If It Ain't Broke, Don't Fix It

@hjdca I’m sure with those changes the speakers sound different. Does it sound 10 times better to you? I can’t tell from your post if the "upgrade" was worth it to you.

@jc4659 I apologize, I was not the one that sent in my Wilson W/P 8 speakers.  I can now see that the way I wrote the post would give everyone that impression...  I wish I could change the post, but, too late now, maybe, I should just delete it ?   I just tried to articulate in the post, that as a present happy owner of the original unchanged Wilson W/P 8, I believe what GR did to those speakers did not qualify as an upgrade that should have been considered at the factory, but, it was represented as such.  In other words, the basic requirements of a tower speaker were changed and the GR update created 4 speakers instead of 2 tower speakers.

PS. Since my first post is so misleading, let me know if you think i should delete it along with this post...   Thanks for pointing out my error. 

I’ve found both ASR and GR to be useful resources.  
 

I find the cat fights pretty pointless.  Just take it for what it’s worth to you or not and move on.   Or if one really feels they got the answer keep publishing your own content to make the world a better place. ✌️

@hjdca Thanks for the clarification and sharing your opinion!

I have found that usually when somebody was banned from ASR, they were banned for a pretty good reason :-)

 

that said:

 

@xmbw4 

 

 

— “I challenge anyone to look at all of ASR’s reviews and find a single instance where he used something that would be considered real science in anything he’s ever done.”—

 

I find these critical callouts from  anonymous folks on audio forums to be amusing.

 

Amir was a senior executive overseeing codec and media technology development at Microsoft.  He  oversaw the development of successful audio and media codecs.  They employed standard scientific protocol for developing codecs - eg double blind testing.

The technologies made it into billions of devices and even received Emmy awards for their development.

 

He uses top shelf, well-known lab equipment to do many standard electronic measurements for distortion, etc.   And he evaluates the relevance of the distortion measurements with respect to known audible thresholds, well established in psychoacoustics research.

 

He evaluates loudspeakers using currently among the world‘s best measuring devices - the Klippel - one reason being is the type of measurements you need to render data relevant to all the SCIENTIFIC research cited by Floyd Toole and other such experts.  In other words, Amir is using sophisticated measurements that allow him to correlate those measurements to the best science we have in terms of predicting subjective impressions of loudspeaker behaviour.

 

So he is basically following the best current science we have.

Amir’s approach and data has got Floyd Toole’s approval (he posts

on ASR fairly often).

But for some anonymous people on the Internet…. Of course it’s not enough. ;-)

 

 

 

Hello All. My experirnce with the GR upgrade kits for Magnepan LRS and LRS+ speakers resulted in MUCH improved sound. I've been emeshed in this hobby for over 65 years, have built many sets of speakers and modified many manufacturer's products. I find low priced parts in the crossovers of everybody's speakers. There are fifty cent capacitors, five dollar capacitors, fifty dollar capacitors, and more. If you are manufacturing 1000 pair of speakers, that price difference really makes a difference. Most of the money in manufactured speakars is in the finish, packaging, shipping, and profit. Maybe 10-20% of a manufacturer's speaker is in parts. That's where they can save money. The fifty dollar capacitor does sound better than the five dollar capacitor, but not ten times better. But we, as customers and buying only one pair of speakers, can afford the difference in parts price and enjoy the improvement in transparency  and "air" that improved parts provide. Is the difference between a ferrite core, small diameter wire inductor and the same rated flat foil fancy copper hockey puck $100+ inductor audible? Yes, instantly. Can you afford $200 to upgrade your inductors? Probably. Let the drivers show you what they can do by getting the signal to them without being degraded by cheap parts. GR Research has to make a profit on what they sell. But they buy large numbers of parts at wholesale prices. The "upgrade" parts they supply are likely to be cheaper than you will pay (single units, retail) for parts. They will send you the circuit diagrams for free, you can build them yourself using whatever parts you wish, but if you don't buy the best parts, you won't get the best results. Isn't that reasonable? In my experience, upgraded crossover parts always improve performance. Of course, you could use an electronic crossover and one power amp for each driver. That's what give me the best results. Enjoy the music.