Fascinated By GR Research Channel


Lately I've watched a number of the videos on GR Research's youtube channel and been very intrigued. If you aren't familiar with them, they design and sell some speakers, but most of their business is DIY speaker kits, and doing upgrades on customer's speakers. In the videos, they show how they measure the performance characteristics of speakers sent in and then explain the thought process and methodology of choosing improvements. 

If nothing else, anyone wanting to better understand the technical section of reviews (e.g. John Atkinson's in Stereophile), would likely learn something watching.

Another interesting aspect of these videos is the clear untangling of various manufacturers' choices in balancing cost for performance and the sonic impact of various compromises. 

Get your popcorn and check it out. 

I'm also curious to hear of your experiences with any of their kits or products and if your findings match their messaging. I've always understood that better parts quality will improve sonics, but this channel demonstrates exactly how with great clarity...fascinating! Cheers,

Spencer 

sbank

Showing 1 response by hifidelio1

I can verify that the man knows what he's doing. I bought into the Klipsch RP600M craze and unfortunately was left disappointed. Wish I would have caught Ron and New Record Day's review before purchasing. The shortfalls he described are exactly what I was hearing. Luckily he recommended Danny at GR Research and had an interesting comparison video trying to illustrate the difference before and after.

Picked up the upgrade from Danny. Skipped the tube connectors and instead kept the original binding posts. I took measurements before and after to verify that I had everything set up correctly. Sure enough the speakers measured flatter after the upgrade. The big valley between the woofer and tweeter was largely gone. The peaks in the tweeter we're smoothed out and response was nice and flat.

In the end I have a set of speakers that I can run without any sort of EQ and I am very happy with how they sound. Can't recommend his upgrades enough if there is something you're unhappy with in your current speakers and would rather not run EQ.

Only thing I don't find value in are things like tube connectors and special cables. If you're chasing that final 1% I could see it, but personally I'm okay with skipping that stuff. Not dismissing it, but I bet there are people who would be turned off by the way he pushes that stuff, especially when the whole measurements vs trusting your ears debate seems to be so heated lately.