Erin reviews GR-Research NX-Bravo

[dfuller]

In any case, Erin’s speaker was a golden sample. So if Danny sent a unit with a distorting tweeter, it is on him.

If you take the original design distortion profile, combine an off-brand build, Danny’s mods and push the cross lower, not too surprising that it is distorting much higher than the original design. GR fanboys are already lining up the usual round of excuses.

The distortion profile, so far as I can tell, is the tweeter being a cheap knockoff of the original. Might be a resonance exciting all that HD, but it doesn't really show up anywhere in FR, BD, or impedance as far as I can see...

 

[Heinrich]

The distortion profile, so far as I can tell, is the tweeter being a cheap knockoff of the original. Might be a resonance exciting all that HD, but it doesn't really show up anywhere in FR, BD, or impedance as far as I can see...

With distortion that high the speaker is a no-go at any price. 700 a piece, then glue and finish? Kidding me, right? Cap up-grade, insulting. Danny at his best. Hope Erin doesn‘t fall for it for longer.

 

[boxerfan88]

I watched that video. Erin is very fair in his review. He did call out all the important deficiencies (SPL limitations, higher than expected tweeter HD), just that he chose not to use harsh words to call out the deficiencies; which is perfectly fine IMO.

And over here, anything to do with D, tend to elicit pretty harsh responses, which is also fine IMO.

BTW, I am not for or against D. Live & let live.

 

[Scrivs]

With distortion that high the speaker is a no-go at any price. 700 a piece, then glue and finish? Kidding me, right? Cap up-grade, insulting. Danny at his best. Hope Erin doesn‘t fall for it for longer.

The feeling I got immediatelt while watching the video is that Erin is losing his way.

We still only have Amirm and ASR if we want a truly honest, unvarnished take on shit we really don't need to be buying.

You know, starving kids in Ethiopia and stuff?

 

[Scrivs]

It really smells like a compromised review. Censoring ones true feelings about anything a a bit of a personal moral compromise.

 

[boxerfan88]

That’s your data point. My data point says Erin’s review is fair and balanced. To each his/her own.

 

[Scrivs]

Very much so. I find deception by omission to be a bug, not a feature

 

[Scrivs]

And tell me, do you think this "diy +" affair is worth $1500-$2500?

Have at it brosef.
Edit: I wouldn't have commented if Erin hadn't been projecting such a no-bullshit/here's the unvarnished truth vibe

 

[MattHooper]

It really smells like a compromised review. Censoring ones true feelings about anything a a bit of a personal moral compromise.

I’m sorry, but I find this a bit of needless pearl clutching.

I’ve been watching Erin’s channel from the beginning and have also in touch here and there with Erin about some of his reviews and goals, and his channel has been consistent with what he has told me. And what he’s been saying on his channel.

His goal isn’t to rate speakers just “good or bad.” His goal is to explain the character of any loudspeaker under review, and relate that to the measurements in a way that educates the audience.

That means that if he’s got a speaker that he himself would never buy, or that he didn’t care much for, he understands that other people may still like it, and that it’s most educational to simply try and convey the qualities he heard and measured. So if there’s anything poor about the sound and measurements he will mention those, but also if there’s anything redeeming or good, the speaker is doing, he’s going to mention those as well.

And try and relate it all to the measurements.

It would add nothing to the reviews, I find, for Erin to say “ I hate this speaker. I think it sucks!” That’s just more subjective opinion that doesn’t actually educate anybody. What does shed light concentrating on the actual performance of the speaker. (and this is why he will often say that, even if there is an aspect of the speaker that he doesn’t care for, he is speaking for himself and his taste and goals).

I know some people want a more ASR style rating of speakers from good to bad, and see somebody in reviews say “this suuuuucks!” But I find Erin’s approach of trying to give as complete a picture of how I speaker performs as possible, which includes looking for any good features even in the presence of some bad aspects , to be essentially ideal.

On ASR (and I’m not talking about Amir but some other members) sometimes I just see people who’ve got their criteria for “ good and bad” writing off some speakers as “just baaaaad… not worth anyone’s time” which have included some loudspeakers that I’ve heard and really liked, or at least really liked some aspects of the performance. And I would never know about the aspects of performance I might have liked from the “ it just sucks” crowd. Whereas I can rely on Erin I think to paint a more complete and less biased picture in his reviews.

So to wrap that up, yes, I’m sure Erin has some economic imperatives, but I don’t think those are compromising him at all. I think that his actual attitude and goals meet very smoothly with the equipment he hast to get his hands on to review. Manufactures know, and viewers who sent them equipment will know, there’s going to be nowhere to hide in terms of the measurements and his discussion of the speaker. But also that’s not gonna needlessly “ tell people what to buy or not.”

 

[Todd68]

The distortion profile, so far as I can tell, is the tweeter being a cheap knockoff of the original. Might be a resonance exciting all that HD, but it doesn't really show up anywhere in FR, BD, or impedance as far as I can see...

I think he’ll lose potential customers because of this. I guess he tried to get a decent replacement for the BG unit, but to me he fell short and wasn’t honest about the performance difference.

This coming from a GR Research product owner.

 

[Penelinfi]

Imo it's a fair design. It measures generally fine aside from the tweeter distortion; it would be nice to do an ABX test on that seeing as Danny reckons it's not so important, and people here go off when there's more than 1%.
Clean spectral decay by the looks; will be interesting to see comparison moving forwards as Erin hasn't always had this measured on some older tests of great speakers.

NX Bravo isn't the best value orientated speaker or ultimate performance by ASR standards - I guess Danny is trying to make some money out of these/small business etc. But it's not the worst either. I'd like to try a pair for fun, but is not a priority owing to cost and/or project of which I already have many ;p

 

[richard12511]

Yup you cannot afford to bite the hand that feeds you.
And yes that is why ASR is the only totally impartial source around.
Keith

At the same time, it does seem like Erin gets more manufacturers sending him samples, which leads to him often getting to measure larger and more expensive speakers. Amir's brutal honestly mostly restricts him to what end users send him, and most users aren't willing to send their large main speakers away to get measured.

There are pros and cons to both approaches.

 

[boxerfan88]

At the same time, it does seem like Erin gets more manufacturers sending him samples, which leads to him often getting to measure larger and more expensive speakers.

Very very true. I observe more variety of speakers sent to him for measurement. I was happy he measured/reviewed the Blades.

 

[boxerfan88]

I’ve been watching Erin’s channel from the beginning and have also in touch here and there with Erin about some of his reviews and goals, and his channel has been consistent with what he has told me. And what he’s been saying on his channel.

His goal isn’t to rate speakers just “good or bad.” His goal is to explain the character of any loudspeaker under review, and relate that to the measurements in a way that educates the audience.

And that’s exactly why I like to watch Erin’s reviews. He tells what he heard subjectively, he shares the measurements, he tries to link his subjective view with objective measurements. Finally leave it to viewers to make up their own mind.

 

[amirm]

Let's move on from discussing Erin please. The review is the review. If you want another take on it, send me the same speaker.

 

[dfuller]

If you want another take on it, send me the same speaker.

I'm going to make the prediction that you are *not* gonna like it given you seem to prefer speakers on the warmer side of neutral and this is definitely not that.

 

[kemmler3D]

It really smells like a compromised review. Censoring ones true feelings about anything a a bit of a personal moral compromise.

Personally I value the measurements a lot more. if Erin or Amir want to say every speaker is the most wonderful item ever devised by human intellect, I can skip that part of the review and the graphs are still just as informative.

In other words, it's sort of impossible to compromise a review that includes this much objective data.

 

[Old_School_Brad]

Very much so. I find deception by omission to be a bug, not a feature

Oh, well. We can see the data for ourselves. What does it really matter what he says? I tend to skip ahead to the graphs in the video.

When you focus solely on the data, it gives us nearly the same insight as an ASR review. In fact, I find Erin's measurements even more valuable, especially with things like the compression measurements.

 

[Old_School_Brad]

And that’s exactly why I like to watch Erin’s reviews. He tells what he heard subjectively, he shares the measurements, he tries to link his subjective view with objective measurements. Finally leave it to viewers to make up their own mind.

That’s an approach I find logical. I really like it -it encourages learning and helps connect what you hear with the measurements.

 

[kimmosto]

Not normalized:

Normalized with on-axis:

Normalized with (interpolated) hor 15 deg off-axis (closest to LW):