Grimani Systems Rixos-L Review (Active DSP Speaker)

[hmt]

I bet that 2% HD (in this case mostly 2. order HD) is inaudible. BTW HD is generally overrated plus we don't know if there will be resonances once the speaker is mounted in a wall.

 

[nathan]

As a purpose built speaker for a particular kind of application and a particular kind of installation, I'd love to see this segment of the market mature and offer something that competes with these.

But near as I can tell, in the form factor, output, and design criteria, this is just about the only offering around. As with all CI gear, the MSRP is just to have a fancy line item on the overall build sheet, and clients that care are likely to get a substantial discount....but we are still talking about six figure theater builds, so getting a 30% discount on a 500k theater is....well, it's way above my pay grade!

 

[Everett T]

As a purpose built speaker for a particular kind of application and a particular kind of installation, I'd love to see this segment of the market mature and offer something that competes with these.

But near as I can tell, in the form factor, output, and design criteria, this is just about the only offering around. As with all CI gear, the MSRP is just to have a fancy line item on the overall build sheet, and clients that care are likely to get a substantial discount....but we are still talking about six figure theater builds, so getting a 30% discount on a 500k theater is....well, it's way above my pay grade!

Back in the early 2000s I worked with custom home builder in South Florida doing automation and media rooms for his builds and not once did anyone ask for a discount. It was a great gig to roll into retirement

You're right that at this price point and goals, people just want results not "value".

 

[Bartl007]

As a purpose built speaker for a particular kind of application and a particular kind of installation, I'd love to see this segment of the market mature and offer something that competes with these.

But near as I can tell, in the form factor, output, and design criteria, this is just about the only offering around. As with all CI gear, the MSRP is just to have a fancy line item on the overall build sheet, and clients that care are likely to get a substantial discount....but we are still talking about six figure theater builds, so getting a 30% discount on a 500k theater is....well, it's way above my pay grade!

I would say ascendo and pro audio technology compete pretty well and have similar offerings when all design criteria are considered.

I haven't seen CEA 2034 data for pro audio tech, but ascendo has theirs posted on the website.

 

[nathan]

Point taken. I was limiting my thinking to the brands people were mentioning and getting fixated on how these were just a different type of transducer built for a different market and different set of requirements.

But I think your point is well made: These aren't competing with the usual suspects one finds in the pages of Stereophile --or ASR or AVS. These are in different company and they fit that different market (one specific piece of a whole solution) very well.

 

[Scrappy]

Greay write-up. I like HT, tho I’m not in the $8k range for mains for HT alone, ha.. I test a lot of amps for touring audio, and that trace for the horn looks veeery similiar to what I see for front fill boxes.

 

[Robert R]

Allow me to stress that one (pretty damn great for its purpose) speaker doesn’t tell the whole story here. Anthony Grimani comes in and designs the whole room acoustically (then built by a trusted construction/installer partner), specs a full array of active speakers, processors, and multiple subs, does all the measurements himself, and then fine tunes the whole package sometimes over the course of multiple long days in the room. I‘ve spent considerable time in two Grimani theater rooms (a close relation has been a client) and Grimani himself and his rooms are impeccable.

That is correct and more so. Last year I hired Anthony to design my HT in a remodel in Napa. The design entails a room within a room for total sound isolation from the rest of the house. The design includes wall and ceiling framing plans, HVAC layout (grill size and placement is critical!), electrical requirements, drywall installation details (there's a special way to "butter" the interface at the corners), and then finally room tuning when it's all done. The details of the design are impressive, with over 80 pages of engineering drawings for a room that is about 16x20. If we were back in in the 1950's, Tony would have been designing world class custom bomb shelters, not HTs.

 

[Robert R]

Seriously, though, I wonder how folks playing at this level decide to buy something like this? Do pro installers have 'showrooms' that prospective customers can demo the products, and possible competitors? Or do they just hand their contractor the keys to the front door, and say, "Put something in it that will astonish me, and call me when it's finished?"

Grimani and PMI (Anthony's design company) has a show room in Novato. That said, I hired him directly back when COVID was in full swing, and without a demo, based on his work and reputation and previous contacts I had with him over the years.