Yes Rick - believe me - I sympathize with your viewpoint. But as a small business owner who has been a supplier to large corporations, I suppose I am cursed with this dual perspective. If my clients don’t suceed, that tends not to work out for me. So I see both sides.
Sales seem to be going well, but if you think about the past few years, I expect it will be a good while (assuming the product is embraced, the creek don’t rise, and the Plague don’t kill us) before they break even on the investment that has been made to this point, never mind the costs going forward. I realize that is not your problem - that they may be somewhere along the continuum of the wine analogy I drew above. But I would point out that they didn’t simply put out the first thing they came up with in the hope of covering costs.
When Paul mentioned they would be assembled in China I was surprised as well, and so - in the end - everyone gets to vote with their dollars.
It is perhaps naive of me, especially given recent events, but I still think the survival of our species is dependent upon us all getting along. Globally.
I love em. FR30 is next step, so way more money needed to upgrade. I had Triton Ones, Ref is way better but 2x $. I have never heard One.Rs but they seem to be huge big improvement over Ones, and that is saying something. A bargain. What do you have now? I went from Theil to Von Schweikert VR4, to Gallo Ref 3, to Magnepan 1.7i, to goldenear in the last 25 years I think.
That is super commendable and not easy to do, I imagine. They have a lot of chips pushed in and hopefully they have the hand to pull it off. Sounds like they think the do so that’s good
Bob,
the Triton One.R are the latest iteration.
The One was before the One.R
I asked salesman at Crutchfield and they said maybe the Ref’s are 10% better then the One.R
That’s funny. 10%? What does that even mean? I know about those, just haven’t heard them. I doubt the Crutchfield guy has compared them. My comment is they are great. Good luck
I had a pair of One.R for a little over a year. They are fantastic. The fit and finish is excellent. They are super easy to setup needing around 2’ behind them and a bit of toe-in. They have a very wide and deep soundstage. There’s really nothing to dislike.
After a remodel our primary listening position ended up being about 3’ closer to them which resulted in the tweeter being around 6" over the top of my head. I replaced them with Focal Sopra 2’s which was quite a jump up the food chain. Sure the Focal’s sound better to me, but are they $10K better? It depends on the day you ask me.
If you are going to use them in a hybrid setup with a home theater, you are going to be very pleased. Even watching a series on Netflix is a completely different experience. Especially if you purchase the SuperCenter Reference. The blend across the front is seamless and voices are very clear and natural.
If our room didn’t change, there’s a distinct possibility that they would still be here.
@Paul is the cabinet the only components that are made in China? What about the drivers and crossover? How are you guys ensuring quality once the parts are shipped to the factory? I know you mentioned fine tooth comb, but would like to learn more on the specific. Maybe a factory video tour?
Thanks, looking forward to reading some user impressions soon
To be clear, the drivers too are made there though not in the same factory. There’s no such thing as a US company that can give us the level of quality and performance we demand from our custom designed drivers. Chris and the team have spent close to a year designing all the custom tooling and parts that go into these amazing drivers and our factory is by far one of the top 2 or 3 in the world. Most drivers of quality from UK companies, and American companies are made at that same factory.
There’s a ton of mystique and misinformation out there as to where parts are made and at what quality level they are. I am glad we’re able to shed a bit of light on the truth the industry would rather you not know.
@Paul you’ve been talking up this company who are making your speakers. Out of curiosity how are you able to measure their quality? Has anyone from PS Audio or a hired representative visited the factory? How are you able to compare their skills & quality against all others?
Although I’m very keen to read reviews of the FR30s, maybe even some day get lucky enough to hear them, but reality is they’re far too rich for my wallet and I therefore will never own them. So I’m not someone that you need to convince. However as an interested reader here in this colorful debate, what stands out to me is the accolades thrown out for the manufacturer but with no backing details behind them. I’m not doubting your decision, but felt the debate might end if more information was given than “top 2 or 3 in the world”.
There seems to be this lurking prejudice that ‘made in China’ means ‘cheap, low quality’. But those days are off course long behind us. You can get any level of quality in the Far East, including top-level. Your phone is built there, Tesla builds cars in China, as do all other global car manufacturers, plus they have a lively and leading domestic electric car industry. Kia and Hyundai have become innovators in their business. And in electronics, not only is the vast majority of parts made there, most innovation in e.g. displays and chips happens there as well. In high-end audio, brands like Denafrips, Auralic, Holo make top-quality gear that competes with the best. So from my perspective, there is nothing wrong with ‘top quality, proudly made in China/Korea/Thailand/etc.’
My Martin Logan Motion 35XTi stand mount speakers are made in China and their fit and finish are superb. I can’t imagine it being better. They sound wonderful as well.
Of greater concern is getting them off loaded from their cargo ship off the coast of California.
Not my prejudice. The Chinese are more than capable of making high quality products, as are workers in many locations. That the Chinese can and do provide quality at a lower cost is not lost on many of us. The question is at what cost, financial for the entrepreneur and societal for the worker and the best of the community? In general many local “makers” have become skilled importers, while manufacturing skill sets transferred elsewhere.
It’s interesting to think about what we actually expect from such a review. Independent of a positive assumption that the FR30 might be in fact clearly better than the similarly priced competition, I think it will be hard to noticeably differentiate an upcoming FR30 review from a review of most other speakers at this price point. It will be really good.
The review will contain 60-70% marketing information of the manufacturer and 30-40% an individual selection of the text modules used for other reviews, too, during the last years. I think most of us could write the 30-40% in a way that wouldn’t be fundamentally different to the final review even now without having heard it
That is the exact description of the problem no one wants to discuss. We keep collectively lowering the bar and reducing the collective skill set while expecting more and more outside help.
It’s not a problem at all, it’s been a choice in western society. China, India, these places didn’t steal manufacturing, we handed it to them because in the main it’s not an avenue we’re interested in.
