I confess to being troubled by the visible swaying of the speaker as Paul touches them. How can that provide a rigid platform? (I’m not a speaker designer, obviously, but it seems every speaker designer I know or have read talks about the need for the drive units to move relative to something else, usually a cabinet.)
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Well, it looks like it’s on a pushcart of some sort.
The cart the speaker is sitting on is what you see swaying…not the speaker itself…
I believe I heard @Chris_Brunhaver say on the hifi podcast that each speaker is two pieces and each will ship in 2 boxes.
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Actually if you watch the white speaker (no cart) right as Paul is making the point that “they’re quite stable,” the whole thing appears to shift a couple inches as he stands up with has hand on it. I think that may be what previous poster was referring to.
Paul also mentioned that “FR” in FR30 stands for “full range,” yet in same video mentioned the speaker only plays down into the 30 Hz range. I thought that was odd, as to many full range means spec’d to 20 Hz (Stereophile definition for example).
This speaker wouldn’t be eligible for a Stereophile Class A rating, for example, because it isn’t spec’d to 20 Hz (assuming what Paul said correct). Class A low frequency limited could be a possibility, but then obviously not full range
You do realize that specs are incredibly easy to manipulate right? I can make a bookshelf specified down to 20hz without lying. But you’ll never hear anything below 45 
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Exactly - it looks like it sways from the top down. I don’t care about the gray one - as noted, it’s on a cart.
And I mean it as a question, not a criticism.
OK… I now see what you mean.Maybe Chris will chime in!
Sure, just noting the apparent inconsistency. I would think it would be better to save the full-range moniker for perhaps larger speakers in family that may actually be full range
Specs that are published certainly have to be taken with a grain of salt. If you play a 20 hz tone, I doubt you’ll get much of anything out of most speakers that publish that range. The signal rolls off substantially. My Wilsons are rated 20hz-22khz but a test tone at 20 hz is barely audible. I’m not upset in the least, I bought a subwoofer.
Sure, and the specs haven’t been published yet so I guess we’ll see what they say. I’m just going by Paul’s statement on the video “down into the 30’s” or words to that effect
It the white speaker is on commercial carpet over concrete it would only take one of the spikes being slightly different to cause the motion.
Perhaps. But I’m sure it’ll be something that will be scrutinized. The speaker appears to sway a couple times throughout the video when it is touched, as mentioned by first poster. I thought the same thing but only because it was so ironic that it moved so much at the exact time Paul was saying they are so stable. I probably wouldn’t have notice but for that. And with so much weight attached to the plithe (or the base, whatever you want to call it) at what appears to be such a narrow speaker/plithe interface it is something that I’d want to for sure get my hands to see how stable it really is before plucking down $25k, but that’s just me. He did say it was a prototype so maybe this is all irrelevant - but also predicted a late fall production release (ie, within a month or two of fall left, this being early Oct) so wouldn’t expect major structural changes at this late date according to that release schedule.
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If two speakers play equally low but one specifies that it goes down to 20 while the designer of the other says theirs plays down to 30, which goes lower? And which is full range? BTW, every single speaker plays full range. Yes, even tweeters. That doesn’t mean you’re going to hear 20hz on it. “Full range” is a sales term.
Playing fast and loose with specifications happens all the time. I get that. Like specifying an amp’s power output into 4 ohms and touting it at twice the power output versus the generally-industry-standard 8 ohm quotation of power output for an amplifier, or at least clearly specifying that the rating is into 4 ohm if that is the way it is advertised
I did not see anything move that is alarming. I even replayed the video. Those puppies are high up and standing on carpet. So yeah that might be what caused it.
Paul explains that the rather rigid aluminum brace reaches high up in the speaker.
Regarding the frequency range:
Paul said in a post at the first release of the pictures of these speakers that they go straight down to 30 Hz. Let’s emphasize on “straight down”. Acoustic suspension (closed cabinet) speakers drop down 12 dB per octave, bass reflex (free air outlet) speakers drop down 24 dB per octave. Radiated speakers like the FR30 drop down 16 to 18 dB per octave. That means in frequency terms: that their loudness dropped to -16 to -18 dB at a whopping 15 Hz ie about -11 to -10 dB at 20 Hz.
With amps like BHK 300 feeding them you’ll certainly hear the beautiful bass fundament of that 32 foot organ pipe. By the way, that bass fundament shouldn’t be played like explosions in your Armageddon movies anyway.
Just in relation, my boot box sized Buchardt Audio S400 Signature Editions (passive radiators as well) go down to very audible 30 Hz. So why would 20 Hz not be audible from these towers with something like 16 times the volume and at least 4 x the woofer cone + radiator surface. Chris seems to still be designing/voicing the cross overs. So how can PS Audio be giving hard specs at this stage.
I have been closely following all design iterations right from the first announcements when Paul started out as US$ 6000 per pair with 2 more expensive speakers to be designed above. Where they landed now, these FR30 seem to be very fine speakers. I have no doubt the FR30 will provide you the 20 k$ to 30 k$ oomph you are looking for.
Not me, I like the size, 3 legged wooden stands and frequency range of the S400 SE in our small living room. Neither do I have any plans to fork out a 20 k$ to 30 k$ financial package for speakers only.
I certainly love the passive radiator bass response.
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I know this has been answered but these speakers will not have any DSP of any kind, correct?
These are all passive, no hybrid active DSP controlled bass unit (i.e. built in subwoofer) as it was part in the earlier design iterations.
I have A/B compared Active A500 (acoustic suspension, closed cabinet) to passive S400 Signature Edition (passive radiators). Same room, same stands, multiple DSP cross over programs for the A500.
I was biased by the fact that we had just bought a NAD M33 integrated amp. The passive S400 SE (with its least complicated ultra high end cross over and internal wiring) offered a extremely satisfying sound to me and my wife. It was actually my wife who said to buy the limited Signature Edition speakers.
Had I not just bought that M33 I would have probably decided on the features and sound quality of the A500 active DSP driven speakers.
I have certainly no regrets about having bought the integrated amp with passive speakers with passive bass radiator.
Well, truth be known, the prototype I was standing next to in that video had yet to have the rework done to strengthen the base connection to the speaker. It was very tippy.
When we received the prototypes the first thing we noticed was that tippyness - and Chris and Chet took it apart to realize the factory hadn’t followed our instructions but had instead improvised. Ugh. It’s now been straightened out and they are solid as a rock.
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That’s good. It was pretty clear in the video that you noticed the tippiness and were treating it with kid gloves the rest of the video. Still a lot of weight suspended many inches above the base (“floating above the base” as you put it in the video) with a narrow fulcrum so there is an inherent susceptibility to toppling (e.g., by a 4 year old) with any design like that regardless of bracing (basic physics), but yeah good to know that the speaker in the video is not the real deal, because I had the same reaction the first poster did to seeing it sway when you talked about how stable they were 