PS Audio Aspen FR10 Loudspeaker – Quick Look

All Image Credit: PS Audio

American HiFi brand PS Audio have launched their new, more “affordable” Aspen FR10 Loudspeaker. This latest addition to the flagship Aspen FR30 and middle sized FR20 is a slim floorstanding tower design that should suit a wide range of listening environments, systems and budgets.

The new FR10 design features all custom-designed drivers to include; one push-pull planar magnetic midrange and one high-frequency driver, two ultra-low-distortion, linear-magnet woofers, and three high-excursion passive radiators.

The 8-inch planar ribbon midrange and 2.5-inch planar ribbon tweeter both employ a push-pull design with an identical symmetrical motor structure on either side of their driver diaphragms. Each employ high strength magnets and diaphragms made from Teonex film, a thin, highly stable material that provides ‘exceptional transient response and resolution, that has a fast, clean decay’. These drivers are then housed inside a sealed enclosure to ensure maximum clarity and freedom from internal cabinet colorations.

8″ Planar Mid-Range and 6.5″ Cast Frame Woofer

The two 6.5″ FR10 cast-frame woofers use a non-woven carbon skin on a Roacell foam core, complementing the transparency and speed of the mid-range and HF drivers. To lower distortion their design uses a unique split magnetic gap and a double Faraday ring for low, linear inductance and wide bandwidth, coupled with a single progressive Nomex spider with stitched-in lead wires, all supporting a 3/4″ peak-to-peak linear excursion for a dynamic and responsive bass output. The two woofers are augmented by three rear panel mounted flat-piston carbon fiber passive radiators. Frequency response is claimed to be 32 Hz – 20 kHz (- 6 dB, half-space; 25 Hz – 6 dB in-room).

Merging and optimizing the response of the four drivers is a Linkwitz-Riley 4th order acoustic filter that provides crossover frequencies of 550 Hz and 1,750 Hz. The design uses custom film capacitors and premium air-cored inductors.

Weighing in at 75lbs, the slim enclosure is made from MDF and extensively internally braced in order to reduce vibrations. The sculpted front baffle is formed from a dense, rigid and well-damped high-tech thermoset fiberglass resin composite material with integrated high-frequency acoustic waveguides, and comes with thermoset fiberglass resin magnetically attached grilles. Measuring 41.5″H x 8″W x 16.25″D the enclosures are finished with 20 coats of hand-rubbed high-grade lacquer in either satin black or satin white, and come with an anodized aluminum base that is supplied with mounting feet that support either removable stainless-steel spikes, or a soft rubber foot.

Finally, the two pairs of rear panel binding posts support either single wiring/amping or bi-wiring/amping.