GR Research Speaker Upgrade Review (Sierra-2EX V2) [Video]

[amirm]

The interest surprised me. Seems like there are a lot more people frustrated by Danny and GR Research than I expected.

 

[Power Pop 23]

Does this mean in the future we can expect 'upgrades' from GR Research for loudspeakers from AsciLab ?

An 'upgrade' that Tested Audio dot com will have to assemble and then arrange for an independent measurement with the Klippel NFS at Erin's Audio Corner ?

 

[Selkirks]

Does this mean in the future we can expect 'upgrades' from GR Research for loudspeakers from AsciLab ?

An 'upgrade' that Tested Audio dot com will have to assemble and then arrange for an independent measurement with the Klippel NFS at Erin's Audio Corner ?

He will let us know about the cheesy internals.

 

[kemmler3D]

Does this mean in the future we can expect 'upgrades' from GR Research for loudspeakers from AsciLab ?

An 'upgrade' that Tested Audio dot com will have to assemble and then arrange for an independent measurement with the Klippel NFS at Erin's Audio Corner ?

Danny trying to fix an Ascilab crossover would be like going up to an atomic clock and trying to "fix" it with a stopwatch and a hammer. Would love to see him try.

 

[G|force]

Maybe Danny can whip up an upgrade kit to address the KH80's cheesy caps.
Nah, better to just go to DigiKey.

 

[dfuller]

Danny trying to fix an Ascilab crossover would be like going up to an atomic clock and trying to "fix" it with a stopwatch and a hammer. Would love to see him try.

Honestly, I think it would be comical at some level. I have to imagine it would be very much along the lines of this Ascend thing.

 

[amirm]

Danny is welcome to try and upgrade the AsciLab speakers.

 

[kemmler3D]

Honestly, I think it would be comical at some level. I have to imagine it would be very much along the lines of this Ascend thing.

It would... I mean, even getting to the point of finding a distinct flaw that's worth fixing would be kind of hard. I get the sense that they totally max out the drivers they use. It's not like (even) a B&W where you can just casually walk up and find things that are at least controversial.

If I were Danny trying to "fix" a fairly technically ideal speaker like Ascilab's line, I'd probably just punt and say the stock tuning is "boring" or "clinical" and I'm fixing that by making it different.

 

[Randolf]

I am still monitoring Danny's JBL 100 Classic upgrade youtube comments and just found this:

Danny doesn't exactly cite his source. I found the follwing by myself he might refer to:

and

Headphonesty article "Modern Measurement Tools Are Tricking Audiophiles Into Trusting Bad Data, Warns Veteran Speaker Designer"

I recommend to view / read both, the later contains:

An example of this is the Klippel analyzer. This works by automating the multi-angle measurements needed to avoid having to manually reposition either the speaker or microphone dozens of times to capture directional data. But according to Jones, this automation has introduced a dangerous problem.

“There’s nothing you can do now to measure a speaker that we weren’t able to do with the equipment we at KEF were doing back in the late ’70s.” Jones said during Audio Advice Live 2025. “So for me, all it’s done is make it cheaper, and for people to get the wrong answer.”

To prove this, he talked about a round-robin exercise he once did. Basically, he built a speaker and measured it himself. Then, he sent it to the international standards committee members for independent measurements. The results revealed a troubling problem.

“They weren’t even close,” Jones said. “They only varied by 2 to 3 dB in different frequency ranges. And that’s people who were setting the standards for measuring.”

So does he really said that Klippel NFS measurements vary much here? I don't think so. I am not even sure if any of these measurements were done on a Klippel NFS at all. To me Andrew more less wanted to point out that you have to measure with care and that you need to interpret the result properly. I think this is exactly where Amir and Erin make a fantastic job. Maybe there is more Andrew Jones said about Klippel but to me Danny makes false claims here.

Erin just commented in Danny video:

@ErinsAudioCorner​

vor 2 Stunden
Danny, I appreciate the shoutout. Unfortunately, you have a couple significant issues here that have been brought to my attention.First, you misunderstand how the Klippel NFS works. Simply put, there is no “averaging” of the direct sound. That’s actually the entire opposite of how it works. I’d be happy to have a convo with you about it. You’re welcome to fly to Alabama and check it out in person and i can explain it all to you in real time. Or you can watch my interview with one of the designers which is on my page. Second, I measured the MkII version. You clearly have the MkI version as seen on the stickers of your speaker.

 

[amirm]

Send him an active one so he can rip out everything and stuff the cabinet full of huge foil inductors and Sonicaps with an LCR trap so its full potential can be realized with tube amps.

I'll donate.

Truth to be told, he asked for a review sample a while back! This is what he wrote on contact page of TestedAudio.com: "Send me a pair and I'll do a YouTube critique on them"

Seeing how every time I asked for a review sample to measure and review, he has told me he already has measured them so no need, I told him this:

"Thanks for the interest. When you say “critique,” what do you mean? Measuring them? If so, we have high resolution and broad set of measurements for the speakers already. You are welcome to critiquing them at your pleasure.

If you mean opening them to check out the “parts,” the pictures are available so you can do that as well. As you can imagine, we can’t let you take apart the speaker and then send them back to us. We would have to re-test and make sure there is no damage and then resell as B stock. That’s an expense we don’t want to incur. We could sell you a pair at our burdened cost if you want to purchase them if that is your aim.

Anyway, currently we are out of stock on all the speakers. Every shipment we get, sells out in a couple of days. There is incredible pent-up demand for speakers that can objectively be shown to be high fidelity. By summer, we should have more inventory, and I can loan you a pair then."

Never heard back. I wonder if he didn't realize I would be the one responding.

 

[amirm]

So does he really said that Klippel NFS measurements vary much here? I don't think so.

In another video. Andrew complained about small variations that Klippel shows to be false (we discussed it in another thread). I challenge that as there are many sources of interference from port and diffraction as to cause these small variations. Gated measurements he uses likely hide them.

Andrew's motivation is similar to Danny. Both want a justification to not own one. None of their complaints has merit.

 

[Ageve]

Just watched his video on the $13,000 Dynaudio Confidence 20.

Yet another case of him screwing up the directivity...

His comment:

...and also the horizontal off-axis, is almost exactly the same as it was. That didn't change much either.

(using the same 25 dB vertical scale as he does)

Dynaudio Confidence Upgrade Kit | GR-Research

gr-research.com

 

[SoySalsaPicante]

In another video. Andrew complained about small variations that Klippel shows to be false (we discussed it in another thread). I challenge that as there are many sources of interference from port and diffraction as to cause these small variations. Gated measurements he uses likely hide them.

Andrew's motivation is similar to Danny. Both want a justification to not own one. None of their complaints has merit.

Be that as it may, one is taking perfectly good speakers and faffing them up whilst the other is designing excellent objectively performing speakers despite.

 

[dfuller]

It would... I mean, even getting to the point of finding a distinct flaw that's worth fixing would be kind of hard. I get the sense that they totally max out the drivers they use. It's not like (even) a B&W where you can just casually walk up and find things that are at least controversial.

If I were Danny trying to "fix" a fairly technically ideal speaker like Ascilab's line, I'd probably just punt and say the stock tuning is "boring" or "clinical" and I'm fixing that by making it different.

The only thing that comes to mind is that on-axis diffraction peak around 4.5-5KHz caused by the waveguide geometry... but that really can't be solved by a crossover, and is incredibly minor.

 

[amirm]

BTW, back in 2023, this is what Danny wrote me regarding my measurements with Klippel NFS taking 5 hours:

"It really takes you 5 hours to set things up for taking measurements? Man, you need a more usable measuring system.

When a customer brings in a speaker for measuring, we can set it up and take every measurement in about five minutes."

I wrote back:
"The 5 hours is due to complex soundfield that the open baffle creates. Normally it would be 2.5 hours. I can also do the 5 minute gated measurements you are doing but it won’t have any bass resolution where this problem is. The measurement you are seeing from me is fully anechoic down to 20 Hz."

He wrote back (in part):

"Also, taking multiple measurements from every angle and estrapuating [extrapolating] what the actual response might be is not exactly high resolution."

I wrote back:

"You seem to be using some lay understanding of how the system works to be saying stuff like that. Klippel NFS samples the 3-D space and then solves the partial differential equations for wave propagation. Once there, it is able to then produce the response at any point in space down to 1-degree spatial resolution. That blows away the crude few in-room measurements you perform at a few angles and with no useful response below a few hundred hertz. This high resolution measurements are critical to properly computing listening window, early window, and predicted in-room response at 2 meter point per CEA/CTA-2034 standard. I suggest reading this tutorial on how the system works before saying stuff like that: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...nderstanding-how-the-klippel-nfs-works.13139/"

So as far back as 2023, I had explained to him the core principle of Klippel NFS. The man just refuses to educate himself. He writes back:

"You seem to be using some lay understanding of how speakers work. You certainly struggle to understand the measurements. 5 hours to get useful information? Who has time for that?

Don't waste any more of my time."

The man's attitude is just stunning.

 

[Ageve]

So as far back as 2023, I had explained to him the core principle of Klippel NFS. The man just refuses to educate himself. He writes back:

"You seem to be using some lay understanding of how speakers work. You certainly struggle to understand the measurements. 5 hours to get useful information? Who has time for that?

Don't waste any more of my time."

The man's attitude is just stunning.

It made me think of this scene:

 

[G|force]

Willful ignorance coupled with scorn and envy. Not a good look.

 

[kemmler3D]

BTW, back in 2023, this is what Danny wrote me regarding my measurements with Klippel NFS taking 5 hours:

"It really takes you 5 hours to set things up for taking measurements? Man, you need a more usable measuring system.

When a customer brings in a speaker for measuring, we can set it up and take every measurement in about five minutes."

I wrote back:
"The 5 hours is due to complex soundfield that the open baffle creates. Normally it would be 2.5 hours. I can also do the 5 minute gated measurements you are doing but it won’t have any bass resolution where this problem is. The measurement you are seeing from me is fully anechoic down to 20 Hz."

He wrote back (in part):

"Also, taking multiple measurements from every angle and estrapuating [extrapolating] what the actual response might be is not exactly high resolution."

I wrote back:

"You seem to be using some lay understanding of how the system works to be saying stuff like that. Klippel NFS samples the 3-D space and then solves the partial differential equations for wave propagation. Once there, it is able to then produce the response at any point in space down to 1-degree spatial resolution. That blows away the crude few in-room measurements you perform at a few angles and with no useful response below a few hundred hertz. This high resolution measurements are critical to properly computing listening window, early window, and predicted in-room response at 2 meter point per CEA/CTA-2034 standard. I suggest reading this tutorial on how the system works before saying stuff like that: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...nderstanding-how-the-klippel-nfs-works.13139/"

So as far back as 2023, I had explained to him the core principle of Klippel NFS. The man just refuses to educate himself. He writes back:

"You seem to be using some lay understanding of how speakers work. You certainly struggle to understand the measurements. 5 hours to get useful information? Who has time for that?

Don't waste any more of my time."

The man's attitude is just stunning.

Typical narcissist's escape hatch - you are always wrong, and if you're right, I will refuse to acknowledge it and call you unreasonable to get out of the discussion.

 

[Rick63]

If Danny ever bought a Klippel NFS he would probably have to "upgrade" it before even using it.

Edit: Oh wait, there'd be no profit in that.

 

[Sir Sanders Zingmore]

Headphonesty article "Modern Measurement Tools Are Tricking Audiophiles Into Trusting Bad Data, Warns Veteran Speaker Designer"

I recommend to view / read both, the later contains:

I recommend avoiding Headphone sty. It contains primarily AI generated click bait