The Aspen loudspeakers are making quite a name for themselves. From sharing the stage with Magico, B and W, and Magnepan in The Absolute Sound's Greatest Bargain's in Loudspeakers, to gracing the covers of magazines around the world, more and more folks are getting clued in to these marvels.
What a joy to see them flourish in this crowded marketplace.
Just the other day, musician, Brian Nova, and I took a break from recording at Octave Records to hear the Aspen FR5s which he was considering taking home. After picking his jaw off the floor from witnessing them take over the room, he turned to me and asked "how is that possible?"
More than a few people have gotten out of the listening chair and checked the speaker cable connection to make sure there weren't more speakers being powered.
One of the major design choices of speaker guru, Chris Brunhaver, was to craft his own drivers. Designing and perfecting a driver from scratch is no small feat—which is why driver manufacturing companies like Scan Speak, Accuton, and SEAS exist.
Those companies, among others, supply the vast majority of off-the-shelf drivers to the loudspeaker brands we all admire.
There's a reason 99% of the loudspeakers on the market, from the high-end to to the low end, use drivers out of a catalog. Possession of the design chops required to nudge more out of a technology that has been labored over for close to a century is not nothin'.
If this were food, it'd be like the difference between a chef who relies upon the supermarket for his choices vs. one who grows and harvests their own delights.
Hats off to homegrown.
