Stand Loudspeaker Reviews

I remember the first PS Audio product: a simple phono stage. It was so simple—a passive RIAA EQ filter flanked by a pair of primitive op-amps—that when the schematic was made public, I built one myself; I was in the midst of my DIY years. I thought it was, to use a word from that time, nifty. Paul McGowan went on to other things and other companies, eventually reviving PS Audio and building it into its present form with a wide range of interesting and substantive products. Most recently, PS Audio added a line of loudspeakers inspired by Paul's erstwhile partner in other ventures, the late Arnie Nudell.

The PS Audio Aspen speaker line has four models, three 3-way floorstanders (FR30, FR20, FR10) and a single two-way standmount (the FR5, $3499/pair). All the Aspen speakers share the same 2.5" planar-magnetic tweeter, but the three-ways differ in the number of tweeters, the size of their planar-magnetic midrange drivers, and the number and size of woofers and passive radiators. The FR5 eschews a midrange but retains the same 2.5" tweeter mated to a 6.5" polypropylene-cone midwoofer and a 6×9" passive radiator. The FR5, then, is the outlier in the Aspen range, not only in being a standmount but also in lacking the planar magnetic midrange driver that's the defining feature in the rest of the Aspen range. Because a midrange driver was excluded, the midwoofer operates higher in frequency (up to 1750Hz) than the similar cone drivers in the larger designs.

I chose to review the FR5 because I think making a successful small speaker is harder than making a successful large speaker. Once I received them, I liked them right away because of their clean, no-nonsense design and their common-sense engineering—modern lines shaped by modern ideas.

Beneath its smooth, immaculate surface, the FR5 is sturdily constructed. All six walls are heavily braced, with viscoelastic damping between the braces and the walls. No screwheads or mounting hardware are apparent because the two drivers are mounted to the inside of the enclosure and the front panel is attached from the back by deeply inset 13" shoulder screws, their heads hidden by white plastic inserts.

The FR5's design is hardly radical, and that's okay with me. The 2.5" planar-magnetic high-frequency driver employs high-power neodymium magnets in a push-pull configuration. It crosses over at 1750Hz with a steep, sixth-order Linkwitz-Riley network that utilizes air-core inductors and film capacitors. The 6.5" midwoofer sports a woven polypropylene diaphragm with 10mm travel and a magnetic engine with a split gap and double-copper Faraday rings, which stabilize the magnetic flux of the permanent magnet structure and reduce voice coil inductance and harmonic distortion.

And then there's that 6"×9" carbon fiber passive radiator. I don't have a better term for it, but "passive radiators" are arguably misnamed. They do not "radiate" any more sound than an acoustically equivalent port. Their value lies in replacing the airmass in the port with a denser-than-air mass (the diaphragm) and a designer-controlled compliance (the diaphragm's suspension). This allows for bass alignments that would otherwise demand impractically large ports. As a result, the FR5, despite its small volume, is specified to have an in-room response that goes down to an impressive 30Hz (–6dB).

The pearl in the oyster
The FR5s came in a plain corrugated-cardboard box with generous foam inserts to protect the speakers and the grilles. The sturdy steel stands came in a similar box, with more-than-adequate protection. The stands were accompanied by single-sheet assembly instructions; a 16-page "Owner's Reference" was included in the speaker box. That manual covers unpacking, assembly, wiring, placement, specifications, and, of course, warranty and service information.

What emerged from these unremarkable wrappings were two perfectly finished white enclosures with the woofer and tweeter openings on the front and the passive radiator on the rear. The openings around the drivers are elegantly radiused, as are its top and sides. The black grilles provided follow that semicircular outline, for a sophisticated appearance. The FR5 has two pairs of quite substantial binding posts, suitable for biwiring or biamping. A sturdy pair of jumpers is supplied for those, like me, who prefer neither.

The stands are equally impressive, albeit simpler, consisting of a small rectangular top plate slightly smaller than the FR5, a heavy, hollow 27" post in the shape of a flattened oval (footnote 1), with openings and channels for routing/hiding cables and a larger, H-shaped baseplate with adjustable leveling feet at the ends. All the parts come together smoothly and securely with the furnished tools in no more than half an hour.

I moved the FR5s over to the area just vacated by my own speakers and began listening, using the placement recommendations in the Owner's Reference: A separation of 8' between the speakers (check!); 3' from the sidewalls or a bit more and a minimum distance of 18" from the front wall (check!); a listening distance of 10' or a bit more (check!). The Owner's Reference suggests toeing in the speakers so that they aim at a point about 3' behind the listener.

While the sound with this setup was not unpleasant, it was not suitable for much beyond background music. The soundstage was narrow, midrange presence was lacking, and although bass was surprisingly full for a pair of 6.5" drivers, it wasn't articulated well.

Rather than just tweak from there, I made several big moves. The FR5s were moved a bit to the right so they lined up better with my listening spot, which is slightly off center. That resulted in a right sidewall distance of barely 3', a left sidewall distance of nearly 4', and an inter-speaker distance of about 7.5'. More significantly, I moved the pair to about 3' from the front wall and 10' from my listening seat. I preferred minimal toe-in, the speaker axes crossing some 10' behind me (footnote 2).

Big sound from small speakers
Now the FR5s really opened up and impressed. I was braced to expect elevated treble or ineffectual bass or shallow soundstage—foibles I have encountered with most small speakers, which I had dealt with by use of tone controls, DSP, or adaptation. The FR5s demanded none of that.

I began with piano (natch!) using Nikita Mndoyants's recent recording of Prokofiev's 4th and 8th Piano Sonatas (16/44.1 WAV download, Aparté AP339). Throughout the 4th, especially in the buoyant opening of its third movement, marked Allegro con brio, ma nonleggiere, the FR5s presented a credible, full-size, audible image of a Steinway D, up front between the speakers. The bass was full, and the midrange seemed clear; the treble, though, lacked a bit of the hoped-for "ping." Removing the two magnetically attached mesh grilles resolved treble concerns, and the ensuing thrilling performance of the Scherzo. Allegro marcato, transcribed by Mndoyants from the composer's Symphony No.5, was brilliant in performance and sound.

To add violin and cello to the stage, I turned to an album of music of piano trios by Rachmaninoff and Tchaikovsky, in warmly romantic offerings from Andrey Baranov (violin), Christoph Croisé (cello), and Alexander Panfilov (piano) (24/96 WAV download, Avie AV2691). I cued it up to the first track, Rachmaninoff's Trio élégiaque No.1 in G minor, and I heard ... nothing! JRiver told me it was playing, so I judiciously turned up the volume until I heard the soft tremolos that open the Trio. Then I realized that the FR5s have (as you may have read in the headnote) a notably low sensitivity—just 83.5dB. That's nearly 4dB lower than my KEF Blades, and, while my system has sufficient gain and power and low enough noise to deal with it, not all systems will, especially on recordings with extremely soft passages, such as this. Still, the natural flowering of the single-movement Trio was glorious, the three instruments arrayed from speaker to speaker, violin to the left, cello to the right, and the piano between them and a bit back. There's not much distinctive ambience on the recording, but the FR5s' presentation was wide and warm, resulting in a convincingly realistic soundstage.

---

Footnote 1: Trivia: The cross-section of the port is actually a rectangle with two straight long sides and with each end formed as a semicircle. This is typically called a stadium.

Footnote 2: The back of my listening room is open and the wall is about 14' behind my chair, so there are no relatively short latency reflections from it. Also, the front wall is unusual. It has double-pane windows across the top, but below them is a protruding wall-to-wall cabinet containing HVAC and large tuned bass traps. The FR5s sit in front of those traps.