Opinions on GR Research NX-Studio

[Purité Audio]

Yet so trivially easy ( particularly for a manufacturer with multiple units) to conduct an unsighted comparison.
So imo boutique cable sellers /manufacturers are either charlatans or incompetent.
Keith

 

[amirm]

Back when these speakers came out, Danny was one of the few who placed real importance on measurements to sell his products.

He is part-time vegetarian now. Speaks measurements when it suits him, speaks the opposite when it doesn't. Ask him for measurements of his tube connectors, xover parts, etc. and he has nothing but, "I know everything and I know this makes a difference."

 

[Bruce Morgen]

He is part-time vegetarian now. Speaks measurements when it suits him, speaks the opposite when it doesn't. Ask him for measurements of his tube connectors, xover parts, etc. and he has nothing but, "I know everything and I know this makes a difference."

My take on the guy from a U-Toob comment of mine, FWIW:
_____

Danny puts out a rather odd combination of generally sound (see what I did there?) information on passive loudspeaker design and, pardon my language, pure unadulterated codswallop.

He has a few major bugaboos that make no sense, e.g. his vendettas against such harmless things as sand cast resistors, certain types of hook-up wire insulation, and steel binding post hardware. He also seems (or pretends?) to believe such audiophool folklore as the supposedly audible superiority of his fancy Chinese-made power cords over the usual generic and perfectly adequate 16-18 AWG line cords supplied with most electronic gear and his silly "tube connectors" over the 5-way binding posts that have been the industry standard for connecting up speaker wires for decades.

He also uses measurements -- performed with gear that is pretty much obsolescent in 2024 -- to demonstrate the effectiveness of his mod kits, yet dismisses the use of measurements when they point out flaws in his products, claiming the folks presenting such evidence obviously don't know WTF they're doing even if said folks are veteran audio experts with the engineering credentials he doesn't have -- his former partner, the "G" in "G-R Research," was the engineer of the founding team while Danny has some sort of business degree and is a self-taught designer with no formal training or previous experience in any engineering discipline.

I understand his strong preference for film caps over electrolytics and air core inductors over their cored counterparts in crossover circuitry -- that at least make some theoretical sense -- and I agree with his steadfast devotion to adequate acoustic insulation and bracing in enclosure design. My strong impression is that he is devoted to his craft and essentially self-taught, which can work well for someone of exceptional talent and insight -- whether he's talented and insightful enough to support his lavishly egotistical self-image as a world-class practitioner of loudspeaker design, well, I suppose that's up to his audience.

My personal take as a non-engineer who's been involved in audio for longer than Danny has been alive is that the dude has a classic "legend in his own mind" personality and that well over 90 percent of what his mods do is not the result of the pricey components he provides, but rather of the circuit mods and enclosure improvements he comes up with. Whether what he sells is worth what he charges and his customers' DIY time and effort is another matter for his audience to decide.

 

[Todd68]

I noticed that even Parts-Express sells some expensive capacitors for crossovers. Are they in on this snake oil scam? At least they only sell dirt cheap cables.

Plus no one mentioned if my measurements of the NX Otica are any good? Worse or better than average for in room measurements before any EQ?

 

[defec1]

He is part-time vegetarian now. Speaks measurements when it suits him, speaks the opposite when it doesn't. Ask him for measurements of his tube connectors, xover parts, etc. and he has nothing but, "I know everything and I know this makes a difference."by

Hi Amrm,

I just wanted to start by saying how much I appreciate all your hard work—it truly holds a special place in the community. I'm currently listening to the D10S through my Logitech media server, using a plugin for basic parametric EQ. I bought the DAC based on your review, so thank you for that.

My previous post was the result of having a few drinks (since tomorrow’s a holiday) and reminiscing about when everything in this hobby felt like voodoo BS. Danny was ahead of his time in using measurements as a marketing advantage. But by no means am I trying to be a GR Research apologist or claim that everything they make is flawless. I definitely think that the tube connector deal is silly, The binding posts that came with my Paradox kits are pretty generic—probably magnetic, too... God forbid!

I’m sure you remember how it was 20 or so, maybe even 30 years ago, with the lack of available information and measurements. As for Danny, people get older and don’t always adapt to the times. They may have had a window where they were with it though.

 

[RickS]

Even if we had some decent measurements, this speaker is out of stock with no ETA on when it will be available…

Could be enjoying any number of good speakers rather than giving my money to GR for some hope that this neutered one gets restocked. Danny has plenty of time to regularly rip into other’s speakers but cannot redesign his own 2-way speaker with another woofer? Does not exactly scream of great prowess in engineering or business that makes you want to hold out for a company’s product. Looks as though the OP has moved on too!

 

[defec1]

I noticed that even Parts-Express sells some expensive capacitors for crossovers. Are they in on this snake oil scam? At least they only sell dirt cheap cables.

Plus no one mentioned if my measurements of the NX Otica are any good? Worse or better than average for in room measurements before any EQ?

All that is mostly due to ones insecurities or ignorance, It's the same as an expensive audio or power cable. Thank god that there are places like here to debunk things. If this was around 25-30 years ago i'd have saved a boatload of money and made a lot wiser purchases.

 

[Todd68]

Even if we had some decent measurements, this speaker is out of stock with no ETA on when it will be available…

Could be enjoying any number of good speakers rather than giving my money to GR for some hope that this neutered one gets restocked. Danny has plenty of time to regularly rip into other’s speakers but cannot redesign his own 2-way speaker with another woofer? Does not exactly scream of great prowess in engineering or business that makes you want to hold out for a company’s product. Looks as though the OP has moved on too!

He has a lot of confidence and experience with the drivers he uses. He noted that he tried several different high-end more expensive brands and claims his are comparable. Though I Don’t think he took the time to try and prove it.

 

[Todd68]

Even if we had some decent measurements, this speaker is out of stock with no ETA on when it will be available…

Could be enjoying any number of good speakers rather than giving my money to GR for some hope that this neutered one gets restocked. Danny has plenty of time to regularly rip into other’s speakers but cannot redesign his own 2-way speaker with another woofer? Does not exactly scream of great prowess in engineering or business that makes you want to hold out for a company’s product. Looks as though the OP has moved on too!

Yes he started the thread and I don’t think he replied at all afterwards.

 

[Geert]

He has a lot of confidence and experience with the drivers he uses. He noted that he tried several different high-end more expensive brands and claims his are comparable. Though I Don’t think he took the time to try and prove it.

If I'm not mistaken these drivers have an Xmax of 5mm. A small driver with low Xmax in a closed box is going to have serious limitations regarding low end perfomance (max SPL and distortion). So I'm not surprised to read:

Also, you need subs to get the most out of them

Additional cost to be accounted for.

 

[Todd68]

If I'm not mistaken these drivers have an Xmax of 5mm. As small driver with low Xmax in a closed box is going to have serious limitations regarding low end perfomance (max SPL and distortion). So I'm not surprised to read:



Additional cost to be accounted for.

I used subwoofers with speakers that don’t even require them. Maybe most that would consider a small monitor type speaker already have subwoofers.

 

[Scrivs]

No matter how patient, and helpful our more technically proficient members are in conveying the relevant data to you, you insist on coming across as argumentative, and as a malcontent.

Are you actually seeking information/learning opportunity, or is your GR/DR crush that profound? Get over it. Open your biological input arrays more, and keep the output one secured. This may aid in your comprehension of the topic(s) at hand. A bit of humility goes a long way too

 

[OldHvyMec]

The waveguide allows crossing the tweeter lower, I remember he mentioned that in one the YouTube videos. If it increases the distortion,

His waveguide was to achieve the drivers acoustic center. Some people do it by extending the mids in a 3 way forward and others
like Danny push the tweeter back. The problem for me is the low XO point in speakers like the Super 7 and the NX.

If you cross at say 1800 or even 2500 what driver is carrying most of the load? A single rated 15RMS - 25MAX watt driver. If you turn them up you have a
pretty good chance of blowing that 15watt driver.

The GB driver he uses are proprietary to his builds. I've seen that driver out of stock a few times. So do you wait, use a different driver or something even
more reasonable like a cross at 4500 or even 6Khz with the Super 7s. The Neo 10s were good to an easy 10khz. Even GSRs Neo 10s rated to 8khz.

I've followed Danny for a long time. His formulas are straight out of a book. The problem is who wrote the book? I owned a few of his speaker designs
they sound fine, but they would sound a LOT better considering the type of driver he was actually using in the LS6 and definitely the Super 7s. I've
never heard the LS9s but the inside joke was in the mock-up of the LS9 and used duct tape. He had a heck of a mess to clean up.

The WHOLE time he was slamming VMPS Brian Cheney (a very good friend of mine) about his speakers that were literally selling 100 to 1 (ONE) of GR
kits. There were no assembled kit at the time. You can still read the VMPS vs GR back and forth between Danny and Brian in the Audio Circle Archive.

The best idea Danny had was a collaboration with Rhythmic and the OB servos kits with cabinets by Jay, plates by Rhythmic, and drivers by wherever
Danny had them made.

BTW VMPS MADE their own sub and bass drivers in shop with one of a kind "sharkskin" WCF, added ferrite (double or single), and magnetized them.
You could see through the fabric. Then the (wooden) phase plugs were custom-cut to length for the application to decrease back wave distortion.
They were EASY to drive and extremely difficult to blow. I know I've glued at least a dozen (10-12") phase plugs back on. RM40s, passive subs
and my RMx Elixirs.

Danny still sells fix it kit for VMPS. 626Rs. The problem is 99% don't need fixing if you know how Brian made XOs. They were exclusive to that pair
of speakers, you couldn't even swap left and right The speakers were SPL gain match per driver complement. Danny never seemed to get that part.
No two neo drivers matched, that I saw anyway. The tweeters were matched just like the mids panels at .5% but without resistors. Round ACG3s (?)

History goes a long way with Danny if you followed him from the start. He's a salesman, BUT he does build his own. How many actually build
their own speakers? I do and have for 50 years. 102 or 103 pairs now. Brian (VMPS) used to help me with my XO builds and he showed me how to match
speaker to speaker with planars and Strathearn ribbon driver builds. It's not easy building speaker cabinets with analog tools. I had better luck with
kitchen cabinets.

The whole tube connectors thing has an inside joke too. He was bragging about the lower measured resistance, come to find out the batteries were
bad in his DMM. 101 mechanics KNOW to check the batteries in your DMM before the road call, not after a 2,000 dollar part was ordered and shipped from
wherever. I've seen that one 100 times if I've seen it once.

Regards

 

[BDWoody]

He has a lot of confidence..and claims... I Don’t think he took the time to try and prove it.

That sounds like a good summary to close with.

Even if we had some decent measurements, this speaker is out of stock with no ETA on when it will be available…

Let's just close this. We don't need another meandering Danny thread.