The FR20 story
Senior loudspeaker engineer Chris Brunhaver shows us the latest in the aspen series, the FR20.
DESIGN
Designing and building a new loudspeaker is both the easiest and hardest engineering challenge in all of high-fidelity. On the one hand, anyone can go online and buy a few drivers and bang together a box to make decent sound. On the other hand, the most difficult task in all of high-performance audio is crafting a seamless phase-correct output from two or more driver technologies. Over nearly a century of loudspeaker designs, few models have ever achieved legendary status. The FR20 joins the ranks of a rare handful of true full-range speakers that can honestly cover the frequency range of 28Hz to beyond 20kHz with grace, dynamics, slam, and low distortion. What’s captured on the disc is exactly what you’ll hear with a greater resolution than most have ever experienced. Grace, beauty, PRaT, power, and a musicality that is rare amongst 6 figure offerings from other manufacturers await owners of the aspen FR20. That this speaker is financially within reach of many makes it a miracle.
APPLICATION
Loudspeakers are part of the family. With their presence, they grace our homes and living areas by bringing the joy of music into our lives. Unlike the electronics that drive them, to perform their best most loudspeakers depend on proper placement and optimized room parameters. The aspen FR20, however, is designed to more easily fit into any living environment and perform at their best with a minimum of setup hassles and a maximum of options. While the FR20, like all high-performance speakers, appreciates some breathing room between them and the front wall, placement in the room for best performance is a snap. Using the included step-by-step guide and CD, setup, from unboxing to playing music, happens easily in a few short hours.
Technology
OVERVIEW
THE DRIVERS
THE ENCLOSURE
By far the most important piece in the HiFi chain is the loudspeaker. If the speaker cannot reproduce what’s it is fed from the electronic chain, the missing musical information is forever lost. To achieve all that music demands, over the years loudspeaker designers have tried to leverage every trick in the book: electrostats for details, conventional drivers for dynamics, planars for transparency, ribbons, domes, horns, open baffles, bipoles, dipoles. The list is endless and the choices and their inevitable sonic compromises daunting. With close to 50 years under our collective belts, we at PS Audio determined to design the perfect loudspeaker. Our strategy would be to combine the best of all possible driver and crossover technologies in a single coherent design. We would call it the FR30 and we would follow it up with a smaller model, the FR20. Both would have unquestioned dynamics. They would be full range and capable of being driven by just about any amplifier. Their high-frequency drivers would have lower mass than the air they were driving and the speed and clarity of the best electrostats. Their midrange driver would be so transparent and uncolored as to be unnoticeable. And our speakers would never be shy when it came to the low end. With the FR20’s 4 woofers per pair of speakers supported by 4 high-compliance passive radiators, in-room bass response would be nothing short of legendary.
Features
READ WHAT THEY ARE SAYING
they sound awesome!
I just quickly put them where my old speakers were and put on some music to break in and just got back in town. Did some tweaking today and they sound awesome
– ejor2
Spectacular
The speakers, which are still burning in, are spectacular.
– stevem2
Specifications
| Color Options | Pearl White, Sable Black |
| Enclosure Type | Passive radiator (two, 10” side-firing passive radiators) |
| High Frequency Transducer | 2.5” planar magnetic with Teonex diaphragm |
| Mid Frequency Transducer | 10” planar magnetic with Teonex diaphragm |
| Low Frequency Transducer | 2 x 8” woofers, cast frame, carbon fiber Rohacell sandwich cone, 12lb advanced magnet structure |
| Crossover Frequency | 400 Hz, 2500 Hz – Linkwitz-Riley 4th order acoustic |
| Sensitivity (2.83V @ 1M) | 87 dB |
| Nominal Impedance | 4 ohm (3.5 ohm minimum impedance) |
| Recommended Amplifier Power | 50-300W |
| Frequency Response | 23Hz-20kHz (-6dB) half space, 20 Hz (-6dB) in-room |
| Dimensions (HxWxD) | 50.5” x 16” x 18.75″ |
| Net Weight | 133 lbs (60.3 kg) |
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