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Danny Richie, GR Research, doesn't recommend a speaker he can't sell an "upgrade" kit for

ryanosaur

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Ears for the Ear God, Nulls for the Null Throne!

build a death star only after you contact your local Adeptus Mechanicus Auditorum chapter for instructions and guidance. nobody wants to displease the Emperor!
Do you have the fax number?
I know we had our legal team fill out the proper form in dodectuplicate with three notarized copies... but d@mn it to #ell, they don't accept PDF files and only take facsimile transmission.
SMDH
 

tomtoo

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I myself know upgraded crossover parts make a difference. Some friends and family heard it too. Did one speaker at a time, one part at a time. oh no, blasphemy, we used our ears ; ) Not trying to convince you, that sounds impossible, but i know myself from experience.

I used Claritycap CSA, Miflex KPCU bypass caps, Mills resistors, Solen litz air core inductors

I was surprised to hear improvements with the bypass caps too.

Here it comes, placebo… Playing tricks on my mind, blah blah blah

Thats how we humans work. You have to work against that your mind plays tricks with you. Its just natural behavior of your mind. Everybody with some experience knows and accepts how it is. You have to blind abx to work against it. Thats a fact.
 

sq225917

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Swapping components in an xo is a shit show, unless you match all parameters. Swapping a tweeter bypass cap for one of similar uF figures doesn't give you the same transfer function if its ESR is different. Same goes for coils, you have to match inductance and ESR.

Get two caps, same ESR, inductance and capacitance and the xo will be identical, measurably and audibly.

Theres no magic in boutique parts, just varied parameters you didn't bother checking.
 

redstang

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Do you ever look at the number of positive Amazon reviews when you shop on Amazon? yes or no?
Yes, but the real value is in reading a few negative reviews to see if there are any well written bad experiences, or at least what the downsides are to a product. If those complaints are significant and consistent, and especially if they contain photos, that carries more weight to me than a 4.5 star average.
 

Penelinfi

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Yes, but the real value is in reading a few negative reviews to see if there are any well written bad experiences, or at least what the downsides are to a product. If those complaints are significant and consistent, and especially if they contain photos, that carries more weight to me than a 4.5 star average.
Emphasis on well written. Those one star "it's crap didn't work when I got it" or "I tried to use it for something it wasn't really meant for plus I don't really know how to use it" reviews aren't helpful lol
 

Penelinfi

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I get a hoot out of the fact he has "research" in the business name as if he is searching for dark matter or something important.

To me it appears Danny boys research has concluded, the more the part costs the better it's going reduce "smear" and improve the "speed" of the speakers. Extremely common and not real technical terms often heard from snake oil salesman that can't show anything in regular measurements so they use terms like "smear" and "speed" whatever those are supposed to mean.

All my posts get removed from Danny boys youtube channel but I summed it quite simply for him.

One of the great findings in the universe is Fourier Theorem, any signal shape you can imagine no matter how complex is nothing more than the sum of sine waves of different frequencies. So when they say we don't know how to measure everything and that the same measurements doesn't mean they will sound the same just laugh. We can measure and plot and FFT analysis down -140db pretty easily these days. Yes that's 10 million times smaller, most people can't even notice 1% THD of a wavefrom viewed on an oscilloscope so we can clearly measure extremely small changes in the signal/waveform comparing input to output. We can easily measure amplitude, phase shift etc... How else is the signal changing that we aren't measuring? They think there is magical properties. I heard Paul McTurd say ridiculous things like we have no means to measure the "timbre" of things and when we can then we will unlock many secrets, it's called a Fourier analysis Paul, look it up. He also said audible changes can be from non electrical changes, hmmm okay think about that one for a while and try not to implode.
Don't forget the psychological side of things. People hear different things based on their mood, health, time of day, did you just eat etc. Nothing that actually changes the sound, but does change the perception of it. However, people seem to have a hard time accepting that this is perhaps a reason that things "sound different".
 

mj30250

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Emphasis on well written. Those one star "it's crap didn't work when I got it" or "I tried to use it for something it wasn't really meant for plus I don't really know how to use it" reviews aren't helpful lol
Worse yet:

I ordered these men's CoolBreeze undershirts in XL. I have no idea how well they fit or feel because the shipping package was creased when it arrived! I hereby rate these undershirts ONE STAR."
 

DSJR

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Don't forget the psychological side of things. People hear different things based on their mood, health, time of day, did you just eat etc. Nothing that actually changes the sound, but does change the perception of it. However, people seem to have a hard time accepting that this is perhaps a reason that things "sound different".
When you finally realise how shit our hearing really is, especially 50+ audiophile ears (few 'audiophiles' would ever get their hearing tested methinks as they have too much to lose) and worse, how our hearing and subjective opinions can change from day to day depending on the factors in the quoted post, just maybe you'll rrealise what a con most high end gear really is and how much crap there is out there posing as 'upgrades.'
 

Vacceo

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Ears for the Ear God, Nulls for the Null Throne!

build a death star only after you contact your local Adeptus Mechanicus Auditorum chapter for instructions and guidance. nobody wants to displease the Emperor!
Never thought that Danny committed technoheresy against the Machine God, but now that you mention it...
 

Spkrdctr

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When you finally realise how shit our hearing really is, especially 50+ audiophile ears (few 'audiophiles' would ever get their hearing tested methinks as they have too much to lose) and worse, how our hearing and subjective opinions can change from day to day depending on the factors in the quoted post, just maybe you'll realize what a con most high end gear really is and how much crap there is out there posing as 'upgrades.'
Truth! Whenever I see anyone over 50 trying to extoll the virtues of any audio product I just skip what they are saying. I mean everyone over 50. They all think they can hear a fly fart (includes you Paul )and in truth they can't hear diddly. But if that is brought up they will argue to no end about how they can easily hear the difference in any product. Well, they can't. Unless they are talking below 10kh. Also, many reviewers and audiophiles and dare I say ASR peeps will even talk about blind testing when in fact most have never blind tested anything. So, that brings us all around to the service Amir is doing for the community. We all need to look at Amir's tests FIRST and then go listen to the few that meet what you think may sound good. This cuts down an impossible task (listening to 30 speakers) to maybe 3 different ones. Amir's tests cut through the extreme snake oil and biased YouTube reviewers and give you at least a foundation of where to start. Just listening to speakers at ANY stereo store will almost do nothing for you, as you are using their room and their set up. This normally has nothing to do with your own room and set up. But at least with Amir you have a basic good speaker to check out with no extreme flaws. A much better foundation from the start in the buying process.
 

Ageve

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Legend has it that Danny spent 12 years at the Golden Ears Park, enriching his senses by drinking only pure spring water. Hence the name: Richie.

golden-ears-entrance-portal.jpeg
 
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DSJR

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I'm on a hobby horse currently because I've HAD to face up to my severe hf hearing loss (pretty much equal in both ears) over 1kHz, bottoming out at 4 - 5kHz and the inevitable consequences of this if I want to hear better in future, especially the telly... Amazing what modern tech in this area can do today, which makes the likes of tube connectors, high resistance air cored coils and foo caps all a bit redundant to me in reality. tell you something though, I'm hearing 'air and space' in real life (let alone the stereo system) I'd long forgotten about and it's quite overwhelming at times :D
 
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captainbeefheart

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Don't forget the psychological side of things. People hear different things based on their mood, health, time of day, did you just eat etc. Nothing that actually changes the sound, but does change the perception of it. However, people seem to have a hard time accepting that this is perhaps a reason that things "sound different".

I have tried numerous times to get people to understand their perception of reality and typically post a link to a video explaining that we actively construct our perception from probably less than 10% of the real data/information that exists in the physical world. I'll link the video here for anyone interested. There is a great part strictly for our audio perception, they play a clip of audio and depending on what information you are told (cognitive bias) before hearing it. Every single "audiophile" I've tried explaining this to is in pure denial mode, they think they are the exception to the rule and that they have super human passive processing power of 100% of the information; e.g. nothing gets by their golden ears.

After that argument goes nowhere like usual I end up wasting more time explaining the technical side of electrical engineering making sure to give them exact real world examples and numbers/values explaining how it's impossible for anything to change at the output of a device for say a power cable or furutech noise harvester. Or, that we might have a very slight change but it's at such a low level (say below -100db) that humans cannot perceive it.

No matter what it ends in denial and that they hear a difference and insert common argument like "your system isn't resolving enough", "your hearing isn't as good as mine", etc.. You can argue with religious fanatics because it boils down to faith for them, they have faith that the money the spent is doing something and since they "believe" the product is doing something their cognitive bias is now set and they "perceive" a difference through their construction of their own reality.

Bottom line, I'm starting to think it's not worth the hassle but if I can get even one person to free themselves of this mayhem then it's worth it.
 

Penelinfi

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Truth! Whenever I see anyone over 50 trying to extoll the virtues of any audio product I just skip what they are saying. I mean everyone over 50. They all think they can hear a fly fart (includes you Paul )and in truth they can't hear diddly. But if that is brought up they will argue to no end about how they can easily hear the difference in any product. Well, they can't. Unless they are talking below 10kh. Also, many reviewers and audiophiles and dare I say ASR peeps will even talk about blind testing when in fact most have never blind tested anything. So, that brings us all around to the service Amir is doing for the community. We all need to look at Amir's tests FIRST and then go listen to the few that meet what you think may sound good. This cuts down an impossible task (listening to 30 speakers) to maybe 3 different ones. Amir's tests cut through the extreme snake oil and biased YouTube reviewers and give you at least a foundation of where to start. Just listening to speakers at ANY stereo store will almost do nothing for you, as you are using their room and their set up. This normally has nothing to do with your own room and set up. But at least with Amir you have a basic good speaker to check out with no extreme flaws. A much better foundation from the start in the buying process.
I don't think you can simply can everyone over 50. Some people retain pretty good hearing.
And up to 10k is still well and good enough to analyse most things.
Whether they keep an open mind to things is what should be considered, as that generally changes as you get older :)
 

ta240

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.... we actively construct our perception from probably less than 10% of the real data/information that exists in the physical world.....

There would just be input overload if our brains tried to show us everything we saw and heard. I've always been amazed that in a crowded room, with dozens of people talking loudly, we have the ability to pick out just one person talking and take in what they are saying.

Would a reproduction of audio with higher distortion blocking much of the sound be easier for brains to process? Does that make that form of audio more relaxing? I remember old, low res, tube tvs as being easier to have on as something running in the background while I did other work. Now with the higher definition stuff it is much harder to focus on it and another thing at the same time.
A common claim from systems with higher distortion is 'more detail'. Is it possible that what the distortion isn't masking stands out more because there is less other sounds competing for attention?
 

SIY

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A common claim from systems with higher distortion is 'more detail'. Is it possible that what the distortion isn't masking stands out more because there is less other sounds competing for attention?
Are you familiar with the old Aphex Aural Exciter?
 

DanielT

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This is Danny's view on it:

His answer regarding GR Research LGK 2.0 but he mentions this with the quality of components:


Screenshot_2022-06-14_183802.jpg


 
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ryanosaur

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This is Danny's view on it:

His answer regarding GR Research LGK 2.0 but he mentions this with the quality of components:


View attachment 212723

The sad thing really is that instead of just trying to be better, he is participating in the same us v. them mentality that plagues the US political landscape today and is staking his flag on an imaginary hill of make-believe.
Nobody really likes criticism, even if its offered constructively.
That said, Ive watched adult Speaker designers engage positively with reviewers offering negative comments.

What's different here?

To me, the most obvious piece is that Danny is relying on people believing the grass is always greener if you just spend more money. He's repeated this like a mantra and believes it himself.
He is, frankly, no different than the cable charlatans at this point... even if he is capable of designing a good Speaker (which we know he is).

To me, the mark of a good designer is somebody that even admits that you don't need to buy their flagship tower when their Monitor is 9/10s as good in performance and maybe only lacks slightly in output! The same designer that says, "sure, I can put more expensive components in the XO if you want," but freely admits that the XO as designed is the best that can be achieved.

At this point, Danny is just bluster... a fart in a wind tunnel. (Too bad the air is clearly recycled since we have to keep smelling it!)

It really is best, at this point, to shelve him in the Attic of Irrelevancy.

Let the people who want to support him do it at their own peril. This is sadly no different than the people who think that special cable will really make the final difference in their system. No matter how much you/we try to tell them differently, it isn't a matter of rational behavior any longer.

The threads been entertaining... But I'm out.
victory-hand_270c-fe0f.png
 

DanielT

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..... political landscape
Policy. Right or wrong. That ... sometimes you do not have to think about it.Some things are right or wrong ... it's that simple.

Edit:
Back to the rather trivial world of HiFi in this context. Challenge Danny on a blind test. A seriously blind test performed with speaker cables, cable lifter or whatever it is he advocates has a big difference in the sound.
 

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