out must you need to add one).
The Alpha IQ’s small proportions and minimalist cabling necessities ought to help you place these audio system virtually wherever, with only a single AC energy twine to cope with on every cupboard, until you determine to benefit from the RJ45 port to hardwire the system to your own home community (the left- and right-hand audio system talk with one another wirelessly).
Deploying a PSB Audio system Alpha iQ system
I’ve discovered that the Alpha IQ wants placement and connectivity tweaking in some circumstances. When deploying a couple of BluOS-based audio system in my mesh Wi-Fi house, I found I wanted hardwired ethernet for at the very least two BluOS elements for the multi-room system to be steady. If I attempted to run every part over Wi-Fi, the cell app would lose contact with one part or one other, requiring a reboot of my smartphone and/or my built-in gateway/router.
You also needs to take into account the place you place these audio system in your listening area. PSB flips conventional two-way speaker design by mounting 4-inch polypropylene mid-bass drivers (every of which will get 60 watts from an onboard Class D amp) above 0.75-inch aluminum-dome tweeters (pushed by a separate 30-watts-per-channel Class D amp. Whole system is 180 watts.) This driver inversion goals to even the sound subject for listeners whether or not you’re standing or sitting.
Paradoxically, I discovered that inserting these audio system too low—flanking the TV on a 20-inch-high stand—directed an excessive amount of sound towards the ground, weakening the audio’s presence and punch. The sound subject grew a lot fuller and the bass notes particularly extra dramatic once I set them on a bookshelf or window sill that was 4 or 5 toes above the ground. Shut proximity to flat vertical surfaces that bounced the soundwaves rising from the audio system’ tuned bass ports additionally helped.
PSB Audio system
Tellingly, a PSB marketing photo (see above) reveals the Alpha iQ mounted on a really excessive shelf in a house workplace, looming above a workstation. However that placement presents a small dilemma. Dangle them too excessive and also you gained’t be capable of entry the touch-sensitive quantity and play/pause controls on high of the first speaker, which is able to restrict you to utilizing the app for management. PSB doesn’t bundle a devoted distant management with the speaker set, as SVS offers with its Prime Wi-fi Professional.
One other phrase to the sensible: If you happen to purpose to crank the tunes whereas listening to your vinyl assortment, remember to shut off the system’s tone management within the BluOS app. Yeah, it’s a bummer to not be capable of add extra bass bump or mid-high frequency sizzle whereas listening to Gil Scott-Heron’s thundering The Revolution Will Not Be Televised or AC/DC bragging You Shook Me All Night time Lengthy.
Jonathan Takiff/Foundry
However activating the Alpha iQ’s EQ circuitry has a nasty side-effect: It slashes the utmost quantity output (as measured by my sound strain degree meter) by a whopping 9dB. You would possibly discover that degree to be nice for grownup pop, folks, classical, or jazz—at the very least in a small room—however it falls far wanting what you need for visceral, hard-edged rap, rock, and dance/electronica. It simply isn’t sufficient to rattle your bones.
One other tip: Make sure you join the document participant’s grounding wire to the bottom connector the primary Alpha iQ speaker to attenuate—or eradicate, optimistically—hum.
The PSB Alpha iQ is a worthy audio system
The PSB Alpha iQ is a sonically pleasing audio system that ticks all a very powerful function and performance containers. That stated, they’re not a slam-dunk selection when you should buy the virtually as natural-sounding SVS Prime Wi-fi Professional for $600 much less. You’ll additionally need to take into account the diminutive KEF LSX II system, one other stiff competitor on the similar $1,499 value and measurement vary because the Alpha iQ.
Neither of these speaker techniques can match the Alpha iQ’s multi-room audio prowess, however a stereo pair of Sonos 5 powered audio system ($1,098 for 2) comes shut. If I had been a PSB exec, I’d reduce the asking value of those puppies a pair hundred bucks to make them a extra inevitable, simple selection for music connoisseurs.
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