Well, I've been avoiding posting to this thread because it seems comments made on the Internet stay forever, even when systems and circumstances change. But I'll chime in, in the context of my system today, which of course may change tomorrow. First off, I own the GR10s in walnut -- they are gorgeous and visually beautiful in their simplicity. I heard rwanda's pair at his house, and although they didn't have the incisive detail of my Spendor BC-1s at the time, they didn't seem to do anything wrong (I primarily wanted to be sure they weren't "bright," which they weren't). So I sprung for a pair and knew I could tweak the presentation with front-end components and cables.
Fast forward to now -- once I had these speakers in place, I found I could listen to every genre of music, which before was not the case. Now I could pay rock and pop, in addition to adult contemporary (vocals w/guitar) and jazz. I have had so many "wow" moments hearing new details in songs and feeling like the musicians are in the room.
However, here is where it gets tricky -- at first I felt the treble was a bit attenuated making songs a little too smooth. This turned out to be my source and cables -- I was using a Magna Hifi modified Sonos into a BorderPatrol DAC at the time. I switched to Roon core running on a Synology NAS and an Allo USBridge as the Roon endpoint (still connected to the BorderPatrol DAC using a Curious USB cable, then a Sablon Audio USB cable). I feel I am missing nothing in the treble now.
And, horrors, I have very limited speaker placement options and they are between 1 and 1-1/2 feet off the wall. They have two rear-facing ports so you probably know where this is going -- I've been fighting a little bass muddiness and boom the whole time on certain songs. I'm running a Weston Acoustics KT120 Topaz push pull tube amp, and strangely a boutique SEP amp I purchased to use with these sounded even worse in this department, although the treble was clearer. I've had to be very careful with cable choices to not produce any bass bloat (I'm using Duelund ICs and SCs, and Triode Wire Labs PCs). I inquired about Frank possibly building me a front-ported version because otherwise I enjoy these speakers so much, but at this point I am actually considering trying a Lyngdorf TDAI 2170 solid state amplifier so I can perform room correction. I'm not a purist when it comes to appreciating only tubes. I think my impressions around the bass response are due to the speaker placement against the wall.
This is a long post and will just sum up that the speakers are extremely transparent -- I can hear every cable, cord and component change very clearly. This may be a bad thing for some people -- they seem to require very good equipment in front of them (even though I'd say most of mine is mid-tier). At the end of the day, I've heard some of the most realistic, present, intimate, powerful music to scale, I've ever heard in my living room. The speakers handle everything. They are beautiful looking and sold at a fair price (around $3500). I think once Frank gets a better website, his sales will increase. I'd recommend these speakers with the caveats of having decent components and a room they will work in.
Fast forward to now -- once I had these speakers in place, I found I could listen to every genre of music, which before was not the case. Now I could pay rock and pop, in addition to adult contemporary (vocals w/guitar) and jazz. I have had so many "wow" moments hearing new details in songs and feeling like the musicians are in the room.
However, here is where it gets tricky -- at first I felt the treble was a bit attenuated making songs a little too smooth. This turned out to be my source and cables -- I was using a Magna Hifi modified Sonos into a BorderPatrol DAC at the time. I switched to Roon core running on a Synology NAS and an Allo USBridge as the Roon endpoint (still connected to the BorderPatrol DAC using a Curious USB cable, then a Sablon Audio USB cable). I feel I am missing nothing in the treble now.
And, horrors, I have very limited speaker placement options and they are between 1 and 1-1/2 feet off the wall. They have two rear-facing ports so you probably know where this is going -- I've been fighting a little bass muddiness and boom the whole time on certain songs. I'm running a Weston Acoustics KT120 Topaz push pull tube amp, and strangely a boutique SEP amp I purchased to use with these sounded even worse in this department, although the treble was clearer. I've had to be very careful with cable choices to not produce any bass bloat (I'm using Duelund ICs and SCs, and Triode Wire Labs PCs). I inquired about Frank possibly building me a front-ported version because otherwise I enjoy these speakers so much, but at this point I am actually considering trying a Lyngdorf TDAI 2170 solid state amplifier so I can perform room correction. I'm not a purist when it comes to appreciating only tubes. I think my impressions around the bass response are due to the speaker placement against the wall.
This is a long post and will just sum up that the speakers are extremely transparent -- I can hear every cable, cord and component change very clearly. This may be a bad thing for some people -- they seem to require very good equipment in front of them (even though I'd say most of mine is mid-tier). At the end of the day, I've heard some of the most realistic, present, intimate, powerful music to scale, I've ever heard in my living room. The speakers handle everything. They are beautiful looking and sold at a fair price (around $3500). I think once Frank gets a better website, his sales will increase. I'd recommend these speakers with the caveats of having decent components and a room they will work in.