ALPHA T20

Product highlights:

• Pair of floor-standing tower speakers
• Frequency response: 36-21,000 Hz (±3dB)
• Sensitivity: 90 dB
• Nominal impedance: 8 ohms
• Recommended power: 15-120 watts
• 3/4" anodised aluminium dome tweeter with front waveguide
• Dual 5-1/4" textured polypropylene woofer with rubber surround
• Bass-reflex cabinet with rear-firing port
• Magnetically attached grilles
• Two sets of gold-plated five way binding posts — can be bi-wired or bi-amped
• Net dimensions: 170 x 825 x 243 mm (each including rubber feet) (W x H x D)
• Net weight: 11.9 kg (each)

 

Features

Two-Way Floorstanding Loudspeaker: The PSB Alpha T20 is a two-way floorstanding loudspeaker that fills your room with powerful, full-bodied sound. Featuring two custom 5.25" polypropylene woofers and one 0.75" aluminum dome tweeter, along with an advanced crossover network that perfectly matches the low and high frequencies for a smooth transition, the T20 delivers bold sound with flawless imaging.

• 0.75" Aluminium Dome Tweeter w/ Waveguide: The Alpha T20 floorstanding loudspeaker utilises a 0.75" black anodised aluminium dome tweeter that extends the high-frequency response beyond the Alpha's original measurements and minimises distortion for a rich, balanced listening experience. A waveguide on the front of the tweeter works to perfect on and off-axis performance while smoothing the response for improved resolution and detail. Alpha Series tweeters employ ferrofluid cooling to prevent dynamic compression and a neodymium magnet for high sensitivity.
• Dual 5.25" Polypropylene Woofers w/ Rubber Surround: The Alpha Series floorstanding speaker houses two 5.25" textured polypropylene woofers with rubber surround for accurate mid-bass and deep bass performance. Featuring a dual layer voice coil with a very powerful magnet structure and a cone that is made from a special textured polypropylene compound the woofer is able to handle high outputs level with low distortion.

Advanced Crossover Network: The Alpha Series' new crossover wasn't custom designed to simply just direct low and high frequencies to the woofer and tweeter. It was re-engineered to control the directivity and flatten the frequency response while utilising an unusually complex acoustic Butterworth low-pass filter that is designed to get a perfect blend between the drivers and keep distortion at its lowest even at high volumes.

Bass Reflex Cabinet Design: The Alpha T20 floorstanding loudspeaker employs a bass reflex cabinet design with a rear-firing port for greater efficiency and bigger, smoother bass response. The speaker cabinet features MDF construction and has a unique combination of wall thickness and bracing to control resonances and provide a perfect platform for the driver components. The T20 cabinet's internal damping material was first used in PSB's most high-end models, and has now been adopted by the Alpha series and positioned precisely for optimum effectiveness. The cabinet is finished in a premium wood-grain vinyl with a chrome-accented front baffle and includes an acoustically-transparent magnetically attached grille.

Dual 5-Way Binding Posts: The Alpha T20 is outfitted with dual 5-way, gold-plated binding post speaker terminals that will accept bare wire (up to 10AWG), pin-connectors, spade-lugs, and banana plugs (single or dual). These gold-plated terminals ensure excellent signal transfer and resist corrosion. The dual 5-way binding posts allow you to bi-amp or bi-wire the floorstanding loudspeaker.

• Bi-Wiring: Bi-wiring can provide noticeable improvements in the overall transparency of your loudspeakers. Run separate speaker wires to the low & high frequency drivers from a single amplifier (the upper set of binding posts are for the high frequency drivers; the lower set of binding posts are for the low frequency drivers).
• Bi-Amping: Bi-amping allows you to use separate amplifiers for the high & low frequency sections of your loudspeaker for greater dynamic range & lower distortion. We recommend that your separate amplifiers have identical gain to preserve the speaker's voicing balance.

Note: If you decide to bi-wire or bi-amp, you must remove the jumpers between the terminal posts (failure to do this could result in damage to your amplifier and loudspeakers).
 

Rubber or Spike Feet: The PSB Alpha T20 floorstanding loudspeakers includes two sets of feet - Rubber or Spikes. The rubber feet can be used on hardwood, tile, laminate, and vinyl flooring. The spike feet can be used on carpeted flooring. Both styles of feet screw into the bottom of the speaker cabinet and are adjustable so you can level the speaker up on uneven flooring.

Placement: The positioning of the left and right speaker can play a major role in their acoustic performance of a pair of loudspeakers. The position of speakers in relation to the walls, floor, and ceiling of your listening room will also often affect their sound in several ways.

• Positioning: Generally, you will receive the best imaging and other spatial qualities if the speakers and your listening position form an equilateral triangle, with the speakers not quite as far apart from each other as your position from the speakers. If your favourite listening position is equally distant from both speakers, angling or "toeing" the speakers inward about 5 to 10° usually produces the best convergence of high frequencies for that listening position. Different listening positions may require different angling.
• Room Boundaries: For the greatest bass response and feel, place the speakers near three adjoining surfaces - in a corner of a room near the floor or ceiling - where the convergence of the two walls and floor/ceiling produces an amplifying effect that resembles megaphone-like sound. Placing a speaker away from all room boundaries will produce the least amount of bass, however your own listening preferences should decide what proportion of bass response is ideal for each room setting and space.

Alpha Series: The all-new Alpha Series has been rebuilt with enhanced custom drivers and a new crossover design that work perfectly together to deliver natural, detailed sound with precision and less distortion. PSB's Alpha Series of loudspeakers offer five models (T20 Tower, P5 Bookshelf, P3 Bookshelf, B1 Bookshelf, and C10 Center) to fit the needs of almost any audio setting. The Alpha Series of speakers offers audiophile sound quality at an affordable price; but not at the expense of appeal, style, and sound.

Note: Every PSB Alpha Series speaker is meticulously tuned and tested at Canada's national research facilities to deliver the most accurate acoustics under the most demanding of listening conditions.
 

Optional Powered Sub: Add a PSB SubSeries powered subwoofer (sold separately - see Accessories Tab) to the Alpha Series loudspeakers for an even more immersive listening experience with bigger bass response.

ALPHA T20 Data Sheet

ALPHA T20 Manual

  

Canada is almost as far away from New Zealand as you can get, but it seems we are close on more than just stunning scenery and a large neighbour.

We also appear to share similar tastes in a great sounding loudspeakers. For over 30-years Canadian speakers have been popular addition to New Zealand homes. The Canadian sound differs from USA and UK markets, with their scientific approach being woven into the DNA of their products for the last 4 decades.

Perhaps inspired by nature, science or both, PSB are among the most awarded and reviewed Canadian loudspeaker companies.

THE “NATURAL AND OPEN” CANADIAN SOUND: INSPIRED BY NATURE In 1974, Paul met Dr. Floyd Toole, a world renowned psychoacoustician at the NRC, who conducted numerous studies to understand how sounds were interpreted by the human sense of hearing at both the psychological and physiological levels. To Paul, who had devoted much of his childhood to become an accomplished violinist, it was a “Eureka” moment. He had long puzzled over how to consistently reproduce on a set of speakers the unique timbres of different violins exactly as they would sound to him when he played them. What Paul immediately recognised upon listening to Dr. Toole describe his research was that his findings gave him the formula he needed to design speakers that to the human sense of hearing, would be perceived as organic sounding. In other words, he could create speakers that wouldn’t fatigue a listener over long periods of listening because the listener would perceive those sounds in the same way they would the nature’s roaring thunder of Niagara Falls to all the subtleties of the soundscapes at the Algonquin Provincial Park. In Dr. Toole, Paul found a lifelong friend and peer who would influence him and whom he influenced, all in the pursuit of a way to reproduce sounds that listeners would perceive as equivalent to that which was real, alive, and natural.