A brief review of GR Research Bully

Admins need to clean these. Have little to do with my OP.

@quickjack1234 - please remove yours. If you want to post your own, please do. But my thread was on a specific subject, so don't hijack the thread. If you wont remove, I'll report it to admins.

@ozzy62 This is very subjective, my material may not be very "audiophile" :-). I would say, sound is clean and transparent. GR spends quite a bit of time on time alignment and off-axis response. The latter is actually very good. As compared to ProAc bullies sound really good even 20 degrees off axis, no need to be exactly in a sweet spot. In overall sound is typical for the type of units they employ - looks like a silk dome tweeter and plastic (?) cone mids. I personally prefer sound or planar tweeters, but I cannot say that Bully is ’forward’ sounding. As compared to my Meze Elite headphones some transparency is obviously lost and bass clarity and definition is not the same. But then again, we are talking room response vs top shelf cans.

It is probably possible to achieve similar results with stand mount speakers and two subs, but it probably will be more expensive for the same sound. What attracted me to GR is attention to engineering details rather than marketing and speaker appearance. I would say these days $5K is a bargain for the sound Bullies provide.

@quickjack1234 - you suggest that I delete MY thread? Why would I do that? So you would come and pollute it again? You were reported.

@moonwatcher - since you can dial sub part, you can add enough bass for YOUR level of listening, compensating for the typical loudness curve loss and room issues. I only wish they would have remote with different presets :-) so I could flip between levels for different recordings or my mood of the day...

Dialing in took a while. I first dialed to my general taste using favorite recordings, then measured using REW software and UMIK-1 mic. Moved speakers around quite a bit and found that they like to be quite close into corners. I didn't need parametric EQ although there is a room mode dip so I may try and compensate later. 

Now, imaging is surprisingly wide. I don't have to be in a sweet spot - as compared to, say, ProAc 38R that I also own.

I think $5-6K Bullies sound like many $20K+ speakers. I am pretty happy with value for money. Wish they would use higher end finish and have remote for the sub.

@p05129 - somewhat true :-) Except it is also possible with Dirac (my HT system has full size speakers (Tannoy D700), no sub and has good bass at normal volumes. BUT - I tried to add Dirac capable EQ (MiniDSP SHD) into digital chain (before the DAC) and was not satisfied with the results.

However. GR products are also just well engineered at reasonable prices. For example, no ringing, wide imaging (no need to sit in sweet spot), sensitive passive part, not bright but not 'rolled off' either. Pair of RELs and a pair good speakers would set me back for well over $5600 or so I paid for Bullies. I’d guess $10-15K.

@deep_333 - this is exactly where bullies shine. Variable volume, phase, cut frequency AND parametric EQ on top.