Having no interest in this product I have not looked at the review. On this product ASR's opinion may be valid, or not. Amir however appears to be of the opinion that due to his correlation between testing results and actual sound then his testing and measurements are totally predictive, if it measures well, it must sound good. The problem is nobody knows what you hear, only you, nobody can tell you what you like, only you. I hate (ad nauseam) horn speakers, never heard one I like, I have friends who love them, so I keep trying and hoping but to no avail, it doesn't matter to either what they measure like I hate them, they love them. Trying to be completely objective about something that is essentially subjective is not scientific.
Interesting ASR review of small GR Research speaker kit
I bounce between various kinds of analysis — more subjective listening reports, more quantitative measurement analyses and, my favorite, those that combine both strategies to tell a useful story about audio products.
Amir of ASR has just done a very powerful takedown of a fairly inexpensive kit being sold by Danny at GR Research. Not only does he prove his point about the speakers, he also makes (to my mind) a very convincing case that Danny put his finger on the scale in how he reported his own measurements.
I'm not in any camp — Danny's or Amir's or anyone else's. What I appreciate is thoroughness and meticulousness in exposition. Danny does that in his own videos. (Again -- to me. I'm really still learning and cannot easily spot gaps in argument in this subject matter.)
I know people with some of GR's best kits — and I've heard one of them. They sounded incredible. I've watched a bunch of Danny's videos where he criticizes other companies; I've come away thinking, "Wow, he really revealed some of the grift embedded in that product."
But here, the tables are turned, it seems, on Danny. I hope he responds, both to defend his reputation and methods, but also because it will set in relief where some of the distance may be between these two dominant online figures' methods in assessing what makes for a good speaker.
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Before his passing, Mark Markel of Analysis Plus posted this on his site.They make products for the aerospace and medical industry with precise measurements. https://homeaudio.analysis.plus/knowledge-base/#collapse-1-112 quote: "The faintest sound wave a normal human ear can hear is 10(-12) Wm(-2). At the other extreme of the spectrum, the threshold of pain is 1 Wm(-2). This is a very impressive auditory range." "The ear, together with the brain, constantly performs amazing feats of sound processing that our fastest and most powerful computers cannot even approach."
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I know I have less than a handful of posts. Long time reader. Thanks for reading my post anyway. Amir’s love is DSP... and that is ok. Inlow sound is a DIY horn guy (makes some impressive "homemade" horns), but he corrects them with DSP... again that is ok. However, if DSP and High bit digital was the end game, we could all get a nice DAC and some DSP speakers and be happy. I do not want to take this off the rails in an analog vs. digital debate, but my point is, there is more to music enjoyment than perfectly measured equipment and sound (though that is a good staring point and can help as a tool to work out bugs in your system and or listening environment). Look at it this way, if you had the money and you enjoyed jazz, blues, or classical music that can be played with 1-6 players and you could afford to have the best current living musicians playing in your listening space every night, and you brought Amir over and all his expensive gear (it is pricey, just ask him, he will tell you), I bet that you would still choose the live musicians over any music system you could put together today (and one that Amir says measures in his top 10) and I bet the live music would measure "poorly" in your room (unwanted reverb, reflections, distortions). That said, I agree with others in this thread, that 3" speaker is being asked to do a lot. For a $1000+ a pair assembled seems a bit much for a 3" desktop speaker of the quality that Amir measured. However, what do I know, I am paying over $6 a gallon for gas and $15 for a burrito now, so who knows. The guy(s) putting the speakers together and applying a finish need to eat too. The kit price seems more in line with the quality of the speaker. I like the Ferrari comment above. I would like to turn it a little and say that I think Amir was trying to take a (insert your practical family four door car of choice here) to the race track and criticizing it for not performing like a Ferrari. Finally, I like watching Amir's videos for another view that I do not always agree with, and (I have not watched Danny's response video yet), I think he points out some areas that could be improved in the LGK. Dave |
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