*Thank You For Watching! Please don't forget to click the like button* Other Similar Videos: Response and Clarification From GR-Research: ruclips.net/video/UpUvjEZUj-U/видео.html Insider Look at The GR-Research Factory - DIY Audiophile Speaker Haven: ruclips.net/video/d6m2jJRcq3A/видео.html I Challenge GR-Research To Blind Test His Own Audiophile Speaker Cables On Camera: ruclips.net/video/GTwwvY8Is1o/видео.html The SHOCKING GR-Research XLS Encore Audiophile DIY KIT Speakers ! My Final Review: ruclips.net/video/oZ_kQtr8mVQ/видео.html GR-Research DIY KITs: gr-research.com/diy-loudspeaker-kits/ GR-Research Finished Speakers: gr-research.com/completed-speakers/ Support on Patreon: www.patreon.com/jayiyagi follow on Instagram: instagram.com/jays_iyagi/ follow on Facebook: facebook.com/jayiyagiofficial Follow soundstage take 2 reviews: ruclips.net/p/PLPOzvlhtSqn5xdc__ftuSt4Rxy_wm5Af0 Speaker stands: amzn.to/3ssRhI3 Better speaker stands: solidsteel.it/my-product/ss-7-vintage-hi-fi-speaker-stands/ acoustic panels I use: ua-acoustics.com/ acoustic curtain: amzn.to/31d1zAM BDI Cabinet I use: bit.ly/2OJRwQQ amzn.to/3chBuFZ other BDI Cabinets: bit.ly/3ctxXV1 amzn.to/30bsUCH my fav hifi tweaks: (Isoacoustics devices) amzn.to/3j5FGvM 0:00 INTRO 0:33 GR-Research Factory 1:06 GR-Research Upgrades Worth it? 5:42 This is NOT Drama 6:44 GR-Research NX-Treme Speaker Review 8:13 GR-Research Open Baffle Servo Subwoofer Review 9:24 Best Amplifier For GR-Research Speakers 9:44 GR-Research NX-Studio Speaker Review 10:21 GR-Research NX-Otica Speaker... 10:44 GR-Research XLS Encore Speaker... 11:02 GR-Research LGK 2.1 Speaker Review 11:58 What GR-Research Speaker Would I Buy? #homeaudio #hifi #audiophile
You must have a business deal with Danny, you two making a couple extra dollars together, because I think you know Danny's upgrade kits are phenomenal upgrades and this video is to stir people up that have his kits installed to get people talking about their own upgrades from GR research as testimonials. These upgrades bring out the best of what the speaker is from its bones and I'm pretty sure you know it, that or you should. Jay...hand on the Bible this isn't just to gain interest in Danny's upgrades?
You are welcome... I have been very critical of you in the past but that doesn't mean I don't like your reviews. I have actually bought a bit of hifi equipment based solely upon your reviews and believe it or not, I was very satisfied with every purchase I made. I will be following you on your journey and your quest to develop your skill and honesty. This is what I think I am seeing here. It is okay to be very critical and honest in your reviews, no matter what people like me or others may say. Just keep on thriving. There is no doubt that you are one of the best reviewer on RUclips.
@@libertyss32 what you accusing me of is some very serious crimes. Hands on the bible; this isn’t to gain interest in Danny’s upgrades and I have been honest throughout this video
@@Jayiyagi I don't mean no disrespect Jay, I think you do great work and I love your videos. It's just that before this video I never seen so many people come out and testify or review the upgrades more then I've seen from the reactions to this video. Before it almost seemed like it was a secret but this video sheds light on what these upgrades have done for those who purchased. Stay blessed🙏🏼
Thanks Jay, for the open and honest way you convey your opinions. Long before discovering GR Research, personally built speakers from scratch and modified off the shelf models. Crossover parts quality ALWAYS makes a difference. Speakers sent to Danny have problems, not just a different way of doing things. That is far too kind an assessment. Been in the room too many times when the bean counters take over and engineers are forced to make compromises. All the R&D in the world is too easily discarded to save as little as a few cents per unit. Have to disagree with your presentation of Danny vs ASR listening to only 1 speaker. Danny is correcting issues with an already purchased speaker, not reviewing. It only takes 1 speaker to correct FR and resonance issues. As you pointed out Danny believes in a neutral FR. Owners of that speaker model can then decide if a neutral FR provided by the GR Research mod kit is worth trying. ASR is testing and listening to 1 speaker to form the basis of a purchase recommendation for a pair. Also, looking for FR and resonance issues. It would be apples to apples if ASR purchase recommendations were based only on those measurements. Listening, a subjective action, is added to the review with the claim it is only necessary to listen to a single speaker to predict performance of a pair. Danny is correct to point out listening to only 1 speaker is an incomplete review.
There is a coincident advantage of a neutral FR as shown by any waterfall graph. Getting rid of resonances and breakup often results in a smoother response. Phase matching around the crossover point also results in a smoother response. It's not so much about the neutrality of a response as it is about dealing with the other problems that cause an uneven FR. For example, Danny will often ignore spikes in frequencies above 14KHz unless he finds ringing.
To qualify the following comment, this video is my first exposure to GR, so I speak as neutral a party as possible having heard only your take. As someone who works on/builds/upgrades speakers, you can ABSOLUTELY *upgrade* a speaker without changing the network at all. Simply replacing the existing components (not changing values) with higher quality versions of components ones of with the exact same value can make a huge difference. It goes further. When building my personal speakers, my "serious" speakers, I did a LOT of A/B-ing on a component-by-component basis, and combo-by-combo basis. I can say with 100% certainty that even higher quality components can vary widely, and add or subtract from the "synergy" of the network and drivers as a system, greatly. When developing said speakers, at one point I had 5 or 6 different versions of the same inductor hot-glued to the side of the cabinet, so I could easily switch between them. My point is that a single component can make an audible difference, and when you're dealing with consumer-grade products, they're usually optimized to sound as good as possible within a certain threshold of cost-to-build, the idea being to guarantee a minimum level of performance while still meeting the budget for building them. Usually, this means using the cheapest components of which you can reasonably assure the supply-chain, while not compromising that minimum "standard" of quality. It doesn't mean the developed product sounds as good as it possibly could with the OEM configuration, but instead ensures a consistent level of performance across the entire production run of that model. And STILL, there are countless examples of electronic products that vary noticeably, even dramatically, depending on when during the production run a unit was produced, because the manufacturer swapped out some single component due to supply change issues, per-unit price changes, or some other reason the original component becomes unavailable. All of this is to say, you can't dismiss the possibility that GR is, in fact, *UPGRADING* speakers, just because he can improve them fairly quickly/easily. And that's without even TOUCHING the change that actual component-value changes, or the impact an expert using specialized analysis equipment, can make. I have personally "upgraded" any number of commercially available speakers, of all price-points, with little more than a frequency analyzer, some specialized knowledge, and a willingness to spend more than $0.05 on components.
words of wisdom there is no mass pruduced thing in the world, where inertia or cost efectivness of the supply chain does not dictate most of the used components. there is also no simple or complex object of any sort that does not work better when its made with better parts
Testing a single speaker to change-out cross-overs is a COMPLETELY different thing from designing and playing back a speaker to ensure that everything from diffraction, CF, dispersion and other factors are dialed-in. Now, if Danny was going to change-over to different drivers, make changes to the enclosure or other such foundational changes, then you can't just work with a single speaker. Similarly, to evaluate a speaker for all the things we care about, you have to have the same number of monitors that the source material is designed to be played back on, whether it is mono, stereo, ATMOS or anything else. Danny is correct.
two things. 1. He does change drivers, port and cabinet inside at times. He still works with 1 speaker. 2. it goes both ways. The reason Danny criticized testing only 1 speaker was because you can't hear imaging and sound staging ("the intangible things" as danny quoted). I will argue that is the same when designing a speaker or an upgrade crossover to a speaker; according to him, he spends lots of time listening to his diy speaker kits to get the "intangible things" to a desired point. Same thing can't be said about his upgrade kits as he does not do listening tests with 1 speaker
For Danny to take the time and added expense of receiving two speakers and spending many more hours trying to find tune them while being limited to merely crossovers anti-resonance foam and port size would be a monumental waste of his time.
@@Jayiyagi I think it is very rare that he changes drivers on used speakers he gets in, and also rare that he changes the port or cabinet. He does like to change change the connectors.
@@Jayiyagi I know he does change out drivers, as well as create new speaker whole cloth, and I have seen those videos, but he then does stereo testing (i.e. not just one speaker) in all the videos I have seen. If he ever changes out drivers or makes box modifications, but does not work in stereo then he is making a mistake. I had not seen a video of his where he did that. However, and I have done acoustic and photonic imaging and implementation studies for civilian and military applications for years, and also own and have founded several media labs since the 1980's and own and run a DSD + PCM Ravenna studio where we have reengineered our rooms (stereo, 2.1, ATMOS 7.1.4 and 9.2.6, with ambisonic binaural mix-down), and can say that when you are only changing out cross-over components for a unit that is already driver spec'd, any phase translation differences translates to frequency response, and is therefor symmetrically virtually all about frequency response and HF/LF roll-off.
@@Jayiyagi Seems like Danny is most interested in getting the flat response on his upgrades. He only needs one speaker to do so. He knows the upgraded parts will help in other areas as well. Like detail, sound staging , ect. Now if Audioscience is only reviewing a speakers response they can get away with only one speaker, but Amir sits and listens to one speaker for his personal opinion on a speaker. He is missing sound staging , imaging , act. in those reviews. That is what Danny is saying.
This is a very balanced review of your experience and for that you should be thanked. I watch Danny's videos and enjoy them very much. What I appreciate is the way he explains the facts of the speaker business. Far to many people have no appreciation of the budgets manufacturers have to work with in order to produce a profitable product. I feel that when Danny shows how he improved a crossover he is constantly reminding the viewer that the factory could have used these parts, but the price of the speaker would radically increase due to the associated manufacturers overhead. This of course does help his sales, but his YT channel is a marketing expense, not a public service. I will keep watching yours and Danny's videos because I appreciate both of your viewpoints and opinions. Thanks for an honest assessment of your experience.
When you open up a speaker and find crappy cheap components in the crossover, it's not a stretch to automatically know that up graded components are going to dramatically improve the sound reproduction. I have done simple same value capacitor upgrades many times and have always physically heard an improvement.
I do think that your points are fair, I did the upgrade kit on the RP600m's and it was a real big improvement. The sound staging and imaging, depth were way better, and the mid-range was much more present and there was greater detail throughout. So happy I did it.
@Jay Torr It will not be the same. I have the upgraded and non Upgrade Klipsch. For one you are using Amir's EQ setting in your room where you should be using roon to EQ the whole response of the speaker based on your room. With UMIK-1 + REW to create the filter. That would be the right way to do it and get amazing results. 2nd you are stuck with roon or other stereo dsp systems. Here I'm also using them in a HT setup, no way an AVR can correct for the faults into the speaker and finally the sound before vs after is not just a simple EQ. The wiring, components and no rez add on make the speakers sound completely different to the non modified version
@@jaytorr6701 No. U cannot use an eq suggestion for your own room unless the rooms were exactly the same. That's a fundamental u are pole vaulting over.
Nice job on the video as always. I also really appreciate your honestly. However, there appears to be a few misunderstandings that really should be addressed in a little more detail. I'll shoot you a response to help correct those misunderstandings a little later when I have a little more time. Great job, and we loved having you down for the visit.
I agree with your assessment. I built nx-studios and a sealed box servo sub. They are fantastic speakers for jazz, and get a really tight bass. But yes, they are missing something in the mid range. For home theatre it's ok for my apartment, so it doesn't bother the neighbours, but yes, it lacks the punchiness of and traditional sub. I haven't done an upgrade kit, but from his analysis he obviously corrects a lot of errors in the design of some speakers (out of phase drivers and such). I understand his criticism of amirs review with only one speaker, as one of amirs complaints was output level, when he was overdriving one speaker to distortion levels.
yes I do feel that was not a fair review but that wasn't Danny's main criticism; it was actually the fact that Amir didn't listen to a pair and thus can't comment on the soundstaging and imaging capabilities that Danny focuses in his own DIY Kit designs
I wasn't going to use his kit as I prefer different capacitors, but I have considered buying a pair and upgrading the crossovers. I have several very good monitors though, so I probably won't. They don't have Dynaudio tweeters, but their Hiquphon tweeters are pretty good. Thanks for your reply, it bolstered my opinion.
I can tell you from intimate experience, I helped upgrade 2 different Klipsch models for friends using Danny's upgrade kits, and the improvement was drastic. His upgrades turned almost unlistenable speakers into reasonable sounding speakers.
Let me add, that the statement in the video that all Danny does is flatten the frequency response is not correct. He usually corrects phase issues, impedance issues, cabinet resonances, off axis response, etc. As someone who has built and upgraded many speakers over many years, the improvements Danny makes, are very predictive of how well a pair will sound, even if you only have 1 speaker.
@@matthewtaylor7355because he listened to a single, small speaker, and expected it to play at 96dB. Who listens to speakers like that? Nobody. Take his SUBJECTIVE speaker reviews with a grain of salt. The measurements? Yeah, they're worth looking at. But, you need to think about how a speaker will be used.
This review is perfection. I built 2 pairs of NX-Treme's, one for myself and one for a family member. I met you at Axpona and asked you what you thought about them - your answer was pretty much what you stated here. I couldn't agree more. I love them, with the exception of the bass. Like... WHAT are all those woofers even doing? This whole journey with GR Research has really matured you and your channel. You've handled everything objectively and fairly. A year ago I viewed you as a young kid with good ears, but little experience. Now I think you're the best audio reviewer on RUclips. I trust you to be objective, fair, and to mention both the good AND the bad. Keep it up.
Got to make people earn their compliments man. That seems to be overly huge praise without enough evidence or research. Nothing against Jay. I like his videos which is why I’m here.
Great stuff! Loved it. I think, however, after hearing Danny’s explanation of why bass seemed to be missing with the subs turned off (his preamp set up that filters bass from the mids/tweeters), you should maybe make a note of that in your video. Most people will see you video and take it as true, without going to see Danny’s response/explanation. I know you can argue, “Well geez, Danny should have told me at the time, I didn’t know it was set up that way!”, but still, in any event it would be good to let your viewers know (even after the fact) what was going on. Otherwise it just sounds like Danny’s speakers have no low end without subs.
Jay, I am not necessarily a big fan of GR-Research, but have watched some of their RUclips Videos. I don't think your criticism of GR-Research of only testing and modifying one speaker is a valid criticism, nor is the complaint about them not measuring the bass frequencies particularly valid either. When GR-research gets in a speaker to see whether it can be improved upon,, they are are primarily focused on frequency response and elimination of spectral decay (to the degree possible) with a better crossover. It doesn't help to listen or measure that in a speaker pair, and they are not trying to necessarily improve the imaging, etc of the speakers (which might be discovered by listening to a pair instead of just one). Likewise, the bass response (other than the crossover point) cannot be helped much and is difficult to measure due to the role of room boundaries. There is only so much time and effort that they can can economically spend on improving the older speakers they get in, and shipping costs are not cheap for the person sending them in, or for the cost of shipping them back. If GR-Research didn't test their own new speakers in pairs, that would be a different story, but I think you are confusing the two different businesses they do (fix old speakers with crossover improvements, versus offer brand new ones).
That was my interpretation. One speaker is fine for measurements and that is the focus of these improvements. Improve the specs and the sound quality will follow.
Experience helps. When I graduated top of my Electrical Engineering class, I thought I was pretty smart. That attitude quickly switched to reverence for the seasoned much more capable designers. I'm not getting that vibe from you Jay. We don't need to kneel at the GR altar, but when you question GR cross over upgrade kits being only "mods", it tells me all I need to know. Even doing nothing other than keeping the exact same cap and inductor values in higher quality components is a definite win.
Upgraded parts are an upgrade. Not arguing that. But it’s not just an upgrade when the crossover is being re-designed in 20ish minutes that took many of these companies a lot longer. Redesigned crossover = different speaker, therefore I was only logistically critiquing in the word “upgrade” but like I said in the video, if you think it’s an upgraded sound, then I guess it is
I get the impression that Danny is sincere in his approach to upgrades. Others in this comment section offer positive feedback of their experiences with his products. That said Jay, you are entitled to your opinion. Danny is a big boy and not shy about dressing down other product makers on a regular basis. His hindsight approach is 20/20 as you'd expect. So, he should be able to handle honest criticism.
Very objective and honest review from your subjective point of view Jay!I I appreciate that you never hold anything back. I have only good things to say about the GR Research KEF Q100 upgrade and the16 strand speaker cable kit with the signature tube connectors. The Q100 is of course KEF's absolute lowest rung speaker which appears to have have been discontinued recently. The signature UNI-Q driver KEF used is, excellent, but let down by cheap components in the x-over network and a cabinet and damping materials that leave much to be desired. I only stream music using a laptop and a Peachtree Nova300. My observation is that the sound is less fatiguing, far richer in detail, has better sound staging and remains faithful to the source music, but as you noted, somewhat to my shock, was that even the vaunted NX-Extremes would benefit from the low end punch of a sub woofer; this definitely holds true in my case as the lack of one leaves a big hole in the detail and overall musical presentation. I am eyeballing a KEF KC62 as it would fit, size-wise well in my smaller living area and have heard only positive things about it. I would definitely buy again from GR-Research maybe upgrade to one of their speaker kits. Like The Dude says.'Yeah? Well that's just like your opinion man!'; this is my opinion of the GR Research upgrade kit and say this not pretending to have your breadth or depth of experience evaluating all of the finest equipment the audio industry has to offer and because of your integrity and quality reviews I will continue to value yours. Keep up the good work Jay!.
I think upgrade would be replacing parts with same values but better quality. I can see how capacitors,resistors,inductors,wire or whatever else could see improvement with higher quality. However when the crossover is redesigned that would be a modification. I would start with upgrades first. Great video. Thanks
Jay, you may get two pairs of some speakers and a kit from Danny to modify one of those pairs. Then you can do your own listening test and let us how they compare with the originals.
I have been a DIY’er for years and I understand GR sentiment about the existing speaker brands. The diy speaker shop I got my parts had the same conclusions as Dany. The shop had an good anechoic chamber with a Clio system and he did measurements of existing speakers for an audio magazine, the results were often baffling. The thing is you can not confuse crossover mistakes with “ voicing “ the speaker. Two speakers with a reasonable flat measuring response do not sound the same “ neutral “. But I do think you need to do both measure and listen for best results.
Keep in mind three things 1. Each designer puts more emphasis in certain aspects of the design and when you have been doing it for a long time, your ways become the only way. I am for one a fan of going with high quality parts in the cross over but designers like Andrew Jones have stated that he would rather use that money to better the cabinet or drivers. All I will say is that there are many speaker designers out there with their own set ways and no way is the right way. 2. Danny's upgrade kits don't come for free, they sometimes cost similar or more than the speakers. It's a business for these manufacturers and things are built to a price point. 3. he does not just replace cheap ass parts but redesigns the entire crossover to his ideology. This does more than replace cheaper parts, it changes the entire speaker
Jay, I have seen a few videos where he doesn't actually create a whole new crossover. Instead, he recommends just going in and upgrading the individual crossover parts with better parts.. It's rare, but it does happen..
@@Jayiyagi I think Andrew Jones is absolutely right from an OEM point of view: There's a lot more bang for their buck in the drivers and cabinets than the crossover. I mean, imagine how cheap one of GR's DIY kits would be if they used the same level of parts in the crossover that most OEMs do! But from a DIY standpoint that means that there's a lot more to gain by upgrading the crossover.😊
Gr speakers drivers are so cheap and plastic looking ...the new line with those super cheap and ugly white drivers 😅.. I wish he believed that driver quality is the same as a crossover
Thank you. I have been waiting for this review. I had purchased the speaker cables and then ran across the controversy on your site and other sites. The speaker cables were a good upgrade. I have Klipsch Cornwall IVs but may explore open baffle speakers at some time. Having independent external reviews like yours is critical for me to trust the description of sound. One shouldn't need to review in their studio because no potential purchasers will have the same listening room as GR Research. Your review at confirms they have decent sounding speakers and that their subs are recommended. Their subs are something that I have been considering an dare a likely upgrade for me in the next few years.
I understand that it is difficult to do, but a review of original and "GR-upgraded" speakers would be a very interesting series for this channel and would interest many people.
I do not think anyone is doubting that upgrading the crossover network to fix basic phase issues and putting sound dampening on a $200 budget bookshelf speaker cabinet would not be an improvement. Of course it would, and for that reason, I am sure most of GR's upgrades are probably worthwhile as I'd bet the
Great presentation. Danny and his fans should be pretty happy with this assessment. High praise for his stuff considering the breadth of listening experience you have. His higher models seem to rank right up with some of the more exotic brands. The Audiophile Junkie uses his extremes with subs as his personal system, so it is great value if you have a large room.
I love this video, you nailed it. If it seems too easy, it probably is. And having watched GR-research videos, I kinda understood once he started talking about steel binding posts and "cheesy" crossover parts.
On his YT presentations Danny of GR-Research did show that premium components were audible in crossover design, but the cost differential can be quite high, and those costs are not visible to the buyer looking for bargains in speakers.
I am a Danny fan and I think you are fair in your opinions. Speakers can be so subjective with most listeners. I would like to see manufacturers to list and show pictures of the crossover parts and interior of the speakers. Then listeners can see the quality of the parts and design. Thanks for the video.
I made two trips to Danny's in 2021. I brought both of my 200 lb Tannoy FSMs for XO rebuilds. He did not listen to them and sent me home with one stating that one was all he needed. He used his measuring system and sent me the before and after graphs. The new XO's sounded better to me and at his price was an amazing value. One man's experience. BTW his $7k Xotica kit speakers with the servo subs struck me as Rockers system. Bass was overblown. And his listening room is pretty large. Perhaps he adjusted it by the time you were there.
A great video, Jay. GR research offers products and services that are needed in this hobby. When you pursuit the passion of sound, sometimes, you want to be satisfied with what you already own. My appreciation with Amir’s approach is his efforts to remain subjective and data driven perspectives. But most of the time, he is analyzing which frying pans were used, if the fire was at the right BTU, talks about ingredients quality but doesn’t eat the finalized cooked cuisine. That’s how I feel about Amir’s approach on measuring one speaker and tells whether the speaker is worth or not. 😂
A sincere and heartfelt thanks, Jay, for ~finally~ commenting on the sound of the H-frame open baffle subs. I think it's just shy of two years since I requested a review. 😅
Without wanting to take sides as I have no real life experience with GR research but having experienced probably hundreds of speakers and having looked at probably many hundreds more of reviews and measurements of speakers I find it a bit entertaining when developers unanimously say "Not possible like that" but then using the "correct" way of measuring still manage to bring out designs with measurements all over the place. Like really expensive speakers with frequency plots that should literally not be allowed at these price ranges yet here we are. I can't defend GR research cause as I said I have no experience with their services but I just wanted to say that what "unanimously has been said" is not always the only truth cause results many many times prove the opposite imho. I am more like "show me results before and after" I don't care if you do the mods standing on your head or eating ice cream. As to the "testing only 1 speaker" I completely agree that you don't need a pair in order to measure and flatten a speaker but you sure as hell need to listen to a pair if you want an opinion about the speaker itself. Its not the same thing. Sound and music perception by humans is neither only math nor is it only voodoo and taste. You need to combine both worlds . As I said , this is imho of course
Great video Jay. Our community needs the reviewers providing this type of information. Kudos to Danny for the access and to you for the time and effort to visit, observe with an open mind, and report back to us with your take.
I installed the upgrade from GR Research on the super-budget level "Neumi BS5"s. The difference was night and day. Completely different sound, for the better. It did noticibly decrease the sensitivity though. But with the upgrade installed I think they can compete with very high priced speakers (especially at low to moderate volume, they do break up if you push them). It's not a subtle tweak though, its a completely different speaker before vs after.
Can you describe the difference in sound? I've got some BS5s and I've been wondering if the upgrade is worth the price, which is two to three time as much as the speakers. Thanks.
I use 2 18" DIY open baffle subs with my LRSs. In my experience, dipole subs do a great job integrating with dipole speakers. The lack of boxes minimizes stored energy and cabinet resonances, which make the subs sound "cleaner" than the box subs that I've heard.
Excellent summary of the visit to GR Research. With old ears & damaged hearing my listening requirements are typically limited to background music via ceiling speakers and not the critical listening requirements of an "audiophile". However, I watch GRR (and Iyagi) for the entertainment and lessons learned that are provided. I think that most of DR's mods are "directionally correct" from a technical perspective but, typically, beyond my audio requirements or ability to discern. However, I would do several of the mods or the kits as a project for fun and educational content.
I am a fan of honesty and fairness and understand this was your take. I think you did an excellent job. Upgrading speakers is for many here who feel invested to keep what they have and add new life to them. I personally grew up with Sneakerlab just down the road in Seattle in the 1970s. It was similar to what Danny does, but at the time the measurement tools were not nearly as sophisticated, but like Danny the engineers were well prepared to offer good products and kits. Many people my age invested in good speakers post Speakerlab like Klipsch or JBL just to name a few. Some of those were good for that time but are now being tested in ways that didn't exist at the time and given a new lease on life. We can thank Danny for that. Then if some of these people really like what Danny did, and want to step up, he offers many different solutions at different price points. I think eventually that a pair of the NX Studio for "studio" listening for someone I know who is getting into the recording industry. I already bought parts for the one you did not necessarily see, and that is the abbreviated NX MTM version that sits on top of a subwoofer. It is shown in the GR Research Open Baffle Basics Pt. 3 video. It is a step up from the NX Studio. I am going to enjoy these. At my age, it will be fine. Another point I wish to make is that you are buying a kit. You get crossover parts. Anyone knowledgeable can tweak the midrange to sound more like the NX Studio. One could even emulate the NX Studio sound with in an NX MTM. It is still an open baffle compared to the Studio, however. Just throwing options out there. For some it is a hobby and fun to adjust the sound. Thank you for your reviews. They are worthwhile.
Just found your channel. (and subscribed!). I am also a fan of Danny's RUclips channel and have even been in contact with him about measuring some towers I have.... Now, I am definitely not an "expert" but, I have 2 quick thoughts about this one. First, the 'anechoic chamber' measurement thing. It's obvious that complete audio isolation would be a good thing while designing/testing speakers. However, in reality people listen to there speakers in a normal room. With furniture, other people, walls and ceilings, etc. (not to mention all the different possible shapes that room can be). So I would assume that measurements in isolation wouldn't always be the best method in every case. My other comment is about only testing one speaker. If the goal is to redesign the crossover and sell it as a DIY kit then one speaker is all you should need.
Jay, Danny has a new speaker called the Bully with 94dB/W sensitivity AND a sealed active servo sub in each. A review of this new speaker would be interesting 👍
This is a masterfully crafted review of Danny's work - I think it shows that no one in this industry is perfect. One thing that we can attribute to Danny for sure is that companies are all starting to improve their crossovers and cabinets and, in some cases, even showcase them when they reveal their products like Danny does. He's definitely changing the industry because people buy $10,000 speakers only to see the proverbial "cheese" inside.😂 None of those high-end audio companies want their products to be labeled cheesy or have their signature, elite, reference series associated with the words cheese. Here are the Sonus Faber Grande Mozzarella!😂😂😂 He's the equivalent of a morgue technician opening up all speakers and unraveling their mysteries and corners cut so he's had an incredible impact in the industry and we all owe him for that.
Agree 100%. It is one thing to use cheap hidden components in budget speakers, but expensive on up to flagship stuff has to be good through and through. We have the Internet now and people who are investing in higher end gear do their research. There is no more getting away with hiding sh%t inside the box, we can thank Danny for that 😆 I do enjoy Danny as I like people who are a bit "salty" personality wise, who know what they are talking about, and who tell it like it is with no sugar added.
LOL Danny has expose some of the crap they are selling to the point some of speaker manufacturers have fix some of these flaws on there new speaker lines . Danny has really change the way people analyze speakers i agree with that i find it odd nobody was doing this anywhere in the internet. i think Danny was the first to do it i open my speakers to find out they were cheesy parts because of Danny HA
I got to thinking about uprade process GR-Research performs and I think they are providing a needed service. Companies do cheap out on some materials and the speakers that seem to come in are a little on the older side. If the upgrade helps someone bring the spark back into a speaker(s) it will make them happy. The upgrade is then made available to others to also enjoy/experience the change(s). I'm considering sending in my 20ish year old RC-64 center channel because I know the inerds are likely 20yo cheap stuff. If you can make a suggestion to GR-Research, have them record audio pre/post upgrade for what they are working on. The specs on a sheet are nice but a demo showing the change would be awesome. I'm in the process of replacing my RF-5s with Fortes so having that center channel brought up-to-date might be worth it. Maybe, it could be tuned to work with the Fortes? Isn't that the whole intent of custimization with this stuff?
I had Danny help me upgrade a pair of CerwinVega! Speakers and really enjoyed the process. It was fun and my speakers are better now. I highly recommend anyone trying out a GR Reserch upgrade, it’s a great way to learn a bit more about speakers and become a better listener.
And remember that those big name brands with their own Anechoic chambers that spend 1000's of hours on R&D don't always produce products with good frequency responce and decent crossovers, thats why they get sent to Danny in the first place.
Each company has their own way of doing things and we never hear from the other designer's perspective or reasonings. We just hear what Danny is saying but if what he is saying resonates with you then my suggestion would be to purchase his kits as he clearly spends more time and listening tests with it. He will agree that upgrade kits only take you so far into what he is going for because the speakers are not fully his designs
@@JohnLee-db9zt That’s your argument? Andrew Jones is great Designer. But he’s working with some budget constraints and target price in mind. Danny is free of those constraints. The notion that his kits can improve somebody’s speakers is not a ding on the original designer’s ability.
Well, I plan to send him a pair. Not sure if I will sit and let him make business out of my designs but I am looking forward to his constructive criticisms if anything
@@Jayiyagi Your designs, lol! Your speakers won't sell so don't worry, it's not worth the effort for him to make an upgrade kit for a flop speaker. such arrogance.
To my knowledge the only customer speaker pair Danny have actually listened to is the Magnepan 3.7i. But only after his upgrade. What I found funny is that on these speakers he actually had to go back and redesign his crossover after listening to them with his initial design. He ended up moving away from the flat frequency response according to his own measurements
Jay, I really appreciate your honest follow up impressions. Refreshing in this hobby which often gets caught up in attacks and glorification of products that the average consumer cannot or will not ever experience. I'm curious if you and some of your buddies have tried the same blind cable test? If so, how did you do?
Speaker companies that spend lots money on R&D, but use cheap parts in the crossover don’t invest the money to use high quality parts because the speakers are built to a price point.
Hi Jay! Missed you at Apoxna and bummed I didn’t hear your speakers. I have the Tarkus diy speakers designed by Paul Carmody. It’s the first pair of speakers that I don’t need or yearn for a subwoofer. As for GR Research and crossover mods… definitely makes a difference.
I did get the kit for the original Klipsch RP600m. I do think it made the speaker more even and less shouty at the expense of efficiency. The new x-over takes a lot more juice than the stock speaker. I built the CSS Criton 1TDx and it is a better speaker all around. It's as good as my Magnepans.
That's just the nature of adjusting the curve. The crossover can't really add any output that isn't there to begging with. So you have bump things down if you're trying to level it all out, so the overall efficiency goes down.
I bet the CSS is better loudspeaker because the drivers are way better quality and people at CSS don't believe in mystical properties of tube connectors or super expensive capacitors but in solid engineering of their drivers.
If you buy a speaker and don't like it it would make more sense to send it back and buy a different speaker instead of taking it apart and changing things so now even if you still don't like them you either keep them or break them down again. Just use the money you would've used for the kit for better speakers, plus from my knowledge it's not or miss if these upgrades actually do anything.
That was a very fair assessment. Danny is a passionate guy which imho is necessary trait to be innovative. As far as the one speaker comment, what he may have been referring to is that Amir couldn’t hear the spacial benefits of the speaker in subjective listening tests.
Danny is a passionate guy for sure. As for the other point... well it goes both ways. The reason Danny criticized testing only 1 speaker was because you can't hear imaging and sound staging ("the intangible things" as danny quoted). I will argue that is the same when designing a speaker or an upgrade crossover to a speaker; according to him, he spends lots of time listening to his diy speaker kits to get the "intangible things" to a desired point. Same thing can't be said about his upgrade kits as he does not do listening tests with 1 speaker
@@Jayiyagi agreed. I am a little curious to order his B&w 602 s2 kit just for the fun of taking it apart and putting the x over together. That is an old speaker that could probavvlt use new caps abyway
I actually agree with Danny (GR Research) on several fronts regarding speaker and crossover design. I get off the bus regarding magic cables. So, let's see, I should regard measurements of speakers as canon, but dismiss measurements that suggest little to no differences in cables. Got it. And I have trusted my ears regarding the difference in cables (patch, power, speaker) and decided I'd rather my extra money went to buying new music.
And I should add that I'm not saying one couldn't design a patch cable that could alter, augment or change the signal between components, but why? Cables should be transparent.
A few comments on your observations: 1. Pair vs solo speaker: if you work based on measurement (on and off axis, including phase) as GR Research , you just need a single speaker. I am just surprised that it is not measured in a an anechoic environment. 2. For a listening, a pair is mandatory to evaluate the sound scape and details. Here a listening room environment makes full sense. 3. For the bass, that's a good point. But it is simpler to manage with an eq than mids and highs where phase relations are more tricky to deal with. 4. Working on the cross-over filters to aim for neutral response is a design choice. GR calls it an upgrade as it is their design philosophy. If you develop a speaker based on listening tests of a panel of customers, you may well end up with a fairly different design that gives more character (or imperfection wrt linear response). That's a choice. 5. I think GR research is honest and working in good faith with their principles. Now whether their upgrade is an upgrade for you is a question of what people are looking for. 6.Personnally, I really like the open discussion that GR Research brings to RUclips world of audio. It made me understand much better how speakers are designed and which tools can be used to tune them to achieve a certain goal. I have'nt tried their upgrade kits but I am not sure that linearity is necessarilly what I aim for anyway. I respect what they are doing though.
In regards to crossover parts quality. These are big companies. It's all the accountants fault. Seriously, the accountants are a deciding factor on budget for projects in a lot of big widely distributed companies. So if the speaker designer has to cut costs to make the paper pushers happy, they probably pick crossover parts because... IDK , somehow it is the one area that can be scaled back to meet budget constraints. Just a thought.
Everyone needs to stop using the term "as the artist intended". Nobody knows, even the artist. The artist isn't the one mixing and mastering. Spend some time in that industry and you'll see what I mean.
A speaker that has a accurate response, will give you great and correct sound, as what the mixer guy had done to the artists sound. Here we need to know what gear has the mixer used? Cheese parts that affects the mix? The mixer’s own sound preference? Anyway will a accurate speaker be the best.
Your view of the DIY kits seems right on to me, and I am impressed by your honesty. Still, I bet the vast majority of people who purchase his DIY kits are VERY satisfied with them. They hear a big improvement, whether the kits actually change the sound a lot or not. After you have invested the time learning about the upgrade technology, the money paying for them, and the labor installing the upgrades, my guess is you will really enjoy the improvement. Half of what we hear is based on expectations and emotions. So "tweaking" can be fun, and almost always results in an improved experience even if it does not actually result in significantly improved performance.
You presented your concerns professionally and with respect Jay. Some misunderstandings in there that Danny also professionally and respectfully addressed. Designing a speaker vs fixing a speaker vs reviewing a speaker logically would have different processes. I feel like if he had given you a more detailed explanation when you were there some of it would have been avoided (especially the limited frequency range output to the speakers), but I guess that part is on him. I very much prefer this dynamic between 2 channels and guys that I really enjoy. I can say from personal experience that the two upgrades I bought from GR Research were definitely that - upgrades, and not modifications. I also love what CSS is doing, and I have a pair of 1tdx’s in large part due to your excellent review of them. I do wish I had the money and space for a pair of Typhons though! Keep up the great work!
Taking a product that has already had many hours and money thrown at at and modifying/upgrading it is easier than starting from scratch. There is no doubt in my mind that someone with thousands of hours of seat time (expert skill level) can come up with a crossover that can make a product better. For example: I used to design and test components (R&D), during testing if the output of the product was not meeting specification there are levers (specifications) that can change the output, these levers were designed in. In my case there was 12 levers to pull over two sub assemblies that made up the final product. After many hours of seat time (again, many hours) I knew within seconds what values/levers to change based on what the output graph was telling me. I did this job for 15 years and had worked on many similar products that essentially did the same thing. Remember the Gladwell rule of 10,000 hours to become an expert, this is not just something that is made up, it is a skill. Experience is everything. Also, in design and manufacturing, the design part which includes a lot of preparation for manufacturing is about 80%+ of what you do, the rest is execution of that plan.
Also I was just there myself and got to listen to Danny's reference rig and it was at a complete different level....when he speaks of spatial que's and sound stage, listen to what he is saying......
Jay, you could buy one of the speakers he has kits for and check for yourself. That would at least give you a reference point to comment about his upgrades.
Ascend Acoustics is one of the very few companies that designs and measures their speakers with the Klippel NFS. The Sierra-LX is one of their Klippel-designed speakers and it is truly amazing for the price.
Truth of the matter is, a kit needs to be purchased on a set of speaker, to see and hear the before and after, with Danny upgrades. There should be a marketable, noticeable difference, that can be heard with just human ears & without special advance technical audio equipment to determine difference. thats the test.
As a speaker hobbyist familiar with speaker measurements and how they correlate with perceived sound... I can say that GR Research mods are grounded in solid and well established engineering principles and it certainly looks like Danny knows his stuff. The only thing I cannot verify is whether his measurements before and after a mod are honest and correct. I am taking Danny at his word when he shows us his frequency response and spectral decay plots that he isn't fudging or using "smoothing" to improve his results. I am also assuming his before and after plots use the very same measurement processes. If he is as honest as he claims then many of his speaker upgrades are quite remarkable and should be most impressive in listening auditions... the Pioneer HPM 100 as an example.
well, it goes both ways. The reason Danny criticized testing only 1 speaker was because you can't hear imaging and sound staging ("the intangible things" as danny quoted). I will argue that is the same when designing a speaker or an upgrade crossover to a speaker; according to him, he spends lots of time listening to his diy speaker kits to get the "intangible things" to a desired point. Same thing can't be said about his upgrade kits as he does not do listening tests with 1 speaker
@@Jayiyagi when he is 'fixing' another guys speaker all he can do is work with their drivers and boxes. how could he possibly fix intangibles outside of designing a new speaker which is what he does all the time for his own brand? his business model is not about fixing shitty speakers anyway. spending 10 days to fix a klipsch with a poor driver is a fools errand. so i get why he does it the way he does it. he promises a flatter response and upgraded parts which certainly help in 'intangibles'. from what you noted about his design he seems to know how to do it right.
@@veroman007 Which is my point exactly. Just buy his diy speaker kits if what he is going for is what resonates with you. Why bother "fixing" (when I say "fixing" I really mean tuning it to Danny's goals) other designs that was made to a price point already with different design goals. Me, Danny and you can all "guess" about the intangible benefits that the upgrade kits bring but all I am saying here is that it's never confirmed or tested in a listening test and as you have pointed out and I have stated in the video "he spends more time on his own products and rightfully so".
Design parameters should by nature shoot for a frequency response as flat as possible. I can’t imagine any speaker designer worth his salt thinking otherwise unless it’s a niche product
@@Jayiyagi There is no need to spend time confirming or comparing with listening tests the upgrades that I design. Like David just said, "spending 10 days to fix a klipsch with a poor driver is a fools errand.". Again, for most of these upgrades I am fixing "problems". There is no debating the outcome. Problems like phase issues, stored energy and ringing, impedance imbalances, amplitude imbalances, or cabinet resonances are never going to sound better than the absence of those problems even if the parts quality were the same. Somehow you must think it is about re-voicing a speaker compared to how it was voiced by the designers. It isn't about that at all. It has nothing to do with voicing.
I like your videos and Danny’s. Beyond replacing cheap parts… So if his approach were to ensure the music stayed in phase as the listener stood up and moved around (just one example), and achieving this required flattening the response to that of a reference monitor, then this might not be my preference either - it would be no hardship for me sitting in the “sweet spot” and experiencing what the designer of the speaker intended! But people who want accuracy-from-all-angles can go to Danny and this is what he does. The differentiation is as follows: The owner has an attachment to their speaker and would not wish to part with them so modifying is Danny’s appeal, as well as the upgrade and new design still being cheaper than an equivalent reference monitor which includes the retail and marketing etc.
You never designed loudspeakers. Have you? Yes. You can make huge improvements on the sound by working on the crossover again. Also. You can not make great sounding speakers using measurements alone. You need hours of listening and you need to do it at different hours of the day since you listen not only with your ears but with your ears and brain. And it is true that you only need one speaker to improve its crossover. For listening tests you should use two but to look at how the speaker was designed and chose how to address the upgrade. Another thing. You, like most of the people I see here talking about audio gear do not give the audience a chance to listen to anything you claim to have heard. Sound is very subjective. Everyone listens differently. The audiophile looks for possible "faults" on the system, a musician looks for voice projection and playing techniques, a sound engineer looks for hardware and software used during the recording along with mic positioning, etc. People who just want to listen and enjoy music just want it to sound pleasant to their ears and the younger generation just wants loud with a lot of bass and treble. So, I have no idea what you consider to be good sound. Not unless you add a presentation from the speakers themselves and let me decide for myself.
There’s a difference between a review and upgrade. In a pair, the speakers will measure identically, so there’s no need to ship the pair. He’s mostly replacing parts with better parts and correcting things like resonance and holes in response. In a review, you hear things like soundstage, depth, etc. you’re reviewing with your ears and measurements are more to confirm no design problems.
@@Jayiyagi everyone’s entitled to their opinion 🙂. But a sonicap will always sound better than the cheap caps typically used. It’s like putting Brembo brakes on your car vs stock. It’s going to be an improvement without having to take it out on a skid pad to know how much.
@@Jayiyagi Most of those factors have more to do with the listening room than it does speaker tuning. As a counter argument, since Danny is not in the customers home, there's probably little incentive for him to spend time moving speakers and furniture around to find the ideal listening experience just to calibrate a flat FR.
@@Jayiyagi Thats only if you are building a speaker from scratch. Danny is doing up grades, just fixing peaks and dips alone will automatically improve soundstage and depth.
Agree 100%: to measure a single speaker and never listen to a stereo pair is crazy. Everyone who thinks one replaces the other is fooling themselves. One needs to do both, measure and listen. That's why I call people who measure but don't listen "Fools with Tools". So I definitely do not agree with either Amir's nor Danny's approach. Having said that, I built a stereo pair of GR Research Triple OB subs, and find them to be among the best subwoofers I ever heard bar none (short of front-loaded horns the size of my listening room, and a five- to six-figure price tag), which makes them a great value for the money, and I agree wholeheartedly that what makes them so great is that they don't pressurize the room (unlike home cinema setups), instead they sound natural, and they'll do so in rooms in which similarly large subs couldn't possibly be played flat down to 14Hz, there's none of the uncomfortable overload one would get with standard subs, thanks to the adjustable damping, but mostly thanks to the fact they're OB. One can play them loud and get an amount of bass seemingly impossible in a room. Think of a bathtub full of water: a standard sub produces bass waves much as if one dropped a large object into the bath tub (water splashing all over the place), whereas an OB sub acts more like a paddle, moving the water back and forth, the only difference being, an OB servo sub is going to stop on a dime (much more important sonically than the so-called rise time). First time one hears a natural instrument such as a double bass or kettle drum played back on an OB servo sub, there's no going back. Sealed and ported subs, as impressive as the "chest thumping" impact may seem playing back movies, simply don't get this right. The most musical subs for the music-loving audiophile.
Id love to see a review of his upgrade. Send GR 1 RP-8000F ii for upgrade after is had a few hundred hours on it then take to indenpendent test lab with good equipment and do A/B test in stereo as well as a A/B test in a normal listening enviroment. I suggested Klipsch speakers because he loves those ;) and I don't see a upgrade kit for the Rp-8000F ii yet so he hasn't done one. His upgrade on a V1 versions looks like it would make a drastic difference. I have Klipsch speakers so genuinely interested in a second opinion on GRs claims and work. Klipsch is also very popular so would get alot of views.
My experience with DIY taught me that most impressions of sound quality as it relates to crossover components is due to listener expectation. If anything, the inductors matter most, followed by capacitors to a much lesser extent, and least important are the resistors. I suspect that’s why it’s not uncommon to spot sand cast resistors in otherwise relatively expensive crossovers. Danny is correct regarding the quality of individual drivers but mostly a cheap crossover will perform as well as an expensive one, all else being equal. Unfortunately, even some of the most veteran audiophiles struggle to avoid the trap of expectation bias.
I think the upgrade kits will make it sound Better (Clearer), Because of the much better components, if you have cheap ass caps and resistors and coils, of course higher quality crossover parts will make it sound Better, and yes I dont even think Companys make good Crossovers I think they just use limited resources to make it as cheap as possible. So I dont know if you can call yourself an Audiophile if you dont even mention that... Measurements in a acoustic perfect room is also dumb cuz no one has a good acousticly damped room.
Hey jay, maybe get a pair of say triangle bro3's and get Danny to do an upgrade and you do a comparison, I say bro3 because they seem to be popular and easily available... Also I'm a little surprised at Danny not doing a pair and listening too the upgraded speakers , because you both made a point in the other video that "some sounds cannot be measured " Cheers 👍
All these critics asking GR for speakers for reviews or criticizing the upgrade are not being fair. If you really want to test speakers or upgrades, why not buy them from GR, spend your own money and make measurements and listen to both pairs before and after etc. Why are these people asking Danny to provide free gear? Just order them and find out. I know Jay has done so and was impressed. Regarding upgrades, best to get 2 cheap pairs of Klipsch RP bookshelves and then do an A/B comparison.
As a european klipsch owner i don't Order upgrade parts in the USA. Jantzen caps come from denmark and could come from tschentscher germany. $$$ gr research is too expensive
The problem with stereo image, it cannot be measured. You may hear it differently than another person and also in your living room will sound different than at other's.
Anyone with a background in electrical engineering will tell you much of what Danny spouts on his channel is BS designed to sell expensive parts - which isn't exactly surprising since that's how he makes a living. Over and over again, he makes "shoot from the hip" comments about electrolytic capacitors, iron core inductors, and sand cast resistors that suggest they have no place in crossover design. The reality is - there are plenty of crossover implementations where they make perfect sense and have absolutely no "sonic signature" with respect to the end product. For example, when providing a trap to dampen a midrange driver's fundamental resonance, there is absolutely no need to use anything other than electrolytic capacitors. Clearly, they have no impact to the sound in the passband - their intent and use is to dampen the driver's fundamental resonance so that it cannot be excited by a high level input signal which might result in unwanted harmonics being generated that "invade" the passband. Similarly, Danny dismisses ALL usage of sand cast resistors as being inferior and detrimental to sound quality - without any basis of proof whatsoever. This "advice" Danny continually provides is definitely good for his "bottom line" and must be taken with a grain of salt as it has no basis in fact or actual engineering practice.
I felt this was a fair enough assessment. The concerns you cited are ones I also have. One thing to note is that there is a large following of GR research products and upgrades. So, there is something to what they are doing. I have noticed that GR research costumers are very quick to defend Danny and his products. In general, this would not occur if the products were sub-par. You could argue that some of the responses here are a result of confirmation bias. However, I find the Audiophile community is not comprised of shrinking violets. If someone generally felt dissatisfied with his speakers or upgrades. I am sure they would not hesitate a second to warn the community off. I have yet to find a GR research customer, post a negative experience. To me that speaks volume on the validity of his approach. On upgrades, the only way we could know for sure is a blind comparison between a stock speaker and modified one. Would people be able to hear the changes, and more importantly, perceive that those modifications improved their sound?
Nice review, Jay. I thought you were very fair and transparent about what you heard and your personal preferences. Thank you for not re-igniting the flame war just for the sake of clicks. I especially appreciated your comment about the NXtreme open baffle bass sound being perfect for music- but maybe less so for home theater- if you want room pressurization. I had been wondering about that for a while now.
I own the NX-Treme's and 2 triple OB subs. He is absolutely right. I ended up buying 2 rythmik sealed subs in addition to the OB subs to get a little punch.
@@Subsonic-cd2en After Jay mentioned that, I also thought that maybe adding some sealed box subs from about 50 Hz down would round out the performance for home theater. How do you have your OB subs and box subs integrated in your NX-Treme system?
Danny provides much more in the way of measurements than the big audio companies do. If I could afford it I would buy a kit from him before taking a risk on another brand.
Danny is in the business to make money. Understand that it is his prime motivation. To tweak a component or change a signal interpretation that is unpercievable to 99.9% of the population is his market.
Compare the cost of the upgraded passive crossover network for two 3 way speakers (above 400.00 in some cases) you can get a miniDSP/streamer set uo for Roon for under 1500.00 A DSP and a 6 channel amp would be my choice. As soon as you have worked out the crossover values you can design a passive crossover network. Just too much money for an upgrade kit. When you get into this much money you have many choices.
It's tempting to reduce speaker design to optimizing a few measurements, but many speakers are carefully adjusted for best listener reaction in specific listening environments and will sound boring or fatiguing if optimized solely for on-axis flatness. I'm not saying some of the speakers he gets don't need help, but I'd be surprised if they all do. I think a big part of his appeal is just the drama of calling out everyone in the industry.
Tower speakers are my total favorite. They have high efficiency and good dispersion. I actually use different drivers to keep the resonate spikes from alligning on top of each other. Bastrop Tx
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0:00 INTRO
0:33 GR-Research Factory
1:06 GR-Research Upgrades Worth it?
5:42 This is NOT Drama
6:44 GR-Research NX-Treme Speaker Review
8:13 GR-Research Open Baffle Servo Subwoofer Review
9:24 Best Amplifier For GR-Research Speakers
9:44 GR-Research NX-Studio Speaker Review
10:21 GR-Research NX-Otica Speaker...
10:44 GR-Research XLS Encore Speaker...
11:02 GR-Research LGK 2.1 Speaker Review
11:58 What GR-Research Speaker Would I Buy?
#homeaudio #hifi #audiophile
...should you buy more music and broaden the acoustic pallet?
You must have a business deal with Danny, you two making a couple extra dollars together, because I think you know Danny's upgrade kits are phenomenal upgrades and this video is to stir people up that have his kits installed to get people talking about their own upgrades from GR research as testimonials. These upgrades bring out the best of what the speaker is from its bones and I'm pretty sure you know it, that or you should. Jay...hand on the Bible this isn't just to gain interest in Danny's upgrades?
You are welcome... I have been very critical of you in the past but that doesn't mean I don't like your reviews. I have actually bought a bit of hifi equipment based solely upon your reviews and believe it or not, I was very satisfied with every purchase I made. I will be following you on your journey and your quest to develop your skill and honesty. This is what I think I am seeing here.
It is okay to be very critical and honest in your reviews, no matter what people like me or others may say. Just keep on thriving. There is no doubt that you are one of the best reviewer on RUclips.
@@libertyss32 what you accusing me of is some very serious crimes. Hands on the bible; this isn’t to gain interest in Danny’s upgrades and I have been honest throughout this video
@@Jayiyagi I don't mean no disrespect Jay, I think you do great work and I love your videos. It's just that before this video I never seen so many people come out and testify or review the upgrades more then I've seen from the reactions to this video. Before it almost seemed like it was a secret but this video sheds light on what these upgrades have done for those who purchased. Stay blessed🙏🏼
Thanks Jay, for the open and honest way you convey your opinions. Long before discovering GR Research, personally built speakers from scratch and modified off the shelf models. Crossover parts quality ALWAYS makes a difference. Speakers sent to Danny have problems, not just a different way of doing things. That is far too kind an assessment. Been in the room too many times when the bean counters take over and engineers are forced to make compromises. All the R&D in the world is too easily discarded to save as little as a few cents per unit.
Have to disagree with your presentation of Danny vs ASR listening to only 1 speaker. Danny is correcting issues with an already purchased speaker, not reviewing. It only takes 1 speaker to correct FR and resonance issues. As you pointed out Danny believes in a neutral FR. Owners of that speaker model can then decide if a neutral FR provided by the GR Research mod kit is worth trying.
ASR is testing and listening to 1 speaker to form the basis of a purchase recommendation for a pair. Also, looking for FR and resonance issues. It would be apples to apples if ASR purchase recommendations were based only on those measurements. Listening, a subjective action, is added to the review with the claim it is only necessary to listen to a single speaker to predict performance of a pair. Danny is correct to point out listening to only 1 speaker is an incomplete review.
There is a coincident advantage of a neutral FR as shown by any waterfall graph. Getting rid of resonances and breakup often results in a smoother response. Phase matching around the crossover point also results in a smoother response. It's not so much about the neutrality of a response as it is about dealing with the other problems that cause an uneven FR. For example, Danny will often ignore spikes in frequencies above 14KHz unless he finds ringing.
To qualify the following comment, this video is my first exposure to GR, so I speak as neutral a party as possible having heard only your take.
As someone who works on/builds/upgrades speakers, you can ABSOLUTELY *upgrade* a speaker without changing the network at all. Simply replacing the existing components (not changing values) with higher quality versions of components ones of with the exact same value can make a huge difference.
It goes further. When building my personal speakers, my "serious" speakers, I did a LOT of A/B-ing on a component-by-component basis, and combo-by-combo basis. I can say with 100% certainty that even higher quality components can vary widely, and add or subtract from the "synergy" of the network and drivers as a system, greatly.
When developing said speakers, at one point I had 5 or 6 different versions of the same inductor hot-glued to the side of the cabinet, so I could easily switch between them.
My point is that a single component can make an audible difference, and when you're dealing with consumer-grade products, they're usually optimized to sound as good as possible within a certain threshold of cost-to-build, the idea being to guarantee a minimum level of performance while still meeting the budget for building them.
Usually, this means using the cheapest components of which you can reasonably assure the supply-chain, while not compromising that minimum "standard" of quality.
It doesn't mean the developed product sounds as good as it possibly could with the OEM configuration, but instead ensures a consistent level of performance across the entire production run of that model.
And STILL, there are countless examples of electronic products that vary noticeably, even dramatically, depending on when during the production run a unit was produced, because the manufacturer swapped out some single component due to supply change issues, per-unit price changes, or some other reason the original component becomes unavailable.
All of this is to say, you can't dismiss the possibility that GR is, in fact, *UPGRADING* speakers, just because he can improve them fairly quickly/easily. And that's without even TOUCHING the change that actual component-value changes, or the impact an expert using specialized analysis equipment, can make.
I have personally "upgraded" any number of commercially available speakers, of all price-points, with little more than a frequency analyzer, some specialized knowledge, and a willingness to spend more than $0.05 on components.
You understand these issues well. I have worked in r&d in corporations and low cost pars and manufacturing are always a major objective.
words of wisdom
there is no mass pruduced thing in the world, where inertia or cost efectivness of the supply chain does not dictate most of the used components.
there is also no simple or complex object of any sort that does not work better when its made with better parts
Testing a single speaker to change-out cross-overs is a COMPLETELY different thing from designing and playing back a speaker to ensure that everything from diffraction, CF, dispersion and other factors are dialed-in. Now, if Danny was going to change-over to different drivers, make changes to the enclosure or other such foundational changes, then you can't just work with a single speaker.
Similarly, to evaluate a speaker for all the things we care about, you have to have the same number of monitors that the source material is designed to be played back on, whether it is mono, stereo, ATMOS or anything else. Danny is correct.
two things.
1. He does change drivers, port and cabinet inside at times. He still works with 1 speaker.
2. it goes both ways. The reason Danny criticized testing only 1 speaker was because you can't hear imaging and sound staging ("the intangible things" as danny quoted). I will argue that is the same when designing a speaker or an upgrade crossover to a speaker; according to him, he spends lots of time listening to his diy speaker kits to get the "intangible things" to a desired point. Same thing can't be said about his upgrade kits as he does not do listening tests with 1 speaker
For Danny to take the time and added expense of receiving two speakers and spending many more hours trying to find tune them while being limited to merely crossovers anti-resonance foam and port size would be a monumental waste of his time.
@@Jayiyagi I think it is very rare that he changes drivers on used speakers he gets in, and also rare that he changes the port or cabinet. He does like to change change the connectors.
@@Jayiyagi I know he does change out drivers, as well as create new speaker whole cloth, and I have seen those videos, but he then does stereo testing (i.e. not just one speaker) in all the videos I have seen. If he ever changes out drivers or makes box modifications, but does not work in stereo then he is making a mistake. I had not seen a video of his where he did that.
However, and I have done acoustic and photonic imaging and implementation studies for civilian and military applications for years, and also own and have founded several media labs since the 1980's and own and run a DSD + PCM Ravenna studio where we have reengineered our rooms (stereo, 2.1, ATMOS 7.1.4 and 9.2.6, with ambisonic binaural mix-down), and can say that when you are only changing out cross-over components for a unit that is already driver spec'd, any phase translation differences translates to frequency response, and is therefor symmetrically virtually all about frequency response and HF/LF roll-off.
@@Jayiyagi Seems like Danny is most interested in getting the flat response on his upgrades. He only needs one speaker to do so. He knows the upgraded parts will help in other areas as well. Like detail, sound staging , ect. Now if Audioscience is only reviewing a speakers response they can get away with only one speaker, but Amir sits and listens to one speaker for his personal opinion on a speaker. He is missing sound staging , imaging , act. in those reviews. That is what Danny is saying.
This is a very balanced review of your experience and for that you should be thanked. I watch Danny's videos and enjoy them very much. What I appreciate is the way he explains the facts of the speaker business. Far to many people have no appreciation of the budgets manufacturers have to work with in order to produce a profitable product. I feel that when Danny shows how he improved a crossover he is constantly reminding the viewer that the factory could have used these parts, but the price of the speaker would radically increase due to the associated manufacturers overhead. This of course does help his sales, but his YT channel is a marketing expense, not a public service. I will keep watching yours and Danny's videos because I appreciate both of your viewpoints and opinions. Thanks for an honest assessment of your experience.
I am yet to see anyone post a before and after video proving that his upgrades are a change for the better.
Good point.
Me too
@@RGMDG
Just look on the internet.. there are a few I found after a simple search.
same here.....nothing
When you open up a speaker and find crappy cheap components in the crossover, it's not a stretch to automatically know that up graded components are going to dramatically improve the sound reproduction. I have done simple same value capacitor upgrades many times and have always physically heard an improvement.
I do think that your points are fair, I did the upgrade kit on the RP600m's and it was a real big improvement. The sound staging and imaging, depth were way better, and the mid-range was much more present and there was greater detail throughout. So happy I did it.
great to hear!
I did the same with the EQ in Roon for free... Look at the ASR review of the speaker and the EQ settings. It is like a new speaker....
@@jaytorr6701 Amir reviewed another Dan creation at 1200 Dollars sed it was crap
@Jay Torr It will not be the same. I have the upgraded and non Upgrade Klipsch. For one you are using Amir's EQ setting in your room where you should be using roon to EQ the whole response of the speaker based on your room. With UMIK-1 + REW to create the filter. That would be the right way to do it and get amazing results. 2nd you are stuck with roon or other stereo dsp systems. Here I'm also using them in a HT setup, no way an AVR can correct for the faults into the speaker and finally the sound before vs after is not just a simple EQ. The wiring, components and no rez add on make the speakers sound completely different to the non modified version
@@jaytorr6701 No. U cannot use an eq suggestion for your own room unless the rooms were exactly the same. That's a fundamental u are pole vaulting over.
Nice job on the video as always. I also really appreciate your honestly. However, there appears to be a few misunderstandings that really should be addressed in a little more detail. I'll shoot you a response to help correct those misunderstandings a little later when I have a little more time. Great job, and we loved having you down for the visit.
Hey Danny, thank you for your comment and of course please let me know any time, I'm always happy to correct myself if I am wrong
What a [Danny] Narcissist, they always give you compliment in one sentence and then are tell you how wrong you are in the next sentence! What a P.O.W.
@@robertdb5111 Or he could just be polite but still stand his ground. Not sure why you post stuff like that.
I agree with your assessment. I built nx-studios and a sealed box servo sub. They are fantastic speakers for jazz, and get a really tight bass. But yes, they are missing something in the mid range. For home theatre it's ok for my apartment, so it doesn't bother the neighbours, but yes, it lacks the punchiness of and traditional sub.
I haven't done an upgrade kit, but from his analysis he obviously corrects a lot of errors in the design of some speakers (out of phase drivers and such). I understand his criticism of amirs review with only one speaker, as one of amirs complaints was output level, when he was overdriving one speaker to distortion levels.
yes I do feel that was not a fair review but that wasn't Danny's main criticism; it was actually the fact that Amir didn't listen to a pair and thus can't comment on the soundstaging and imaging capabilities that Danny focuses in his own DIY Kit designs
I bought the GR Research kit for the Dynaudio Special 40 and it was great. I got much more clarity and it was well worth the money.
Thank you for sharing!
I wasn't going to use his kit as I prefer different capacitors, but I have considered buying a pair and upgrading the crossovers. I have several very good monitors though, so I probably won't. They don't have Dynaudio tweeters, but their Hiquphon tweeters are pretty good. Thanks for your reply, it bolstered my opinion.
I can tell you from intimate experience, I helped upgrade 2 different Klipsch models for friends using Danny's upgrade kits, and the improvement was drastic.
His upgrades turned almost unlistenable speakers into reasonable sounding speakers.
Let me add, that the statement in the video that all Danny does is flatten the frequency response is not correct.
He usually corrects phase issues, impedance issues, cabinet resonances, off axis response, etc.
As someone who has built and upgraded many speakers over many years, the improvements Danny makes, are very predictive of how well a pair will sound, even if you only have 1 speaker.
Thank you for sharing!
Amir reviewed Dan's 1200 dollar kit full range driver n sed it was crap...
@@matthewtaylor7355 Damn, $1200 kit?? Might as well save some money and get a REALLY good speaker.
@@matthewtaylor7355because he listened to a single, small speaker, and expected it to play at 96dB. Who listens to speakers like that? Nobody. Take his SUBJECTIVE speaker reviews with a grain of salt. The measurements? Yeah, they're worth looking at. But, you need to think about how a speaker will be used.
This review is perfection. I built 2 pairs of NX-Treme's, one for myself and one for a family member. I met you at Axpona and asked you what you thought about them - your answer was pretty much what you stated here. I couldn't agree more. I love them, with the exception of the bass. Like... WHAT are all those woofers even doing? This whole journey with GR Research has really matured you and your channel. You've handled everything objectively and fairly. A year ago I viewed you as a young kid with good ears, but little experience. Now I think you're the best audio reviewer on RUclips. I trust you to be objective, fair, and to mention both the good AND the bad. Keep it up.
Thank you !
I spent the last year trying to teach him everything I know. ;-)
Got to make people earn their compliments man. That seems to be overly huge praise without enough evidence or research. Nothing against Jay. I like his videos which is why I’m here.
Great stuff! Loved it. I think, however, after hearing Danny’s explanation of why bass seemed to be missing with the subs turned off (his preamp set up that filters bass from the mids/tweeters), you should maybe make a note of that in your video. Most people will see you video and take it as true, without going to see Danny’s response/explanation. I know you can argue, “Well geez, Danny should have told me at the time, I didn’t know it was set up that way!”, but still, in any event it would be good to let your viewers know (even after the fact) what was going on. Otherwise it just sounds like Danny’s speakers have no low end without subs.
Jay, I am not necessarily a big fan of GR-Research, but have watched some of their RUclips Videos. I don't think your criticism of GR-Research of only testing and modifying one speaker is a valid criticism, nor is the complaint about them not measuring the bass frequencies particularly valid either. When GR-research gets in a speaker to see whether it can be improved upon,, they are are primarily focused on frequency response and elimination of spectral decay (to the degree possible) with a better crossover. It doesn't help to listen or measure that in a speaker pair, and they are not trying to necessarily improve the imaging, etc of the speakers (which might be discovered by listening to a pair instead of just one). Likewise, the bass response (other than the crossover point) cannot be helped much and is difficult to measure due to the role of room boundaries. There is only so much time and effort that they can can economically spend on improving the older speakers they get in, and shipping costs are not cheap for the person sending them in, or for the cost of shipping them back. If GR-Research didn't test their own new speakers in pairs, that would be a different story, but I think you are confusing the two different businesses they do (fix old speakers with crossover improvements, versus offer brand new ones).
That was my interpretation. One speaker is fine for measurements and that is the focus of these improvements. Improve the specs and the sound quality will follow.
Experience helps. When I graduated top of my Electrical Engineering class, I thought I was pretty smart. That attitude quickly switched to reverence for the seasoned much more capable designers. I'm not getting that vibe from you Jay. We don't need to kneel at the GR altar, but when you question GR cross over upgrade kits being only "mods", it tells me all I need to know. Even doing nothing other than keeping the exact same cap and inductor values in higher quality components is a definite win.
Upgraded parts are an upgrade. Not arguing that. But it’s not just an upgrade when the crossover is being re-designed in 20ish minutes that took many of these companies a lot longer. Redesigned crossover = different speaker, therefore I was only logistically critiquing in the word “upgrade” but like I said in the video, if you think it’s an upgraded sound, then I guess it is
If they have the same value and tolerance, they cannot sound different
I get the impression that Danny is sincere in his approach to upgrades. Others in this comment section offer positive feedback of their experiences with his products. That said Jay, you are entitled to your opinion. Danny is a big boy and not shy about dressing down other product makers on a regular basis. His hindsight approach is 20/20 as you'd expect. So, he should be able to handle honest criticism.
He's a big boy alright. He can handle a criticism and that's why I like him
Very objective and honest review from your subjective point of view Jay!I I appreciate that you never hold anything back. I have only good things to say about the GR Research KEF Q100 upgrade and the16 strand speaker cable kit with the signature tube connectors. The Q100 is of course KEF's absolute lowest rung speaker which appears to have have been discontinued recently. The signature UNI-Q driver KEF used is, excellent, but let down by cheap components in the x-over network and a cabinet and damping materials that leave much to be desired. I only stream music using a laptop and a Peachtree Nova300. My observation is that the sound is less fatiguing, far richer in detail, has better sound staging and remains faithful to the source music, but as you noted, somewhat to my shock, was that even the vaunted NX-Extremes would benefit from the low end punch of a sub woofer; this definitely holds true in my case as the lack of one leaves a big hole in the detail and overall musical presentation. I am eyeballing a KEF KC62 as it would fit, size-wise well in my smaller living area and have heard only positive things about it. I would definitely buy again from GR-Research maybe upgrade to one of their speaker kits. Like The Dude says.'Yeah? Well that's just like your opinion man!'; this is my opinion of the GR Research upgrade kit and say this not pretending to have your breadth or depth of experience evaluating all of the finest equipment the audio industry has to offer and because of your integrity and quality reviews I will continue to value yours. Keep up the good work Jay!.
I think upgrade would be replacing parts with same values but better quality. I can see how capacitors,resistors,inductors,wire or whatever else could see improvement with higher quality. However when the crossover is redesigned that would be a modification. I would start with upgrades first. Great video. Thanks
Jay, you may get two pairs of some speakers and a kit from Danny to modify one of those pairs. Then you can do your own listening test and let us how they compare with the originals.
is this who I think it is?
@@Jayiyagi Who do you think I am? You can ask the guys at Harman International in Northridge, CA. Sean Olive may remember me.
I have been a DIY’er for years and I understand GR sentiment about the existing speaker brands. The diy speaker shop I got my parts had the same conclusions as Dany. The shop had an good anechoic chamber with a Clio system and he did measurements of existing speakers for an audio magazine, the results were often baffling. The thing is you can not confuse crossover mistakes with “ voicing “ the speaker. Two speakers with a reasonable flat measuring response do not sound the same “ neutral “.
But I do think you need to do both measure and listen for best results.
He does what I can't be bothered doing, screwing around with replacing embarrassingly cheapass crossovers with real ones. What's not to like?
Keep in mind three things
1. Each designer puts more emphasis in certain aspects of the design and when you have been doing it for a long time, your ways become the only way. I am for one a fan of going with high quality parts in the cross over but designers like Andrew Jones have stated that he would rather use that money to better the cabinet or drivers. All I will say is that there are many speaker designers out there with their own set ways and no way is the right way.
2. Danny's upgrade kits don't come for free, they sometimes cost similar or more than the speakers. It's a business for these manufacturers and things are built to a price point.
3. he does not just replace cheap ass parts but redesigns the entire crossover to his ideology. This does more than replace cheaper parts, it changes the entire speaker
Does cheaper necessarily mean worse?
Jay, I have seen a few videos where he doesn't actually create a whole new crossover. Instead, he recommends just going in and upgrading the individual crossover parts with better parts.. It's rare, but it does happen..
@@Jayiyagi I think Andrew Jones is absolutely right from an OEM point of view: There's a lot more bang for their buck in the drivers and cabinets than the crossover. I mean, imagine how cheap one of GR's DIY kits would be if they used the same level of parts in the crossover that most OEMs do!
But from a DIY standpoint that means that there's a lot more to gain by upgrading the crossover.😊
Gr speakers drivers are so cheap and plastic looking ...the new line with those super cheap and ugly white drivers 😅.. I wish he believed that driver quality is the same as a crossover
Thank you. I have been waiting for this review. I had purchased the speaker cables and then ran across the controversy on your site and other sites. The speaker cables were a good upgrade. I have Klipsch Cornwall IVs but may explore open baffle speakers at some time. Having independent external reviews like yours is critical for me to trust the description of sound. One shouldn't need to review in their studio because no potential purchasers will have the same listening room as GR Research. Your review at confirms they have decent sounding speakers and that their subs are recommended. Their subs are something that I have been considering an dare a likely upgrade for me in the next few years.
I understand that it is difficult to do, but a review of original and "GR-upgraded" speakers would be a very interesting series for this channel and would interest many people.
I do not think anyone is doubting that upgrading the crossover network to fix basic phase issues and putting sound dampening on a $200 budget bookshelf speaker cabinet would not be an improvement. Of course it would, and for that reason, I am sure most of GR's upgrades are probably worthwhile as I'd bet the
Great presentation. Danny and his fans should be pretty happy with this assessment. High praise for his stuff considering the breadth of listening experience you have. His higher models seem to rank right up with some of the more exotic brands. The Audiophile Junkie uses his extremes with subs as his personal system, so it is great value if you have a large room.
I love this video, you nailed it. If it seems too easy, it probably is. And having watched GR-research videos, I kinda understood once he started talking about steel binding posts and "cheesy" crossover parts.
On his YT presentations Danny of GR-Research did show that premium components were audible in crossover design, but the cost differential can be quite high, and those costs are not visible to the buyer looking for bargains in speakers.
I am a Danny fan and I think you are fair in your opinions. Speakers can be so subjective with most listeners. I would like to see manufacturers to list and show pictures of the crossover parts and interior of the speakers. Then listeners can see the quality of the parts and design. Thanks for the video.
Just finished building my NX-Tremes and I love them
Thank you for sharing!
Danny is great and amazing genius! From Jakarta-Indonesia with love.
I made two trips to Danny's in 2021. I brought both of my 200 lb Tannoy FSMs for XO rebuilds. He did not listen to them and sent me home with one stating that one was all he needed. He used his measuring system and sent me the before and after graphs. The new XO's sounded better to me and at his price was an amazing value. One man's experience. BTW his $7k Xotica kit speakers with the servo subs
struck me as Rockers system. Bass was overblown. And his listening room is pretty large. Perhaps he adjusted it by the time you were there.
A great video, Jay.
GR research offers products and services that are needed in this hobby. When you pursuit the passion of sound, sometimes, you want to be satisfied with what you already own.
My appreciation with Amir’s approach is his efforts to remain subjective and data driven perspectives. But most of the time, he is analyzing which frying pans were used, if the fire was at the right BTU, talks about ingredients quality but doesn’t eat the finalized cooked cuisine. That’s how I feel about Amir’s approach on measuring one speaker and tells whether the speaker is worth or not. 😂
Amir and his cult members are poison to the audio world. The absolute worst site.
Amir listened to Dan's 1200 kits sed they were crap.. Danny ain't god
@@matthewtaylor7355 You sound like a cult follower lol. Amir fell off and is nowhere near objective or to be trusted blindly.
A sincere and heartfelt thanks, Jay, for ~finally~ commenting on the sound of the H-frame open baffle subs.
I think it's just shy of two years since I requested a review. 😅
Without wanting to take sides as I have no real life experience with GR research but having experienced probably hundreds of speakers and having looked at probably many hundreds more of reviews and measurements of speakers I find it a bit entertaining when developers unanimously say "Not possible like that" but then using the "correct" way of measuring still manage to bring out designs with measurements all over the place. Like really expensive speakers with frequency plots that should literally not be allowed at these price ranges yet here we are. I can't defend GR research cause as I said I have no experience with their services but I just wanted to say that what "unanimously has been said" is not always the only truth cause results many many times prove the opposite imho. I am more like "show me results before and after" I don't care if you do the mods standing on your head or eating ice cream.
As to the "testing only 1 speaker" I completely agree that you don't need a pair in order to measure and flatten a speaker but you sure as hell need to listen to a pair if you want an opinion about the speaker itself. Its not the same thing. Sound and music perception by humans is neither only math nor is it only voodoo and taste. You need to combine both worlds .
As I said , this is imho of course
Great video Jay. Our community needs the reviewers providing this type of information. Kudos to Danny for the access and to you for the time and effort to visit, observe with an open mind, and report back to us with your take.
I installed the upgrade from GR Research on the super-budget level "Neumi BS5"s. The difference was night and day. Completely different sound, for the better. It did noticibly decrease the sensitivity though. But with the upgrade installed I think they can compete with very high priced speakers (especially at low to moderate volume, they do break up if you push them). It's not a subtle tweak though, its a completely different speaker before vs after.
Thanks for sharing!
Can you describe the difference in sound? I've got some BS5s and I've been wondering if the upgrade is worth the price, which is two to three time as much as the speakers. Thanks.
I use 2 18" DIY open baffle subs with my LRSs. In my experience, dipole subs do a great job integrating with dipole speakers. The lack of boxes minimizes stored energy and cabinet resonances, which make the subs sound "cleaner" than the box subs that I've heard.
*than
Although not open baffle, in my space a single rythmik f12g blends well with maggies (on risers)
Excellent summary of the visit to GR Research. With old ears & damaged hearing my listening requirements are typically limited to background music via ceiling speakers and not the critical listening requirements of an "audiophile". However, I watch GRR (and Iyagi) for the entertainment and lessons learned that are provided. I think that most of DR's mods are "directionally correct" from a technical perspective but, typically, beyond my audio requirements or ability to discern. However, I would do several of the mods or the kits as a project for fun and educational content.
I am a fan of honesty and fairness and understand this was your take. I think you did an excellent job.
Upgrading speakers is for many here who feel invested to keep what they have and add new life to them. I personally grew up with Sneakerlab just down the road in Seattle in the 1970s. It was similar to what Danny does, but at the time the measurement tools were not nearly as sophisticated, but like Danny the engineers were well prepared to offer good products and kits.
Many people my age invested in good speakers post Speakerlab like Klipsch or JBL just to name a few. Some of those were good for that time but are now being tested in ways that didn't exist at the time and given a new lease on life. We can thank Danny for that. Then if some of these people really like what Danny did, and want to step up, he offers many different solutions at different price points.
I think eventually that a pair of the NX Studio for "studio" listening for someone I know who is getting into the recording industry.
I already bought parts for the one you did not necessarily see, and that is the abbreviated NX MTM version that sits on top of a subwoofer. It is shown in the GR Research Open Baffle Basics Pt. 3 video. It is a step up from the NX Studio. I am going to enjoy these. At my age, it will be fine.
Another point I wish to make is that you are buying a kit. You get crossover parts. Anyone knowledgeable can tweak the midrange to sound more like the NX Studio. One could even emulate the NX Studio sound with in an NX MTM. It is still an open baffle compared to the Studio, however. Just throwing options out there. For some it is a hobby and fun to adjust the sound.
Thank you for your reviews. They are worthwhile.
I just bought used Maggie LRS and have Danny's crossover kit on order. The response curve sure looks like it will be worth the cost.
Just found your channel. (and subscribed!). I am also a fan of Danny's RUclips channel and have even been in contact with him about measuring some towers I have.... Now, I am definitely not an "expert" but, I have 2 quick thoughts about this one. First, the 'anechoic chamber' measurement thing. It's obvious that complete audio isolation would be a good thing while designing/testing speakers. However, in reality people listen to there speakers in a normal room. With furniture, other people, walls and ceilings, etc. (not to mention all the different possible shapes that room can be). So I would assume that measurements in isolation wouldn't always be the best method in every case. My other comment is about only testing one speaker. If the goal is to redesign the crossover and sell it as a DIY kit then one speaker is all you should need.
Jay,
Danny has a new speaker called the Bully with 94dB/W sensitivity AND a sealed active servo sub in each. A review of this new speaker would be interesting 👍
This is a masterfully crafted review of Danny's work - I think it shows that no one in this industry is perfect.
One thing that we can attribute to Danny for sure is that companies are all starting to improve their crossovers and cabinets and, in some cases, even showcase them when they reveal their products like Danny does. He's definitely changing the industry because people buy $10,000 speakers only to see the proverbial "cheese" inside.😂
None of those high-end audio companies want their products to be labeled cheesy or have their signature, elite, reference series associated with the words cheese. Here are the Sonus Faber Grande Mozzarella!😂😂😂
He's the equivalent of a morgue technician opening up all speakers and unraveling their mysteries and corners cut so he's had an incredible impact in the industry and we all owe him for that.
Agree 100%. It is one thing to use cheap hidden components in budget speakers, but expensive on up to flagship stuff has to be good through and through. We have the Internet now and people who are investing in higher end gear do their research. There is no more getting away with hiding sh%t inside the box, we can thank Danny for that 😆
I do enjoy Danny as I like people who are a bit "salty" personality wise, who know what they are talking about, and who tell it like it is with no sugar added.
LOL Danny has expose some of the crap they are selling to the point some of speaker manufacturers have fix some of these flaws on there new speaker lines . Danny has really change the way people analyze speakers i agree with that i find it odd nobody was doing this anywhere in the internet. i think Danny was the first to do it i open my speakers to find out they were cheesy parts because of Danny HA
I got to thinking about uprade process GR-Research performs and I think they are providing a needed service. Companies do cheap out on some materials and the speakers that seem to come in are a little on the older side. If the upgrade helps someone bring the spark back into a speaker(s) it will make them happy. The upgrade is then made available to others to also enjoy/experience the change(s). I'm considering sending in my 20ish year old RC-64 center channel because I know the inerds are likely 20yo cheap stuff. If you can make a suggestion to GR-Research, have them record audio pre/post upgrade for what they are working on. The specs on a sheet are nice but a demo showing the change would be awesome. I'm in the process of replacing my RF-5s with Fortes so having that center channel brought up-to-date might be worth it. Maybe, it could be tuned to work with the Fortes? Isn't that the whole intent of custimization with this stuff?
I had Danny help me upgrade a pair of CerwinVega! Speakers and really enjoyed the process. It was fun and my speakers are better now. I highly recommend anyone trying out a GR Reserch upgrade, it’s a great way to learn a bit more about speakers and become a better listener.
And remember that those big name brands with their own Anechoic chambers that spend 1000's of hours on R&D don't always produce products with good frequency responce and decent crossovers, thats why they get sent to Danny in the first place.
Each company has their own way of doing things and we never hear from the other designer's perspective or reasonings. We just hear what Danny is saying but if what he is saying resonates with you then my suggestion would be to purchase his kits as he clearly spends more time and listening tests with it. He will agree that upgrade kits only take you so far into what he is going for because the speakers are not fully his designs
You mean when Danny claimed he improved Andrew Jones designed speakers? Do you really think Andrew Jones doesn’t know what he’s doing? 😂
Those big speaker companies run on a completely different business model than GR-Research. You’re comparing apples to oranges.
@@JohnLee-db9zt That’s your argument? Andrew Jones is great Designer. But he’s working with some budget constraints and target price in mind. Danny is free of those constraints. The notion that his kits can improve somebody’s speakers is not a ding on the original designer’s ability.
Great points, Jay. Thank you for putting it out there!
Also can’t wait for Danny’s Typhon upgrade! 😅
Well, I plan to send him a pair. Not sure if I will sit and let him make business out of my designs but I am looking forward to his constructive criticisms if anything
@@Jayiyagi Your designs, lol! Your speakers won't sell so don't worry, it's not worth the effort for him to make an upgrade kit for a flop speaker. such arrogance.
@@ragkongwe sold plenty already
PLz demo and critique the LGK 2.4
Come on GR Research 😊
Seconding this. ☝️👍
@@_WTR_ 3rd! 👆
To my knowledge the only customer speaker pair Danny have actually listened to is the Magnepan 3.7i. But only after his upgrade. What I found funny is that on these speakers he actually had to go back and redesign his crossover after listening to them with his initial design. He ended up moving away from the flat frequency response according to his own measurements
Jay, I really appreciate your honest follow up impressions. Refreshing in this hobby which often gets caught up in attacks and glorification of products that the average consumer cannot or will not ever experience. I'm curious if you and some of your buddies have tried the same blind cable test? If so, how did you do?
Thanks! We have and theres a video on that on my channel. Many blind tests
I usually do pretty well but I do admit not always
Jay, that took some balls! Good for you. We all needed to hear that. Sounds like you got to the truth of it. Thanks!
Good impartial reporting. Thanks Jay!
Speaker companies that spend lots money on R&D, but use cheap parts in the crossover don’t invest the money to use high quality parts because the speakers are built to a price point.
Hi Jay! Missed you at Apoxna and bummed I didn’t hear your speakers. I have the Tarkus diy speakers designed by Paul Carmody. It’s the first pair of speakers that I don’t need or yearn for a subwoofer. As for GR Research and crossover mods… definitely makes a difference.
bummers! Thanks for sharing
For better or for worse? That’s subjective.
I did get the kit for the original Klipsch RP600m. I do think it made the speaker more even and less shouty at the expense of efficiency. The new x-over takes a lot more juice than the stock speaker.
I built the CSS Criton 1TDx and it is a better speaker all around. It's as good as my Magnepans.
Thanks for sharing !
Which magnepan do you have? I was thinking of trying out the CSS as well.
That's just the nature of adjusting the curve. The crossover can't really add any output that isn't there to begging with. So you have bump things down if you're trying to level it all out, so the overall efficiency goes down.
I bet the CSS is better loudspeaker because the drivers are way better quality and people at CSS don't believe in mystical properties of tube connectors or super expensive capacitors but in solid engineering of their drivers.
They use expensive high quality crossover parts from the looks of it. @pliedtka
If you buy a speaker and don't like it it would make more sense to send it back and buy a different speaker instead of taking it apart and changing things so now even if you still don't like them you either keep them or break them down again. Just use the money you would've used for the kit for better speakers, plus from my knowledge it's not or miss if these upgrades actually do anything.
That was a very fair assessment. Danny is a passionate guy which imho is necessary trait to be innovative. As far as the one speaker comment, what he may have been referring to is that Amir couldn’t hear the spacial benefits of the speaker in subjective listening tests.
Danny is a passionate guy for sure. As for the other point... well it goes both ways. The reason Danny criticized testing only 1 speaker was because you can't hear imaging and sound staging ("the intangible things" as danny quoted). I will argue that is the same when designing a speaker or an upgrade crossover to a speaker; according to him, he spends lots of time listening to his diy speaker kits to get the "intangible things" to a desired point. Same thing can't be said about his upgrade kits as he does not do listening tests with 1 speaker
@@Jayiyagi agreed. I am a little curious to order his B&w 602 s2 kit just for the fun of taking it apart and putting the x over together. That is an old speaker that could probavvlt use new caps abyway
I actually agree with Danny (GR Research) on several fronts regarding speaker and crossover design. I get off the bus regarding magic cables. So, let's see, I should regard measurements of speakers as canon, but dismiss measurements that suggest little to no differences in cables. Got it. And I have trusted my ears regarding the difference in cables (patch, power, speaker) and decided I'd rather my extra money went to buying new music.
And I should add that I'm not saying one couldn't design a patch cable that could alter, augment or change the signal between components, but why? Cables should be transparent.
A few comments on your observations:
1. Pair vs solo speaker: if you work based on measurement (on and off axis, including phase) as GR Research , you just need a single speaker. I am just surprised that it is not measured in a an anechoic environment.
2. For a listening, a pair is mandatory to evaluate the sound scape and details. Here a listening room environment makes full sense.
3. For the bass, that's a good point. But it is simpler to manage with an eq than mids and highs where phase relations are more tricky to deal with.
4. Working on the cross-over filters to aim for neutral response is a design choice. GR calls it an upgrade as it is their design philosophy. If you develop a speaker based on listening tests of a panel of customers, you may well end up with a fairly different design that gives more character (or imperfection wrt linear response). That's a choice.
5. I think GR research is honest and working in good faith with their principles. Now whether their upgrade is an upgrade for you is a question of what people are looking for. 6.Personnally, I really like the open discussion that GR Research brings to RUclips world of audio. It made me understand much better how speakers are designed and which tools can be used to tune them to achieve a certain goal. I have'nt tried their upgrade kits but I am not sure that linearity is necessarilly what I aim for anyway. I respect what they are doing though.
In regards to crossover parts quality. These are big companies. It's all the accountants fault. Seriously, the accountants are a deciding factor on budget for projects in a lot of big widely distributed companies. So if the speaker designer has to cut costs to make the paper pushers happy, they probably pick crossover parts because... IDK , somehow it is the one area that can be scaled back to meet budget constraints. Just a thought.
Everyone needs to stop using the term "as the artist intended". Nobody knows, even the artist. The artist isn't the one mixing and mastering. Spend some time in that industry and you'll see what I mean.
I agree as I used to work in studio. This is one of the topics I talked to him about and he didn't really have much to say about that
A speaker that has a accurate response, will give you great and correct sound, as what the mixer guy had done to the artists sound. Here we need to know what gear has the mixer used? Cheese parts that affects the mix? The mixer’s own sound preference? Anyway will a accurate speaker be the best.
Your view of the DIY kits seems right on to me, and I am impressed by your honesty. Still, I bet the vast majority of people who purchase his DIY kits are VERY satisfied with them. They hear a big improvement, whether the kits actually change the sound a lot or not. After you have invested the time learning about the upgrade technology, the money paying for them, and the labor installing the upgrades, my guess is you will really enjoy the improvement. Half of what we hear is based on expectations and emotions. So "tweaking" can be fun, and almost always results in an improved experience even if it does not actually result in significantly improved performance.
You presented your concerns professionally and with respect Jay. Some misunderstandings in there that Danny also professionally and respectfully addressed. Designing a speaker vs fixing a speaker vs reviewing a speaker logically would have different processes. I feel like if he had given you a more detailed explanation when you were there some of it would have been avoided (especially the limited frequency range output to the speakers), but I guess that part is on him. I very much prefer this dynamic between 2 channels and guys that I really enjoy. I can say from personal experience that the two upgrades I bought from GR Research were definitely that - upgrades, and not modifications. I also love what CSS is doing, and I have a pair of 1tdx’s in large part due to your excellent review of them. I do wish I had the money and space for a pair of Typhons though! Keep up the great work!
I have a pair of B&W DM620'S. I'm very happy with them.
Taking a product that has already had many hours and money thrown at at and modifying/upgrading it is easier than starting from scratch. There is no doubt in my mind that someone with thousands of hours of seat time (expert skill level) can come up with a crossover that can make a product better. For example: I used to design and test components (R&D), during testing if the output of the product was not meeting specification there are levers (specifications) that can change the output, these levers were designed in. In my case there was 12 levers to pull over two sub assemblies that made up the final product. After many hours of seat time (again, many hours) I knew within seconds what values/levers to change based on what the output graph was telling me. I did this job for 15 years and had worked on many similar products that essentially did the same thing. Remember the Gladwell rule of 10,000 hours to become an expert, this is not just something that is made up, it is a skill. Experience is everything. Also, in design and manufacturing, the design part which includes a lot of preparation for manufacturing is about 80%+ of what you do, the rest is execution of that plan.
Also I was just there myself and got to listen to Danny's reference rig and it was at a complete different level....when he speaks of spatial que's and sound stage, listen to what he is saying......
Hi Jay. Thanks for your diligence reviewing all the equipment. Different subject what listening chair did you purchase for your room? Thanks . Greg
I have a eames lounge chair replica
@@Jayiyagi You investigate everything. Which brand did you choose? There are many replicas. Thanks 🙏
@@3dimensionsofmusic3D I chose modern eternity
@@Jayiyagi I have always wondered what kind of chair that is. Thanks for pointing out the make/model, Jay.
Jay, you could buy one of the speakers he has kits for and check for yourself. That would at least give you a reference point to comment about his upgrades.
Ascend Acoustics is one of the very few companies that designs and measures their speakers with the Klippel NFS. The Sierra-LX is one of their Klippel-designed speakers and it is truly amazing for the price.
I've heard the original Sierras and they are fantastic, shockingly, good for the money
Some of his kits do really make a difference
I'm sure they do... it'd be weird if it didn't
@@Jayiyagi there is only so much you can fix a flawed design.
Truth of the matter is, a kit needs to be purchased on a set of speaker, to see and hear the before and after, with Danny upgrades. There should be a marketable, noticeable difference, that can be heard with just human ears & without special advance technical audio equipment to determine difference. thats the test.
I just wanted to say that I love your content, Jay! Keep up the good work...
As a speaker hobbyist familiar with speaker measurements and how they correlate with perceived sound... I can say that GR Research mods are grounded in solid and well established engineering principles and it certainly looks like Danny knows his stuff. The only thing I cannot verify is whether his measurements before and after a mod are honest and correct.
I am taking Danny at his word when he shows us his frequency response and spectral decay plots that he isn't fudging or using "smoothing" to improve his results. I am also assuming his before and after plots use the very same measurement processes. If he is as honest as he claims then many of his speaker upgrades are quite remarkable and should be most impressive in listening auditions... the Pioneer HPM 100 as an example.
excellent video excellent research and you were very fair to Danny
I get the single speaker thing, he isn't testing it for a speaker review just getting a sample to design a crossover.
well, it goes both ways. The reason Danny criticized testing only 1 speaker was because you can't hear imaging and sound staging ("the intangible things" as danny quoted). I will argue that is the same when designing a speaker or an upgrade crossover to a speaker; according to him, he spends lots of time listening to his diy speaker kits to get the "intangible things" to a desired point. Same thing can't be said about his upgrade kits as he does not do listening tests with 1 speaker
@@Jayiyagi when he is 'fixing' another guys speaker all he can do is work with their drivers and boxes. how could he possibly fix intangibles outside of designing a new speaker which is what he does all the time for his own brand? his business model is not about fixing shitty speakers anyway. spending 10 days to fix a klipsch with a poor driver is a fools errand. so i get why he does it the way he does it. he promises a flatter response and upgraded parts which certainly help in 'intangibles'. from what you noted about his design he seems to know how to do it right.
@@veroman007 Which is my point exactly. Just buy his diy speaker kits if what he is going for is what resonates with you. Why bother "fixing" (when I say "fixing" I really mean tuning it to Danny's goals) other designs that was made to a price point already with different design goals. Me, Danny and you can all "guess" about the intangible benefits that the upgrade kits bring but all I am saying here is that it's never confirmed or tested in a listening test and as you have pointed out and I have stated in the video "he spends more time on his own products and rightfully so".
Design parameters should by nature shoot for a frequency response as flat as possible. I can’t imagine any speaker designer worth his salt thinking otherwise unless it’s a niche product
@@Jayiyagi There is no need to spend time confirming or comparing with listening tests the upgrades that I design. Like David just said, "spending 10 days to fix a klipsch with a poor driver is a fools errand.". Again, for most of these upgrades I am fixing "problems". There is no debating the outcome. Problems like phase issues, stored energy and ringing, impedance imbalances, amplitude imbalances, or cabinet resonances are never going to sound better than the absence of those problems even if the parts quality were the same. Somehow you must think it is about re-voicing a speaker compared to how it was voiced by the designers. It isn't about that at all. It has nothing to do with voicing.
I like your videos and Danny’s.
Beyond replacing cheap parts…
So if his approach were to ensure the music stayed in phase as the listener stood up and moved around (just one example), and achieving this required flattening the response to that of a reference monitor, then this might not be my preference either - it would be no hardship for me sitting in the “sweet spot” and experiencing what the designer of the speaker intended!
But people who want accuracy-from-all-angles can go to Danny and this is what he does.
The differentiation is as follows:
The owner has an attachment to their speaker and would not wish to part with them so modifying is Danny’s appeal, as well as the upgrade and new design still being cheaper than an equivalent reference monitor which includes the retail and marketing etc.
Great info Jay!!! Just curious, what measuring system did you/CSS use to design your speakers?
I've heard enough about GR Research to last me a lifetime.
haha. Welp this is the last video from my visit so thank god for that right?
You can design great sounding speakers with gated measurements. I’ve done it myself.
You never designed loudspeakers. Have you?
Yes. You can make huge improvements on the sound by working on the crossover again. Also. You can not make great sounding speakers using measurements alone. You need hours of listening and you need to do it at different hours of the day since you listen not only with your ears but with your ears and brain. And it is true that you only need one speaker to improve its crossover. For listening tests you should use two but to look at how the speaker was designed and chose how to address the upgrade.
Another thing. You, like most of the people I see here talking about audio gear do not give the audience a chance to listen to anything you claim to have heard. Sound is very subjective. Everyone listens differently. The audiophile looks for possible "faults" on the system, a musician looks for voice projection and playing techniques, a sound engineer looks for hardware and software used during the recording along with mic positioning, etc. People who just want to listen and enjoy music just want it to sound pleasant to their ears and the younger generation just wants loud with a lot of bass and treble. So, I have no idea what you consider to be good sound. Not unless you add a presentation from the speakers themselves and let me decide for myself.
There’s a difference between a review and upgrade. In a pair, the speakers will measure identically, so there’s no need to ship the pair. He’s mostly replacing parts with better parts and correcting things like resonance and holes in response.
In a review, you hear things like soundstage, depth, etc. you’re reviewing with your ears and measurements are more to confirm no design problems.
I disagree. You need to hear a pair in listening tests in design work or else how do u design to improve soundstage, depth, etc but that's just me
@@Jayiyagi everyone’s entitled to their opinion 🙂. But a sonicap will always sound better than the cheap caps typically used. It’s like putting Brembo brakes on your car vs stock. It’s going to be an improvement without having to take it out on a skid pad to know how much.
@@chrisabboud3949 :)
@@Jayiyagi Most of those factors have more to do with the listening room than it does speaker tuning. As a counter argument, since Danny is not in the customers home, there's probably little incentive for him to spend time moving speakers and furniture around to find the ideal listening experience just to calibrate a flat FR.
@@Jayiyagi Thats only if you are building a speaker from scratch. Danny is doing up grades, just fixing peaks and dips alone will automatically improve soundstage and depth.
Agree 100%: to measure a single speaker and never listen to a stereo pair is crazy. Everyone who thinks one replaces the other is fooling themselves. One needs to do both, measure and listen. That's why I call people who measure but don't listen "Fools with Tools". So I definitely do not agree with either Amir's nor Danny's approach. Having said that, I built a stereo pair of GR Research Triple OB subs, and find them to be among the best subwoofers I ever heard bar none (short of front-loaded horns the size of my listening room, and a five- to six-figure price tag), which makes them a great value for the money, and I agree wholeheartedly that what makes them so great is that they don't pressurize the room (unlike home cinema setups), instead they sound natural, and they'll do so in rooms in which similarly large subs couldn't possibly be played flat down to 14Hz, there's none of the uncomfortable overload one would get with standard subs, thanks to the adjustable damping, but mostly thanks to the fact they're OB. One can play them loud and get an amount of bass seemingly impossible in a room. Think of a bathtub full of water: a standard sub produces bass waves much as if one dropped a large object into the bath tub (water splashing all over the place), whereas an OB sub acts more like a paddle, moving the water back and forth, the only difference being, an OB servo sub is going to stop on a dime (much more important sonically than the so-called rise time). First time one hears a natural instrument such as a double bass or kettle drum played back on an OB servo sub, there's no going back. Sealed and ported subs, as impressive as the "chest thumping" impact may seem playing back movies, simply don't get this right. The most musical subs for the music-loving audiophile.
Review a pair of Tyler Speakers 🔊. He has built crossovers for them .
if they request it, I am happy to cover it.
Id love to see a review of his upgrade. Send GR 1 RP-8000F ii for upgrade after is had a few hundred hours on it then take to indenpendent test lab with good equipment and do A/B test in stereo as well as a A/B test in a normal listening enviroment. I suggested Klipsch speakers because he loves those ;) and I don't see a upgrade kit for the Rp-8000F ii yet so he hasn't done one. His upgrade on a V1 versions looks like it would make a drastic difference. I have Klipsch speakers so genuinely interested in a second opinion on GRs claims and work. Klipsch is also very popular so would get alot of views.
Good job 👏 🎉very objective and informative.
My experience with DIY taught me that most impressions of sound quality as it relates to crossover components is due to listener expectation. If anything, the inductors matter most, followed by capacitors to a much lesser extent, and least important are the resistors. I suspect that’s why it’s not uncommon to spot sand cast resistors in otherwise relatively expensive crossovers.
Danny is correct regarding the quality of individual drivers but mostly a cheap crossover will perform as well as an expensive one, all else being equal. Unfortunately, even some of the most veteran audiophiles struggle to avoid the trap of expectation bias.
I think the upgrade kits will make it sound Better (Clearer), Because of the much better components, if you have cheap ass caps and resistors and coils, of course higher quality crossover parts will make it sound Better, and yes I dont even think Companys make good Crossovers I think they just use limited resources to make it as cheap as possible. So I dont know if you can call yourself an Audiophile if you dont even mention that... Measurements in a acoustic perfect room is also dumb cuz no one has a good acousticly damped room.
Some people like buying snake oil and Danny sells it in abundance.
Hey jay, maybe get a pair of say triangle bro3's and get Danny to do an upgrade and you do a comparison, I say bro3 because they seem to be popular and easily available...
Also I'm a little surprised at Danny not doing a pair and listening too the upgraded speakers , because you both made a point in the other video that "some sounds cannot be measured "
Cheers 👍
All these critics asking GR for speakers for reviews or criticizing the upgrade are not being fair. If you really want to test speakers or upgrades, why not buy them from GR, spend your own money and make measurements and listen to both pairs before and after etc. Why are these people asking Danny to provide free gear? Just order them and find out. I know Jay has done so and was impressed.
Regarding upgrades, best to get 2 cheap pairs of Klipsch RP bookshelves and then do an A/B comparison.
As a european klipsch owner i don't Order upgrade parts in the USA. Jantzen caps come from denmark and could come from tschentscher germany. $$$ gr research is too expensive
The problem with stereo image, it cannot be measured. You may hear it differently than another person and also in your living room will sound different than at other's.
Anyone with a background in electrical engineering will tell you much of what Danny spouts on his channel is BS designed to sell expensive parts - which isn't exactly surprising since that's how he makes a living. Over and over again, he makes "shoot from the hip" comments about electrolytic capacitors, iron core inductors, and sand cast resistors that suggest they have no place in crossover design. The reality is - there are plenty of crossover implementations where they make perfect sense and have absolutely no "sonic signature" with respect to the end product. For example, when providing a trap to dampen a midrange driver's fundamental resonance, there is absolutely no need to use anything other than electrolytic capacitors. Clearly, they have no impact to the sound in the passband - their intent and use is to dampen the driver's fundamental resonance so that it cannot be excited by a high level input signal which might result in unwanted harmonics being generated that "invade" the passband. Similarly, Danny dismisses ALL usage of sand cast resistors as being inferior and detrimental to sound quality - without any basis of proof whatsoever. This "advice" Danny continually provides is definitely good for his "bottom line" and must be taken with a grain of salt as it has no basis in fact or actual engineering practice.
I felt this was a fair enough assessment. The concerns you cited are ones I also have. One thing to note is that there is a large following of GR research products and upgrades. So, there is something to what they are doing. I have noticed that GR research costumers are very quick to defend Danny and his products. In general, this would not occur if the products were sub-par. You could argue that some of the responses here are a result of confirmation bias. However, I find the Audiophile community is not comprised of shrinking violets. If someone generally felt dissatisfied with his speakers or upgrades. I am sure they would not hesitate a second to warn the community off. I have yet to find a GR research customer, post a negative experience. To me that speaks volume on the validity of his approach. On upgrades, the only way we could know for sure is a blind comparison between a stock speaker and modified one. Would people be able to hear the changes, and more importantly, perceive that those modifications improved their sound?
Nice review, Jay. I thought you were very fair and transparent about what you heard and your personal preferences. Thank you for not re-igniting the flame war just for the sake of clicks. I especially appreciated your comment about the NXtreme open baffle bass sound being perfect for music- but maybe less so for home theater- if you want room pressurization. I had been wondering about that for a while now.
I own the NX-Treme's and 2 triple OB subs. He is absolutely right. I ended up buying 2 rythmik sealed subs in addition to the OB subs to get a little punch.
@@Subsonic-cd2en After Jay mentioned that, I also thought that maybe adding some sealed box subs from about 50 Hz down would round out the performance for home theater. How do you have your OB subs and box subs integrated in your NX-Treme system?
Danny provides much more in the way of measurements than the big audio companies do. If I could afford it I would buy a kit from him before taking a risk on another brand.
Danny is in the business to make money. Understand that it is his prime motivation. To tweak a component or change a signal interpretation that is unpercievable to 99.9% of the population is his market.
Compare the cost of the upgraded passive crossover network for two 3 way speakers (above 400.00 in some cases) you can get a miniDSP/streamer set uo for Roon for under 1500.00 A DSP and a 6 channel amp would be my choice. As soon as you have worked out the crossover values you can design a passive crossover network. Just too much money for an upgrade kit. When you get into this much money you have many choices.
It's tempting to reduce speaker design to optimizing a few measurements, but many speakers are carefully adjusted for best listener reaction in specific listening environments and will sound boring or fatiguing if optimized solely for on-axis flatness. I'm not saying some of the speakers he gets don't need help, but I'd be surprised if they all do. I think a big part of his appeal is just the drama of calling out everyone in the industry.
Tower speakers are my total favorite. They have high efficiency and good dispersion. I actually use different drivers to keep the resonate spikes from alligning on top of each other. Bastrop Tx
Components in Cross Overs make a Big difference. Fatigue in listening means crap cross over electronics.
Not always! Room acoustics is a bigger factor in mist cases!
I am impressed with your honesty. After bonding with Danny, and to be able to be this critical and honest, it is downright impressive.