As we’ve gone a bit off-topic, here’s a question for @Chris_Brunhaver: If the tweeter currently has a crossover at 1.5khz, presumably the smaller units, for example a bookshelf, would be configured with a more conventional 3khz crossover, a planar midrange and say a 5" mid-bass driver, coming in around the $4k to $5k mark? Using two planar drivers must present quite a different range of problems for smaller speakers.
Right up there with food and shelter, and other physiological and safety needs… We have truly overachieved and are well above the top tier of Maslow’s pyramid.
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“Alexa, tell me the specs and pricing details of PS Audio’s forthcoming products before they are ready to reveal them.”
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The world has gone crazy. We had this kitchen stuff installed and after a week or so I filled the dishwasher and pressed the appropriate buttons, to be told: “Please wait: software updating”. It’s a f****** dishwasher. Years ago I was the dishwasher.
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One well-placed/deployed EMP, and we all starve to death.
(only half joking…)
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I tried that, no result. After a further few misses, I got this:
“… around for a while …” that’ll cheer up Paul. If I was him I’d sue for defamation.
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Better for listening while playing air guitar!
Chris I think it fair to say all forum participants wish you and PS Audio well in your endeavor to bring a scaled down speaker to market at a price many would not hesitate to purchase, and this is where the real work comes in. Success in that effort could be huge for PS Audio as well as the consumer.
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Thanks, Chris. It’s really a breath of fresh air for you to share with us your process and set the record straight. Thank you.
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Ha! I fell out of my chair laughing on that image this morning.
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Hi Steven,
We’re not planning a 3-way bookshelf at this time.
The wavelength of 3 kHz is about 4.5". If you’re trying to make something act as a point source, the sources need to be within 1/4 wavelength at the crossover. You can see that this is practically impossible, so there will be some lobing / response error in the vertical axis for the center to center distance of the drivers exceeding this. Of course, if we halve the frequency (and double the wavelength), this makes things somewhat easier.
You also have the issue of power beaming where the driver piston radiates less power at higher frequencies because of the self cancellation caused by it’s physical size. How directional a drive is can be calculated by dividing the circumference by the wavelength. This is called wavenumber and is represented as ka. This tells you where a given woofer starts becoming directional. Generally, you want to cross over around ka=2. For a 6.5" midwoofer, ka=3.5 at 3 khz, so there will be a dip in the power response because of beaming.
Also, i the case of a cone midwoofer, you also have cone/surround resonances that are around this range, so pushing the crossover lower can certainly have benefits there too.
There are some practical considerations around distortion and output as to why people choose higher crossover points (we did on the FR-30 because the system is capable of very high output), but in a 2-way bookshelf application, I can take the tweeter much lower and get the benefits of a lower crossover point.
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Chris, many thanks for that. I’m sure others will benefit, even after a bit of time on google a lot of it is technically above me. What you say suggests coax drivers really pay off in smaller, lower power speakers. What I don’t understand is that ka is probably a lot more than 2 in speakers I lived with for years, like P3ESR and Dynaudio Contour 1.1, probably also Quad S2 that I was particularly impressed by.
From the commercial point of view, that really interests me, is scaleability, because if the same driver units can be used in large and small speakers, then costs can be reduced and prices will be lower than having to tool up more drivers.
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Reading between the lines (clearly what most of this forum does) - Will there be a bookshelf/sub combo?
For me, “Bookshelf” implies just that. Something in a bookshelf or very near (centimeters) from the rear wall. In my office I use ProAc Tablette 10 Anniversaries and in our workroom a pair of Harbeth P3ESR’s for this purpose. For me these are real world, realistic installations. The ProAc sit on stands on my desk, the Harbeth are on a shelf.
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Following @vkennedy61 above, given the FR30 stated crossovers of 400 and 2500 hz, and I suspect strong interest for the smaller models, I was wondering how the scaling down might work, and assumed you would have to include a +/- 6” mid bass.
Congrats, @Paul @Chris_Brunhaver and all of you, this must be an incredibly exciting moment! Wish I could be there!
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Great to see them this early Paul, how did you manage to navigate the back ups at our ports ?
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Those dour cardboard boxes are not aesthetically pleasing and for this amount of cash, they should be color coded to my sedan! And how can they possibly sound as good or better than any other speaker if they’re IN A CARDBOARD BOX!!! Worst speakers ever!
I took the liberty of getting some comments out of the way 
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@Jedi
And they weren’t designed by a best friend, drinking buddy, son’s company, or some incredibly unknown Brit. Wow.
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Cardboard is made in . . . gasp. . . China!
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