OK, I'll be the one to say it...
Like any other company, the growth of GR Research depends on offering new products and services. Often, such growth comes with increased pricing for a million different reasons, mostly beyond your control. GR Research has flourished because it is one of the few companies renowned for its exceptional kits, but these speakers will only be available in finished form. Are there plans to create a similar model as a kit? Or maybe the finished speakers have real wood panels and a "deluxe" crossover, and the kit is only available with a standard crossover and binding posts, and MDF flat pack?? Frankly, I'm very interested in these speakers, but I'd have to wait a few years for them to hit the used market before they become "affordable," and I'm probably not alone. With this post, I'm merely fishing for options that may appeal to a broader consumer base.
Once the NRD models have run their course, we may offer them, or similar models, as DIY kits. (Likely with a simplified cabinet and at least one special tech feature left out) But we'll cross that road when we get there.
A question I have is: In contrast to the X-LS Encores, where the vertical axes of the high-frequency and low frequency drivers are placed on the same vertical axis, why is the LGK upper-frequency driver positioned "off-center" relative to the vertical axis of the woofer?
In the speaker shown in the video, LGK the driver is positioned near the right side of the cabinet. Is it positioned near the left side of the cabinet for the L channel speaker? Just curious.
Thanks, Danny, and cheers.
As was stated it was to improve the response of the driver. we had the very first test cabinet made with a removable front baffle and 5-6 different baffles, starting with the LGK in the middle, then shifted over 1/4" each time. The farthest offset measured best.
We then took that far offset baffle and started shaving off the top of that baffle in ~1/8" increments, pushing the driver up towards the top of the cabinet, and we kept getting a smoother response as it moved up. So the best response came from having the LGK shoved into the farthest possible corner.
The speakers are mirrored pairs.
The rear driver remained centered, as it's mainly playing within it's beaming frequencies, using the rear wall to delay & scatter the sound, without affecting the on-axis response.
I would argue that the market for DIY is much smaller than that for plug and play. For evidence of this just look at the number of players in either segment of the market. I think the real challenge for GRR is marketing a finished product after successfully advocating DIY for all these years. Were it me, and my intentions were to expand market share, I'd look at launching a different brand or company altogether and not market it alongside the DIY products. They dilute each other. As an example, think Toyota and Lexus.
The sad part is that the whole audio market is changing, and the "audio systems" of the past are no longer aspired to in the way they were 10 or 20 years ago. It seems to me that the market has become niches within a shrinking whole.
Very much so, but it's not just audio, many recreational and luxury industries have been shrinking in a similar fashion. Reality is that many in the younger generations simply don't have as much disposable income as it seems previous generations did, so a lot of hobbies and many recreational activities are shrinking in one form or another.
Thankfully, YouTube has allowed us to reach the younger generations to some extent, certainly in ways that audio shows and legacy media formats simply never will.
Of course, the big caveat is, it's hard to really get a sense of the performance beyond measurements, but it's tough to make quality sound clips when we're not doing the installation, and even when we have. There's still a lot of the perfomance that gets lost compared to listening in person.
