I’m sure this won’t be a surprise to you, but it was to me and my friend who owns the FR30s:
While he waits for his big Boulder to arrive, he’s using my Pass XA25 which is only 50 watts into 4 ohms.
Even at the unhealthy levels that he listens to–mostly rock–the speakers never sound strained or compressed. Really excellent speakers.
No surprise here as that Pass Labs XA25 is a bit of an over achiever. I do prefer my music at moderate levels though.
thanks-
Depending on the towel, whether cotton or polyester, it sounds different. With fabric softener you get a softer sound.
Before Donald asks. Which coasters do you use?
Thanks Ron. I a big fan of the Pass electronics.
Greg Petan at Positive Feedback used a Boulder integrated for his FR20 review and seemed to really like that combination too but I’ve never gotten the chance to use any of their amps or hear them at customer’s homes yet.
That’s could be dangerous, especially if you have a glass of wine on hand, @dchang05!
I had a nice round this morning, because FedEx emailed that my cover replacement will be ship out today.
The Cable Co. said Herbies Titanium footers will not be ready until three weeks later. Well, I guess I need to find a clean golf towel before that.
I have not touched alcohol for two days because my wife said I seem to drink more nowadays. I told her the new speakers made me relax too much. I don’t think she bought that.
Sorry if you have already explained it but why aren’t you using the stock FR30’ footers? Looking at Paul’s videos it seems they have a sort of fiber pads which make them easy to move around.
Shouldn’t there be a warning on the speakers?
Be careful ! Listening to music with these speakers will make you ecstatic and awaken your desire!
Either it’s because something likes to be changed here or the standard device feet really don’t sound good. Because everyone here seems to have installed different feet.
I had the plastic footers on earlier. Once I found a preferred location then I’ll put XSSH footers under because they sound better. But as more break in went by they seemed to need a bit of adjustment again.
When Herbies are here I’ll use the stock cones on top then I should be done.
Got it, thanks.
Gotcha Chris. My point about my friend’s experience was to say that it seems after this first hand experience that the FR30s are quite easy to drive. Easier than the “minimum recommended power of 100 watts” suggests. More can be better but not necessarily necessary.
I do not know why I did not try this earlier. It turned out XSSH has M8 thread hole on the other side. So, I flipped it over and put the stock cone on top as caps. I like the look, not to mention that the sound is excellent too:
Tonight, my streamer has never sounded so quiet and clean before. Was it from the speakers? Or was it from the new M-2 fuse? Either way the soundstage is wide and deep, the midrange is so focused, and the bass is deep with texture. FR-30 is getting better and better.
But over the weekend I must put the Master fuse back, I am eager to find out which fuse contribute more to the great sound!
When the going gets tough, the tough get going!
Well, I appreciate that feedback. We probably should have said something a little lower in the spec.
However, keep in mind that most of the pass amps actually have a sliding bias and go into class AB and make about 3-4X their rated power (e.g. they are only marketing their class A range, when the amps are actually able to make more than that). The XA25 clips (by the traditional metric) at about 130 watts at 4 ohms.
Yes, that’s one of the aspects of his designs that I most enjoy.
I haven’t looked at the amplifier’s data yet. I did have an Einstein The Amp, although on paper it didn’t have much power for the regulars’ table. But he had a huge capacitor bank made up of many small capacitors and a powerful transformer so that he had all the speakers under control.
I still remember the 80’/90’ years when manufacturers advertised enormous performance data, every compact system had at least 1000 watts.
I was just at an event where Octave was demonstrating his Super Black Boxes. Additional boxes that are connected to your components. It seems to be some kind of additional capacitor bank for the inbuilt power supply. With these, the sound became more confident, wider, fuller and more stable.