Ps audio aspen FR 30 Loudspeakers

ricevs, using your line of logic I would bet your speakers sound as good as they look. 💩 Since you have not heard the FR30, please refrain from making judgements on how they sound based on how they look.  Also, keep in mind Chris Brunhaver who designed the speakers worked for BG Radia, the manufacturer of the planar drivers you are so knowledgeable on.  I would bet he knows a thing or two about how to implement them.

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.

I'm calling BS to the OP's post. Looking at his system, any PS Audio gear would be in a much higher class than what the OP has. Have you seen the cutout of the PS audio speaker? NO! Have you seen the crossover f the speaker? NO! Have you even heard their new speaker? No!

Also, do Porsche 918 owners tear apart their engines to make sure they are not using cayman piston rods? Hell no.

When you buy a piece of audio gear or a nice expensive car, you use your senses to determine if its right for you or not, not some charts/graphs or sheet of measurements.

Agreed with audioman totally!!!

The most expensive parts are not always the best sounding part to put in a circuit.  There are synergies with components.  

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!

I doubt they even manufacture them.

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.

Lol, 28k, no problem...good grief...

Personally, I trust the guys from Audio Excellence Canada guys, who said the FR 30 sounds great. 

I messaged PS Audio & ask where speakers were made.. china

Lots of venom targeted in a narrow context of quality of parts

That leads to yet another tastes great less filling, spirited discussion of judging equipment performance by results of measurements vs results by what we're hearing

I'm not a EE and can quickly get left behind in all the numbers and diagrams

This requires me to base my opinions on sound quality not quality of the parts

That said Paul hardly needs me to come to his rescue as his pedigree is self evident IMO

Paul is a pioneer in the industry, a pillar and treasure in the audio community and has evolved to an astute businessman and corporate executive

As the op has accurately pointed out, the historical core competencies at PS Audio is electronics, not speakers 

Conversely I think the current vision and strategy at PS Audio is more holistic, through the entire food chain, starting with production and ending with playback

Look for a moment at the investment PS Audio has made with Octave records and producing their own specialized formats, engineered from the ground up with optimal playback in mind

When PS Audio gets the recording hand to fit better and better into the playback glove, all listeners will benefit not just those that own PS Audio products

I personally find that exciting and a potential game changer

My sincere respect to all opinions, as none are right or wrong - only different

One of the greatest strengths of the audio community is our differences and being able to share them without fear of retribution or shaming

Enjoy the journey

@charles1dad --

"In general I accept the premise that better quality parts will lead to improved sound quality. However the overall speaker design and manufacturing aspects have to be considered.

Speaker#1 has an "A" list of renown parts. Speaker #2 uses parts from unknown/unfamiliar less expensive brands.

Speaker #1 sounds just okay and speaker#2 is captivating. I’m spending my money to purchase the latter. Sound quality will always trump an impressive parts list as far as I’m concerned. This is audio so you actually have to do some listening.

Charles"

Well put, Charles. Back in the day the Snell AII’s comprised fairly cheap drivers (as did other if not most of the original Snell models), and knowing this some would no doubt scoff at the AII’s believing they’d never be able to produce good sound, contrary to what they actually did, and so much so that in vital areas they paled most of the contemporary competition. The late Peter Snell knew how to make speakers from a holistic approach.

I concur 1000% with Randy Man. You cann disagree with design decisions or whether you like a speaker looks or sound. But you cannot question PS Audio’s integrity.  They are extremely transparent as a company and of course need to make money.