Danny Richie's latest...

[DMill]

I used noRez on my subwoofers and it does dampen the panels

I have no doubt it works. There are many alternative solutions that are cheaper and equally as effective. That said, I give Danny credit as it is a clean solution that is pretty easy to work with and cut into the correct size from posts I’ve seen. Albeit costly. Btw. The knock test is really not a very reliable way to tell if a speaker is properly “damped”.

 

[Todd68]

What if they do not like the result better? You have some positive experiences and that is fine, but we are just giving the consumer more information to make an informed decision. You seem to think that is negative and some of it can be, but so far you have not offered more than opinion. That does not go very far here.

ASR is more about understanding why something is better or worse than other sites. I have said that NoRez can be helpful if used in the right quantity. Its overapplication can also be detrimental and buying more than you need is simply throwing money away. Danny's upgrades often specify NoRez without any demonstrated benefit to the original speaker. Am about to do some testing to show what impact NoRez and other damping materials have and how they differ. Danny claims NoRez is better than Sonic Barrier, but does he offer any concrete measurements? He does not even do that for NoRez itself.

Fair enough, although I do know basic electronics and can and did do a bit of repair work, I’m not trying to learn technical aspects of audio design and the best way to use measurements. So good for you if that’s your goal.

 

[Purité Audio]

But I presume you would be interested to know if the ‘upgrades’ are actually worthwhile?
Keith

 

[Spkrdctr]

@Todd68. Are these snake oil product?

LGK 2.1 Kit (Pair) | GR-Research

gr-research.com

B16 Power Cable | GR-Research

gr-research.com

B24 Power Cable | GR-Research

gr-research.com

Yes!!!!

 

[RickS]

While the glue sets on my NoRez test unit, decided would check on another aspect that Danny tends to neglect- baselining. Here I show the Stereophile measurements for the Wharfedale 10.1 in comparison to his...

The blue trace is from a Stereophile review and the yellow from Danny's shown on his usual 25 dB scale. Clearly, they are very different, but some of it is different measurement conditions. Still would expect more similarities for the same design. By this look, could just as easily be comparing 2 different speakers. Based on the very smoothed GR measures was tempted to buy a pair of these as seemed a real bargain. Not tempted so much anymore.

 

[Todd68]

Did Wharfedale publish frequency response graph of their own?

 

[RickS]

Did Wharfedale publish frequency response graph of their own?

Not that I found but these are pretty old speakers. Really not done by many manufacturers that is why used Stereophile one.

 

[Doublej]

Rick,

Any conclusions from your No Rez test?

 

[NTK]

Rick,

Any conclusions from your No Rez test?

Rick has a thread on his tests.

A comparison of the effectivity of various speaker damping materials

Have seen a lot of discussion about speaker damping and many applications seemed to be ad-hoc. Admittedly, even the use of damping for Directiva r1 was more of a guess than I was comfortable suggesting. Having acquired many different types of materials from different DIY projects, I felt it was...

www.audiosciencereview.com

 

[Doublej]

Rick has a thread on his tests.

A comparison of the effectivity of various speaker damping materials

Have seen a lot of discussion about speaker damping and many applications seemed to be ad-hoc. Admittedly, even the use of damping for Directiva r1 was more of a guess than I was comfortable suggesting. Having acquired many different types of materials from different DIY projects, I felt it was...

www.audiosciencereview.com

Cool. Thanks.

 

[RickS]

Have not bothered much with tracking everything GR does, but thought this recent video was interesting as Danny is now on defense from another camp - an apparent poke by reviewer Andrew Robinson. Robinson has 300K+ youtube subscribers. He recently poked at expensive crossover parts and those marketing them. His position was a simple one - if it sounds good, do not care much what is inside.

This sent Danny reeling and he posted a response. Tbh, only skimmed it as I really rather not waste much time on it. My perusal was enough to know it was Danny’s usual propaganda and was chock full of his usual superlatives and lots of handwaving. Did not see any use of measurements or objective content in his response. At the end, he does put out his usual invite for Andrew (and others) to visit GR. Doubt Robinson will take the bait.

 

[amirm]

I just watched that video. He doesn't say anything he hasn't said a million times before. But also makes claims that are just wrong. He says he can't turn off ads on his videos? Really? It is just a one click selection to turn off monetization. Worse yet, in another video or comment he bragged about how he makes good money from youtube.

He does point out correctly that people love his upgrade videos as it is good entertainment, kind of like a reality show. Fact that he doesn't even bother to listen to the upgrade, or explain how it makes economic sense to spend so much money, is nicely ignored by him and his audience, reflecting again that people are entertained by his videos.

He also says absurd things like accurate speakers sound boring. He should listen go a Genelec or Neumann and claim that.

Finally, it is hard to adjudicate between him and Andrew as both suffer from so many faults in their audio evaluations. To Andrew's credit, he has started to pay more attention to measurements but still far from where he needs to be.

 

[DanielT]

I just watched that video. He doesn't say anything he hasn't said a million times before. But also makes claims that are just wrong. He says he can't turn off ads on his videos? Really? It is just a one click selection to turn off monetization. Worse yet, in another video or comment he bragged about how he makes good money from youtube.

He does point out correctly that people love his upgrade videos as it is good entertainment, kind of like a reality show. Fact that he doesn't even bother to listen to the upgrade, or explain how it makes economic sense to spend so much money, is nicely ignored by him and his audience, reflecting again that people are entertained by his videos.

He also says absurd things like accurate speakers sound boring. He should listen go a Genelec or Neumann and claim that.

Finally, it is hard to adjudicate between him and Andrew as both suffer from so many faults in their audio evaluations. To Andrew's credit, he has started to pay more attention to measurements but still far from where he needs to be.

But I think there is a BIG difference between them. Andrew Robinson is humble and self-aware, he says for example about his measurements that these are mine, other measurements may vary:

When does Danny show any humility or self-awareness?

The graph above comes from #28 in the Elac thread where Andrew Robinson's measurements are discussed:

ELAC Debut 3.0 Series announced at High End Munich

I dont want to go negative right away without hearing the speaker, but the fact that its not designed by andrew jones and has an allu tweeter doesnt look great to me. Again and again i tried allu tweeters, and i always come back to soft dome tweeters

audiosciencereview.com

 

[Todd68]

Have not bothered much with tracking everything GR does, but thought this recent video was interesting as Danny is now on defense from another camp - an apparent poke by reviewer Andrew Robinson. Robinson has 300K+ youtube subscribers. He recently poked at expensive crossover parts and those marketing them. His position was a simple one - if it sounds good, do not care much what is inside.

This sent Danny reeling and he posted a response. Tbh, only skimmed is as I really rather not waste much time on it. My perusal was enough to know it was Danny usual propaganda and was chock full of his usual superlatives and lots of handwaving. Did not see any use of measurements or objective content in his response. At the end, he does put out his usual invite to for Andrew (and others) to visit GR. Doubt Robinson will take the bait.

If he wants to try and prove Danny is full of it, he should accept the invite. I think he would earn more respect if he showed an open mind and got some experience to back his claims. As long as he’s honest about the experience.

I never heard of anyone visiting Danny and then say they weren’t impressed.

 

[RickS]

If he wants to try and prove Danny is full of it, he should accept the invite. I think he would earn more respect if he showed an open mind and got some experience to back his claims. As long as he’s honest about the experience.

I never heard of anyone visiting Danny and then say they weren’t impressed.

How many folks have visited GR and what impressed them? Anyone notably known for their objective technical credibility?

I note that Jay Lee visited but did not design a speaker with GR but went with CSS instead. Robinson has little to gain from a visit imo.

 

[Todd68]

How many folks have visited GR and what impressed them? Anyone notably known for their objective technical credibility?

I note that Jay Lee visited but did not design a speaker with GR but went with CSS instead. Robinson has little to gain from a visit imo.

I don’t know how many. Jay Lee doesn’t know how to design a speaker, correct me If I’m wrong, but I think he only helped pick out types or brands of crossover parts for CSS, not actually design anything. He was impressed with what he heard at Danny’s (imaging soundstage) but I think he already had this venture with CSS so was sorta nitpicking about what he heard regarding tonal balance, or has a different preference of what he thinks sounds balanced regarding tone.

There’s a few on the GR forum who visited. You could too, but I suppose no one from this forum would even consider it.

Anyway, I should probably avoid responding to any discussion about GR. I really don’t care about the criticism, but I did watch those videos and that’s why I responded.

Just remembered, Clayton Shaw from Spatial Audio visited, not sure if he’s considered to have “objective technical credibility” but he sells and designs speakers people consider very good sounding.

 

[RickS]

I don’t know how many. Jay Lee doesn’t know how to design a speaker, correct me If I’m wrong, but I think he only helped pick out types or brands of crossover parts for CSS, not actually design anything. He was impressed with what he heard at Danny’s (imaging soundstage) but I think he already had this venture with CSS so was sorta nitpicking about what he heard regarding tonal balance, or has a different preference of what he thinks sounds balanced regarding tone.

There’s a few on the GR forum who visited. You could too, but I suppose no one from this forum would even consider it.

Anyway, I should probably avoid responding to any discussion about GR. I really don’t care about the criticism, but I did watch those videos and that’s why I responded.

Just remembered, Clayton Shaw from Spatial Audio visited, not sure if he’s considered to have “objective technical credibility” but he sells and designs speakers people consider very good sounding.

Yes, because of scientific objectivity, agree it is difficult to be a GR advocate on ASR. Namely, if all you can do is state “lots of folks are impressed”. Well, that claim could be made for any number of unscrupulous peddlers (or worse). That does not mean we do not allow others opinions but it does not pass the higher bar of credible technical evidence. As speakers are the major investment of better sound systems and measuring them is not all that expensive these days. Lacking measurements, we are left with public opinion. Multiple studies show how poor opinion ranks as a judge of speaker accuracy.

Do not know Clayton Shaw well but see no evidence of measurements or any objective aspect to his speaker designs (past or present). Looks as though his speakers are “impressive” but not credible beyond that. At least Danny does some measurements. Shaw is asking $3500 for his latest speaker without offering much proof as to how well they perform. He offers a return policy but is meaningless is at least $300 to return them. No thanks.

 

[Todd68]

I guess it would be lot easier for people to choose if it weren’t so many different manufacturers, and I understand that most people will trust the big name brands that are recommended here. Though I do see recommendations for a couple smaller companies, Ascend and BMR come to mind.

Keep in mind even choosing a model that’s ASR approved doesn’t guarantee you’ll be satisfied. I tried two recommended models and sent them back, I liked my speakers from a lesser known small company better, they weren’t ever mentioned on this site. Plus it’s unlikely a person would buy from these small internet companies that aren’t ASR approved without having experiencing products from some of these well respected companies and for some reason wanted to try something less mainstream.

 

[Jon L]

I don’t know how many. Jay Lee doesn’t know how to design a speaker

Jay is young, so his ears are probably better for high frequencies than many of us But he is just an ex-salesman of an audio store, which is actually a great place to gain a lot of first-hand experience since local brick & mortar audiophile stores are pretty much gone for the masses to gain first-hand auditions. But he is starting to shows signs of somebody who has gained too much attention too quickly.

 

[RickS]

I will take some blame but this discussion us going off topic. Amir bothered to watch Danny's entire video and so will trust what he stated earlier.

Notably, people (like Danny and others) may find accurate speakers to be boring. This is not uncommon if you have gotten used to a certain sound and prefer it. The whole audio scene is filled with inaccuracies as well so no reason to get myopic on individual personal preference. However, if your goal is to improve, then denying audio science is a sure-fire way to waste a lot of time and money. You might just as well hope for more future sound quality advances in vinyl playback