This was the last of the original American Infinity. I sold the smaller Kappa's, the RS-0000/RS-0001. Over the 85-90, after 90/91, HK/infinity were just consumer speakers. It is so nice to see a beautiful PC of infinity history continue. Thank you Paul
They are not 1985 speakers. You just rebuilt them a year or two ago and made a lot of changes to them. In the car world we would call them "resto-mods" not a numbers matching reference car. Glad to see you are giving the V's more room. What gets me is why not the new speakers in the bigger room? Imho the bigger V's can fill the larger room with sound as apposed smaller will not. When I was a kid Polk Audio mini's were the rage. Great sounding speakers but were just to small to fill anything with sound beside a car interior and that's what we used them for.
@@graxjpg Any changes from the way it came off the showroom floor and it is not a reference Rav 4 and even though it's not a show car it still would be considered a resto mod. Just because Paul did it means nothing, it was still done. They are not the same speakers that came out of Infinity's shop, good or bad.
Smaller speakers, smaller room. Bigger speakers, bigger room. The room is part of the acoustic system; the room loads the output from the speaker in the bass range, and the reflective surfaces are a certain distance away impacting the flight time of reflected energy. A bigger room sounds 'grander' because of these two phenomena.
Smart move. This gives the opportunity to let people hear the top of what's possible with refurbished 1980s technology and then go next door to hear current technology capability.
As a lover of vintage audio, this is an extremely sad day. I will fully admit that I might be trying to live in the past, but there's just something about vintage sound and looks, that new equipment just can't touch. I'm glad you are happy with your new product, but they will never, can never, be as beautiful as the Ifinity IRSv's.
Finally. I always thought that IRSV deserves bigger space. When I heard its sound in the old PS Audio building, full of sounds in the room but it was too much, I felt it's saturated.
It's too small of a room and the wall/ceiling construction/treatment isn't optimal for those speakers.. for those speakers you need a LOT of low frequency management built into the walls and ceiling and quite possibly even the floor. Plus, you need a bigger room. Those sub woofer towers are very tall and the ceiling dimension is typically the shortest dimension in the room, thus creating Axial modes between the floor and ceiling generating peaks and nulls.. If you have a 9 ft ceiling, you ARE going to have Axial room mode issues. Those things are going to need at LEAST a 14ft ceiling, and STILL need low frequency absorption in the ceiling, which makes the ceiling probably 14 or even 16inch deep with lots of dense materials, etc. They might even need the floor to have low frequency absorption to manage the amount of energy coming out of those speakers. Remember, there's 12 12inch powered sub woofers capable of a LOT of low frequency energy down to 16hz… Then you would need a wide room to handle the 4 cabinets and then a longer distance in the length, and again, low frequency management built into the walls using a variety of dense materials, etc. That room, neither of his rooms are big enough, and with proper construction, etc. to handle that speaker system to produce it's optimal sound quality. Yes, I'm sure his bigger room does sound better than the other room, but it's STILL not big enough, or built using the right materials, etc. That's the problem with those 4 cabinet tower systems. Other companies like Gryphon, MBL, Steinway Lyndorf and others make 4 cabinet systems with large sub towers and they really need large rooms, tall ceilings, and a lot of low frequency management built into the walls, ceiling and quite possibly in the floors to manage how much energy is being produced, especially if you want to crank them up to more lifelike SPL. Remember, in some sitting positions a full orchestra can hit other 100dB with the full orchestra playing and if you wanted to listen to those speakers at comparable SPL, the more energy being produced that needs to be managed.. Those speakers are simply too expensive for most people due to what one would need in terms of the size room, etc. would probably be more than a 1/2 million just for the room, or more to construct.. VERY impractical.. I'm sure they sound stunning, once you get the right room, but hardly practical for 99% of the human population.. :-)
Don't worry Paul their only next door, and you know what, they may even sound better than before given the more space to breath even more potential than they already have my friend! 👍
Hi Paul. My first introduction to the other worldly performance of the IRS series V was courtesy of Mike Kay at Lyric. I miss Mike. He was certainly one of the gentleman of our industry and well respected around the world.
Great that you let us feel with you. Those speakers were your companions for a quarter of your life and service you and your PS Audio endeavour so well! Wish Mery X-Mas to your team and families and a Happy New Year!
They would sound great in Music Room 4, also known as my living room. We'll need to take a wall down. And some doors. Also remove the upper floor, build a new foundation, replace all the electric, and plan for my inevitable eviction. See you tomorrow!
I'm glad you said you're never getting rid of them. I've been wanting to visit you guys in Boulder just to get a chance to listen to them. I'm excited to hear the FR30's as well but I have been wanting to listen to these since I saw them in the stereo mags back in the 80's, so, for me, listening to a set of these for a few minutes is a bucket list thing.
@@richarddarr3381 part of me doesn't want to hear them, afraid I'll end up mortgaging my house.. My wife calls it a disease, my car system is ridiculously more than the car is worth I'm in enough trouble for that lol.. (fortunatly she enjoys it too)
Congrats PS Audio, and thanks for sharing the process with us! Its definitely not easy to put yourself out there like you guys have been doing with your YT content. I myself had been wondering if the size of the old music room was large enough for the IRS V.
When I started watching, 5 years ago, you promised us an $8000 pair of speakers that would be the equivalent of the IRSV, more or less. I'm still waiting, and hoping.
@@mattuw82 really!??? No way! I would have never guessed. That wasn't the point. Are you familiar with the phrase "mission creep"? Maybe that will help you understand.
I've been watching your videos for what feels like a decade and really enjoy learning about true high end audio. Sadly, I'll never be able to afford to experience it because it's far outside my price range.
Understood and thank you for watching and being part of our community. Don't forget about little Sprout. For less than $1K you can have high-end audio.
I have no doubt that the new speakers sound better in the sweet spot , but the IRS 5's are a line source design. The most often-stated benefit to line-source designs is that they minimize the effect of the listening room by restricting vertical dispersion - the sound isn’t affected by the same floor-bounce and ceiling-reflection issues that plague regular two-way or three-way “point-source” speakers. How does the new design deal with the vertical dispersion issue and how wide is the sweet spot in comparison to a line source design. Wouldn't the ideal speaker be like the IRS 5's with new low distortion drivers ?
"The most often-stated benefit to line-source designs is that they minimize the effect of the listening room by restricting vertical dispersion" ............. And that is why I love my Martin Logans so much compared to all my dynamic box speakers. Thanks for mentioning that ! (a true dipole as well)
In a moment of hubris I blew the tweeters on my Quad floorstanders. I put them away pending the ordering of a replacement set. In the meantime I set up a reasonably good soundbar. The wife now has decreed that the speakers are not to return, on aesthetic grounds. Even if I could afford a set of your magnificent new speakers, I would never get Commandant Approval to install them. For guys like us, this is a major issue. It seems many wives prefer sleek and elegant over sonic performance. Indeed, I identified the loss of the tweeters immediately...And yet to her, there was no apparent difference in the sound. She claims that the soundbar sounds great, and can't understand why I would want to re- clutter the room with speakers and an amp. Congratulations on the new speakers PS. It's a great achievement!
Its amazing that the FR30s are able to out perform these speakers considering how smaller they are and have so fewer drivers. What an amazing accomplishment you must be very proud! A good friend of mine is an audiophile with much deeper pockets than me and I'll do everything in my power to make sure he buys a pair.
Paul, the owner of PS Audio tells us that their new speakers are better. Maybe they are. But let's look what other experts will write about that in the near future.
@Paul McGowan: Never heard either of these no doubt great speakers, but off the top of my head I find it a bit hard to believe the FR30's surpasses the IRSV's in a very general sense, but of course - what do I know? The IRSV's, I gather, would outrun the FR30's in sheer scale, bass realism, image size an dynamics (certainly macro-wise) - am I right in that assumption? This is not in any way to "belittle" the FR30's, even though they're obviously much smaller physically compared to the IRSV's, but it seems to me the aspect of physical realism in music reproduction is really only attained, from my chair, accommodating (as well) loads of displacement, dynamic headroom and ample bandwidth, and I can't fathom the FR30's bending the laws of audio-physics in that regard to keep up with the IRSV's. Maybe the chasm of sorts between the IRSV's and FR30's, at least where these aspects go, will be that much more obvious when the IRSV's have been re-located to Music Room 2 where they're given more and likely better room to breath.
My bet is you are right on. I can buy that the new ones have less distortion and are more transparent. But for sheer scale, I cannot imagine besting 24 woofers with 4kW. And I have to think the IRS V will benefit from having room to breathe.
I would tend to agree. I have a pair of dipole 75 made by Wisdom Audio. Sound stage is huge and I find it incredibly valuable in my listening experience. Also, who's to say that the little bit of distortion is not pleasing to the ear? Don't tube amps produce more distortion than solid state? These are all personal a preference. I like what makes me feel good.
Believe it or not, this morning (here in Spain) I "visualized" this video in my mind... I had like a "premonition" and a thought came across my mind: "When will Paul present their speakers and what will happen with the IRS V?". Believe it or not...
Paul, you had me scared for a while. I actually had to take a break between sides of SRV's Couldn't Stand the Weather to watch the video. The good news is that if I can ever make it to Boulder, there will be two killer speakers to experience.🎵
Nice video Paul. The old familiar loudspeakers that remain. We certainly enjoyed a lot. Paul, the new speakers are really nice. And the old speakers for sure. We are looking forward to the new event of High-end... We love it... A hobby without end and without perfection, but certainly fascinating... Greetings from the Netherlands Limburg Maastricht and above all continue with High-end... 👌🏾👍🏽✌🏾😘😉And of course coffee☕
Speakers with so many drivers and so much distortion will turn a simple sine wave into multi path and multi frequency sound and that can be great for music where you want to make it sound very live. The very opposite is my office setup with the KEF LS50 Meta and subwoofer where the degree of “liveness” is defined by the audio tracks I’m playing.
@@graxjpg Personally I prefer the purest representation of music with minimal multi path and distortion added by my own system. Most music I like is not live instrumental or vocal music performed on a stage but rather studio mastered music. And if there is a room acoustics playing a role on the music track, I want it to be with the acoustical signature of the room of where the music was made and not some particular room of mine.
I must have missed something... you are now moving the Infinity speakers into a "better" room in order to put "better" speakers into a worse room... is that right? Surely the idea would be to showcase just how good your new speakers are the "better" room would be the place for that???
Oh No, your going to be stuck for the next month or two shuffling the IRSV's back and forth etc, trying to find the optimal positions etc. On a more serious note, distortion, I'm amazed at the levels of distortion you quoted for the IRSV's. If they, at their 'elevated place' in design have so much distortion, then what am I seeing from my much lesser equipment. Several years ago the bass drivers in my main system started dying - the foam surrounds started decaying, so I bought some new drivers, now I did expect some sound changes, as their responses and sensitivities etc etc etc, was unavoidably completely different, however given that they are now 'wrong', and the 'magic' has gone, so to speak, maybe its driver distortion?? I'm yet to put a finger on it. Pity me going out and blowing a few grand on some new speakers (as opposed to just the drivers) is now totally out of the question. (no longer working, looking after the wife)
You need to run in the new drivers. Place each speaker facing each other as close as possible then connect them out of phase from each other. You can now play them very loud for at least 24 hours with white noise or burn in test disc from Nordost or such
So sad, so historic! Sorry to rush you but I can't wait to see your "little" speaker, whatever that is that you come up with. Thank you for the daily entertainment you keep offering.
Paul's missus: "Well, you are certainly not bringing them here. I dont want to hear another word about it" And therefore Music Room No 2 was created to house the IRS 5. And everybody was happy.
So what happened to the AN series? I don't think Chris and his design philosophy should be the only way of thinking pursued. There's a reason nobody even claimed to best the IRS V for 30 some years...
Now, Paul you know that with the new speakers performing so much better these poor Infiniti's will just sit in music room 3 gathering dust and taking up space. I'll do you a favor and come pick up those tired old speakers and get rid of them for you. Don't worry I'll find them a nice home where they can be happy and live their final days out. LOL
I listened to a pair of IRSVs in a hotel conference room in Hong Kong in the early 90s. I wondered how they got them in and out of the room, as it only had a small domestic sized door into a narrow corridor.
wow, incredible!!!! cant wait to hear the FR-30 and hopefully grab a pair. or maybe wait for the FR-20 (or whatever the model above the FR-30 gets named) :)
The FR 30 sounds amazing. But the feet or foundation on the speaker is not steady anough.. There are too much wabble... with better design of the foundation/feet they Will also sound better....
Can anyone point me to a video where Paul explains why the new FR30s speakers are going into Music Room 2 rather than Music Room 3? Music Room 3 is larger. Do the FR30s sound better in a smaller room? Is Music Room 2 designed to more closely duplicate a typical customer's room?
I remember reading an article in 1985 by Julian Hirsch that mentioned these mythical speakers......the Infinity Reference Standard V. I have never seen a set in person, much less listened to them.
I’ll give u $10 for them. Haha. Kidding. I can still remember you guys taking measurements for the speakers when they were in the previous building so you can set them up to match perfectly when moved to the current building. Good luck!
If I have her happen to be in the area can I hit y'all up and come listen to some of those speakers? it would probably be the only chance I'd ever have of listening to something like that.
I really hope one day I can come over there (from UK) and listen to these wonderful speakers. And really the whole set-ups you have there. Now, all this talk of the IRSV moving to music room 3, and the new FR30's moving into music room 2, it has me wondering, what do you have in Music Room 1?
I think that because amps are such a big part of PS Audio's business, they opted to go for unpowered speakers that would be paired with a PS Audio amplifier.
I am in the same predicament, sporting speakers from 1987..... EVERY speaker under $15000 sounds inferior, I am having trouble justifying the price for an upgrade. I can tell my old speakers do not sound as good as they did 15 years ago, but they were a tenth of the price of a current upgrade..... I can't believe every speaker under $9000 thus far do not sound as good. 1st world problems......
@@gioponti6359 I wrote every speaker UNDER $15000 that I have listened to in the past 6 months do not sound as full and musical. The SonusFaber speakers sound a little better, but only incrementally, and they cost $15k a pair. Various other brands that cost $7k, $12k, and in between, did not sound as good. That was/is frustrating. Focal with the BE tweeter sounded fatiguing, bright, unnatural, they were $25k. It seems the prices have gone up because of high tech materials, not because they sound more lifelike and natural; which is what high end audio is all about; reproducing the sound as it was recorded.
@@briangc1972 thanks for clarification, and apologies for somewhat impolite wording of mine. Re hot tweeter.. all a matter of pairing and installation, also meaning things like cabling, especially power cabling, or conditioning. In case your experience with contemporary speakers was shaped by visiting hifi shops who feature fatiguing sound (which i did as well, not a few times), i think it is down to suboptimal pairing and lack of care esp. on power side. I also heard very bright Focals, that was in Tokyo in the famous electronic supermarket, and they were so bright, that something must have been wrong, similarly Thiel’s concentric super speaker (for 15k€) let my ears bleed in an electronic mass-supermarket who must have done something wrong in their installation/combination (a disaster, really, and no advertisement at all). One thing i have learnt recently (when i improved SQ, by eliminating a few switch mode PSUs around the hifi): if treble is harsh, than lowering treble it is nice but insufficient, when it is smooth, i am much more tolerant to a little exaggeration. Perhaps i should add, i have recently replaced my 1992 speakers (500€ then) with 2015 speakers for 3k€, and while they too seemed hot in the tweeter [and a) the speaker company has an image in this regard, and their products shall b) not be paired with my amp, people say in forums], things could be fixed with a few changes in the system. Am way more happy now than before.
That’s what I was waiting to hear. I knew that you would never let these beauties go on a musical, historical and an emotional basis.
I got his left leg .. we'll get them lol
@@SudburyMan Got his shoe! keep pulling!
They are for sale now
This was the last of the original American Infinity. I sold the smaller Kappa's, the RS-0000/RS-0001. Over the 85-90, after 90/91, HK/infinity were just consumer speakers. It is so nice to see a beautiful PC of infinity history continue. Thank you Paul
That transition to music room 3 was amazing! Hahah!
Great sales pitch for the new speakers. I want to come hear them!
The end of an era, Paul! I’m glad that your keeping the IRS V around as listening to a pair is on my audiophile bucket list!
#metoo
Been there, heard them. Worth the trip.
Some treasures are not given away...
The last time I visited PS Audio the IRSV was across the street and Music Rooms 1, 2 and 3 were being framed. I look forward when I can visit again.
I'm going to have to make the trip up there and spend a couple of hours listening to your wonderful work😄
They are not 1985 speakers. You just rebuilt them a year or two ago and made a lot of changes to them. In the car world we would call them "resto-mods" not a numbers matching reference car.
Glad to see you are giving the V's more room. What gets me is why not the new speakers in the bigger room? Imho the bigger V's can fill the larger room with sound as apposed smaller will not. When I was a kid Polk Audio mini's were the rage. Great sounding speakers but were just to small to fill anything with sound beside a car interior and that's what we used them for.
Lol, my 1999 rav 4 with a new engine and transmission is still a 1999.
@@graxjpg Any changes from the way it came off the showroom floor and it is not a reference Rav 4 and even though it's not a show car it still would be considered a resto mod. Just because Paul did it means nothing, it was still done. They are not the same speakers that came out of Infinity's shop, good or bad.
Smaller speakers, smaller room. Bigger speakers, bigger room. The room is part of the acoustic system; the room loads the output from the speaker in the bass range, and the reflective surfaces are a certain distance away impacting the flight time of reflected energy. A bigger room sounds 'grander' because of these two phenomena.
Bucket list is to one day come to CO and hear both of these systems.
Time and technology lurches onward; great to see that gleam in your eye and spring in your step!
Smart move. This gives the opportunity to let people hear the top of what's possible with refurbished 1980s technology and then go next door to hear current technology capability.
As a lover of vintage audio, this is an extremely sad day. I will fully admit that I might be trying to live in the past, but there's just something about vintage sound and looks, that new equipment just can't touch. I'm glad you are happy with your new product, but they will never, can never, be as beautiful as the Ifinity IRSv's.
Finally. I always thought that IRSV deserves bigger space. When I heard its sound in the old PS Audio building, full of sounds in the room but it was too much, I felt it's saturated.
Yeah, they need to be in a room with MUCH higher ceilings, more width and length to the room.
It's too small of a room and the wall/ceiling construction/treatment isn't optimal for those speakers.. for those speakers you need a LOT of low frequency management built into the walls and ceiling and quite possibly even the floor. Plus, you need a bigger room. Those sub woofer towers are very tall and the ceiling dimension is typically the shortest dimension in the room, thus creating Axial modes between the floor and ceiling generating peaks and nulls.. If you have a 9 ft ceiling, you ARE going to have Axial room mode issues. Those things are going to need at LEAST a 14ft ceiling, and STILL need low frequency absorption in the ceiling, which makes the ceiling probably 14 or even 16inch deep with lots of dense materials, etc. They might even need the floor to have low frequency absorption to manage the amount of energy coming out of those speakers. Remember, there's 12 12inch powered sub woofers capable of a LOT of low frequency energy down to 16hz…
Then you would need a wide room to handle the 4 cabinets and then a longer distance in the length, and again, low frequency management built into the walls using a variety of dense materials, etc.
That room, neither of his rooms are big enough, and with proper construction, etc. to handle that speaker system to produce it's optimal sound quality. Yes, I'm sure his bigger room does sound better than the other room, but it's STILL not big enough, or built using the right materials, etc.
That's the problem with those 4 cabinet tower systems. Other companies like Gryphon, MBL, Steinway Lyndorf and others make 4 cabinet systems with large sub towers and they really need large rooms, tall ceilings, and a lot of low frequency management built into the walls, ceiling and quite possibly in the floors to manage how much energy is being produced, especially if you want to crank them up to more lifelike SPL. Remember, in some sitting positions a full orchestra can hit other 100dB with the full orchestra playing and if you wanted to listen to those speakers at comparable SPL, the more energy being produced that needs to be managed..
Those speakers are simply too expensive for most people due to what one would need in terms of the size room, etc. would probably be more than a 1/2 million just for the room, or more to construct.. VERY impractical..
I'm sure they sound stunning, once you get the right room, but hardly practical for 99% of the human population.. :-)
Don't worry Paul their only next door, and you know what, they may even sound better than before given the more space to breath even more potential than they already have my friend! 👍
We dont see you this excited often, glad i started scrolling back through old vids
They will have a better home in the bigger room, such beauties!
I would love to spend a night in those music rooms😎🙏 best regards from Switzerland
Dissapointed, I tought they were move to my living room.
My speakers are around 25 years old. New doesn’t always mean better, which is why I still have them.
Your sense of hearing is also 25 years older!! You can't hear what you could back then. 😤
Hi Paul. My first introduction to the other worldly performance of the IRS series V was courtesy of Mike Kay at Lyric. I miss Mike. He was certainly one of the gentleman of our industry and well respected around the world.
Awesome! Congratulations Paul! Can't wait to see future videos!👍
Great that you let us feel with you. Those speakers were your companions for a quarter of your life and service you and your PS Audio endeavour so well!
Wish Mery X-Mas to your team and families and a Happy New Year!
yes.. cant wait to see and listen to the new speakers.
I would take them at my home but you can visit and listen them anytime you want.
They would sound great in Music Room 4, also known as my living room. We'll need to take a wall down. And some doors. Also remove the upper floor, build a new foundation, replace all the electric, and plan for my inevitable eviction.
See you tomorrow!
Happy times, good luck!!
I'm glad you said you're never getting rid of them. I've been wanting to visit you guys in Boulder just to get a chance to listen to them. I'm excited to hear the FR30's as well but I have been wanting to listen to these since I saw them in the stereo mags back in the 80's, so, for me, listening to a set of these for a few minutes is a bucket list thing.
Some day I'm gonna make it out there to here I mean HEAR them both..
Hear
@@carlosoliveira-rc2xt thanks lol
Same here hear both, I bet the IRS 5 wins why size imaging
@@richarddarr3381 part of me doesn't want to hear them, afraid I'll end up mortgaging my house.. My wife calls it a disease, my car system is ridiculously more than the car is worth I'm in enough trouble for that lol.. (fortunatly she enjoys it too)
Congrats PS Audio, and thanks for sharing the process with us! Its definitely not easy to put yourself out there like you guys have been doing with your YT content. I myself had been wondering if the size of the old music room was large enough for the IRS V.
When I started watching, 5 years ago, you promised us an $8000 pair of speakers that would be the equivalent of the IRSV, more or less. I'm still waiting, and hoping.
Hahaha :-)
That's inflation for you! Didn't your $8000 worth of investments turn into $28,000 worth over the past 5 years?? 😎
They're releasing a whole line of speakers.
@@mattuw82 really!??? No way! I would have never guessed.
That wasn't the point. Are you familiar with the phrase "mission creep"? Maybe that will help you understand.
@@jamesrobinson9176 you can't afford speakers lol
I've been watching your videos for what feels like a decade and really enjoy learning about true high end audio. Sadly, I'll never be able to afford to experience it because it's far outside my price range.
Understood and thank you for watching and being part of our community. Don't forget about little Sprout. For less than $1K you can have high-end audio.
/sigh
Now I have to go back to Boulder and listen to them *again* in the new room.
You make life hard sometimes Paul...
I have no doubt that the new speakers sound better in the sweet spot , but the IRS 5's are a line source design. The most often-stated benefit to line-source designs is that they minimize the effect of the listening room by restricting vertical dispersion - the sound isn’t affected by the same floor-bounce and ceiling-reflection issues that plague regular two-way or three-way “point-source” speakers. How does the new design deal with the vertical dispersion issue and how wide is the sweet spot in comparison to a line source design. Wouldn't the ideal speaker be like the IRS 5's with new low distortion drivers ?
"The most often-stated benefit to line-source designs is that they minimize the effect of the listening room by restricting vertical dispersion" ............. And that is why I love my Martin Logans so much compared to all my dynamic box speakers. Thanks for mentioning that ! (a true dipole as well)
Who knows, the IRS might still be better when they're playing in the right size room?
🎶🤫🎶
In a moment of hubris I blew the tweeters on my Quad floorstanders. I put them away pending the ordering of a replacement set. In the meantime I set up a reasonably good soundbar.
The wife now has decreed that the speakers are not to return, on aesthetic grounds.
Even if I could afford a set of your magnificent new speakers, I would never get Commandant Approval to install them.
For guys like us, this is a major issue. It seems many wives prefer sleek and elegant over sonic performance.
Indeed, I identified the loss of the tweeters immediately...And yet to her, there was no apparent difference in the sound. She claims that the soundbar sounds great, and can't understand why I would want to re- clutter the room with speakers and an amp.
Congratulations on the new speakers PS. It's a great achievement!
That is why you need a dedicated listening room.
@@vinylrules4838 great idea. Ill order one tomorrow.
Well you could have married a man! Would that make you happier?? 👿
OMG i thought u were gonna cry. The passion you have for those IRSV is endearing.
Can't wait to hear them!
Congratulations on the new speakers, they look like a very exceptional bit of acoustical engineering.
Of course the new speakers are "better". Just what potential buyers want to hear.
Its amazing that the FR30s are able to out perform these speakers considering how smaller they are and have so fewer drivers. What an amazing accomplishment you must be very proud! A good friend of mine is an audiophile with much deeper pockets than me and I'll do everything in my power to make sure he buys a pair.
Paul, the owner of PS Audio tells us that their new speakers are better. Maybe they are. But let's look what other experts will write about that in the near future.
@@edgar9651 yep. My glasses are down on my nose and looking over them at this claim.
@@edgar9651 I am pretty sure that KEF's Muon , or even BLADE Series will easy outperform Paul's eyesore speakers .
Well time will tell ... Most of Paul's videos are indeed a sales pitch
Boloney, they are not better. Marketing stunt
Looking forwards to seeing the latest and greatest in speaker tech!
You're looking at the wrong company . LOL
I will missed that IRSV speakers Paul! I've seen it only in this place
I think they’ll be far better in the new room
great video paul
@Paul McGowan: Never heard either of these no doubt great speakers, but off the top of my head I find it a bit hard to believe the FR30's surpasses the IRSV's in a very general sense, but of course - what do I know? The IRSV's, I gather, would outrun the FR30's in sheer scale, bass realism, image size an dynamics (certainly macro-wise) - am I right in that assumption? This is not in any way to "belittle" the FR30's, even though they're obviously much smaller physically compared to the IRSV's, but it seems to me the aspect of physical realism in music reproduction is really only attained, from my chair, accommodating (as well) loads of displacement, dynamic headroom and ample bandwidth, and I can't fathom the FR30's bending the laws of audio-physics in that regard to keep up with the IRSV's. Maybe the chasm of sorts between the IRSV's and FR30's, at least where these aspects go, will be that much more obvious when the IRSV's have been re-located to Music Room 2 where they're given more and likely better room to breath.
My bet is you are right on. I can buy that the new ones have less distortion and are more transparent. But for sheer scale, I cannot imagine besting 24 woofers with 4kW. And I have to think the IRS V will benefit from having room to breathe.
I would tend to agree. I have a pair of dipole 75 made by Wisdom Audio. Sound stage is huge and I find it incredibly valuable in my listening experience. Also, who's to say that the little bit of distortion is not pleasing to the ear? Don't tube amps produce more distortion than solid state? These are all personal a preference. I like what makes me feel good.
Very exciting, congratulations . It's like Christmas morning! ;-))
They may sound great, but boy those things are an eyesore! I'll take a drop in audio fidelity for some aesthetic pleasure!
I think they look amazing, but I guess there's no accounting for taste.
Believe it or not, this morning (here in Spain) I "visualized" this video in my mind... I had like a "premonition" and a thought came across my mind: "When will Paul present their speakers and what will happen with the IRS V?". Believe it or not...
Paul, you had me scared for a while. I actually had to take a break between sides of SRV's Couldn't Stand the Weather to watch the video. The good news is that if I can ever make it to Boulder, there will be two killer speakers to experience.🎵
Love it! Great video's! And thank god you will keep the Irs5! 💪
WOW, i'm subbing just to see more crazy speakers
Can not wait to see the future videos. Congrats
Nice video Paul. The old familiar loudspeakers that remain. We certainly enjoyed a lot. Paul, the new speakers are really nice. And the old speakers for sure. We are looking forward to the new event of High-end... We love it... A hobby without end and without perfection, but certainly fascinating... Greetings from the Netherlands Limburg Maastricht and above all continue with High-end...
👌🏾👍🏽✌🏾😘😉And of course coffee☕
It was a good run. Godspeed with the new ones !
Enjoy them in good health.
New speakers = Xmas! ✌🍾
Sad day but very exciting. Congratulations
Speakers with so many drivers and so much distortion will turn a simple sine wave into multi path and multi frequency sound and that can be great for music where you want to make it sound very live. The very opposite is my office setup with the KEF LS50 Meta and subwoofer where the degree of “liveness” is defined by the audio tracks I’m playing.
Absolutely, but that much distortion and that many speakers seems like a very pleasing experience haha.
@@graxjpg Personally I prefer the purest representation of music with minimal multi path and distortion added by my own system. Most music I like is not live instrumental or vocal music performed on a stage but rather studio mastered music. And if there is a room acoustics playing a role on the music track, I want it to be with the acoustical signature of the room of where the music was made and not some particular room of mine.
I must have missed something... you are now moving the Infinity speakers into a "better" room in order to put "better" speakers into a worse room... is that right?
Surely the idea would be to showcase just how good your new speakers are the "better" room would be the place for that???
Very cool! Im looking forward to that upcoming Videos. Greetings from Germany
Beautiful
well when do we all see your speakers ???
Oh No, your going to be stuck for the next month or two shuffling the IRSV's back and forth etc, trying to find the optimal positions etc.
On a more serious note, distortion, I'm amazed at the levels of distortion you quoted for the IRSV's. If they, at their 'elevated place' in design have so much distortion, then what am I seeing from my much lesser equipment.
Several years ago the bass drivers in my main system started dying - the foam surrounds started decaying, so I bought some new drivers, now I did expect some sound changes, as their responses and sensitivities etc etc etc, was unavoidably completely different, however given that they are now 'wrong', and the 'magic' has gone, so to speak, maybe its driver distortion?? I'm yet to put a finger on it. Pity me going out and blowing a few grand on some new speakers (as opposed to just the drivers) is now totally out of the question. (no longer working, looking after the wife)
You need to run in the new drivers. Place each speaker facing each other as close as possible then connect them out of phase from each other. You can now play them very loud for at least 24 hours with white noise or burn in test disc from Nordost or such
So sad, so historic! Sorry to rush you but I can't wait to see your "little" speaker, whatever that is that you come up with. Thank you for the daily entertainment you keep offering.
Love your shoes.lol
Those sudden edits made me think of stop motion animation. Now I want to see a Gumby version of a Paul video!
Exciting!
Paul's missus: "Well, you are certainly not bringing them here. I dont want to hear another word about it" And therefore Music Room No 2 was created to house the IRS 5. And everybody was happy.
Bye-bye to the church organ low notes thunder :(.................
So what happened to the AN series? I don't think Chris and his design philosophy should be the only way of thinking pursued. There's a reason nobody even claimed to best the IRS V for 30 some years...
Paul send me a pair of your speakers that may not be your favorite, PLEASE
Now, Paul you know that with the new speakers performing so much better these poor Infiniti's will just sit in music room 3 gathering dust and taking up space.
I'll do you a favor and come pick up those tired old speakers and get rid of them for you.
Don't worry I'll find them a nice home where they can be happy and live their final days out.
LOL
Not once have i ever seen a video were you played those speakers.
It wouldn't matter, what you would hear is what your own sound source would reproduce, some deteriorated version of what the speakers played.
How the hell are you supposed to listen to someone else's speakers on TH-cam?
@@mattuw82 Uh well, you can if you have the right equipment and as they say in the industry (the ears to here).
I listened to a pair of IRSVs in a hotel conference room in Hong Kong in the early 90s. I wondered how they got them in and out of the room, as it only had a small domestic sized door into a narrow corridor.
I like music room 3 better so the IRS's are going to a good place. I knew you wouldn't give up the IRS's...
will the new speaker affect the voicing of future PS Audio electronics?
I'm happy to take them off your hands for 500usd😁
wow, incredible!!!! cant wait to hear the FR-30 and hopefully grab a pair. or maybe wait for the FR-20 (or whatever the model above the FR-30 gets named) :)
May I suggest...
*A wood veneer option for your new speakers.*
Totally agree. Not a fan of the new design. I rather liked the look of the prototypes better.
The FR 30 sounds amazing. But the feet or foundation on the speaker is not steady anough.. There are too much wabble... with better design of the foundation/feet they Will also sound better....
You had me scared there for a minute!
Yes Thank You SOOO Much for all your help Brother 🙂👍👍👍
Knowledge aside... At the end of the day. Paul is a salesman !
Can anyone point me to a video where Paul explains why the new FR30s speakers are going into Music Room 2 rather than Music Room 3? Music Room 3 is larger. Do the FR30s sound better in a smaller room? Is Music Room 2 designed to more closely duplicate a typical customer's room?
music room 3 was not ready so they went into rm 2 which was.
I was really hoping the speakers that would replace the IRSV would be one of an open baffle design. But Kudos to the FR-30
So when will they be sent to my house?
I ll make it fit, somehow 😂😂😂
Still really enjoying my monitor audio gx200 gold speakers :-)
I remember reading an article in 1985 by Julian Hirsch that mentioned these mythical speakers......the Infinity Reference Standard V. I have never seen a set in person, much less listened to them.
I’ll give u $10 for them. Haha. Kidding. I can still remember you guys taking measurements for the speakers when they were in the previous building so you can set them up to match perfectly when moved to the current building. Good luck!
Yeah but do think the new ones really look as cool?
Paul and the IRS Vs are like beavis and butthead. Rocky and bullwinkle if you’re older. Smothers brothers even.
The king is dead long live the king
If I have her happen to be in the area can I hit y'all up and come listen to some of those speakers? it would probably be the only chance I'd ever have of listening to something like that.
I'll give 250 bucks cash money right now! But you'll have to deliver them to me.
I really hope one day I can come over there (from UK) and listen to these wonderful speakers. And really the whole set-ups you have there.
Now, all this talk of the IRSV moving to music room 3, and the new FR30's moving into music room 2, it has me wondering, what do you have in Music Room 1?
That is brilliant
Paul since the FR-30 are a passive speaker will PS Audio develop a speaker with a powered subwoofer ?
I think that because amps are such a big part of PS Audio's business, they opted to go for unpowered speakers that would be paired with a PS Audio amplifier.
It's nice to make Speakers only rich people can afford .
Paul should make speakers that every looser libtard on the planet can afford. What a great world that would be.
I am in the same predicament, sporting speakers from 1987..... EVERY speaker under $15000 sounds inferior, I am having trouble justifying the price for an upgrade. I can tell my old speakers do not sound as good as they did 15 years ago, but they were a tenth of the price of a current upgrade..... I can't believe every speaker under $9000 thus far do not sound as good. 1st world problems......
So you got a paor of speakers for 1500 that from 33 years ago (stonage of speaker design) and the outperform speaker from today costing 15k?
@@gioponti6359 I wrote every speaker UNDER $15000 that I have listened to in the past 6 months do not sound as full and musical. The SonusFaber speakers sound a little better, but only incrementally, and they cost $15k a pair. Various other brands that cost $7k, $12k, and in between, did not sound as good. That was/is frustrating. Focal with the BE tweeter sounded fatiguing, bright, unnatural, they were $25k. It seems the prices have gone up because of high tech materials, not because they sound more lifelike and natural; which is what high end audio is all about; reproducing the sound as it was recorded.
@@briangc1972 thanks for clarification, and apologies for somewhat impolite wording of mine. Re hot tweeter.. all a matter of pairing and installation, also meaning things like cabling, especially power cabling, or conditioning. In case your experience with contemporary speakers was shaped by visiting hifi shops who feature fatiguing sound (which i did as well, not a few times), i think it is down to suboptimal pairing and lack of care esp. on power side. I also heard very bright Focals, that was in Tokyo in the famous electronic supermarket, and they were so bright, that something must have been wrong, similarly Thiel’s concentric super speaker (for 15k€) let my ears bleed in an electronic mass-supermarket who must have done something wrong in their installation/combination (a disaster, really, and no advertisement at all).
One thing i have learnt recently (when i improved SQ, by eliminating a few switch mode PSUs around the hifi): if treble is harsh, than lowering treble it is nice but insufficient, when it is smooth, i am much more tolerant to a little exaggeration.
Perhaps i should add, i have recently replaced my 1992 speakers (500€ then) with 2015 speakers for 3k€, and while they too seemed hot in the tweeter [and a) the speaker company has an image in this regard, and their products shall b) not be paired with my amp, people say in forums], things could be fixed with a few changes in the system. Am way more happy now than before.
open box speakers special yes I will give you a dollar for all of them :)
You just dropping em off at Goodwill? Lol.