GR Research

[Tangband]

They really need to have something like TV's where there is a 'demo mode' setting so the picture looks good in the super bright store. Because the better speakers often sound bland in the store.



Buried in all the BS he probably has some good points but it is hard to put any weight into what someone says when you have to filter out so much of what they say. He is the classic example of a little bit of knowledge and a little bit of fact mixed in with plentiful BS so it sounds better.
It makes me cringe slightly when I see him referred to by people as an expert.



I still think the people that just blindly switch out coils and capacitors have to be careful as they will end up with different resistances and it will affect the overall function of the crossover.
People that do measurements on the changes don't risk that but I think his videos lead a lot of inexperienced people to break open the crossovers in their speakers and spend a lot on 'upgraded' components.

The number one thing I see as a comment from people that replace electrolytic capacitors with poly is 'more detail'. Well, a poly will have less ESR so a bit more power will make it to the tweeter to increase the highs and thus... detail. And if they are replacing a really old electrolytic it may have been functioning more as a resistor so the difference will be even more amazing. Similar thing with changing iron core coils to air core. If you replace a low resistance iron core on your woofer with a higher resistance air core then the woofer will get a tiny bit quieter and again, the highs will stand out more.

The measuring and matching cheaper resistors is a great way to get more accurate parts without spending a fortune.

Ofcourse one have to have the same resistance with the components, especially the aircoils and thats gonna be rather expensive. DIY can be fun and can be good but can also result in no better sound and a lot of work.
A good measurement mic and a good loudspeaker program is a must.

 

[ta240]

Ofcourse one have to have the same resistance with the components, especially the aircoils and thats gonna be rather expensive. DIY can be fun and can be good but can also result in no better sound and a lot of work.
A good measurement mic and a good loudspeaker program is a must.

Rarely do the ones advocating the costly component upgrades share that simple bit of information.

I'd guess there are a lot of people that have spent a lot of money on fancy capacitors and air core inductors that never heard that and their end results show it.

Danny's advise is 'just replace everything!" without even the slightest guideline for how to pick what the parts to keep from messing things up. I can't imagine many, if any, of his followers looking at DCR and ESR.

 

[squeedle]

Danny's advise is 'just replace everything!" without even the slightest guideline for how to pick what the parts to keep from messing things up.

His guideline is to buy what he sells. LOL.

 

[k3nn3th]

I bought an upgrade kit from Danny for my BW 602 S2. I did the improvement
with my buddies. We were impressed with the results. If you have a beloved set and don't want to buy a whole new set of speakers, which outcome may be uncertain, then I think this is a good solution.
Just don't ship it over the half world like I did.
He packed everything really well, gave instructions too. Answered all the questions which I had.

 

[kwharder]

Lately I have become really fascinated by the GR Research YT channel, and appreciated his consistent measurement-based approach to analyzing and improving on speaker designs. So much so that I've become seriously interested in his open baffle servo subwoofer offerings, and his NX-Otica open baffle tower speakers. But then he posted those insane "flat earther" videos about speaker cables and now power cables, and it kind of turned my stomach. So I have a couple of questions now...

1) Are his speaker products legitimately good and he's just being kind of a weasel about the cables and whatnot? Or is he a total charlatan?

2) Is there any truth to his claims about good capacitors being "faster" than bad ones? Assuming two different capacitors have the same exact value, do they function identically? (For the sake of this hypothetical, let's ignore any capacitance margin of error which might be more common for cheaper capacitors and assume both ACTUALLY DO have the exact same value, and let's also not get into longevity of electrolytic media, let's just focus on the signal output).

Genuinely curious to hear your thoughts on this, not trying to start a war or anything. And yes I know there are multiple threads about this guy already, I've read them. Not trying to diss him, give him extra publicity, etc. Hope my questions are well received. Thanks.

To me, a flat high end frequency response is best and Danny is trying to accomplish this with his speaker modifications.
You also have to have a good ear to hear the small db differences and differences that components and cables make.
I agree with most of what he says and I am actually surprised that a lot of people don’t.
To each there own. Cheers!

 

[amirm]

You also have to have a good ear to hear the small db differences and differences that components and cables make.

A good ear can't hear the difference that is not there! Let's remember that Danny said the difference is so obvious that he was going to do a blind test and even have his staff pass it. Months have gone by and the test is nowhere to be seen even though people remind him in his youtube video comments.

 

[Spkrdctr]

A good ear can't hear the difference that is not there! Let's remember that Danny said the difference is so obvious that he was going to do a blind test and even have his staff pass it. Months have gone by and the test is nowhere to be seen even though people remind him in his youtube video comments.

I'm assuming that he started looking into just a simple basic blind test and realized it was a lot of work. He is always backed up with lots of work to do so it isn't worth it for him to follow up on that. Most people think a blind test is just an A/B with someone doing switching for you. A very basic non-Amir approved blind test as we did them for 25 years is not all that hard but it does take some work and time, sometimes a lot of time. The tests I was involved in were so slanted to allow the listener to hear a difference it was unbelievable. We still had no one ever come close. These were all stereo speaker tests, no headphones. The number of nationally known audiophiles (from most of the audio rags, I mean mags) that were saying they could EASILY hear the difference all went down in flames. Different amp? Nope. Wires? Nope Interconnects? Nope. We even, and I know this will shock Amir and our other engineers on ASR, we bent so far over to have someone, anyone, be able to tell any difference we even did completely different systems! Everything was different, Receiver, wires etc., the only constant was the speakers in the same position to the listening chair. Even complete systems were not able to be picked out for any difference.

One quick story from this old man. The best and most memorable was taking a relatively cheap receiver with one 14ga ultra cheap wire (this was before Monster Cable!) about 10 feet long and the other wire about 40 feet long and we coiled the wire up to see if we had any weird effects from the coiling. This versus fairly expensive high end pre-amp and amp with high dollar speaker wire and interconnects. Still, no one could tell any difference. But hundreds of audiophiles swore on the Bible they could tell everything apart with a small listening session. In fact they always said it would be EASY. We humbled them all. After 50 years, I'm still waiting for one person to be able to actually pass even a basic, fairly poorly run blind test. Knowing what we know about the ear/brain function from experts like JJ, it is not going to happen until we evolve to another level, like an alien!

Hey, a new speaker brand, Alien speakers! I thought of it first.

 

[Chrispy]

To me, a flat high end frequency response is best and Danny is trying to accomplish this with his speaker modifications.
You also have to have a good ear to hear the small db differences and differences that components and cables make.
I agree with most of what he says and I am actually surprised that a lot of people don’t.
To each there own. Cheers!

Well, if you believe in cables....

 

[More Dynamics Please]

If an A/B test was set up where the participants were asked whether or not they could hear a difference in performance between cheap and expensive audio cables but no actual change was made and the same cable was used for both A and B I wonder how many would claim they could easily hear a difference?

 

[kwharder]

I was referring to the flat high frequency response of speakers that I have experience
and can hear the difference.

For speaker cables, I have found the heaviest gauges work the best for me and
no need for expensive cables.
Most amps cannot take more than 16 gauge anyways. I tried 14 gauge before
and had to remove a few strands to make them work.
I have even used line cord / 16 gauge with no issues.
I have never experienced any noise / interference.

RCA Cables etc. , I would never pay so much for them anyways knowing that
most amplifiers do not have expensive shielded / cabling inside and route cabling
through switches, relays etc.

Just my opinions.

 

[Chrispy]

I was referring to the flat high frequency response of speakers that I have experience
and can hear the difference.

For speaker cables, I have found the heaviest gauges work the best for me and
no need for expensive cables.
Most amps cannot take more than 16 gauge anyways. I tried 14 gauge before
and had to remove a few strands to make them work.
I have even used line cord / 16 gauge with no issues.
I have never experienced any noise / interference.

RCA Cables etc. , I would never pay so much for them anyways knowing that
most amplifiers do not have expensive shielded / cabling inside and route cabling
through switches, relays etc.

Just my opinions.

Thought you meant something else. All my amps can do 12g, tho. Did have some speakers where that was an issue, tho.

 

[xaviescacs]

Yes, assuming the person throwing the good ones is stronger than the person throwing the bad ones and/or has longer arms.

And if all those are equal, if the capacitors are different, a different Reynolds number can make a big difference in long distances.

 

[SIY]

And if all those are equal, if the capacitors are different, a different Reynolds number can make a big difference in long distances.

Don't forget mass!

 

[xaviescacs]

Don't forget mass!

I assumed they are the same given your example, since with different mass there is no need for a stronger person to make a difference.

 

[Larry B. Larabee]

Any claims made by the company were corroborated by their customers. This is a text-book example of laissez-faire capitalism. If the company provides a service and product for a price agreed and is able to satisfy the customer's needs for whatever reason what difference does it make if anyone else is under the impression that there is something untoward about the transaction.
Everyone is happy except for a few dopes who are hell-bent on saving the world from supposed charlatans based on information about a subject that is hardly cut and dried. If it were there would be no need for this forum.

Face it, no matter the amount of verifiable information available getting swindled will always be a matter of opinion in this business.

 

[BDWoody]

Everyone is happy except for a few dopes who are hell-bent on saving the world from supposed charlatans

So, this Charlatan gets a pass, but others don't?

Post in thread 'TotalDAC USB cable/filter - Teardown' https://audiosciencereview.com/foru...-usb-cable-filter-teardown.29564/post-1034343

 

[Chrispy]

Any claims made by the company were corroborated by their customers. This is a text-book example of laissez-faire capitalism. If the company provides a service and product for a price agreed and is able to satisfy the customer's needs for whatever reason what difference does it make if anyone else is under the impression that there is something untoward about the transaction.
Everyone is happy except for a few dopes who are hell-bent on saving the world from supposed charlatans based on information about a subject that is hardly cut and dried. If it were there would be no need for this forum.

Face it, no matter the amount of verifiable information available getting swindled will always be a matter of opinion in this business.

Getting swindled still generally boils down to someone asking for it by not doing their homework. I don't really care what the idiots buy but people just looking for information should be aware when the products sold are questionable. This forum is particularly here to avoid a chunk of bullshit out there in audiophilia land....

 

[Killingbeans]

Face it, no matter the amount of verifiable information available getting swindled will always be a matter of opinion in this business.

So, if I pick up a used piece of gum from the streets and sell it to you for $50000 claiming that it's a special quantum device that will make any audio gear 1000% better just by proximity, and one of your friends tells you that you've been swindled, that's just his opinion?

 

[amirm]

Everyone is happy except for a few dopes who are hell-bent on saving the world from supposed charlatans based on information about a subject that is hardly cut and dried. If it were there would be no need for this forum.

The charlatans can do whatever they want. What we don't want happen is the misinformation about audio which they spread to become so broad as to be accepted as facts. Danny is charismatic on camera so gets a lot of people watching him. To the extent he goes on that medium and says a blind test is trivial to pass for cables, and that measurements are not needed, then we get to voice our opinion otherwise. And unlike him, do it with data. So yes, we are needed.

 

[MaxBuck]

And if all those are equal, if the capacitors are different, a different Reynolds number can make a big difference in long distances.

You know, I was thinking Prandtl number, but no doubt you're right.