What Is a Planar Ribbon?

PS Audio Aspen Speakers: Cuƫing-Edge Technology Meets Emotional Musicality

With the launch of the Aspen loudspeaker range, PS Audio made a bold and confident entry into the world of high-end loudspeakers. Known for their amplifiers, DACs, and power regenerators, PS Audio's foray into loudspeakers was not a side project—it was a culmination of years of research, development, and system-level thinking. The Aspen series, starting with the FR30, followed by the FR20 and FR10, showcases a meticulously engineered full-range speaker line that reflects PS Audio’s pursuit of transparency, dynamics, and emotional connection to music.

Planar Ribbon Tweeter: Speed and Detail Like No Other

At the heart of each Aspen speaker lies a custom-designed planar ribbon tweeter, a core differentiator from conventional dome tweeters. Unlike traditional designs that use a small dome-shaped diaphragm driven by a voice coil, PS Audio’s planar tweeter uses an ultra-thin, lightweight diaphragm suspended in a magnetic field, with the encore surface area directly driven by the signal.

Key Benefits:

• Near-zero mass: The diaphragm is incredibly light, allowing it to start and stop with lightning-fast precision.
• Wide dispersion: The design creates consistent high-frequency energy across a broad listening area, minimizing “sweet spot” limitations.
• Extended bandwidth: The tweeter is capable of reproducing frequencies well beyond 20kHz, offering airiness, shimmer, and space that conventional drivers struggle to match.
• Lack of mechanical coloration: Because there’s no voice coil or dome structure, the sound is free of typical resonance and distortion artifacts.

This tweeter technology results in exceptional clarity and realism, particularly in the reproduction of vocals, cymbals, strings, and spatial cues.

Other Key Technologies in the Aspen Series

1. Planar Midrange Drivers
   • Like the tweeter, the midrange drivers in the larger Aspen models (FR30, FR20) are planar magnetic. This ensures a seamless match in speed and tonality between the midrange and high frequencies. The result is a coherent and natural presentation, especially through the critical vocal and instrumental range.
2. High-Excursion Woofers and Passive Radiators
   • The low end is handled by custom long-throw woofers, often paired with passive radiators instead of traditional porting. This design choice improves:
     • Bass depth and impact without the chuffing or noise from ports
     • Room interaction control, as passive radiators are less susceptible to placement issues
     • Cabinet tuning, enabling deeper bass in a more compact enclosure
3. Advanced Crossover Design
   • The crossover networks in Aspen speakers are phase-coherent and time-aligned, using high-end components like film capacitors and air-core inductors. PS Audio emphasizes minimal phase distortion and perfect driver integration, helping preserve the signal’s integrity across the entire frequency range.
4. Inert, Vibration-Dampened Cabinets
   • The speaker cabinets are multi-layer, braced, and dampened to eliminate unwanted resonances. This structural integrity allows the drivers to perform at their best without colorations introduced by cabinet vibration.
5. Wide-Band, Full-Range Performance
   1. Each Aspen model is designed to be truly full-range, capable of delivering subwoofer-like bass and extended highs from a single, coherent speaker system. This eliminates the need for external subwoofers in most rooms, streamlining system design.

The Sound: Engaging, Transparent, and Emotionally Involving

The Aspen speakers are not just technically impressive—they are deeply musical. They deliver a sound that is:

• Effortlessly transparent, revealing details without being analytical
• Dynamically expressive, with a sense of ease even at high volumes
• Emotionally rich, with voices and instruments rendered with intimacy and authenticity

Imaging is holographic, with a wide and deep soundstage. Bass is tight and articulate, never boomy. And perhaps most importantly, they disappear into the room, allowing the listener to focus on the performance, not the equipment.

Conclusion

The PS Audio Aspen speaker line represents the company's ambition to offer a complete, uncompromised high-fidelity solution—from power regeneration to source components to amplification and now, loudspeakers. With its planar ribbon tweeter, hybrid driver topology, and audiophile-grade engineering, the Aspen series offers a compelling blend of precision and passion. These are speakers built not just to measure well, but to move you—and in that goal, they succeed spectacularly