Author Archives: David Bergmann

PSI Audio continues to turn heads with its AVAA technology. The new active bass trap AVAA C214 expands the AVAA family by a now digitally controlled variant of the original C20. The C214 is more compact and can be adjusted in its sensitivity through a remote app. It can be placed on the floor or mounted to walls or ceilings, depending on where it operates optimally. The innovative technology eliminates room modes, acting like a black hole that hoovers up resonant modal frequencies before they are bounced back. As it does not use anti-sound, the acoustic impression is changed for the better in the entire room, not just a small sweet spot.

C214 – new device, established efficiency

For PSI Audio, the AVAA C214 is an entirely new kind of product. For the first time in the company’s history, it features a DSP chip! The engineers at the company’s manufacture have found a way to realize the AVAA principle with a DSP, overcoming the challenge of reaching a latency below 0.2 milliseconds. The digital technology makes AVAA more flexible by virtue of its app that allows to adjust the device’s sensitivity, and can switch it on and off either individually or in groups. While mainly aimed at audiophiles and home users, this feature may come in handy in studios as well, if the engineers would like to tailor the room response to the sound being produced.

Room modes eliminated: AVAA

The basic principle of the PSI Audio AVAA C214 remains the same: it eliminates room modes caused by the rigid surfaces. These individual resonances of a room are one of the biggest challenges in acoustic design, and the AVAA makes it quite easy to tackle. While passive absorbers require a lot of material (we are talking metres thick!) or resonant absorbers need to be tuned to a specific frequency, the AVAA simply eliminates resonant frequencies between 15 and 160 Hz as effectively as a passive absorber 45 times its size. It does not affect the direct sound from the speakers, as room correction devices do, and it does not work with anti-sound, so the room modes are eliminated for the whole room, not just the sweet spot. The result is a clearer, more precise sound image – no one does precision quite like the Swiss.

The acoustic black hole – available in white

Essentially, the PSI Audio AVAA C214 imposes an acoustic impedance in front of the device – or, put simply, it acts like a hole in the wall. Instead of being bounced back, the respective sound waves disappear, they are sucked in by the C214. This acoustic black hole is now even more compact and easy to install, with wall brackets to place it wherever required in the room. Its maximum acoustic impact is complemented by its minimum visual impact, as it is available in black or white, allowing it to do its thing as covertly as possible. 

From 9th to 12th May, PSI Audio will exhibit at HIGH END 2024 in Munich. The main focus will be on the innovative AVAA C214 active bass trap, which will be presented in a dedicated listening room as well as in the form of a demo box at booth R09 in hall 3. 

Swiss precision audio in Munich

The HIGH END show in Munich has long been established as one of the most important shows for audiophile technology in the world. PSI Audio will be at the 2024 show, mainly to present the recently released AVAA C214 active bass trap. This modified version of the renowned AVAA C20, which has revolutionized room acoustics for years, is specifically tailored to the requirements of home audio enthusiasts. Making its debut at the show is the new white finish for the AVAA C214, allowing it to seamlessly fit into even more environments. In addition to the AVAA, PSI Audio also showcases the high-end speakers Héritage3 at HIGH END 2024.

Cleaning up the acoustics with AVAA C214

With the AVAA system, PSI Audio has tackled the most challenging part of acoustics: room modes. The Active Velocity Acoustic Absorber imposes a very low acoustic impedance, practically acting like a hole in the wall, equivalent to 45 times the size of the device. Resonant frequencies are not reflected back into the room, but instead are eliminated, creating a clearer, more precise sonic image not just at the listening position, but in the entire room, with tighter bass and a perfect sound stage. The AVAA C214 features a DSP chip that allows adjustments via smartphone app and future updates for maximum convenience at home. Working at a much higher efficiency compared to traditional porous absorbers, the PSI Audio AVAA C214 requires much less volume for a similar effect. For example, even a perfect porous absorber would need to be 2 metres thick to be effective at 40 Hz, and twice that for 20 Hz, while the AVAA goes down to 15 Hz at only 25 cm diameter. Add to that the fact that the AVAA C214 can easily be moved to a different room, or a different house altogether, and requires no tuning or calibration, and it becomes clear what a powerful, yet compact solution it is.

Exquisite listening pleasure with Héritage3

At HIGH END 2024, PSI Audio also features its first floor-standing speakers specifically designed for home audio users: Héritage3. The three-way system is based on the studio speakers that are popular around the world for their untouchable accuracy, reproducing sound just as it was committed to the recording. Professionals appreciate the pure honesty of the all-analogue PSI Audio speakers, as do audiophiles who want to hear only what the artists intended – the real thing. The Héritage3 delivers this hallmark Swiss precision sound and dresses it in a unique and classy ported enclosure.

Experience PSI Audio at HIGH END 2024

HIGH END 2024 takes place from 9th to 12th May 2024 at the MOC in Munich, Germany. PSI Audio, the AVAA C214 and the Héritage3 can be found in hall 3 at booth R09. The open booth will feature the AVAA in a cleverly designed demo box to showcase its potential, while the listening room right behind it will present the Héritage3 playing to a room optimized with five AVAA C214. On Friday 10th, PSI Audio will host a get-together right after the show at 6 pm at the booth, to which all visitors are cordially invited.

Ed Thorne is serious about sound, which his subscribers on YouTube appreciate. Not willing to compromise on his monitoring system, the London-based music producer tested a number of popular studio speakers and eventually picked his favourites: PSI Audio A23-M. 

Ed Thorne: drummer, producer, YouTuber

For Ed Thorne, music really was his first love – more specifically, the drums. Starting to play at 11 years old, he broke into the professional music scene in London in his early twenties, regularly playing five gigs per week. He soon found himself taking care of the tech the bands needed, and consequently started his own full-time sound company. Over time, he gravitated more towards studio work, and eventually focussed on recording and mixing music. “And that is where YouTube came in,” Ed Thorne explains. “I wanted to document the process of writing, recording and producing an album, just to give people an idea of exactly what is involved in production.” Success was not immediate, as Thorne remembers: “I did a couple of videos documenting the first song that I fully recorded, engineered and mixed myself. No one cared. So I pivoted and did some educational content, like how EQs worked. Things I knew from my live days. Again, no one cared.” Then came the pandemic, and things changed. “I made a video comparing audio interfaces, and just so happened to release them in April 2020 when everyone was looking for content like that. The video took off and somewhat defined the YouTube channel.” 

Extensive shoot-outs to find the perfect speakers

Like with his content, Ed Thorne also tried different monitoring systems. “It was an interesting journey because I really had to figure out what was going to work for me,” he says. His studio room in Western London is quite small, which always poses a challenge in terms of acoustics. So he tried very different speakers: the popular ones, the obvious ones, some more exotic ones. After time-consuming and elaborate listening tests, Ed Thorne had collected a lot more experience with speakers. And he had formed an opinion that governed his choice – the Swiss-precision three-way speakers A23-M by PSI Audio.

Analogue precision and natural depth

One major reason for Ed Thorne to pick PSI Audio over all other brands is the all-analogue approach. “I tried a lot of speakers,” he explains, “and some were really good, but they used DSPs and I felt like I could hear when the DSP was interfering and correcting. Almost as if they were trying to trick my ears. With PSI Audio, I immediately recognized that they are 100 percent analogue. They sound so natural. They’re the most neutral, transparent speakers I could find.” When asked to elaborate on the analogue sound, Thorne replies: “The most spacious top and the deepest depth. It’s like with preamps. Preamp modelling can sound quite good, but it is relatively flat, it lacks depth and richness. There is a three-dimensionality with analogue gear. That was something I heard with the PSI Audio speakers – others could come close, but something just doesn’t feel right with them. It does with PSI Audio.” 

PSI Audio takes the guesswork out of mixing

Professionals need to be able to rely on the sound image they are presented by their speaker systems, and Ed Thorne stresses this fact with an anecdote. “I like running my guitars through a Wes Audio Rhea for its THD circuit. It creates some tube harmonics and saturation with the THD on medium at one percent and on high at 2.5 percent. On my previous speakers, I would notice the 2.5 percent when I would switch it on and off. On the PSI Audio speakers, even at only one percent, I was like: Oh! We will have to be careful with that!” Before, Thorne needed to double-check his mixes on different systems, even on his phone. With his PSI Audio A23-M, he always gets an accurate representation of the audio he is working on. “Things like overcompression are glaringly obvious,” he says. “The PSI Audio speakers are a joy to work on.”

Products and more information

Ed Thorne uses PSI Audio A23-M all-analogue three-way studio monitors. He can be found online at www.edthorne.com.