But then it would be the FR25.
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Well, Paul knows that I donāt think that this kind of thing is very flattering for the product but heās obviously very good at marketing, so Iāll quit complaining.
We have the mid/tweeter crossover placed behind the midrange and the tweeter attaches directly to the front faceplate, so I must have had the faceplate removed to make a crossover mod while we were measuring these prototypes.
Having the gap between the midrange and woofer section is there to minimize the floor bounce reflection and improve the in-room response. However, in the next model down, we may reverse the mid and tweeter (below the FR20). and forgo a bit of this benefit in order to make the speaker smaller and less expensive.
Paul had mentioned that we were shooting for under $20K, so slightly more than 30% less than the FR30.
A few highlights of the design are a new carbon rohacell sandwich cone woofer (cross section picture attached). We have great bass extension with the speaker having -6 dB at 22-23 Hz, so we had extension into the teens in-room where we were listening. Sensitivity is about a dB less than the FR30 at 87 dB and maximum power handling is halved because of 2 versus 4 woofers.
It is a much smaller speaker than the FR30 and I think will be a better speaker for a lot of people and rooms.
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Why the design change, if I might ask?
Is the FR30 going to be using different materials going forward as well?
Curiously yours.
Thanks for the update Chris! I completely agree with your first paragraph. Sounds like the FR20 doesnāt give much up to the FR30 which is wonderful news! Please keep us updated as the alpha process proceeds.
Well, we needed a lower mass cone to get the sensitivity up when using two woofers instead of four. Aluminum can only be made so thin (without deforming under excursion).
To keep the bass extension the same, thereās a larger enclosure per woofer and an aluminum coil and softer suspension (to keep the resonance and q the same but with higher sensitivity).
Anyway, itās a balancing act with woofers and Iām very happy how these turned out.
A lighter cone would give worse bass extension in an FR30 and so I wouldnāt want to change cones in that model without redesigning other aspects. We likely wonāt revisit that design for at least a few years.
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Thanks.
Makes sense and I learned somethingā¦
Regards.
I am glad for the video of the early stages of an FR20. Wires sticking out of the tweeter location does not bother me. It is being able to see a general configuration of the speaker and the general size of the speaker that, as a consumer and potential purchaser, is very cool to see. The progress, and even setbacks, of the PS Audio speaker line has been fascinating to observe, and how the development has evolved, especially with the perceived sound quality combining the history of Arnieās developments, to the current implementation and new driver design that you have brought to the process.
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Hi Chris,
Is there a plan to also design a center speaker to go along these or FR10?! Like an FR-C?
As many have a combo room for audio and home theatre unless I can find a matching front and center wonāt be able to get these or other models.
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Well, itās not in the plans yet but Iād like to keep an eye on it. We havenāt sold many pairs of speakers into the market yet that are a part of home theater systems but that may change with these less expensive models.
The tough thing with center channels is that they need to be just as capable as your left and right speakers (or more so) because about 60% of the energy in home theater comes out of the center channel.
2-way MTM center channels donāt work well at all (for even horizontal coverage), so we would need a 3-way design and our planar mids are rather large so need to placed vertically Our new smaller planar mid (used in FR10) would work for this but weād need to use a pair flanking the tweeter, so it would end up as a rather large 3-way center channel with a price to match.
Anyway, as we get FR10 and smaller models in the market, I think weāll have to reassess.
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For me as a 2-chan/HT consumer, while itās possible to find second brand Center like KEF to go with whatever brand I might choose for L&R, itās a bit of a gamble since it takes several hundred hours before the Center is broken in. With just two hours or so per day of HT use, the break-in can exceed the return window. So, for the time being I only buy speakers that have a matching Center.
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You mentioned FR10.
How many models have been announced to this point? Any beyond FR30, FR20, FR10?
Agreed. Same here.
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Thanks. It sure makes more sense with FR10. I wish I had the space and money to have two rooms for audio and video but even having a dedicated room for either is a blessing.
Matching to R/L is key for sure and also must have great midrange for dialogue. Looking forward to it.
We havenāt announced the full line yet. One of the challenges is that you donāt want to announce things too early (which has been a perennial problem).
What we have planned for now is an additional smaller 3-way tower speaker (FR10) and a 2-way bookshelf/stand mounted speaker.
We didnāt have center channel on the product roadmap but Iāll be meeting next month to plan out my next year of projects and efforts.
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This all looks very exciting!
Just design the bookshelf so it can be flipped on its side and rotate the midrange/Twitter and boom, itās a center channel! 
An MTM is a pretty common solution. Though that is another cabinet to make. Depends how many you could sell. Though if enough people wanted to buy four or five (or more) of the two-ways for surround/atmos rigs, the cost of the unique speaker could be covered.
I have never liked the horizontal dispersion characteristics of MTM designs. I finally got a two way B&W CMT with the center mounted woofer and tweeter I get excellent coverage throughout the room.
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Yeah, you end up having a notch around the crossover point for non-coincident sources and so this unfortunately doesnāt work well (about the same as a 2.5 way MTM, with a 2-way MTM on itās side being worse). Anyway, other than a coax, a 3-way center channel is basically mandatory for a horizontal configuration.
Anyway, Iād like to see us make center channels (like Bowers and Focal and others do, even in their flagship lines), but weāll see.
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A short question inbetween Chris, independent of PSaudio speakersā¦what is the usual lifetime of a conventional chassis (the rubber part working within specs I guess)?