Well, it was a 5 year journey depending on when i start counting. I bought the flat pack in december of 2020 thinking id have the time and money to buy the rest of the kit and begin work on it but that came much later in september of 2025 of this year. Its perfect anyways. I had oniy just began my journey into hifi audio in 2020, and was lucky enough to find danny / ron and gr research nearly at the start. Learned a lot, experienced a lot going to scattered audio shops when i could, and a few Florida audio festivals....a LOT of youtube reviews during Covid! And i gradually prioritized building a DIY production studio. The desk I made out of poplar boards/shellac, and even made a DIY Starkrimson ultra stereo GAN amp by Orchard Audio all in 2024. A user on the GR Research forum in Florida GAVE me his subwoofer for free lol. A little x-sub which is perfect size for my loft studio. Right place right time. I found myself a DAC by RME brand new in the box on FB marketplace, the RME ADI-2 DAC. So Danny's parts were coming at just the right time when id finally amassed a system somewhat worthy of it. I may upgrade the tweeter bypass caps in the future just cuz im curious what copper ones sound like.
But i have nothing to complain about. The NX Studios sound fabulous, and sound far better than 90% of bookshelf speakers ive heard, regardless of price. And they're only about halfway broken in. Ive just sat and marveled at them for many hours now, its like having a new pair of ears. Truly. Couldnt be happier. For anyone interested I put together several time lapse videos of the entire build for anyone interested in viewing them on my IG which is a private account: @lifelovemusic144 I post jams and music related things on it too occasionally. just message me and lemme know you arent a bot and wanna see the GR build and let you in but the following pics should give everyone an idea of the process. ✌️
Note, they arent perfectly finished cuz i tried to do a lot of first time tasks with spray painting and sealing and taping etc. I appreciate the learning experience of it. Never had to make the same mistake twice, buuut yeah when it came to the painting i had some do overs lol. I dont have a garage or shop, i built these in my loft, and spray painted them in a lil platic tent i set up on my apartment lanait for a few days lol. Nearly got in trouble with management for that but fuq it was worth it 🤣. After all is said and done i think they turned out great!
Here's some of this Noob's journey.
Here's me planing the build with some YT guidance, i was shocked how much bigger they were than my trusty lil Neumi monitors!
Gluing up the cabinets in my loft
Installing the No Rez.
Walnut Veneer applied (with cement not glue/iron). Finished later with poly, but next time if i ever do this again im using dewaxed shellac to avoid all the sanding between layers and the excessive fumes.
Primed and taped. Next time im only buying sensitive tape. Reduced the chance of needing to sand the veneer later on after painting.
This is me spray painting the base coat before realizing that the baffle needed to be flat and not vertical to avoid drips lol. I went through this process about 3 separate times lol. The hardest thing about it was not allowing any imperfections to show up from the base coat through the clearcoat. Lesson learned. Dont spray paint them black unless you've done at least one spray paint project before, cuz all the imperfections show.
Miraculously managed to solder the copper foil inductors. Though i will say i ran out of the solder that Danny provided on the left channel alone. I had some Cardas Audio solder/SRA Flux #135 to finish the right speaker crossover which was leftover from my Orchard Audio amp build the year before.
Left the leads just a little too short for the woofer but i just held it on my cigar dry box while i soldered the connections. I didnt end up using any of the shrink wrap lol. I just mounted 2 screws into predrilled holes in the cabinets and screwed them down. Sealed the box, and called it a night before i ran them for a week under 2 tarps aimed at each other like tyson and hobbs had suggested in their threads.
First song i played through them was "It'll Never Happen Again" by Lady Blackbird. First thought i had was "oh wow they're making noise and not on fire or exploding. It worked!!
Then i just laughed with glee and was astounded to hear the double bass part actually rattle naturally through the tweeter. Id never heard that much detail from a speaker to clearly hear everything that was captured in the recording
This has been the culmination of many years of navigating life since the shock of covid (which rattled my life in ways you wouldnt believe) and just balancing time to keep my deep love of music and learning music production alive. Thanks to all involved. For me this was a team effort, from those of you who blazed the trail years ago, kept me intrigued with your own monumental talents for building and designing speakers. and those who bothered to message and share tips with me on the forum. This is such a good feeling saying i put these together.
Well. This beast is finished. Now its time to catch up on my Logic Pro knowledge after being away from the environment for 5 years. I assume a lot has been added. See ya!
