[johnwoitalla]

I know it's a loaded question, but- if you were to purchase a set of completed speakers today off the shelves(new or used), which would you consider, and why? What company(s) are(or used to) making em right from the gitgo?

[Tyson]

Spatial Audio measures well and they use good quality crossover parts, good wire and good connectors.

[corndog71]

Legacy uses better parts too.

[mkrawcz]

Clayton Shaw Acoustic lab Caladans. Near full range open baffle speakers using high quality parts at a reasonable price. They can’t quite match something like the GR-Research NX-Oticas, but they are still a great speaker that you can buy, put them in a room and start playing music. Plus they don’t take much space, they’re light weight, and easy to move around.

[Stercom]

Clayton Shaw Acoustic lab Caladans. Near full range open baffle speakers using high quality parts at a reasonable price. They can’t quite match something like the GR-Research NX-Oticas, but they are still a great speaker that you can buy, put them in a room and start playing music. Plus they don’t take much space, they’re light weight, and easy to move around.

Ditto

[yamaha626]

I've always liked the Usher's. Botton of the line thru the mid range, I've always found them to be easy and enjoyable to listen to. I know that Danny at GR did the x-over's for at least one of their model's. I've never listened to any of their top end model's so can't comment on them.
I also enjoyed the ACI products but they went out of business years ago. Too bad, they made a really nice product.

[I.Greyhound Fan]

Buchardt Audio, Arendal, CSS, Fyne Audio to name a few.

[E-Zee]

Chane music cinema speakers is a fairly small production company. They use some better parts and I believe they have an upcoming line that will be offering fully upgraded and hand assembled point-to-point crossovers as an upgrade option.   I'm not affiliated and don't know release details, but they are definitely a smaller manufacturer that provides more product  and better internal components per dollar, than national big brands in the box stores.

[jmimac351]

This is interesting because I've seen speakers that are "built right" (construction), but don't sound great.  I've seen some that measure well, but are a little light on build quality. 

In some ways, the answer to this question is moot if "built right" is referring to "sounds good when you get it".  Any speaker can fit that bill... with one catch... you just have to buy what you want and ship it to Texas. I mean it.  Buy any speaker you want, and then make 1 phone call to GR... the answer will probably some version of "Sure... send 'em on in...".  I watched Danny wrestle an Esotar tweeter into submission... a tweeter that is notorious for being difficult... (but sounds so sweet). He can fix any speaker you want, unless it's designed to fail from the beginning.

If the question is from an "enclosure standpoint"... my Wilson Duette are pretty impressive.  They are built very well, but wanted bite my head off.  But I wouldn't buy Wilson... well, there is a pair of Duette for sale, add $500 or so for Danny's upgrade network and you have a well built, world class soft dome 8" 2-way that sounds like a floor standing speaker for around $5k.  Who would want that?  I digress...

If the question is from the standpoint of really buying a speaker that you "take home and it sounds great... keep."  For me, the question is whether that brand makes anything that "sounds bad", but they still sell it because it "makes money".  If someone makes anything that could fall into the "junk" category... I am suspect of everything they do.

For brands I think I could throw a dart at and get something that sounds good:

- Anything Danny makes
- Speakers Danny has helped with... Usher, Tyler Acoustics, other brands he's mentioned in videos...
- Anything Andrew Jones makes, including Elac
- TAD
- Dynaudio
- ATC (change the resistor, raise tweeter level)
- Goldenear (hunch)
- Buchardt
- Acora (Bookshelf)
- YG Acoustics

Speakers I'd like to hear / own one day...

- "Unicorn" Line Array speakers... 
- Duelund Coherent Audio Monitor (currently building) / 8" 2-way
- Danny's new LGK speaker
- Dynaudio Heritage Special (uses Dynaudio's best drivers)
- Dynaudio Contour Legacy (uses Dynaudio's best drivers)
- Dynaudio Confidence 60
- Dynaudio Confidence 50
- Dynaudio Contour 60
- Dynaudio Countour 20 Black Edition
- NX-Otica
- Custom Accuton Driver 3-way speaker

Getting good sounding speakers is the easiest part of this, I think.  But that list up there... a lot of that stuff is very expensive.  So, I just call Danny. He's made 3 pairs of my speakers sound "built right"...

I'm still eyeballing a pair of Dynaudio Heritage Specials though...

[newzooreview]

Ascend Acoustics loudspeakers are very well built. The Sierra LX is terrific. The ELX ribbon tower is aggressive/forward sounding, but built extremely well. For most of their speakers they use a v-lam bamboo cabinet that is rock solid.

[Danny Richie]

Ahem! We offer many of our models fully assembled and ready to play.

[jmimac351]

Ahem! We offer many of our models fully assembled and ready to play.

Danny, in fairness - most of your videos are about someone else's product. 

Another reading of this thread is that it's your customers telling you the kinds of speakers that are top of mind... things they would maybe buy... it's great feedback for you --> ($$$)

It's been a while since I clicked the link below and I was surprised at all of the options; however, think it maybe shouldn't be a surprise it's not more top of mind for people, after all - it's not talked about or made to be top of mind, other products are... from a "completed" standpoint.  On your main website page, 'completed speaker' is just a link at the top.  What is highlighted are: speaker kits, subwoofer kits, speaker upgrades, DIY cables, GR drivers,  Audiophile power cords.

Perhaps there should be more videos / discussion to show people what the options are and why they are better?  I have an Encore enclosure finished in walnut from a vendor.  I see how it's made... maybe show an in depth video of their construction? 

The feedback in this thread is a gift for you... it tells you what your customers are thinking. For instance, I like black cars... and black speakers are a 'safe' option.  If I want a black GR speaker, that means 'Duratex'.  As far as options go, adding 'gloss color options" may be helpful, IMO.

https://gr-research.com/completed-speakers/

[Theronbo]

Yeah, Danny doesn’t advertise that he has completed speakers on offer.

I suspect he suffers from a bit of marketing… people tend to assume ‘kit based’ speakers are less than… beautifully finished speakers from branded company.

Danny might have unintentionally reinforced that perspective by publishing videos on how ‘easy’ it can be to build a speaker by gluing together CNC cabinets & slap some black goo on them. I mean he was demonstrating that you don’t need to be a cabinet maker to build speakers… but… unintended side effects…


Note: I have several kits from Danny, some with cabinets, some I built the cabinets… all of them are excellent, if not superior speakers for their intended purpose… also have other DIY I ‘designed’…

But, DIY kits verses  B&W or Focal…  reality, they compare well… but perception…