This past spring a small group of audio journalists were invited by PSB Speakers’ founder Paul Barton to tour the legendary Canadian National Research Council’s (NRC) audio lab in Ottawa.
Barton explained during the tour the research that’s been conducted in the field of audio at the NRC, as well as how the speaker market has evolved, and how he has become a better engineer over the years.
Barton pointed out the most important thing he has learned over the years is how humans perceive sound and how this knowledge has influenced his product designs.
“My goals have always stayed on the same course. They were and they still are to design, manufacture and market high-performance, value-oriented loudspeakers,” he says. “I was not aware of the importance of understanding the human psychology of how we perceive sound, and how it would apply and influence my speaker designs.”
Barton adds whether a speaker is home theater or two-channel audio, it has to perform at the same quality level. He also notes it’s more important than ever to design a product that can handle the demand high-resolution audio recordings have for power and bandwidth.
To see what Barton and his peers in the speaker community have been implementing in their designs, we have rounded up some of the latest freestanding speakers and subwoofers available.
Click here for Ultimate Guide to Freestanding Loudspeakers 2012.
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