http://www.gr-research.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=148
(I thought this was going to be short, but I guess not
)
I was fortunate enough to be working home the week these guys showed up. Though I wasn’t able to listen to them all day long, I was able to put quite a few hours on them over the week. I wasn’t expecting them actually; I had talked to Danny the week before to see what the status was, but was surprised when they showed up. The first thing I found is that they are larger than I was expecting. From the pics on the site, they look roughly the size of A/V-1s, but they are actually closer in size to my A/V-2s. I’ve seen the curved PE boxes before in piano black and I was impressed with them, but these are the larger ones. These cabinets are quite nice. The light maple veneer is nicer than I expected, and they are fairly hefty and solid.
They didn’t require a lot of setup time, as they are fairly directional like my A/V-2s and dropping them on my stands in the current locations seems to work fine. I adjusted the toe of these guys slightly, but the overall placement works for them. They are sealed and are lower sensitivity than my A/V-2s, so I had to adjust levels quite a bit to get them to blend with my sub right. By themselves, they don’t have much bass at all – they are -3dB at 65Hz and being sealed, they don’t have a ton of authority down low. My room is too big for them by themselves, but in a smaller room they should do fine. They are nice and punchy. The smooth midrange is familiar to me, but the clear sound of the BG tweeter is immediately noticeable. It doesn’t quite sound like other planer drivers I’ve heard in that it sounds almost like a soft dome, sort of taking some of the best qualities of both. It is clear but it is also smooth. I had these guys running for hours and never got any listening fatigue from them as I have had with some other ribbon based speakers. They have a rather natural, “live venue” sound to them if I had to describe it.
I have pretty much thrown everything I have at them to see how they do and they didn’t disappoint on anything. They have a narrow sweet spot for ideal listening as mentioned, not unlike my A/V-2s, but off axis they still sound very good also; something that I think Danny is really good at is that off axis performance. They are very even handed and did not exhibit any issues even at elevated listening levels. One of the unusual “tests” I like to do is to put some live music on and go in the kitchen. It should sound like the band is playing in the other room and these speakers certainly give that effect. They throw a soundstage that sounds larger than they are. They picked up a few small details that I hadn’t noticed before while listening to
Patrica Barber’s Companion (live SACD) and they sounded astounding with
Jazz at the Pawnshop (CD) and
Dave Brubeck live in Concord (SACD). They are equally at home with rock and techno and vocals as well.
I have swapped back and forth between my A/V-2s and these guys a few times, but I’ve had them in the system for the past few days exclusively and have watched a number movies. They blended in with my system quite well, owing to the smooth nature of the BG tweeter, and only on certain scenes did I notice them. To be honest, they blend so well, it is hard to pick a favorite between the two. My A/V-2s are a bit more dynamic as they are 4 Ohm and higher sensitivity with a bit more bass (-3dB @55Hz). Initially, they didn’t “blow me away” like the first time I heard my A/V-2s (and perhaps that is more the fault of Danny for making great speakers than anything). It isn’t a revelation listening to them compared to what I already have, but after some time with them I do hear and appreciate the subtle differences. It is mainly in the highs where I notice the most differences. These are slightly brighter and seem to yield more detail in the upper range, not that I felt I was missing anything in the highs, but I notice it on things like cymbals/high hats, percussion, piano, acoustic guitar, etc… Even in some vocals it is noticeable. I can’t say that I prefer the sound specifically, but I do enjoy it.
There isn’t really a nit-pick that I could place on these guys. You just don't find this kind of sound in many speakers. If I were going to build another set of speakers, I would probably look to the ported N1 or N1X models instead of these, but if I needed a 2.0 or 2.1 set of music only speakers for a medium size room, these would be very high up on my list. They are very good speaker once again from Danny at GR.
So my thoughts in general:
Very clear, clean natural sound.
Not a ton of bass, will be happier with a sub
With the cabinets from PE, they should be a simple build
For what you could build these for, you won't find anything that can touch them in SQ
I still have them at the moment so I am sure I will have more thoughts to post about them.
