i blame brexit 
(but then, i blame everything on brexit at the moment, including yesterday when i dropped milk all over the floor)
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A lot of people have chosen this time in covid to upgrade their systems, with the extra cash saved from travel and various other things.
I certainly could not have made some of my purchases since beginning of last year in normal times. I would have made them at some point, but it would have taken longer to save. I’ve made 3 pretty major purchases related to my system, an integrated amplifier, speakers and a lovely pair of headphones.
Silver lining to the pandemic.
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Amen. At least there was one silver lining
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I’ll take it, any positive I can take out of the world order currently, I’ll more than happily take, and as it’s my audio system, I’m even happier to accept it 
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Money saved from not dining out, traveling certainly helped in my case. But being cooped up inside did it for me. I watch very little tv, so it’s all about my hifi.
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Yeah, absolutely, same here, my audio system is my main source of entertainment, and the forums. Not just entertainment actually, but if I’m feeling stressed, music really helps me unwind.
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@jazznut I believe you misunderstood my point. I wasn’t asking for a review or data of the FR30, but rather data on the manufacturer. It seemed to me the whole recent stink up on this forum was the choice of manufacturer rather than anything about the speakers themselves. People seemed more concerned with that choice than anything else. So I was hoping to help settle it just a little by asking for more info on the manufacturer and how they were chosen. Again, only to help settle the debate. And it seems that @Paul has provided that to us in a post a little further down.
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@Paul thank you for your response. As I said to @jazznut above, what had been missing for me in this enthusiastic debate was more detail on how you chose the manufacturer. Now that you’ve said someone from you staff had personally visited the facility and that you’ve been working with them for 2 years now might help settle some people’s concerns.
I look forward to your FR series step down, both in my wallet and listening room dominance. Even if I could afford the FR 30s I could not afford the follow up divorce they would cause. 
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I see, didn’t catch this background of it!
“But I was never a fan of the speakers at all. For that reason, I think this is a great decision by them, focus on what they do very well”.
Thanks for your input! I will definitely forward your suggestion to Rega! I’m quite sure they will take your advice onboard - with you being an obvious expert, an arbiter of good taste… 
Alan Shaw and all fellow British are part of the European continent. Turning BrExit around to UKIn would be wonderful. Family reunion, it’s Christmas time!
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What @Paul does not say is if PS Audio has any member of their staff in the factory doing quality control. Everything I’ve read about Chinese audio manufacture is you have to have people on the ground in China for when things go wrong.
I’ve had the same with clients, who sometimes use local procurement agencies that promise to go to the factory when there are issues, but good luck relying on that. Then someone has to jump on a plane.
I would expect there to be a S Audio employee going through all the QC checks on every unit before it is boxed and shipped.
One of the fascinating things about engineering is the ability to architect a way to actually get your product to market in sustainable quantities. People forget this but its a larger hurdle than even building the first prototype usually. Anyone, in their garage, can build 1 of the best speaker pairs in the world. Getting to a point of shipping it to customers shortly after they order it is the really hard part.
I don’t care where things are made. I’m more impressed things that I want in my home are able to be made at a price point I get to have them in my home. That doesn’t mean I want cheap quality compromised garbage. It means I want to see real engineering to drive the price points of high quality into the ground. Not every company can do this. There are also companies that build, locally, amazing products closer to art that I’d love to have in my home but because of their decisions on manufacturing and casework are out of my budget. That’s fine.
On a personal note, if I’m comparing two bits of kit within the same price category and I find performance to be close I will go watch interviews with the owners, check that companies social media, and generally try to get a “feel” for who I’m buying from. It’s why I own some Schiit gear. It’s also a good reason why I own some PS gear and stay engaged here. It’s also why I don’t buy much of anything from my “local” hifi shop. But, at the end of the day, make it sound good and don’t make me feel bad for letting you swipe (tap) my CC and we’ll be just fine.
Make it sound good. Make it of high enough quality I’m not embarrassed to have it in my home. Stay within my budget. If your product is close to a competitor on those 3 points then you better be a nice company with good morals doing something “local” to win my business. In that order and I’ll be your customer.
Also, I’d rather PS reduce costs of manufacturing Aspen if that allows them to do other projects like Octave Records. The impact of Octave on artists is worth more to me than standing up manufacturing for speakers. And that’s not something you can outsource. You’ve got to own and nourish those relationships.
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Are the background music too intrusive for these FR30 videos? I found them very annoying and take away my focus to the message. I ended up just not watch an of the the video in full.
Indeed, a local PS Audio employee seems much more efficient than inspecting the speakers for a second time in Boulder.
I presume that the Chinese manufacturer knows what they are doing. The Aspen FR30 are not the first speakers they make. I have seen pictures of the manufacturing of Buchardt speakers in China. Maybe it the same company, the facilities look really good. Mads is proud showing the pictures.
These stories confirm what I have seen personally, when inspecting factories in China:
- We do not need to show / tell high tech Chinese manufacturers what to do, they are able to show it to us after we have outsourced and exported our own manufacturing capabilities to them.
The 2nd inspection in Boulder was mentioned above by @Paul:
So these heavy and large speakers are:
- sailing from China to the US
- towed up the Rocky Mountains
- inspected again in Boulder
- and from there distributed around the world
All that extra:
- transport
- handling (unpack/pack)
- inspection
- tariffs and costs
Wake the impression that PS Audio seems to doubt the quality of the chosen manufacturer in China.
What is PS Audio going to do in case of Non-Conformities (NCs) in Boulder? Scrap them, refurbish them in a shop that is not set-up for speaker production (with or without notifying the customer) or return them to China (unlikely)?
Also any NC detected in Boulder will be too late to improve production immediately. At the time the NC is detected the entire batch will have been shipped to Boulder.
Compared to direct shipment to customer from China, certainly any Aspen FR30 that is purchased outside North America leaves a huge carbon footprint, is unnecessarily environmental unfriendly and expensive.
For PS Audio’s home market, USA and Canada this may be a lesser of an issue, but still the extra QC inspection in Boulder seems to be rather inefficient, ineffective and expensive.
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I think PSA have to do a full QC check. It would be very easy, during shipment, for a lucar or other joint to come loose. Also how can they reject something unless they check it on arrival at the factory?.
Update: It’s not just wires becoming loose, manufacturing errors in driver labelling or swapping of driver leads can also happen during manufacture.
That’s what I thought. If you manufacture finished goods in China, I can’t see the point of shipping other than direct to regional distributors. I assume that’s what most people do. My wife manufactured products in China and sold them in the USA, they never came to the UK. I suppose a lot has to do with production volumes.
I was hoping these speakers would be at the main main UK audio show in Bristol in late February, but it seems to have been cancelled very recently. My son was in New York last week, came back to London on Saturday and 3 out of 6 of them tested positive for Covid. This Omicron is unbelievably infectious and is making public gatherings anytime soon seem out of the question.
Guys, they don’t have the expertise/capability/capacity to build in-house at this time, and for now they’re being made in China at volumes where it is not feasible to have their own people on the ground (this isn’t cell phones, after all).
Of course they’re going to do a full inspection and test and sign-off at their HQ before shipping them out to customers. That seems obviously a needed step given the production choice, and one that consumers would be glad to have for quality assurance reasons. Speakers are a different animal than electronics, and they’re doing what they feel they need to do to give the project the best chance to succeed. If you want them to do a speaker, this is probably the only way they could from the sounds of it
This inference/opinion (as well as some of the points that followed this statement) is ridiculously without merit.
That is my inference/opinion.
Many in this thread act like they suffer from oppositional disorder w/r/t PS Audio’s plans for this line of speakers.
I, for one, am going to keep my “sniper’s bullets” out of the chamber until actual speakers start hitting customer’s doorsteps and listening rooms.
Then we will have some basis for judging the product, the logistics and the business model.
Stepping down from the soap box, now.
SEE
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It must be fascinating for Paul to repeatedly read about the impossibilities of doing what he has been successful at for years
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