Unreal.... Just typed for 15 minutes, and the forum here decided to go down when I made the post, and it was lost.
I'll try this again, but won't go into as much detail
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As most of you know, the GR subwoofer and passive radiator are now shipping. We received a few the other day, and decided to build the reference box that Danny recommends for testing.
We compared the GR system to an M&K MX-5000 Mk II ($2600 MSRP) in a real world media room on both music and frequency sweeps. We were driving our tests with a Parasound Halo C1 processor and 1-channel off the Parasound A51 amp on the GR system.
Music tests: Well, not much comparison in my mind. The GR system handily outperformed the M&K in all the music tests I did. It just had tighter and faster response.
Freq tests: We ran these tests from 65hz down to 10hz, as lower bass response and extension were our interest. We started at 65hz and set a 108db reference level. The M&K remained fairly efficient down to 35hz, pulling out a bit more level then the GR in this range. However, from 28hz down to 10hz, the GR readily outperformed the M&K.
The in-room response of the GR was definately flatter then the M&K.
The result? The tests were performed in one of the partners media rooms, and his comment after 10 minutes of music listening was "Okay, I'm selling my M&K tomorrow!". I think this is a good summation of our overall opinion of this sytsem.
Here are some pictures of the test setup
