Perhaps, although he has been reasonable so far. I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. Who knows, he may start the company in a whole new direction.
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PS Audio FR30 speakers
- Thread starter Pearljam5000
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What harm would continuing a polite but critical engagement perpetrate?
PS Audio seems to sell overpriced, underperforming electronics, and does so by invoking nonsense. They have a new designer who has built and launched a new speaker. There's no Putin in this scenario.
Yes, sometimes an engineer is just an engineer. We can't help what our boss does.
Well I can. Chris has shown a commitment to proper audio science and engineering which parent company has not. So let's be welcoming to him.
So Paul has no input in these designs?
If the company is following a different path on the new speaker product then a quasi vendetta is counter-productive.
Cars-N-Cans
Addicted to Fun and Learning
Obviously he does, but on the other hand speakers, unlike electronics, are very unforgiving. You have to do it right at some level. Someone can buy one of their new “AirLenses” (admittedly a dubious product), and think it works as it likely won’t have any beneficial or adverse effects on SQ. However, bad sounding speakers will sound bad. There is no getting around that. Paul will have at least dictated most of the overall styling. Per their comments, they look to have contracted a firm in Canada to help with the aesthetic design of the FR30. In that regard it’s similar to the automotive world in that the art and concepts are done first, then it’s the engineers turn to design all the “guts” to make it work. Speakers are a bit different in that the cabinet and front baffle are also acoustically important to the performance as well. But, so far evidence is pointing towards the FR30 being a good speaker. It’s unfortunate that we only have one measurement so far as it’s just one point, and there may be a local disturbance or some error in the measurement that shows up there that would not be as adverse if its overall response we’re taken into consideration (I.e. we somehow got it on a klippel or did full anechoic measurements of it). I suspect Paul will have had some input on who gets to review it and what measurements were allowed. Paul seems to eschew measurements from his commentary in his videos, so those done seem to have been kept to a minimum. Hopefully in the future that will change. I would agree that their electronics have a rather schizophrenic nature to them in that some are legitimate performers, others delivering bottom of the barrel objective numbers (some of their DACs). But I agree that we should withhold too harsh a judgement since so far at the reviews, additional data, and feedback are positive, despite the picture that was painted early on. Hopefully more advanced measurements will flesh out the FR30 and do it better justice than what has been done so far.
Cars-N-Cans
Addicted to Fun and Learning
Yeah the whole "piano gloss" finish speakers have now is a bit overdone. I think they would look a lot sharper with something like aluminum trim on the front baffles and around the passive radiators as it would help tie the whole design together better with the aluminum "wing" under it. This is especially so on newer designs that have the whole "skinny-thicc" deal going on. Good for acoustic design, not so hot for aesthetic as you have this deep-ass box with nothing to break up the view. But, this would also drive up cost and complexity, not to mention Paul's tastes for somewhat bland, minimalist boxes as the form-factor for PS' products.
He likely have, but I will give any company a chance if they looks like going the right path and fixing the BS. Schiit comes to my mind in their amp and dac designs. If the prelim in room measurements are in deed generally very good, and potentially the smaller ones measuring great in here or Erin’s Klippel, I won’t hesitate to recommend friends to buy at reasonable cost.
But then the track record do need to pay their consequences, that is before decent measurements showing great results I would not recommend anyone to blind purchase
Cars-N-Cans
Addicted to Fun and Learning
It surely it is, that’s why I say only when objectively they perform I will recommend it, at least the look is good paring with good performance I could care less about how their other products perform, but if they didn’t, then it’s another pass
Curvature
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FWIW, performance aside, I really like the design of the Stellar series. I'd compare them to recent Audiolab products.
Mysterious black boxes—do your work!
I would say when the performance matches the competition in the price bracket I won’t hesitate to recommend it, based on aesthetic being a plus and imo I would sometimes prefer supporting new comers who performs to enter the market. Of course it’s another story when it didn’t or only performs in certain conditions say boosting highs excessively on axis to compensate off axis performance due to poor directivity
Nope, for the on axis peak in the only measurement thus far I would stay away from fr30, but if their other in development and smaller offerings are good then I would give it a go
While both are unavailable due to their different personal reasons, isn't there another Klippel NFS for hire in the US? Some place where you could ship the speakers, they measure, send them back along with the results, and you guys write a few pages of a technical document describing what were the goals and what was achieved, and publish it in the downloads section of the website somewhere? Would be great for the analytical crowds like us here.
Cars-N-Cans
Addicted to Fun and Learning
By the time the FR20, 10, etc. are available I suspect Amir will be able to conduct reviews again (hopefully!). Also Amir will presumably provide the review for free, unlike the for-hire measurement that would require an expenditure of PS Audio’s funds unless alternate arrangements are made. This, of course, assumes that Paul will give such actions his blessing, which becomes more likely with the smaller speakers in the series. Paul’s modus operandi from an outsiders perspective seems to be to keep the objective side of things at arm’s length. A solitary less than optimal measurement can be explained away. On the other hand, a full suite of precision measurements painting a damning picture could easily tank an entire product line.
We all do remember this is a $30k speaker, right? And passive. Expectations of performance should be close to sublime given how many active and cheaper speakers achieve this. Plus the active ones have other advantages such as “room control”.
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