Manual suggests 18 inches from rear wall. Speaker dimension re corrected on website now and are H41.5” x W11.75” x D16.25” with base (8” width not including base).
@SDL. Apologies - long answer to your short question :).
I have the original Olympica II speakers and I’ve owned them for about 6 years. My wife and I picked them out together after listening to a handful of other floorstanders in that price range ~$10k at the time. Main criteria was sound of course, but aesthetics was also a serious consideration since our living room is a main feature in the house and it’s minimally populated in a somewhat modernist/clean style so the speakers needed to work in that context. The two finalists based on sound quality were SF and Raidho (sorry, I forget the model now but it was a demo pair at a dealer in San Francisco). We both agreed the Raidho sounded best with its ribbon tweeter among other qualities, but neither of us could get past the “darth vader” look (as my wife put it 
). So we happily went with SF whose sound quality IMHO was subjectively close to, but definitely different from, the Raidho and whose looks were on another planet entirely.
Fast forward to now: it’s time for a speaker upgrade and yearly bonus time is here! The goals are: around the same price point, meet aesthetic value, lean towards a ribbon tweeter (I’ve owned two other ribbon designs in the past: Acoustic Zen and Salk), and up-level on sound quality (despite staying around the same price). A tall order with a very specific set of requirements for sure. At the price’ish, online I’ve seen the likes of Borrensen X3, Focal, Vandersteen and other floorstanders. None have grabbed me because of aesthetics… if they can’t pass this test, then why bother to listen with intent to buy? Marten Oscar Trio is almost within financial grasp but my wife strangely did not immediately ok their looks, though they are available for demo at a local dealer (hmm) but they don’t have a ribbon (hmm).
Coincidentally, I visited PSA’s factory a few months ago while visiting family in the area, enjoyed the sound of the FR20/30 but not the size… and then saw the prototype FR10s for the first time. Tick, tick, tick the boxes. Aesthetics? For me, yes on the white. Held my breath as I showed my wife the photos and, completely surprisingly, she approved the white ones! Also, PSA’s 30 day policy is the bomb. I ordered a pair today and can’t wait to hear and see what they can do in my room!
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@rocket89 Thanks for taking the time to give me details on your speaker searches. This is really helpful information.
I’ve had the same Thiel CS2.2 speakers for more than 30 years, so I obviously don’t change speakers on a whim. The Thiels have been wonderful, but I’ve been told that there have been improvements in speaker design over the past three decades and that my ancient speakers are the weakest link in my audio system. I’m also assuming that my speakers are old enough that there are now crossover components that may benefit from updating. So I’ve started - slowly, of course - to look at possible new speakers.
The Sonus Faber Olympica Nova III are high on my list (for both sound and aesthetics), and I’ve also been intrigued by the PSA FR10 and the Raidho X2t. I like the idea of the planar magnetic tweeter and midrange in the FR10, while the Raidho uses only a planar tweeter. I showed my wife photos of the FR10 and the SF Olympica Nova III, and she didn’t seem too excited about either. She liked that the SF was made in Italy and had nice wood, but it seemed kind of big to her. She thought the FR10 looked kind of boxy but she seemed to like the satin white better than the satin black. In contrast, I think the white cabinet may call attention to itself by being whiter than our white living room walls and that the satin black might be more likely to disappear visually in our setting. We’ll have to see how our opinions evolve over time.
Congrats on getting the FR10 ordered! Please be sure to let us know how it sounds in your room, especially in comparison to your current SF Nova II speakers.
@SDL. My pleasure, glad it is helpful. I have not listened to Thiel but I know they’re legendary and have seen some in person. I understand they have a very loyal following and it sounds like you’re in that group :). Interesting that the SF are on your list too but too bad your wife isn’t too excited… I would say, give her time and be patient but persistent LOL. In my case, once she was in the showroom listening to various ones with me, she became invested and had good input on the sound as well, which was fun for us both.
Incidentally, I came across this article in Tone Audio about white speakers. It’s an interesting set of observations/hypotheses. I’ve never owned white ones so I guess I’ll discover whether I agree with them or not:
Thanks, and yes I plan to do a write-up of my observations and share with the forum. Please keep us informed of your speaker selection journey too.
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Anyone have these yet? Looking for real world impressions on powering them with a Pass Labs XA-25, which is rated at 25W @ 8ohms… some sources say 50W @ 4ohms RMS, but that is the bottom of the recommended power range for the FR10s.
Pass Class A has a lot of current available so I would expect no problems pushing the FR10 to as loud as you like.
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@rocket89 Maybe I’ll have to rethink the white satin option for the FR10. Actually, I already do have five white ceiling-mounted Thiel PowerPoints in my basement home theater set-up. Those speakers are paintable, but they look good as is, so I never painted them. In my basement, the white PowerPoints fit in very well with the gray walls/ceilings and the white doors and baseboards. They also have white metal screens over the coaxial drivers. I think the white FR10 might look cooler with a white grill cloth rather than a black one.
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Don’t forget the flat panel ribbon midrange in addition to the flat panel ribbon tweeter.
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The pass XA25 switches into class A/B above the 25 watts and actually delivers 130 watts at 4 ohms according to the stereophile review.
This will be able to drive them to very high level.
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Sweet! Let us know when you receive them.
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Thanks Chris!
Would love to see a photo of the crossover!
I also visited PSA in late summer and saw an FR 10 prototype then. My spouse was with me and gave her sign off after looking at a black prototype. My order went in today!
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I uploaded a photo of the bi-wire cables at the speaker end 3 posts above the photo you commented on.
There’s a quick video on the FR10 product page that shows a shot of the crossover around the 4 minute mark.
Like the larger models, we use all air-core coils, metallized poly caps and wirewound resistors. The 2.4 mH coil on the woofer is a very large 15 AWG copper to keep the resistance low and power handling high.
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We put an FR10 unpacking video up on youtube today.
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Great video, Chris. I’m all prepped to unpack my FR10 when it arrives. It seems some of the chatter on the FR10 threads has paused momentarily… I suspect that others, like myself, who ordered already are now eagerly but quietly waiting for their shipments to arrive
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