Interesting ASR review of small GR Research speaker kit


I bounce between various kinds of analysis — more subjective listening reports, more quantitative measurement analyses and, my favorite, those that combine both strategies to tell a useful story about audio products.

Amir of ASR has just done a very powerful takedown of a fairly inexpensive kit being sold by Danny at GR Research. Not only does he prove his point about the speakers, he also makes (to my mind) a very convincing case that Danny put his finger on the scale in how he reported his own measurements. 

I'm not in any camp — Danny's or Amir's or anyone else's. What I appreciate is thoroughness and meticulousness in exposition. Danny does that in his own videos. (Again -- to me. I'm really still learning and cannot easily spot gaps in argument in this subject matter.)

I know people with some of GR's best kits — and I've heard one of them. They sounded incredible. I've watched a bunch of Danny's videos where he criticizes other companies; I've come away thinking, "Wow, he really revealed some of the grift embedded in that product." 

But here, the tables are turned, it seems, on Danny. I hope he responds, both to defend his reputation and methods, but also because it will set in relief where some of the distance may be between these two dominant online figures' methods in assessing what makes for a good speaker.

https://youtu.be/IikqAg38FPs

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I looked at his review on the MuseTec and frankly like many DACs the distortion would be below the hearing level for 99% of listeners, even at its worst.  The jitter is more likely to be something that more people would be able to hear but the fundamental point was that the performance was poor relative to other DACs costing less.

"but the fundamental point was that the performance was poor relative to other DACs costing less."

@barjohn You were asking for an example of his pathetic reviews & I gave you one. Note that he never bothered to listen to this DAC, just measured it & spouted out his typical BS for his audiophile hating audience to consume as gospel. 

Has Amir ever reviewed anything that wasn’t low-fi or mid-fi?

Yes, on a fairly regular basis. Some of the most popular threads on ASR are when he reviews highly rated expensive audiophile gear and it doesn't measure well, and everybody gloats about Amir's "takedown".

One that threw everybody for a loop was when Amir reviewed the Wilson Audio TuneTot. It didn't measure well, but Amir liked how it sounded and gave it his recommendation.

 

" the fundamental point was that the performance was poor relative to other DACs costing less." and what did it sound like?

 

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150 posts

 

Like OP has mentioned earlier, GR admits his ignorance and provides the update ... Amir’s comments are correct. Attack to Amir’s comments and disrespect got to end here, folks.
 

this comment made all of this conversation a bit too surreal. 
 

that level of ignorance helps you realize just how unimportant all the view points of people truly are.