PSI Audio A 14M Active Powered Loudspeaker (TAS 212)

During the fifteen years that J. Gordon Holt and I worked together we spent many evenings discussing all matters related to audio. One of Gordon’s criticisms of the high end was the lack of powered and active speakers for home use. For years he tried to review professional speakers used by recording engineers and, as often as not, these reviews never saw the light of day because his editors didn’t think readers were interested in pro gear.Times have changed. With more and more audiophiles embracing computer and server-based audio, their systems are looking more and more like the “pro” systems used to make recordings. So why not go all the way, and try using a pair of professional monitors as well? Enter the PSI Audio A 14M Active Powered Loudspeakers.

For many audiophiles the terms “active” and “powered” are interchangeable. To them it refers to a speaker that has an amplifier built into the speaker so it requires no external amplification. But actually these two terms are different. “Powered” means that a speaker has amplifiers built in, but it may not be “active” in that it has no gain devices in the crossover section. An “active” device is one where the crossover has more than just passive resistive and capacitive parts, but has some form of active circuitry. By these definitions the PSI Audio A 14M is both powered and active.

Who Are PSI Audio?

Alain Roux started PSI Audio in 1975 when he designed his first speakers. In 1988 Roux relocated PSI’s factory to its current home in Yverdon, Switzerland, and in 1991 PSI expanded into analog and digital electronics with a new division headed by Christian Martin. This combination of specialties makes it possible for PSI to create unique loudspeakers.

Over the past 25 years PSI has designed and manufactured speakers for many consumer and professional applications. A good part of PSI’s output has been OEM (original equipment manufacturer) projects for large international firms, and many of these products have gone on to be market leaders in their particular categories. Non-disclosure agreements prevent me from listing them, but, if I did, most likely you’d recognize more than a few of the names. Recently PSI has refocused its attention on its own branded products, specifically A Series speakers, which range from the desk-top-sized A 14M to an A 214M floorstander.

The A 14M is PSI’s smallest and least expensive speaker, yet it includes all of PSI’s latest proprietary technology. PSI believes this technology greatly enhances the A 14M’s performance, especially when compared with any similarly proportioned conventional box speaker.

PSI’s first techno trick is AOI or adaptive output impedance. According to PSI, “for ideal damping in a wide area of frequency, the source impedance must be adapted to every range of frequency for each transducer. The AOI system detects the movement of both the membrane and the moving coil of a transducer…then the damping rate is continuously and ideally adjusted.” While the transducer is moving the AOI circuitry adapts the amplifier’s output impedance. Once the transducer reaches the end of an impulse, the AOI circuitry provides a brake to prevent overshooting by the transducer. According to PSI, the AOI system can deliver superior impulse response to a traditional power amplifier design and is almost capable of perfectly reproducing a square wave. Since I’m not too partial to listening to square waves, I did not test this claim.

The second trick up PSI’s sleeve is its CPR or compensated phase response system. This corrects for phase distortion as a result of group delays in the crossover. This is an active circuit within the crossover that “consists of several filters, each of which acts within a specific range of frequency in order to obtain a wide area of Compensated Phase Response.” PSI claims that this CPR circuit also provides a constant and even group delay throughout the crossover range.

Meet the A 14M

Being a powered and active speaker, the PSI Audio A 14M weighs substantially more than other speakers its size. This makes the built-in rotating handle especially welcome. This substantial, pivoting, u-shaped steel device not only serves as a handle for carrying the A 14M, but also makes canting the speaker back or even mounting it firmly to a control desk or monitoring suite much easier. My review sample was finished in a satin sparkle matte that closely matched the tone of the midrange/bass driver. The tweeter is set back in the cabinet and covered by a layer of acoustic foam for protection. The A 14M has no speaker grille covers.

The A14M is a slot-loaded design with a front-firing port underneath the midrange woofer. The front baffle also has a small volume knob and an LED indicator light. Green is good; red is bad. During the review period I only saw the red LED once. I was using a rather stiff AC cable that pulled out while the speaker was playing music. When I plugged it back in the protection fuse blew. I replaced it with a spare and all was right again.

The back panel has a balanced XLR input connector, an IEC AC outlet, an on/off switch, and a low-frequency roll-off adjustment knob. This is a proximity control to compensate for room gain in the lower frequencies. I left it in its “flat” setting for most of my listening sessions.

The volume control on the A 14M increases the speaker’s ergonomic flexibility but it can also degrade the speaker’s performance if used incorrectly. If your preamp or DAC lacks balance controls, the A 14M’s dual volume controls can adjust the balance. Also the dual volume controls allow you to hook up a fixed-output DAC directly to the A 14Ms without using a preamp. Especially in a desktop environment, where the A 14Ms are within arm’s reach, a preamp-less system can be a cost-efficient and sonically superior option. The only problem is that, depending on the output level of your DAC, you may be forced to use the very lowest range of the A 14M’s volume control—and, sonically, that’s the least benign way to use the control. Ideally the volume knob should be at 12 o’clock or greater. When connected to a preamp, the A 14M’s volume controls should be turned all the way up so they are essentially out of the circuit.

That Active Sound

For most professional audio engineers the most important components in their arsenals are their microphones and their monitors, which are at opposite ends of the recording chain. While engineers prize microphones for their uniquely colored personalities, the best monitors are those with minimal idiosyncrasies. By this yardstick the A 14M powered speakers are the very essence of a professional monitor.

What does a professional monitor do that a consumer speaker can’t? First and foremost, a professional monitor needs to be ergonomically bulletproof, with some kind of protection scheme to prevent a ham-fisted engineer from blowing it up. As I mentioned earlier, the A 14M has protection fuses. Second, it is capable of playing louder, with less stress, than any comparably sized passive audiophile speaker I’ve ever heard. Unlike many passive speakers, which have a limited “comfort zone” of volume levels where they are both loud enough in the quiet passages and dynamic enough in the loudest ones, the A 14Ms sound comfortable and stress-free throughout a much wider range of volume settings.

Many otherwise fine small loudspeakers suffer from dynamic compression. The A 14Ms are unique in my experience in that they exhibit so little of this. Only the Joseph Audio Pulsar driven by a pair of Bel Canto M1000 II’s have an equal level of openness and unlimited dynamics. On a complex pop recording like BARB’s “Alcoholic Darling, ”each instrument’s volume and dynamics seem independent of the others, and no matter how hard the drums are played, there is always more apparent headroom, as if they could go louder if needed. The A 14Ms preserve the delineations between ff and fff exceptionally well.

The A 14Ms also handle micro-dynamics with a finesse usually found in for much larger and more expensive transducers. A good part of this micro-dynamic acuity is a result of the A 14Ms’ resolution. Hearing deep into a mix is easy with the A 14Ms. Obviously a good part of this transparency is due to the absence of electronic noise as well as excellent signal-to-noise specifications. But the lack of audible grain and texture in the A 14Ms’ amplifiers is also partly responsible for the A 14Ms’ micro-dynamic excellence.

Since they are so easy to carry and install, I brought my review pair over to the home studio of my bandmate of mine, Roger Fish, for a final mix-down/mastering of a Pro Tools project we were working on. Subtle differences of as little as .5 dB between various instruments in the mix were easily discernable. With the A 14Ms, my ears didn’t feel like they’d been rubbed raw, even after many hours of highly concentrated listening. For developing EQ curves with very subtle variations between different tracks of multiple acoustic guitar and fiddle parts, the A 14Ms were indispensible.

Even dispersion is important for all speakers, regardless of size, but in a nearfield environment it is even more critical. Moving your head even a couple of inches off the centerline between certain speakers can result in drastic shifts in both imaging and harmonic balance. The A 14Ms’ sweet spot, where the image and harmonic balance remain correct, is much larger than that of any comparably sized speaker I’ve used on my desktop. In fact the A 14Ms’ ability to create a solid image and to disappear rivals that of much smaller footprint speakers such as the Role Kayak. When I used the white and pink noise outputs from the iPod/iPad app Audio Tools, it was obvious that I had to be well outside the confines of a normal listening window before the A 14Ms exhibited any noticeable harmonic changes or shifts in image location.

One of J. Gordon Holt’s sayings that’s stuck firmly inside my head is “dimensional recreation is always the first thing that goes.” By this Gordon meant that when a system has a problem with neutrality and resolution, the first sign that anything is amiss is when the dimensional properties of a recording are altered or diminished. Above harmonic balance, resolution, and dynamic contrast, accurate dimensional presentation is the subtlest indicator that something in a system is wrong. The A 14Ms are as dimensionally accurate as any speaker I’ve enjoyed on my desktop, and may actually offer the most specific imaging of anything I’ve recently reviewed. Instruments and voices through the A 14Ms have a striking amount of solidity. Each handclap on Andrea Wittgens “Marching Orders” from In The Skyline occupies a very specific location and is defined more precisely than I’ve heard from other speakers.

Often someone listening to my computer desktop system for the first time is surprised that instead of a cute miniature soundstage he is presented with a full-sized image, equivalent to what he’s used to hearing from a room-based setup. The A 14M system throws up a huge soundstage, bigger than most speakers, while also maintaining the proper spatial relationships between elements in the mix. Only the Joseph Audio Pulsar produced an equally large soundstage.

I briefly tried the A 14Ms in my small room system. I had no problem blending them with a pair of JL Audio f112 subwoofers, and up to and above medium SPLs the A 14Ms kept up with the dynamics of my much larger Genesis 6.1 speaker system. However, with large-scale orchestral works the Genesis displayed far more dynamic ease and extension than the small A 14Ms could muster. Obviously the A 14Ms were designed for nearfield environments. Asking them to energize a room is sort of like hooking up a Porsche to an RV. It will work, but not as well as it can in the environment for which it was designed.

Final Thoughts

Since the PSI A 14M is both a speaker and an amplifier, reviewing it involves listening for both amplifier and speaker-related sonic issues. At the end of the day you can only judge the A 14M as a complete system, and as a system its synergistic coupling of amps and drivers far outweighs any loss in flexibility and upgradeability that comes with separate components. Also there’s the price issue. To find a speaker/amplifier combination that is comparable in sonic quality I had to move up to the Joseph Audio Pulsars ($7000/pr.) driven by the Bel Canto M1000 II amplifiers ($5000/pr.).

When it comes to the three D’s—dynamics, dispersion, and depth recreation—the PSI A 14Ms excel. If they’re used in a desktop environment I’ve heard only a few systems that can achieve the same level of overall fidelity, and those that can are substantially more expensive. I only wish I could have had J. Gordon Holt over to hear the A 14Ms. He would have listened, and then smiled.

SPECS & PRICING

Type: Two-way, slot loaded, powered, active loudspeaker
Power RMS: 70 + 30W
Program power: 100W
Input Impedance: 10k ohms
Signal-to-noise ratio: -96 dBA
Continuous max SPL: 101dB at 1m
Program max SPL: 112dB at 1m 112 dB (pair)
Frequency response: 56Hz–22kHz -6dB
THD: < 1.8% (95Hz–15kHz)
Crossover frequency: 3.5 kHz
Box material: MDF
Dimensions:163mm x 243mm x 170mm
Weight: 5.5kg
Price: $1195 each

SIMPLIFIaudio (U.S. Distributor)
California Suites, Apt. 1001
5415 Clairemont Mesa Blvd.
San Diego, CA 92117
(858) 414-3900
simplifiaudio.com

Associated Equipment
Source Devices: MacPro model 1.1 Intel Xeon 2.66 GHz computer with 12 GB of memory with OS 10.6.5.1, running iTunes 10.1 and Amarra 2.0 and Pure Music 1.6.5 music playing software
DACs: Empirical Audio Off-Ramp 3, Weiss DAC 202, Wyred4Sound Dac 2, Musical Fidelity M1Dac
Preamps: Reference Line Preeminence One B passive controller
Amplifiers: Bel Canto S-300 stereo amplifier, Edge Electronics AV-6, Accuphase P-300 power amplifier, Modified Dyna St-70 amplifier
Speakers: Silverline Minuet Supremes, ATC SCM7s, Paradigm S1s, Aerial Acoustics 5Bs, Role Audio Kayaks, Earthquake Supernova mk IV 10 subwoofer, NHT S-00 and M-00
Cables and Accessories: Locus Design Polestar USB cable, Locus Design Nucleus USB cable, PS Audio Quintet, AudioQuest CV 4.2 speaker cable, AudioQuest Colorado interconnect, Empirical Audio Coax digital cable