Here is my review of the GR-Research modified 626R. It is a Cherry wood finished 626R with the FST ribbon tweeter. Please remember VMPS dealer John Casler’s reminder that I had never adjusted the L-pads in the back of the unit before modification. I listened to the 626Rs as John had them set up in his sound room. I will try to compare them to my Soliloquy 8.2s, a speaker that was designed by Dennis Had of Cary Audio when he owned Soliloquy. They are rated from 27 Hz to 20 kHz and are a 2 way transmission line design with an 8 inch driver and 1.5 inch tweeter. However, they roll off beginning at 16 kHz. They sound fantastic reproducing the sound of LP records.
Please consider your own listening impressions of the 626R when reading this review so that you can determine whether the reporting of my listening impressions matches or differs from your own. Originally, listening to the 626R showed a very narrow sweet spot in both the horizontal and vertical planes. If one stood up, the sound changed dramatically; however, if you moved your head up or down the soundstage changed also. I found this a disruption to my listening sessions. I could not distinguish the sound of a brush on snare, it just sounded like some type of white noise to me. The speakers sounded good with saxophone and piano, less so with highly resonant musical instruments such as violin, cello, and acoustic guitar. Cymbals and high hats sounded very nice and extended. Rim shots and thumped or struck electric bass sounded rather muted. I noticed a smearing of the soundstage with one instrument overlapping the other and creating a diffuse stereo image. As you may have gathered I was not enamored with the overall sound reproduction of the loudspeaker. I listened to the same musical tracks for a (what I thought would be a personal) before and after session.
After modification, the piano and saxophone sounded great, about the best I have heard at this price point. The soundstage problems with vertical and horizontal dispersion seemed to be gone. I could stand up and walk to about 30 degrees off axis (axis being facing the speakers directly) before I lost sound staging. Instruments were more focused sounding and there was a noticeable delineation between one instrument and another. I listened to a Jennifer Warren’s song in which she and a male vocalist sang different lyrics at the same time on what sounded like multiple tracks. It was easy to notice that each person came from “somewhere else” in the recording, instead of from one point (if they had shared one microphone). I found cymbals and high hats to sound basically identical to their original pre-modification state which was nice to begin with. Acoustic guitars had a good attack with the pick striking the strings, but the guitars did not have a feeling of weight and body to them that I am used to with my Soliloquy 8.2s. I suppose that what I am saying is that this speaker sounds more analytical and detailed at the expense of some warmth. I would say that the modified 626R is a good choice for Blues music, or music which doesn’t rely on heavy percussive sounds. Rim shots still sounded somewhat muted but an electric bass sounded better. I liked what the modifications did to the sound of the female voice. My Soliloquy’s make women sound throaty or chesty (?) while the 626R makes them sound more feminine. I guess that I must fall into the “warm sound” camp, since while I liked the sound of cymbals and other high frequency instruments as reproduced by the modified 626Rs, I missed the extra body that my Soliloquy’s gave to acoustic guitars. I did not listen to any classical music while I auditioned the modified 626Rs, but I would gather that the person who likes that genre of music would prefer a more analytical sound so that he or she might enjoy listening to the entire orchestra as a bunch of little instruments making a cohesive whole.
I hope that this before and after review helped everyone and that you found my comments insightful and as neutral as I can make them. In the end, it is up to the reader to decide the veracity of the reviewer.
