GR Research LGK 2.0 Speaker Review (A Joke)

[Thomas savage]

Did Amir use The correct cable lifters to test these speakers?
[View attachment 212263

Sorry, I did respect Danny first, but after a lot of BS video‘s I’am finished with GR Research.
This video

tells me Danny lost it…..

Ah , that's why i couldn't get loo roll for love nor money back in 2020 ..

I thought it was some bizarre covid19 related panic buying but no ! Bloody audiophiles, AGAIN .

 

[-Jim-]

Gentlemen,

I just had to join your forum to comment on your project with this speaker. I'd been after Audioholics to test some of GR Research speakers for some time, but you beat them to the punch. Thank-you.

Although this speaker are not exactly what I was after, it does show how much BS is coming from Danny => even though he sounds so righteous & convincing on YouTube. I was looking for Audioholics to test a GR modified brand name speaker last December. A member there (Pandaman617) paid GR to “upgrade” the crossover in an SVS Ultra Center. Audioholics had already done a review of that speaker, and had the data. After some discussion via posts on that forum, I was able to convince Pandaman617 to volunteer to send it to Gene to test. But I think it stalled somehow. I'll have to direct a post to them to find out what happened.

I don't know anyone who'd pay GR Research for this speaker after reading your review. Well done. Keep the faith.

Regards,

Jim

​

 

[kokakolia]

I still firmly believe a good widebander is an underrated option, but only in the ultra-compact desktop class (where you are sitting near enough that vertical lobes are a plausible issue), and definitely not at $1,000. Think $400, max. And that's with something like a Scanspeak 10F/8414. Unless one is going with a sideloaded woofer ala Boenicke W5.

The fact is the LGKs, and their ilk like the Blumenstein Orcas have run away with the market. Many fetishise exotic approaches for the sake of being exotic, rather than the acoustic properties of the driver + driver configuration. And within the many are quite a few who specifically fetishise single driver speakers unthinkingly.

I'm worried that the folks on this forum will jump to the conclusion: "Full range drivers suck!". I spent over 1000€ on tiny fullrange bookshelf speakers with transmission lines (Closer Acoustics Ogy). And I don't need someone else to tell me they suck without giving them a listen. I'll happily live with my Ogy speakers. They're lovely.

 

[Newman]

If your 5-inch is "tiny", what's your description for the LGK?

 

[tomtoo]

If your 5-inch is "tiny", what's your description for the LGK?

Isnt it a 4inch?

 

[Toni Mas]

Isnt it a 4inch?

It is.

http://www.emspeaker.com/fiche_LB5.pdf

A very special driver for very special listeners...

 

[Toni Mas]

I'm worried that the folks on this forum will jump to the conclusion: "Full range drivers suck!". I spent over 1000€ on tiny fullrange bookshelf speakers with transmission lines (Closer Acoustics Ogy). And I don't need someone else to tell me they suck without giving them a listen. I'll happily live with my Ogy speakers. They're lovely.

I admit that Toole's criteria based on statitistical listeners preferences do not apply to all listeners, and it looks you are one of these exceptions...

I would not say "Full range drivers suck!", because am myself a full range fan, but when I read at Closer Acoustics that this other LGK does not include any filter ( not even for Baffle step correction) to get the tonal balance I personally need, and also that the EMS driver has a Qts of 0,12 ( low mass cone +big magnet for high(er) sensitivity), I do not need the Klippel tool to imagine what the PIR curve will look like and how the speaker will sound like: Extended Midrange Specialist...

But OK, not all listener's preferences have to match Toole's criteria...

 

[tomtoo]

I admit that Toole's criteria based on statitistical listeners preferences do not apply to all listeners, and it looks you are one of these exceptions...

I would not say "Full range drivers suck!", because am myself a full range fan, but when I read at Closer Acoustics that this other LGK does not include any filter ( not even for Baffle step correction) to get the tonal balance I personally need, and also that the EMS driver has a Qts of 0,12 ( low mass cone +big magnet for high(er) sensitivity), I do not need the Klippel tool to imagine what the PIR curve will look like and how the speaker will sound like: Extended Midrange Specialist...

But OK, not all listener's preferences have to match Toole's criteria...

At least the driver has some midrange dip. And over 12k there comes not much out. Hard to imagine how this would sound to me. The more complicted FR curves get, the harder to imagine, at least for me.


But at the end i can get a pair of kali in8 cheaper.

 

[Toni Mas]

At least the driver has some midrange dip. And over 12k there comes not much out. Hard to imagine how this would sound to me. The more complicted FR curves get, the harder to imagine, at least for me.


Sry for ot.

I imagine a rising PIR 6db/oct from 50hz to 1000hz and falling in a similar way to 10000hz and practically nothing above...

PD: same PIR curve for the GR LGK with its filters removed...

 

[kokakolia]

I admit that Toole's criteria based on statitistical listeners preferences do not apply to all listeners, and it looks you are one of these exceptions...

I would not say "Full range drivers suck!", because am myself a full range fan, but when I read at Closer Acoustics that this other LGK does not include any filter ( not even for Baffle step correction) to get the tonal balance I personally need, and also that the EMS driver has a Qts of 0,12 ( low mass cone +big magnet for high(er) sensitivity), I do not need the Klippel tool to imagine what the PIR curve will look like and how the speaker will sound like: Extended Midrange Specialist...

But OK, not all listener's preferences have to match Toole's criteria...

I love midrange. I pair my OGY with a custom-built EL34 tube amplifier. I'm also using a REL T5/x sub to add bass. I like a warm, smooth and enveloping sound. Sibilant and hot treble is a hard no for me. I find that a lot of genres like indie rock, folk, chamber music etc... suffer from having recessed midrange. And most of the recommended speakers/headphones on the market like the Klipsch RP600M and Philips SHP9500 have recessed midrange (I HATE these two products FYI). So this "one size fits all" approach hurt me a lot in the past.

But I sound like a broken record basically stating that my subjective tastes are objectively wrong.

 

[tomtoo]

I imagine a rising PIR 6db/oct from 50hz to 1000hz and falling in a similar way to 10000hz and practically nothing above...

PD: same PIR curve for the GR LGL with its filters removed...

Propably Needs a lot of full range driver love.

 

[tomtoo]

I love midrange. I pair my OGY with a custom-built EL34 tube amplifier. I'm also using a REL T5/x sub to add bass. I like a warm, smooth and enveloping sound. Sibilant and hot treble is a hard no for me. I find that a lot of genres like indie rock, folk, chamber music etc... suffer from having recessed midrange. And most of the recommended speakers/headphones on the market like the Klipsch RP600M and Philips SHP9500 have recessed midrange (I HATE these two products FYI). So this "one size fits all" approach hurt me a lot in the past.

But I sound like a broken record basically stating that my subjective tastes are objectively wrong.

At the end, you have to be happy with the sound. No need to fit into a statistic.

 

[Toni Mas]

I love midrange. I pair my OGY with a custom-built EL34 tube amplifier. I'm also using a REL T5/x sub to add bass. I like a warm, smooth and enveloping sound. Sibilant and hot treble is a hard no for me. I find that a lot of genres like indie rock, folk, chamber music etc... suffer from having recessed midrange. And most of the recommended speakers/headphones on the market like the Klipsch RP600M and Philips SHP9500 have recessed midrange (I HATE these two products FYI). So this "one size fits all" approach hurt me a lot in the past.

But I sound like a broken record basically stating that my subjective tastes are objectively wrong.

Not at all... Taste is never right or wrong... It simple matches some standards or not...

Btw i respect Toole's studies, but their speakers are not my cup of tea...

 

[Newman]

Isnt it a 4inch?

It is.

5 is 5: speakers are described by their nominal size, not effective area.

Manufactrurer says its sound isn’t realistic without a bass driver. Which is exactly the same as saying it is not a full range speaker.

 

[Newman]

I pair my OGY with a custom-built EL34 tube amplifier. I'm also using a REL T5/x sub to add bass. I like a warm, smooth and enveloping sound. Sibilant and hot treble is a hard no for me.

EM5 manufacturer I quoted above says its sound is “very sharp”. That’s a hard no for you.

So you buy a speaker using a driver described by its manufacuturer as very sharp, but you hate that quality, so you pair it with a tube amp that you claim is super soft. And you think this is anything other than going in giant circles?

IMO a classic case of where audiophiles end up when doing too much by ear.

 

[tomtoo]

5 is 5: speakers are described by their nominal size, not effective area.
View attachment 212334

Manufactrurer says its sound isn’t realistic without a bass driver. Which is exactly the same as saying it is not a full range speaker.

I did only read this on the Closer A. Page.

"...OGY uses an excellent fullrange driver, the EMS LB5 (10 cm diameter)..."

The driver manufacturer is not sure if its a full range, and the speaker manufacturer is not sure if its 4 or 5 inch. Not so good signs.

 

[Toni Mas]

5 is 5: speakers are described by their nominal size, not effective area.
View attachment 212334

Manufactrurer says its sound isn’t realistic without a bass driver. Which is exactly the same as saying it is not a full range speaker.

Nominal diameter is misleading as very often it does not correlate with effective area.

 

[Toni Mas]

EM5 manufacturer I quoted above says its sound is “very sharp”. That’s a hard no for you.

So you buy a speaker using a driver described by its manufacuturer as very sharp, but you hate that quality, so you pair it with a tube amp that you claim is super soft. And you think this is anything other than going in giant circles?

IMO a classic case of where audiophiles end up when doing too much by ear.

This is nothing new in audiophile circles. It is clear to me that this culture exists from very long ago, followers of minimalist designs based on Fostex, Lowther, etc... drivers... These things may sound extremely detailed in the midrange and upper midrange, even sharp, with an extremely light tonal balance and bass if present is generally extremely shy and recessed. Some musical programs are listenable with such speakers, but i personnaly prefer something more "full bodied"...

 

[sarumbear]

No, it's a straight formula from the Klippel data, which is as per CEA 2034 Spinorama data:

(JBL LSR-305P measurement)

The room used to generate the percentages was the prototype IEC 268-13 (1985) room, meant to represent fairly normal home listening scenarios. So not undefined, but actually quite precisely specified.

Thank you! I wasn't aware of that. In which case it should be pretty straightforward for Klippel to offer in-room simulation for different type of speaker positioning and different size rooms. It will be nice to see if there will be large differences. I expect there will be between a modest sized 2-way placed on a shelf and a large 4-stander in a large room placed away from the walls.

Klippel has progressed so much in speaker measurement that I think it is time to enter the behaviour in listening spaces -- says the acoustician in me

 

[MacCali]

When I was new to audio and like many turning to YT for reviews.

I recall the first time I saw his video which randomly came up about speaker cables and all the dumb ass crap I heard out of mouth. So I just let it pass until I heard the price for his DIY kit.

All vapor ware salesman, I think it only took two or three different topics from him and he got cut off

I think audio in general should help people realize how easy it is to form or found a cult lol