PSB Alpha IQ

Verdict

Despite a few quirks, the PSB Alpha IQ are pair of speakers designed for those who want a simpler and convenient streaming experience in their home. They sound good, are versatile and offer good connectivity for those who want a speaker that can be used across a breadth of sources.

Introduction

You may or may not have noticed the drive towards convenience (a word you’ll hear a lot in this review) in the hi-fi market. Products such as the PSB Alpha IQ are the type trying to change preconceptions around hi-fi, going from off-putting to accessible.

This change has been driven in part by the smartphone you’re likely holding in your hands right now, as well as the trend of hi-fi moving towards being a versatile jack of all trades, with the Alpha IQ featuring a phono input for turntables and HDMI eARC for TVs.

At some point it stops becoming ‘hi-fi’ in the truest sense, and more the kind of product you’d describe as lifestyle, even though that word doesn’t do it justice. Regardless, the Alpha IQ has the potential to be the only speaker system you need.

Design

• Compact size
• No connecting cable
• No remote control

Aesthetically the gold trim around the drivers and the finish of the cabinet itself help to elevate the PSB Alpha IQ to smart, minimalist status. Hidden somewhere on the front of the speaker are LED lights that’ll indicate the state the speakers are currently in.

They (thankfully) come in colours other than matte white and black, with Dutch Orange, Tangerine Yellow and Midnight Blue options to spruce up your room.

They’re small enough to fit inside a bookshelf, not too deep that you couldn’t affix them on top of speaker stands, and at 7.36kg a pair they’re not so heavy that you couldn’t cart them from room to room. Considering their multi-purpose use – TV, lifestyle speaker, positioned in a hi-fi cave – the Alpha IQ fit the bill in terms of convenience.

The pair is made up of an ‘active’ main speaker – this is the primary one that holds the amplifier and where all the connections reside, the other is the secondary speaker but both require plugging into the mains, while the secondary speaker has a service pinhole and USB port for resetting and updating the speaker.

There’s no remote provided with control either through the onboard touch controls (playback and volume) on the active speaker or through the Bluesound app on your smartphone, which again adds to the convenience and simplicity of the Alpha IQ.

Features

• Bluetooth and Wi-Fi
• HDMI eARC for TVs
• BluOS support

The Alpha IQ is powered by the BluOS platform, and in light of Sonos’ recent travails, there’s reason to consider that BluOS is the most considerate, intuitive streaming app that you can use right now.

For one, there’s a considerable number of streaming apps integrated into the interface, from Tidal, Qobuz, Amazon Music HD and others, with support for Connect versions of Spotify and Tidal too. There’s multi-room control for those with multiple BluOS devices (the BluOS family extends to NAD Electronics, Cyrus, DALI and more besides). BluOS is stable, speedy and responsive, and depending on the product, it offers decent customisation options.

Set-up for the Alpha IQ isn’t the easiest, with all that said. Both on the home and work Wi-Fi it seemed to take an age for BluOS to recognise the two speakers, and then even longer for the speakers to pair with each other. A number of resets were required before the speakers linked up, which is not ideal, and hasn’t been an issue I’ve had with other Bluesound products.

Connectivity, at least of the physical kind, extends to phono out, sub out (for adding a subwoofer), ethernet/LAN, optical, USB, aux and HDMI eARC for connecting to a TV. HDMI eARC widens the bandwidth for higher quality level of audio but the Alpha IQ is only compatible with PCM soundtracks. There’s no Dolby or DTS support here.

A slightly irritating feature of the PSB Alpha IQ is its tendency to not recognise a HDMI connection. Connect to a TV and the TV will understand its connected to a speaker, but the Alpha IQ stubbornly remains stuck in its previous connection – in essence it doesn’t auto-switch.

So to get audio to and through the speakers, you’ll need to manually change the input in the ‘Music’ section of the app. You can set up your TV remote to function as an IR remote for the speakers or set but given the emphasis on convenience and simplicity, this is an area where it doesn’t meet those standards.

Wirelessly there’s Wi-Fi (naturally) along with AirPlay 2 for iOS devices and Bluetooth aptX-HD streaming. Though you may see these speakers advertised as having two-way Bluetooth support, which allows a Bluetooth signal to travel in both directions (i.e. from a mobile phone to the Alpha IQ, or from the speakers to another device), it’s not functioning at the time of writing.

There’s also voice control via Google Assistant, Alexa, and Siri, and for those interested in custom install, the Alpha IQ plays nice with Control4 to Crestron, ELAN, RTI and URC systems.

Sound Quality

• Warm, energetic sound
• Not the sharpest or most detailed
• Confident bass output

Armed with 180W of power through its 19mm tweeter and 4-inch woofer, the PSB Alpha IQ boasts a performance that ticks of the necessary boxes in being clear and detailed, with a considerable amount of power (for a speaker of its size) in the low end.

There’s a warmth to is sound that makes for a smooth presentation, though it’s not the sharpest or most insightful sound. If there’s a criticism I have it’s that the levels of clarity and detail aren’t as high as I’d have expected for the asking price.

Even with that to contend with, there’s not a dull moment when listening to the Alpha IQ. Where necessary it can output an aggressive, assertive and energetic push with music, and with quieter tracks it can still keep the attention with a good level of clarity, though I’d say this is a speaker whose potential is unlocked with higher quality tracks in mind than Spotify, for instance. Listening to a track in Tidal or Qobuz, the Alpha IQ flexes its muscles here by extracing so much more from the track and flexes its muscles more.

With Isfar Sarabski’s Déjà vu and the high frequency performance is described in bright, sharp and clear terms with a slight richness detected at times. The warmth does mean its not too crisp in communicating the cymbal crashes in the track but there’s enough detail elicited from the track to make for an entertaining listen. The shifts in tempo from fast to slow are handled well, the PSB isn’t a slouch or sloppy-sounding when it comes to momentum. A listen to Talking Heads’ Bringing Down the House and the PSB starts as it means to carry on with plenty of energy and power that makes for a flowing listen.

It’s the type of speaker where the more I listen to it, the more I like its approach. It brings a sense of size and scale to tracks, voices in the midrange area are handled smoothly, although a little lacking in dynamism; while the bass performance is a confident one for what’s essentially a compact pair of bookshelf speakers.

Connected (eventually) to a TV and it’s more of the same: a strong bass response that’s an improvement on most TVs. Dialogue is communicated with clarity and warmth but sounds natural, as well as being positioned accurately on the screen. It sounds spacious, and there’s a decent sense of attack and snap registered to the gunshots in John Wick 4 on Prime Video.

Again, it’s not the sharpest sounding performance, sounding slightly soft in terms of overall detail which seems to be the case with hi-fi lifestyle speakers such as this that cover a range of purposes.

One last note is that wireless and wired performance has been excellent throughout testing. There’s barely a single drop in connection that I can remember, which is impressive considering the speakers are both wireless and not connected through a cable.

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