GR Research X-LS Encore Kit Speaker Review

[carbidetooth]

What? That is not my understanding. EPA only sets the limit for Formaldehyde emissions. It has not at all outlawed its use. NAUF is an option costing more money.

Nor did I say it was outlawed. I did misspeak though. It is not a certification but rather emissions level compliance that the EPA is requiring. Perhaps there are mills that could still produce a non-NAUF panel, but sale of it would be difficult, particularly in California.

 

[Northa40]

Back in September I made the trip to Texas to visit some friends and stopped off at GR research and bought the X-LS kit from Danny and as promised I would report back once the kit was finished. I have been loosely following the flow of this thread and I am surprised at the varying points of view on the building of this kit. I have the tools to build from scratch but chose flat packs from Parts Express and cut the openings for the drivers myself in accordance to the X-LS plans. I find handling sheet of 3/4 MDA by myself problematic, for $85, I chose the flat pack.
X-LS kit with NO-REZ yes I used no rez 1 sheet is just about enough for the cabinets I chose.
CABINET FLAT PACK- https://www.parts-express.com/Knock-Down-MDF-0.56-ft-Bookshelf-Cabinet-300-7064?quantity=1
BINDING POST- https://www.parts-express.com/Dayto...ted-Binding-Post-Pair-Gold-091-630?quantity=1
BINDING POST PLATES- https://www.parts-express.com/Dayto...Post-Plate-Silver-Anodized-091-600?quantity=1
Plus various paints and glue.
So all in it is apx. $630

THE FLAT PACK
The flat pack from Parts Express is slightly larger than specified by GR Research, 0.56 vs .5 cubic ft. The width is the same but is a bit shallower and apx. 2 in taller. I placed the drivers at the specified height from the top of the cabinet. The front baffle comes with the sides rounded over but not the tops, so I rounded the tops of the baffle with a 1/2 round over, I think, old age.

THE BIND POSTS AND PLATES
In stead of using the TUBE CONNECTORS from GR Research, I choose the binding posts and plates from Parts Express. I just wanted the look. As for price, tube connectors are actually cheaper than my choice. Also I swapped out the steel lock washers for copper washers and secured them with THE RIGHT STUFF silicone,

PAINT AND GLUE
I used Gorilla wood glue for the cabinet, and THE RIGHT STUFF to glue in the port and on the binding post threads as a sort of thread locker.

BUILDING THE KIT
This a fairly basic kit to build but I can see how some might find the crossover wiring and soldering challenging. I have a good soldering station capable of putting out a lot of heat so the connections with 3 or 4 wires were not a problem. If you only have 25 watt pencil iron you had better invest in a better iron. I used small pieces of 1/4 plywood from the dollar store as the base for the crossover. They were small craft pieces, for $2.00 you can't go wrong.
Clamping the cabinets is straight forward, the more the merrier.

FINISING
So basic standard priming but I used rubberized, paintable automotive gravel guard. I chose this to try and control any panel resonances.

SOUND
So how do they sound? Pretty darn good! There is a good amount of bass response that is impactful and fast, no mush here. Mid range is good. I use SADE, COWBOY JUNKIES TRINITY AND BRUCE COKBURN as my vocal references. Margo's voice is outstanding. As for the highs I think that this is where the X-LS shines. While it is laid back just a bit there is detail in spades. I am going to call it the, "AIR." It is the attack and shimmer of symbols, the initial metallic strike of the drum stick as it hits the symbol, its the small details that set it aside from other speakers I've had. So I am satisfied and please with what I am hearing, definitely. I'm not disappointed.

MY THOUGHTS
I enjoyed building the kit and I'm glad I did. I purchased this while on vacation in Texas so that just added to the experience. This kit is is probably geared to those that have some experience in basic wood working and electrical and maybe for the person that has built a kit before and wants to up the ante a bit. There as been some questions about the build instructions and their clarity, all I can say is Danny is there to help if you have questions. I had questions before the purchase regarding the use of NO REZ and weather it takes up volume in the cabinet. Danny's response was no it would have no effect. That was that, that's all I needed to know. As for the debates above in previous posts regarding the use of NO REZ, round overs on the front baffle the use of solid wire etc. I feel that anyone building a kit such as this should do some home work and see what the best practices are and than decide weather or not the kit is for them. I knew, by doing research, what I was going to do and how I was going to do it. I suffer some mild tinnitus and felt that the more expensive caps would be wasted on me so I went with just the basic caps. The kit did come with one small sonicap by pass cap for the tweeter circuit.
The final question is, was the $630 USD I spent on this kit worth the time effort and expense? To me, yes of course, I would do it again. Can you get the same level of performance for less? Maybe? I own a pair of Paradigm Studio 80's MKII, they're good but are much more expensive and the crossovers are, in Danny's words, "CHEESEY."
I think anyone building this kit will be more than satisfied with the results, I know I am. I would recommend this kit for the person that wants the experience of building their own speakers and that as the resources required to do the job. As they say in TEXAS, Happy speaker building, Ya'll.

 

[maltux]

Back in September I made the trip to Texas to visit some friends and stopped off at GR research and bought the X-LS kit from Danny and as promised I would report back once the kit was finished. I have been loosely following the flow of this thread and I am surprised at the varying points of view on the building of this kit.

I built the XLS maybe 15 years ago and paid maybe $125. I was never very happy with them even prefering the Overnight Sensations. The Swan-Hivi 2 way kits (Amazon) for @$239 including flatpaks are a much better speaker. I have since built two more Swan-Hiv kits really enjoying the results. Beauty is in the eye (or ear) of the beholder I guess. About the only thing Danny and I agree; is our love for soccer (football). Cheers!

 

[Northa40]

Things have gone up in price. I work in automotive parts and it is shocking. We have parts that have doubled in 2 years. The C-note from Parts Express is now $140 that is up apx 28% based on list price, even the X-LS was cheaper pre COVID. So cost aside I still like these speakers, they are the most detailed speakers I have owned but I do lean towards a more neutral sound. Thanks for the response I enjoy hearing others points of view. This was sent from the flat side of the earth. LOL

 

[RickS]

I like DIY but unfortunately it just does not compete well in this price range. Notably when you compare to most of them to Philharmonic’s ceramic monitor for $850/pair. The Ceramics have way better drivers, a well-designed crossover and are nicely finished. There are some contemporary speakers from established brands that also readily outperform the very dated XL-S Encore.

No need for snake oil add-ons or barbecue offers. If you are enjoying your GR speakers, carry on, but those shopping today have much better speakers available for the money.

 

[Northa40]

I have often thought about building the over night sensation, any thoughts on the Tri Trix?

 

[RickS]

I have often thought about building the over night sensation, any thoughts on the Tri Trix?

Have not built either. Objectively, between 2 dated designs, the TriTrix would be my choice. I like floor standers and has better design creds imo.

 

[Xcaliber]

possibly people sending in their speakers for "upgrades."

For real? C'mon man.... LOL

 

[RickS]

For real? C'mon man.... LOL

Classic Danny "fixing" the wrong problem and adding worse ones. For that matter, he wants more than half the price of the speaker for his upgrade that could be readily addressed by equalization. His upgrade screws up the decent horizontal directivity of the Polk R200 and likely adds distortion due to lowering the crossover point to half of the stock speaker. As I see more of his upgrades, see more and more errors. So, leads one to conclude that any decent results he gets are more luck than skill. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Xcaliber]

Classic Danny "fixing" the wrong problem and adding worse ones. For that matter, he wants more than half the price of the speaker for his upgrade that could be readily addressed by equalization. His upgrade screws up the decent horizontal directivity of the Polk R200 and likely adds distortion due to lowering the crossover point to half of the stock speaker. As I see more of his upgrades, see more and more errors. So leads one to think anything decent results he gets are more luck than skill. Thanks for sharing.

I've been out of the "audiophile" scene for over a decade and only came back recently into this hobby again, during my research on speaker reviews on YT i came across GR Research, never heard of them until now, the more i watch his YT videos the more it seems like the dude is constantly crapping on everyone else and always find something seriously wrong with other speakers EXCEPT his own stuff. LOL I started to notice the same trend over and over again, the majority of his video seems to be running on the same theme, always lead one back to buy his DIY kits, his cables, or his speakers.

Dude is working hard and trying to make a living, i gets it, I'm all about supporting locals and small businesses, but it's how he go about it that really puzzled me, it's just way too much to keep crapping on others in order to promote and sell his own Kool-aids. Out of curiosity i went to check out his X-LS Encore speakers, what is up with him only showing FR from 200hz and up? Where is the lower FR? I was searching for more data and measurement, that's what lead me to this thread just so i get to see a more complete measurement, it's nowhere near as linear or as good as he lead me to believe, and the speaker he is selling ain't exactly cheap either, the cheapest finished XLS Encore cost $1160....That's a lot of money for something that look like it came straight out of Radioshack or Walmart!!!


I got a chuckle to read some of those comment section from his video as well...

The more i watch his videos, the more ridiculous stuff I came across....smh

 

[Penelinfi]

Maybe he could have notched the peak and then just sold a kit of "upgraded parts". I guess that by itself doesn't make a big enough difference for people to hear. After all, it's mainly the crossover component value changes that makes the biggest difference.

 

[RickS]

Maybe he could have notched the peak and then just sold a kit of "upgraded parts". I guess that by itself doesn't make a big enough difference for people to hear. After all, it's mainly the crossover component value changes that makes the biggest difference.

As mentioned previously, this is about internet self-promotion as he is unlikely to sell many upgrades. He does not even bother to list what you are getting for $400 or more. He claims he is supporting DIY but there is no sign of build instructions. As @Xcaliber post illustrates, as soon as Danny is challenged, he does not defend the upgrade but tries to sell his GR-brand speaker.

The Ascend offering is a better, more contemporary design with an actual stated warranty. Ascend makes GR look like a sad garage shop operation.


p.s. another indication that his upgrades are just an attention grab, Danny claims he sells the parts at cost.

 

[Botch250]

I saw that he states this is the Peerless T26SG, I tried looking it up and it turns out that it's made by Peerless of India, which is an offshoot of Peerless and their model name is "TL26SG". Too bad about the distortion, as the directivity is decently wide and measured performance (trying to ignore that baffle diffraction) looks pretty good. I do not know if the company is still in business as I can't find a working website, I did find another website selling them for ~$40/pair (Danny is ~$50/each), but no US shipping (many countries and US territories, but not the 50 states).

The distortion at higher listening levels is real and easily heard. The objective distortion measurements are spot on. At moderate listening levels these are good to very good speakers and I enjoyed them. But at higher volume levels, which I prefer, the distortion makes itself very much known. A single horn passage becomes lean and strident. A whole horn section together becomes a cacophony. This is a non-starter for me. The finished speaker prices ($1050.00 - $1,400.00) do not seem to be a good value. No one should pay $50 for that tweeter when there are world class tweeters from SB Acoustics, Seas, Scan-Speak and others in that price range or only $60. I agree with GR Research that most xovers in production speakers are cheap and should be upgraded. However their recommendation on spending more on capacitors and connectors for for the XLS Encore than the actual drivers cost is beyond me. My XLS Encores are from AV123 and I only paid $150.00 used. Was going to do the cap and resistor upgrade, but decided against after listening. Get a Madisound, Jeff Bagby or Zaph kit. I'd steer clear of GR Research. YMMV. Just my opinion and worth every penny you paid for it.

 

[AdamG]

The distortion at higher listening levels is real and easily heard. The objective distortion measurements are spot on. At moderate listening levels these are good to very good speakers and I enjoyed them. But at higher volume levels, which I prefer, the distortion makes itself very much known. A single horn passage becomes lean and strident. A whole horn section together becomes a cacophony. This is a non-starter for me. The finished speaker prices ($1050.00 - $1,400.00) do not seem to be a good value. No one should pay $50 for that tweeter when there are world class tweeters from SB Acoustics, Seas, Scan-Speak and others in that price range or only $60. I agree with GR Research that most xovers in production speakers are cheap and should be upgraded. However their recommendation on spending more on capacitors and connectors for for the XLS Encore than the actual drivers cost is beyond me. My XLS Encores are from AV123 and I only paid $150.00 used. Was going to do the cap and resistor upgrade, but decided against after listening. Get a Madisound, Jeff Bagby or Zaph kit. I'd steer clear of GR Research. YMMV. Just my opinion and worth every penny you paid for it.

Welcome aboard @Botch250.

 

[dhwrench]

I bought the original AV123 SLS speaker years ago, probably around 2006. Liked the look and sounded ok. After I retired in 2010, bought the Skiing Ninja crossover upgrade with all the upgrades, including new tweeter and no-rez. Over a few weeks, installed everything, no-rez was a bitch getting into place, and added sand to the bottom of the speaker for additional weight. The speakers sounded much improved and I've been listening to them for almost 15 years, mostly jazz. My criteria for how good a stereo component is, is how much I tend to listen to it. By that criteria, the SLS with upgrades has been a huge success.