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A brief review of GR Research Bully

I was looking for speakers that would allow me to enjoy classic rock at reasonable volume. NOT at a venue volume. I don’t like loud music at all. Thus something that allows me to have full spectrum sound without having to crank in up. First I tried ProAc 38R, which were nice, but lacked bass at low volumes. Accuphase amp has loudness and tone controls, but they did not quite worked to my satisfaction.

So I ordered a pair of GR Research Bully, assembled. GR typically sells kits, but I am not into finishing cabinets so rather prefer it professionally done. It took about 12 weeks from the order to delivery. I did not buy matching stands and instead ordered custom metal made for me.

I am very satisfied. The bass section is powered - the amp is Rhythmik. It is, effectively, a subwoofer and is very adjustable - crossover frequency 40-120Hz, phase 0-180 and even includes parametric equalizer. This allowed me to adjust amount of bass to the volume level I prefer.

The speakers come with printed measurement chart (in GR Research room). I also performed a number of measurements in my room with UMIK-1 and REW for Windows. I could make frequency response pretty close to linear, but prefer a bump below 100 Hz to compensate for lower listening volumes. Waterfall is also very clean, no ringing.

Associated gear: Denafrips Terminator with DDC, Rega P6 + SoundSmith MC, Pass XP-12, Accuphase E650. The room is 30x16x8 with some acoustic panels and ASC Tube traps.

Room frequency response

Room waterfall

mikhailark

Showing 1 response by simonmoon

simonmoon's avatar
simonmoon
554 posts
 

While I don't own any GR Research products, I am a fan of Danny's work.

I have helped upgrade several pair of speakers using his upgrade kits, and everyone has been a fairly appreciable improvement.

Some of the Danny haters on YT tend to make comments like; maybe that is just the way the original designers "voiced" the speaker. 

Sorry, but no. Large dips and spikes in the frequency response, poor phase relationships at the crossover points, the acoustic centers of the individual drivers being too far apart, etc, are not choices in voicing the speakers. They are poor engineering. Not is poor cabinet bracing, electrolytic caps and iron core inductors.

I've upgraded more speakers over the years than I can remember, and everything Danny does is just good acoustic engineering practices.   

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