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Green Mountain Audio Chroma HX Review

I just had my Green Mountain Audio Chromas upgraded to Chroma HX. The difference is the crossover, with the capacitors being exceptionally high-grade. The low-pass filter is specially made to Roy Johnson's specifications. Unobtainium (not for sale) Litz wire is used with the latest unobtainium solder. The change is dramatic enough to consider the HX a different speaker, even though the schematic is essentially the same.

And the result is absolutely stunning. I was expecting a substantial improvement, but I was unprepared for the result. It's going to be difficult to put this into words, but I'm going to try. Let's face, we've heard it all before.

I have never heard a speaker that so effortlessly plays music. Every note has more music in it. I guess you could call that greater detail, but the HX transcends that description. Perhaps I should call it harmonic richness. The sound is unbelievably accurate, yet musical, throughout the frequency spectrum. The copious bass digs down deeper while being more well-defined. I would call it high-definition bass, to coin a term. The midrange is similarly tuneful, clear and also hi-def. It just flows naturally and cleanly. I would describe the treble as ethereal, sparkly and airy, never bright.

The HX is also the most coherent speaker I have ever heard. The woofer and the tweeter coexist happily. It is impossible to tell where the crossover frequencies are. You cannot hear the port either, just the bass. I find myself listening for hours, without fatigue, because the music captures my attention and holds it.

The sheer accuracy seems to lend itself to the soundstage, imaging with pinpoint precision. You know where every voice and instrument is at all times. This is an area of audio that I didn't much care about previously, but I cannot ignore now.

Any criticisms? Well one, maybe. If you like to crank the bass hard enough to drive your neighbors to yell death threats, you're going to need a powered sub.

I have heard many speakers in my time, among them Wilson Audio, Joseph Audio, Paradigm, Triangle, Meadowlark, Dali, Thiel, Usher and Vandersteen. None of them can deliver what the HX can. It's not even close. If you have a pair of the already excellent Chromas, HXing them is a must. I have found the speakers that I am going keep for life in the Chroma HX.

Related equipment:
Musical Fidelity A308cr with upgraded clocks
Audio Note Kits DAC 2.1
Pass Labs B1 buffered passive pre modified for shunt volume control
Pass Labs Aleph 3 power amp
BPT BP-1 balanced power conditioner
Audio Magic Matrix Mini power conditioner
Pass Labs Aleph 3 power amp


dave122
kenjit
1,771 posts
 
Hi end audio to me is about elevating the standards of audio reproduction not diminishing it. There are quite a few speakers out there that not only don't fulfill this definition but does a disservice by misleading us into thinking we are hearing high quality sound.

The green mountains are colored. Its not easy to prove but it's a fact.

It's important to separate speakers that are colored to suit people's taste from those that are engineered to elevate the art.

Using a cheap woofer in a 5k speaker is just not right.

Mismatching the woofer and the cabinet volume is a basic mistake that no serious speaker designer would make.
The result is poor bass response. Even the reviews mention this. It's undeniable.

csmgolf
894 posts
 
There are quite a few speakers out there that not only don't fulfill this definition but does a disservice by misleading us into thinking we are hearing high quality sound.
So why do you insist on harping on only one of them, and for years at that? You have said your piece on them over and over. Isn't it time to move on? 

The green mountains are colored. Its not easy to prove but it's a fact.
EVERY speaker ever built is colored, bar none. Find the color you like and get on with life. 

kenjit
1,771 posts
 
 @csmgolf 
I don't have much direct experience with any other bad speaker. The green mountains were the worst AND the most expensive I've had. Yes every speaker is colored but not to the same extent. There are different degrees of coloration, do you agree?

If you are so eager to respond to this topic, why don't you contribute by responding to the criticisms I've made?
What do you have to say about the cheap car woofer used in their speakers? The cheap tweeter and the cheap crossover?
Why aren't they using expensive accutons or scanspeak? Other manufacturers do, so why don't green mountain?

It doesn't matter whether there are other speakers as bad as green mountain. Green mountain is a case in point of a speaker that is engineered badly and should be avoided

This discussion could be educational to those that are unaware of the issues I've raised. 

If you think they're so good why don't you buy them?


csmgolf
894 posts
 


There are many reasons a designer chooses the drivers they do, and excludes the ones they don't. It depends on what they are trying to achieve. The out of band ringing of Accuton drivers make them a terrible choice for a first order crossover. If you look at manufacturer supplied response curves for ScanSpeak drivers, many of them have out of band behavior that would make them not suitable either. Many of his older designs use drivers from many different OEM suppliers. High end OEM suppliers. Do you truly believe that Roy has not bought, measured, and tested many, many drivers for use in his designs? Do you believe he doesn't measure and adjust his speakers during the design process? If you do believe these two statements, there can truly be no discussion with you. A competing, and well respected manufacturer of really excellent sounding speakers (Duke of Audiokinesis), has stood up for Roy and vouched for his expertise as a designer. Which speaker have you designed and built? Where are your measurements of the Chroma that show how poor the design is? Where are your measurements that show uneven frequency response and out of band behavior of the drivers in question that show they are not suitable? Or that the crossover is improperly designed? With none of those things, you are nothing more than some guy, who may not hear particularly well, that has decided to go on a vendetta for some reason over something as insignificant as a speaker purchase that he didn't like.  
kenjit
1,771 posts
 


The green mountains use no baffle step compensation, highly resonant cabinets which ring, very cheap parts and are highly overpriced for what you get.
do you expect us to believe there’s not even one better woofer that money can buy than a 5 dollar car woofer?

The woofer is mismatched which is why you get poor bass. You need a bigger cabinet, or a different woofer. This is basic speaker design 101. Every bookshelf speaker I’ve heard or owned has deeper bass than the green mountains. No speaker has sounded as cold as the green mountains. This is mentioned even in the reviews. The crossover IS improperly designed because there’s no baffle step compensation and too much energy going into both drivers which is why 99% of speakers don’t use first order. The tweeter has no impedance correction either so youre not even getting a first order roll off over most of the bandwidth.
Instead you get a severe hump at its resonance frequency which you can hear if you play the tweeter on its own. Green mountain do not send their speakers to be measured by reviewers so it’s impossible to know how they measure. But measurements don’t give you the whole picture and may hide any problems with the design.
You would need a blind test where you listen to green mountain alongside yg acoustics, wilson audio, dynaudio, magico etc then I’m sure you’d hear which speaker was inferior or superior.
Unfortunately despite being around for many decades green mountain audio is not widely distributed by all the hifi dealerships so it’s very unlikely that an opportunity to make such a comparison would arise. The dealerships that carry green mountain do not carry the big names like yg acoustics, but only other less well known boutique speakers.
If you look at what else is available you can quickly see that green mountain are indeed selling you an overpriced product.

The coloration of the speakers is so bad that it’s easily heard by listening to the YouTube video I posted the link to.

The knuckle test clearly shows how badly the cabinet rings right in the midrange. Putting your ear against the cabinet reveals further ringing only on certain frequencies.

The baffle is so thick that there’s no room for the woofers rear wave to escape freely.
This is all very poor design.
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