Well, the KEF is a coaxial design but, sure, other manufacturers do put the tweeter at the top. However. in general, you want to keep your ear at or slightly below the tweeter axis in these configuration because a notch at the crossover frequency forms above the tweeter axis (e.g. when standing).
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Well, it’s generally a good practice to make the design axis the tweeter axis but many larger speakers; (some older models from infinity), Wilson, YG and others have this design.
Well, line arrays do just the opposite. Making the source size larger at high frequencies has the effect of drastically narrowing the vertical coverage at high frequency. Also, there is significant lobing near the extents of the array and so a 4-5 foot length (is basically required to cover both seated and standing listing heights for an equally driven line array.
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Well, an MTM has narrower coverage at the crossover (and typically a bigger directivity mismatch) than an equivalent MT because the center to center spacing of the mids is much greater. The directivity is symmetrical though.
If very small mids are used (like the old Snell XA series, or the newer Perlisten speakers), vertical performance can be very good though.
That being said, vertical directivity is something that we didn’t prioritize because people are far less sensitive to it than horizontal directivity (our ears are on the sides of our heads)
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I think all the discussion about how tall or big the speakers are or how tweeters look in different placements or how others do things is missing a thing. The thing being that PSA has designed a speaker they expect to be among the best in performance (if it is or isn’t is yet to be determined). Since performance is the #1 goal, form follows function. Obviously the design brief didn’t put aesthetics or size as the priority - if it did, they would have made a bookshelf speaker and called it a day. Of course they say it’s slim/elegant/waf approved/whatever but that’s just marketing. And anyway, “aesthetically pleasing”, “slim”, whatever are such subjective attributes that they’re next to useless as descriptors.
And, where the tweeters are placed is a moot point. Chris didn’t choose their location based on research of eyeball-pleasing or “what are the other guys doing”. They’re where they are for performance reasons.
Funny how many expert speaker designers there are around here. I wonder how many can make a 6db filter…
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Yes sure, I forgot to say…tweeter on ear level or adjustable/tiltable towards the ear.
But if you say there are also speaker where the tweeter axis runs over the head of the listener, that seems strange but I certainly believe it.
Thanks for the explanation of the science.
Maybe they are better suited to home theater or dance floor use where the listeners aren’t always seated or on the same level.
I have a set of MTM’s and they sound good but the sweet spot is very narrow.
I can barely spell speaker let alone design one so your presence here (when you have time) is greatly appreciated.
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Ok, there has been lots of navel gazing here on how these speakers were designed and how they will sound. I suspect much of it for naught. So, at the bottom of the page there is this statement:
Stop by for a tour:
4865 Sterling Dr.
Boulder, CO 80301
1-800-PSAUDIO
I’ve visited (the old facility) and heard the IRS and sure would like to hear the FR30. So, given COVID, can we stop by now? If not, when? I certainly want to hear them but doubt I will make personal financial concessions to buy them. The next smaller size does have possibilities (less money and better for my small room) but I need to hear what PS Audio considers world class sound quality. That’s not a dig in any way, just based on experience.
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not always true - i stand regularly to listen (as do others with twitchy legs), but worry not, I’m not in the market for these speakers 
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its “speacker” wait… no… thats not right. Forget it - we are hopeless
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Not sure that’s correct. The previous iteration was, let’s be honest, not the prettiest thing we’ve ever seen, so PSA went to an experienced product designer to come up with a completely new design concept.
You can make a half-decent basic speaker box for $500, but good design and good finishes attract customers and they are willing to pay for it. I’ve no doubt that if something looks high-quality it will win over buyers, even if it’s performance is not quite up there.
You don’t have to be an expert speaker designer to look online and see that perhaps 70% of speakers have the tweeter at the top. You can draw your own conclusions why.
Some, like Focal, Wilson, Tannoy etc. don’t and they do tend to be physically imposing. Fine I’m sure in many houses - big ones.
Thanks and we should update that note. Currently we are not hosting tours due to CoViD. We currently have 11 people out of our staff at home and not letting outside visitors in. Fingers crossed this will end someday. I miss those tours.
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That’s what I thought you would say! Seemed odd that I haven’t read any reports from visitors since early 2020 if you were, in fact, allowing visits somewhere in that time. Let’s hope by the end of March or early April things have improved significantly, going on a long road trip in that time frame and can arrange a visit to Boulder if permitted.
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Conclusions:
- That arrangement works acoustically better in their design.
- Trying to please people who are more concerned with form over function.
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I believe in form and function. It’s the basis of good design.
It seems to me that the tweeter in the FR-30 has to be below the midrange driver as much due to the size of the bass enclosure. With Focal it seems to be more the way they focus the drivers.
Tannoy put the tweeter in the middle of the main driver when they invented the dual concentric driver in 1948.
KEF have been hugely successful with dual concentric in recent years.
The only other user of planar midrange that I’ve heard of, Piega, also put the tweeter in the middle of the midrange planar driver, have done for 30 years. PSA tried that with earlier versions of their speaker, but dropped it.
I’m convinced that if something it not attractive, it won’t sell even if it sounds great because they won’t bother listening.
@Chris_Brunhaver mentioned Perlisten speakers. Never heard of them. Looked them up. Seem to be superb technology in an enclosure designed to keep the cost down, but look good enough. Dead ugly to me, but you can get bespoke paint finishes because it’s basically a driver array stuck in the front of a box. Come in at $20k. It’s a balance, in their case looks a good one.
I guess you’re equating the FR-30 to the Pontiac Asstek. Low blow man…low blow…
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I’m sure plenty of people will like the look of the FR-30.
It’s no Edsel.
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Hi Steven,
It didn’t happen as you describe. Yes, we brought in some outside industrial design help but gave all of the component sizes and baffle layouts and required enclosure volumes etc. We didn’t bring in a separate product designer who dictated that or set the functional aspects of things. Of course this limits an industrial designer in a lot of ways we’re really happy with the work that they did. I know that you personally don’t like the cosmetic design but I find it slightly antagonistic to repeat that more than a few times.
In general, I’d like to keep with having the midrange on top in most models, for the reasons I described (better response when moving from seated to standing). Yes, it is very much form follows function.
The coaxial approach that we were doing worked well but there was a bit of axial diffraction effects and it was quite expensive and so wouldn’t scale to smaller models. This was the primary driver for why I moved away from it (scalability). I also changed things to a larger tweeter so that we can cross over much lower (as low as 1.5 kHz) and this is less suited to this approach.
I’m working on a smaller planar midrange that still has excellent performance and can be used in more models.
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Well said sir. If you aren’t going to buy then don’t try and discourage those that are.
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