Getting to spend the first two weeks of your newborn's life as a family, the sleepless nights, the seemingly unending nappy changes, the whole experience is a revelation.
However, after nearly two weeks of being stuck inside the house, the opportunity came up to get some Hi-Fi goodness into me. Without hesitation, I lunged at it!
I had been in contact with Dan Grozdan from local distributor Qualifi.
Dan is the Product Manager for Loewe (pronounced Loo-Ver), NAD Electronics and PSB Speakers.
I had mentioned to Dan in the past that having heard the PSB Imagine Mini's and Alpha B1's I was very curious about their new flagship speaker, the Imagine T3.
The Imagine T3 is the successor to the exceptionally well received Synchrony One speaker that had recently been discontinued.
Dan had told me that the best way for him to sell me on the T3's was for me to see and hear them for myself.
Colour me intrigued.
So off I went for a drive down to Qualifi Australia in order to check out the Imagine T3's.
PSB for those of you who weren't aware, are a Canadian based speaker manufacturer who have their speakers produced out of a dedicated PSB factory in China.
Paul Barton, the pioneer behind the brand started manufacturing under the PSB business name back in 1972.
PSB is the sister company to NAD Electronics and the more recently established Bluesound.
Upon arriving at Qualifi, Dan greeted me in the foyer and without delay, we made our way to the demo room which housed the T3's.
The PSB Imagine T3's are a stunning speaker to look at and you'll have to take my word for it that photo's simply don't do them justice.
The room itself was a standard affair, no treatment applied with the exception of some nice, thick carpet.
The source components were the NAD M50 Digital Music Player and the C390DD Direct Digital Amplifier.
Dan explained that typically the T3's were run by the new NAD Masters Series M12 Digital Preamp/DAC and the M22 Stereo Power Amp combo, but those were already on loan for review to our friends at Stereonet Australia.
It wasn't a dealbreaker as this wasn't intended to be a full review, but more a taste.
Dan kindly invited me to go back once the Masters Series combo had returned in order to take another listen.
To begin our session, I pulled out of my trusty backpack a copy of Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon on Hybrid SACD and pressed play.
I was hit with a surge of sound.
Quiet passages broke out into huge moments of attack, and did so effortlessly.
The hard panned intro to the track 'Money' imaged spectacularly well and the bass line seemingly floated dead centre in front of me.
I then pulled out Elton John's 'Goodbye Yellow Brick Road' Hybrid SACD and played the opening track, 'Funeral for a Friend'. Again, I was hit with huge dynamics delivered with complete composure.
The Imagine T3's dig deep, very deep.
In fact, I would find it highly surprising if anyone would have need for a subwoofer with these speakers.
After listening to the first couple of tracks from Elton, I moved on to Peter Gabriel's 'Up' on Hybrid SACD. The track 'I Grieve' I first stumbled across during an episode of Smallville and ever since it has been on my Hi-Fi demo rotation.
I heard micro detail and dynamics from that track that I had never heard before, that I didn't know existed.
Finally, the Coup de Gråce, Dire Straits 'Brothers in Arms' Hybrid SACD.
I grew up listening to this album relentlessly and can safely say I know it inside and out.
The opener, 'So Far Away' had more life, more energy in it than I had ever heard previously, however, it was 'Money for Nothing' that had me convinced.
The renowned intro, almost symbolic in any demo situation, hit with such an impact that a simple thought popped into my head:
"This is how Hi-Fi should sound."
A bold statement, but these new flagship speakers from PSB sounded that good.
Needless to say, I'm very much looking forward to Round 2 and sitting down with the Imagine T3's again, hopefully paired with the Masters Series components to bring out the very best from them.
The PSB Imagine T3 Speakers Retail locally for $8999.
For further information, contact Qualifi Australia on (03) 8542 1111 or visit www.qualifi.com.au
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