The Last Speaker Paul Barton Needed to Prove Anything

Canada's Most Respected Speaker Designer Built His Legacy Statement

Most speaker designers tune by ear and hope for the best. Paul Barton doesn't work that way. For 50 years, he's used the anechoic chamber at Canada's National Research Council -- one of the most advanced acoustic testing facilities on the planet. Every driver, every crossover point, every cabinet dimension gets measured and verified against hard science. The Synchrony T600 is the sum total of those five decades. It's the most advanced speaker PSB has ever built. And it was designed to be the last speaker Paul Barton needed to prove anything to anyone.

Paul Barton and the Canadian Sound

Paul Barton founded PSB in 1972. His approach was shaped by the pioneering psychoacoustic research of Dr. Floyd Toole at the NRC -- the science of how humans actually perceive sound. Barton's philosophy is simple. A speaker should be true to nature. No added warmth. No scooped mids. No exaggerated bass to impress in a demo room. Just what's on the recording, played back with accuracy and honesty. The T600 is the purest expression of that idea in PSB's 50-year history.

Product: PSB Synchrony T600 Tower Speakers -- Gloss Black (Pair) Condition: Open Box. Like New. Retail: $11,999/pair. This deal is on a pair. 

Five-Way Transitional Array -- Not Your Typical Tower

Here's the thing. Most three-way towers hand off bass to midrange to tweeter with hard crossover points. The T600 does something different. All three 6.5" woofers play at the lowest frequencies together, but each one drops out at a different point as the frequency rises. Only the top woofer is still working when the midrange takes over. PSB calls this a five-way transitional array. The practical benefit is huge -- it randomizes the floor bounce, which is where reflections of low-frequency waves off the floor interfere with the direct sound from the woofers. The result is smoother, more even bass response across a wider listening area. Most towers fight the floor. This one works with it.

Carbon Fiber Does the Heavy Lifting

All four cone drivers -- three 6.5" woofers and one 5.25" midrange -- use woven carbon fiber cones with mass-loaded rubber surrounds and cast aluminum baskets. Not stamped baskets. Cast. That matters because cast baskets are stiffer and more uniform, so the driver frame doesn't add its own resonance to the sound. Each driver motor also uses a Faraday ring, a shorted turn, a long voice coil, and symmetrical magnetic drive. All four elements work together to keep distortion low and force linear across the full stroke. The drivers are quick, controlled, and eerily quiet when they're not moving air.

An Aluminum Fortress Up Front

The front baffle is clad in a 5mm-thick solid aluminum plate. That's not a cosmetic trim piece. It's a structural element designed to suppress what engineers call 'baffle talk' -- the tiny vibrations in the front panel that blur fine detail and smear imaging. Ten isolation cups decouple the aluminum plate from the MDF enclosure behind it. So the baffle stays dead quiet while the drivers do all the work. The rest of the cabinet is heavily braced MDF -- the most extensively braced enclosure PSB has ever built.

Four Chambers Kill Standing Waves

Inside, the cabinet is divided into four separate chambers. Each of the three woofers gets its own rear-ported enclosure, tuned identically. The midrange and tweeter share a sealed chamber above. This design breaks up internal standing waves that would otherwise cause uneven response and distortion. Two port plugs are included with each tower, so you can seal one or two of the woofer ports to tune bass output for your room. Smaller room with too much low end? Plug a port or two. Larger room? Leave them open and let the T600 breathe.

IsoAcoustics Isolation Built Right In

At the base of each tower are four outrigger stabilizers with custom isolators based on the IsoAcoustics GAIA II -- the same isolators that sell for around $600 a set as an aftermarket upgrade. These act as mechanical low-pass filters. They prevent cabinet vibrations from coupling to the floor and reflecting back into the enclosure. They also keep floor-borne vibrations from reaching the drivers. This isn't an add-on accessory. PSB designed the T600 around these feet from the start. The difference is tighter bass, cleaner imaging, and more focus across the board.

Crossover Engineering That Stays Invisible

The T600 uses what PSB calls an amplitude-perfect Linkwitz-Riley fourth-order crossover -- the most advanced crossover they've ever designed. The midrange-to-tweeter handoff happens at 1.8kHz, which keeps the tweeter out of the critical vocal range. Three pairs of five-way binding posts on the rear panel allow tri-wiring or tri-amping for those who want to take it further. Jumpers are included for standard single-wire connection.

What's Included:

• PSB Synchrony T600 Tower Speakers -- Gloss Black (Pair)
• Magnetic grilles
• Port plugs (2 per tower)
• Outrigger stabilizers with integrated IsoAcoustics isolators
• Jumper bars for binding posts
• Documentation and warranty cards
• Original packaging

Open Box -- Looks and Works Like New

These speakers were opened for inspection and testing. That's all. No marks on the gloss black lacquer. No wear on the drivers. No scuffs on the aluminum baffle. Full performance from a pair of towers that retail for $11,999.

SPECIFICATIONS:

Speakers:

• Type: 5-way transitional array (3-way crossover)
• Frequency Response: 28 -- 20,000Hz (+/-1.5dB)
• Frequency Range: 24 -- 23,000Hz (+/-3dB)
• Sensitivity: 91dB (2.83V, 1m)
• Nominal Impedance: 8 ohms (4 ohms minimum)
• Power Handling: 20 -- 300W
• Crossover: Linkwitz-Riley 4th-order acoustic

Drivers:

• Tweeter: 1x 25mm (1") titanium dome with Ferrofluid damping and neodymium magnet
• Midrange: 1x 133mm (5.25") woven carbon fiber cone, cast aluminum basket
• Woofers: 3x 165mm (6.5") woven carbon fiber cones, cast aluminum baskets

Cabinet:

• Enclosure: Low-resonance MDF with extensive internal bracing
• Baffle: 5mm solid aluminum plate, decoupled with 10 isolation cups
• Ports: 3x rear-firing bass reflex (2 plugs included per tower)
• Binding Posts: 3 pairs five-way (tri-wirable)
• Feet: Outrigger stabilizers with integrated IsoAcoustics GAIA II isolators
• Finish: High Gloss Piano Black

Dimensions:

• Height: 41.25"
• Width: 9.0"
• Depth: 13.5"
• Weight: 77 lbs each