It’s inevitable: Working on “Recommended Components,” as I am now, leads to fantasies of new gear, new systems, <i>outstanding new heights of recorded playback!</i> I have to restrain myself, focus. Focus, Daniel-san, focus.

Call me shallow, but what first attracted me to Audience's Au24 cables when I <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/cables/802audience">reviewed them</A> in August 2002 was their looks. In contrast to superstiff cables as thick as garden hoses, the Au24s were slender and elegant. They were wonderfully flexible, too, and even their custom-made RCA plugs were slim and easy to handle. Instead of having to fiddle with a system of locking collet and barrel, merely slipping them on resulted in a tight, solid connection. Compared to the Au24s, a sizable number of audiophile cables seemed excessive, even a little foolish.

Call me shallow, but what first attracted me to Audience's Au24 cables when I <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/cables/802audience">reviewed them</A> in August 2002 was their looks. In contrast to superstiff cables as thick as garden hoses, the Au24s were slender and elegant. They were wonderfully flexible, too, and even their custom-made RCA plugs were slim and easy to handle. Instead of having to fiddle with a system of locking collet and barrel, merely slipping them on resulted in a tight, solid connection. Compared to the Au24s, a sizable number of audiophile cables seemed excessive, even a little foolish.

Call me shallow, but what first attracted me to Audience's Au24 cables when I <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/cables/802audience">reviewed them</A> in August 2002 was their looks. In contrast to superstiff cables as thick as garden hoses, the Au24s were slender and elegant. They were wonderfully flexible, too, and even their custom-made RCA plugs were slim and easy to handle. Instead of having to fiddle with a system of locking collet and barrel, merely slipping them on resulted in a tight, solid connection. Compared to the Au24s, a sizable number of audiophile cables seemed excessive, even a little foolish.

Call me shallow, but what first attracted me to Audience's Au24 cables when I <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/cables/802audience">reviewed them</A> in August 2002 was their looks. In contrast to superstiff cables as thick as garden hoses, the Au24s were slender and elegant. They were wonderfully flexible, too, and even their custom-made RCA plugs were slim and easy to handle. Instead of having to fiddle with a system of locking collet and barrel, merely slipping them on resulted in a tight, solid connection. Compared to the Au24s, a sizable number of audiophile cables seemed excessive, even a little foolish.

For the past few years, PSB Speakers International has been replacing its older lines with new models designed in Canada, and assembled in China from Chinese-made components. Judging from the reception here of PSB's <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/floorloudspeakers/408psb">Synchrony One</A> and <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/floorloudspeakers/psb_imagine_t_loudspeaker"… T</A>, it's clear that the new models combine advanced performance with true economy. Now, with the new Image line, we see the result of trickling all this down to less expensive products.

For the past few years, PSB Speakers International has been replacing its older lines with new models designed in Canada, and assembled in China from Chinese-made components. Judging from the reception here of PSB's <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/floorloudspeakers/408psb">Synchrony One</A> and <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/floorloudspeakers/psb_imagine_t_loudspeaker"… T</A>, it's clear that the new models combine advanced performance with true economy. Now, with the new Image line, we see the result of trickling all this down to less expensive products.

For the past few years, PSB Speakers International has been replacing its older lines with new models designed in Canada, and assembled in China from Chinese-made components. Judging from the reception here of PSB's <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/floorloudspeakers/408psb">Synchrony One</A> and <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/floorloudspeakers/psb_imagine_t_loudspeaker"… T</A>, it's clear that the new models combine advanced performance with true economy. Now, with the new Image line, we see the result of trickling all this down to less expensive products.

<I>The best result of mathematics is to not need it.</I>&#151;Oliver Heaviside, 1850&#150;1925