We get a kick out of Paul Barton, so we wandered into PSB's room to see what's new. He was talking to a good-looking man of a certain age (ours, approximately), to whom he introduced us: it was Vance Dickason, the man who wrote the book on designing DIY loudspeakers: The Loudspeaker Design Cookbook.

What a nice guy.

Then Barton showed us his new Synchrony line of loudspeakers, which are sleek and quite different from the older, boxier PSB Stratus designs. Paul, being Paul, didn't show us the $4500/pair Synchrony One (which JA has for review)—he caressed his $300/pair Synchrony Two and said, "I think this is a speaker that 'real people' will get."

Paul thinks that design isn't just engineering, but an art of engaging the senses. "If you engage two senses, the experience is more involving than with just one. I love touching these speakers, with their curved wood surfaces and cold metal baffles—and I suspect that enhances the 'touch' I receive from their music."

Paul thinks most people feel cheated by the industrial design of "bad"-sounding loudspeakers. "Wouldn't you rather listen to—and look at—something like this?"

Yup.