GoldenEar BRX Review (high-end Bookshelf Speaker)

[ROOSKIE]

Can't imagine wanting to support fraudioquest in any way these days....but definitely more reasonable at $1600 the pair vs each

Oh my G, I forgot Fraudioquest ownes Golden Ear. Yikes. No way! No no no. Terrible reality there.

 

[buzwork]

Oh my G, I forgot Fraudioquest ownes Golden Ear. Yikes. No way! No no no. Terrible reality there.

To be fair Sandy Gross and GoldenEar were not associated with AudioQuest until well after the Triton/Aon/BRX series. AQ didn't purchase GE until last year. Then Sandy retired

 

[Chrispy]

To be fair Sandy Gross and GoldenEar were not associated with AudioQuest until well after the Triton/Aon/BRX series. AQ didn't purchase GE until last year. Then Sandy retired

But it's still a current in stock model from what I saw, so....I still vote with the consumer dollar and not enhance their pockets in any even remote way.....to be fair.

 

[Alice of Old Vincennes]

Gee, another ribbon tweeter shocker.

 

[buzwork]

But it's still a current in stock model from what I saw, so....I still vote with the consumer dollar and not enhance their pockets in any even remote way.....to be fair.

Fair enough

 

[MaxBuck]

Gee, another ribbon tweeter shocker.

Don't the BMR Philharmonics use ribbon tweeters? They measure great.

 

[Ata]

These guys prefer the GE BRX to KEF LS50M:

I disagreed with my wallet.

 

[Dennis Murphy]

Don't the BMR Philharmonics use ribbon tweeters? They measure great.

Glad you asked. The BMR series uses a true ribbon tweeter, which is a very different animal from the AMT tweeters used on the Golden Ear line and most other speakers that claim to have "ribbon" tweeters. There are some solid AMT's out there, but they tend to be expensive and don't have particularly broad dispersion. A true ribbon like the RAAL uses no voice coil and the very thin width of the ribbon element coupled with the lack of horn loading on the face plate results in near-180 degree radiation. Ribbons are more expensive than AMT's because the design requires a transformer to step up impedance.

 

[Dennis Murphy]

These guys prefer the GE BRX to KEF LS50M:

I disagreed with my wallet.

Hmmmm They were using Audioquest cable. Go figure.

 

[testp]

it must be good, it must be., 'reference' in the name as well...

 

[respice finem]

Another case of "be different, no matter how" IMHO.
While being different is no bad thing, different should mean better, at least when you're aiming for the top, price-wise.

 

[thewas]

As a comparison here are the Stereophile measurements.

Interestingly @John Atkinson who is also a serious and experienced reviewer liked their sound, concluding his review with:

I very much enjoyed my time with the GoldenEar BRX. While it benefits from being powered by high-quality amplification, its sound quality features an uncolored midrange, clean high frequencies, and enough mid- and upper-bass energy to satisfy, coupled with stable, accurate stereo imaging.

Would be interesting if he would comment his thoughts on the so different perceptions.

 

[NYfan2]

I had high expectations of the Golden Ear speakers because in general they get raving reviews. Well, another myth busted

 

[lewdish]

$3200 a pair for this? Good grief...

I believe it's $1600 for the pair

 

[lewdish]

I'd be curious to know what Sandy Gross would think 2021 if he was to gloss over today's review using the tech to analyze the BRX.

 

[pierre]

Another EQ for fun (and because it is automagically generated).

Score is 4.6 and goes to 5.3 with the eq below.

EQ for GoldenEar BRX computed from ASR data
Preference Score 4.6 with EQ 5.3
Generated from http://github.com/pierreaubert/spinorama/generate_peqs.py v0.14
Dated: 2021-11-23-13:00:02
Preamp: -2.2 dB
Filter  1: ON PK Fc   862 Hz Gain -1.61 dB Q 0.05
Filter  2: ON PK Fc   190 Hz Gain -1.89 dB Q 2.62
Filter  3: ON PK Fc  2497 Hz Gain +1.86 dB Q 3.04
Filter  4: ON LS Fc    99 Hz Gain +2.55 dB
Filter  5: ON PK Fc   475 Hz Gain +1.64 dB Q 4.00
Filter  6: ON PK Fc   666 Hz Gain -0.76 dB Q 0.73
Filter  7: ON PK Fc   138 Hz Gain -1.08 dB Q 4.00
Filter  8: ON PK Fc  5663 Hz Gain +1.47 dB Q 4.00
Filter  9: ON PK Fc   527 Hz Gain +1.19 dB Q 4.00

The speaker is still a bit bright.

 

[MZKM]

Preference Rating
SCORE: 4.6
SCORE w/ sub: 6.9

Sensitivity: 87.2dB (300Hz-3kHz ; spec: 89dB)
Frequency response: +/- 8.3dB 40Hz-20kHz ; +/- 3.0dB 80Hz-20kHz

​

 

[GWolfman]

EQ design:

I have generated One EQs. The APO config file is attached.

Score EQ Score:
with sub:

Missing scores. Thanks!

 

[MZKM]

Hmmmm They were using Audioquest cable. Go figure.

To offer a non-joke answer, the BRX sensitivity is nearly +3.5dB over the Meta, so if they don’t account for that it’s very difficult to compare just tonality.

 

[PeteL]

Glad you asked. The BMR series uses a true ribbon tweeter, which is a very different animal from the AMT tweeters used on the Golden Ear line and most other speakers that claim to have "ribbon" tweeters. There are some solid AMT's out there, but they tend to be expensive and don't have particularly broad dispersion. A true ribbon like the RAAL uses no voice coil and the very thin width of the ribbon element coupled with the lack of horn loading on the face plate results in near-180 degree radiation. Ribbons are more expensive than AMT's because the design requires a transformer to step up impedance.

I believed the ADAM F series got good marks here and recommendation, and are dirt cheap. Weren't they AMT too?