The speakers and drivers and xover parts are all made overseas (and delivered here finished)......most of the design is being done here....this is normal for lots of companies, these days. Some companies will make their cheaper line overseas and keep their super expensive line manufactured in house. However, it kakes a lot of money to create a speaker manufacturing plant.....lots of money.....probably more than PS Audio has.
Ps audio aspen FR 30 Loudspeakers
Having bought several upper end products from p.s audio in the past such as their flagship dac Parts quality inside were Average at best. I am looking at New Loudspeakers and having over 40 years in audio and owning a Audio Store to me a 🚩 flag is when you won’t should the Critical Xover inside which is the ♥️ orthe 🧠 of the speaker , at $28,500 The speaker should be shown inside and out , and if a company uses the term proprietary drivers or Xover parts ,that means nothing special I except the lofty $$ price tag. Having modded Loudspeakers for myself and others for over 20 years ,know first hand most mags take many cost cutting short cuts . It’s up to the mfg to Prove to the buyer they are worthy,Especially a totally new item , they specialize in electronics ,Not Loudspeakers . Unless you can see everything about the drivers, and Xover and parts quality ,then most likely parts are made in China or close to it ,in reality less then $8k into the total build , look at a Wilson Sabrina ,Magico, B&W , they all disclose their build designs . Just ge careful, if you can’t see all your answers, they buy with ⚠️ Caution ⚠️
Showing 6 responses by ricevs
Everything makes a difference. Yes, a speaker that is less well done can sound better than a particular speaker....more well done. However, the speaker less well done can sound way, way, way, way better if it is well done. This is truth. Is the PS Audio speaker well done?......it is well done.....but not very well done....not even close to what is possible. My own speaker that I used for a while used the Neo 10 and Neo 3 on an open baffle.....no binding posts...all hardwired xover with way better parts and way less parts.....no resistors what so ever.....this would sound way better than the PS Audio top end. Check it out. If the Neo 10 were still available the top end of my speaker would cost less than $1K with all the parts and wire and wood and felt and everything (for the pair). Of course, you could finish it any way you like including super finishes and paint. It does not have to look like my Frankenstein....he he http://tweakaudio.com/EVS-2/planar_midhighs.html BTW......the B&G Neo 10 and 3 are both 92db sensitive......so no resistors are needed to match them so I do not know why the PS Audio speaker is only 87db sensitive.....maybe they are padding both the mids and highs to the woofers (really bad idea to put resistors in series with the signal when you do not need it). There is nothing innovative about the PS Audio speaker.....just drivers in a box....looks nice and I am sure sounds nice. But you can make a better speaker for a few thousand dollars. |
PS Audio does not make any of the parts in their speaker. All the parts are made in China/or far east for them. The midrange and tweeter are probably the B&G Neo 10 and Neo 3......they certainly look EXACTLY like them. Danny Richie at GR Research had Neo 3s made for him at the same factory that the B&G drivers are made. B&G was sold to Christie digital and Christie decided to not sell the drivers to anyone else....then they decided to sell them (through Parts Express) and now only the Neo 3 is sold through retail. Danny Richie at GR Research made several speakers using the Neo 10 that were, I am sure, much better than the PS Audio speaker.....he used the driver on an open baffle......one, in fact, used 4 Neo 10s with a Neo 3 in between....check this out: The parts in the PS Audio xover look like good generic Chinese parts.....these are good. However, they are not really serious. You want to see a serious xover then look at the bottom of this page.....a crossover I made for a brand new Apogee Duetta. A brand new Duetta can be purchased (with my custom xover) for around $20K......this speaker would simply kill the PS Audio speaker. Crossover pics at bottom of page along with an older pic of his speakers....I will have more speaker pics soon....showing his new amps, etc. http://tweakaudio.com/EVS-2/Speaker_ideas.html The PS Audio speaker is a very good speaker......state of the art....hardly. |
It is not just parts quality, but how you do things. For instance, it sounds better to wire a coil into the inside and out the outside winding. So, the outside winding would go to ground or output.....practically no one knows this. I don’t know a single speaker done this way. It is not subtle, the sonic difference. There are connectors on drivers that you can bypass and wire directly to the voice coil wires.....no one in the world does this.....sometimes, especially when a driver has binding posts on it.....the sound can be completely transformed by removing the binding post and hardwiring to the voice coil wire. All capacitors need to be oriented properly.....like the coils....that is, the outside foil on the cap should go to ground or output. I don't see any markings on the caps in the PS Audio xover, so I would assume they are all put in there willy nilly. All binding posts degrade the sound. The best ones that I have heard are the WBT Negtgen coppers. Even better than that is using nylon hardware to clamp your speaker wires to the xover wires.....as shown in the pic of the Apogee xover on my site. I will have this as the main set up on a bookshelf speaker I will be producing later this year (of course, it will have the wires going directly to the voice coil wires on my full range driver in the box). You do not want to use traces in your xover....you want the parts hardwired together. You want the xover parts not vibrating with the box....or on their own.......on and on it goes....this game is infinite. Enjoy this moment....the only moment that exists |
External looks (how pretty something is) has practically nothing to do with sound. I make no judgements on how they sound......but I know those drivers and implemented them in a more transparent way.....so have others. The crossover parts alone.....are sad.....he he. I am sure the speakers sound very good and are probably competitive in their price range......but nothing new.....or great. Implementation is far different than speaker driver design.....far different........Just one bad part and you get bad sound. Most designers do not know parts and execution very well. PS Audio is showing with the crossover parts they are not serious implementors. There is always more.....is all I am saying. Look at the Perlisten and Acora and latest Kef speakers.....way more inventive and or tweaky. The guy at Acora spent 3 years tweaking every single thing in the crossover.......looks like PS Audio spent some time getting the frequency response good but then cheaped out on parts and execution. Every single thing you do matters. If you made a serious tweaky outboard xover for the PS Audio speakers that was all hardwired......you would drop your jaw in the improvement.......not so with the Acora speakers. There is always more....and more and more....into the infnite. Those that buy the PS Audio speaker will no doubt be happy. No problem. I am happy with my cheap DIY speakers..........but if I owned the PS Audio speaker......it would be tweaked to kingdom come. Why settle? If you know what to do to improve something.......why wouldn’t you do it? You can improve your life by remembering your own beauty and everyone else’s beauty........happiness is self created.....every thought, every word spoken (or written), every feeling and every action has an energy.......that keeps creating itself.....over and over.......you are what you think, say, feel and do..............so think, say, feel and do joy and love and beauty and whatever you want.......be the love. |
Yes, if your drivers and cabinet are not low distortion.....then you would want veiled slow parts in the xover and wiring to hide the distortion. If you have little cablnet sound and super low distortion drivers then you want the most expensive super sounding parts everywhere. Even at the highest level of parts there is still synergy....but the parts in the PS Audio speaker are obviously just generic Chinese parts (good ones....but NOTHING special). Kef and Magico use different levels of parts for the different price ranges......the top speakers use the best parts. However, the cheapest Magical speaker uses better parts than the PS Audio. If you have spent countless hours playing with passive xover parts....then you know how important every single part is.......this is what is so cool about DIYing......you can use parts and execution that are better than any speaker in the world.....and for pennies on the dollar.......but only maybe 5% of Audiophiles are DIYers.....and only 5% of DIYers are seriously tweak. To bad, lots of fun here.....and great sound for very little money.....and the satisfaction of having created it yourself........ However, we are all DIYers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We create our own reality moment by moment......What kind of life do you want?........You make it up.....it is free! Be a smile millionaire.....it is free! |