- neutral, spacious sound
- bass extension
- glossy, curvy exterior
- sturdy grills

- scratches very easily
- easily distorts on loud, bass-heavy signals

The GB1 is a nice, modern bookshelf speaker. It has an undeniably pretty exterior (a selling point of the G-Design series) and a neutral sound with a somewhat laid back presentation. In other words they're not upfront or immediately characteristic, which can be a good (i.e. immersive) thing depending on what's being played, particularly things that have a strong definition of space, including movies. But overall they handle all kinds of material well without too much of a focus on a certain sound. At the same time, I get the impression that they have a wide projection pattern-- again, both a good thing and a bad thing. It probably contributes to its spacious soundstage, but also brings out the character of the room you place it in to a greater extent than usual. It brought out certain issues with my room (manifested as a hump in the midrange) that I've since shot down with bass traps and the like. I previously haven't noticed it with other speakers I used. Unfortunately I can't draw direct comparisons with PSB's current lineup of systems as I'm not familiar with them.

The bass extends pretty low, which is both a good thing and a bad thing. Good for obvious reasons, particularly if you want a simple 2.0 setup, and bad because of its tendency to distort on loud, bass-heavy signals-- once again, including movies. If you're looking to drive it loud with bass, it definitely helps to offload some of the work to a subwoofer via a crossover.

While it looks fantastic, the exterior is delicate and scratches easily. Owners have suggested having a feather duster handy as hand-wiping leads to scratches. I also don't like how the grills cover the entire front side, though on the plus side they are sturdy if you want to protect the drivers from kids and pets and the like. Speaker grills are not as pretty as curvy gloss black of course. May as well take them off cuz the drivers look nice too.

Similar Products Used:

Martin Logan Ascent, NHT (various), Event Studio Precision 8, older PSBs, older B&Ws