Speaker Asylum: REVIEW: GR Research Paradox 1 Speakers by csown

Model:	Paradox 1
Category:	Speakers
Suggested Retail Price:	$450 pair / Kit Form
Description:	2 Way Standmounted
Manufacturer URL:	GR Research
Manufacturer URL:	GR Research

Review by csown on January 04, 2002 at 10:02:26
IP Address: 129.105.122.65

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for the Paradox 1

My holiday hi-fi excursion (to GR-Research)...
Well, I just got back from a great trip down to Wichita Falls. My folks live down there, and I did junior high and a few years of high school down there, so imagine my surprise when I found out that the famed GR Research is in my very hometown! I arranged for a visit when I got to my parents' home, gathered a few friends (who were still hi-fi virgins - they had NO idea what was in store for them :), and we went over to Danny's shop on 10th St. We were a little weirded out at first, because it's in this tiny nondescript strip mall in a very dead part of town and GR doesn't have a big street sign or anything, just a small logo on the door.
My younger brother needed a new pair of speakers, so this was perfect timing. Of course I'd heard much about the Paradox 1 from Cut-Throat and others, so we went in eyeing this pair. Danny showed us around. First the office, anechoic chamber, and workshop with racks of inductors, drivers, old and new cabinets. My companions got a big kick out of the anechoic chamber.
The listening room is decently large as listening rooms go, loudspeakers arranged along the short wall, 4 big bass traps and tall absorbing panels on the walls. Electronics were a Rega Planet 2K, a custom Dodd tube pre, and the Dodd 8W push-pull and a Dodd 30W class A solid state. We listened primarily to the speakers we were considering buying, namely the AV-1 and Paradox 1. To give some perspective, I have Dynaudio Contour 1.8mkII's on a sweet-sounding solid-state integrated.
The AV-1 sounded good. Very, very, very good for its price. A very wide soundstage, very alluring sound. The thing about Danny's speakers is that their midrange is very seductive. The speakers are never forward, always very musical, very listenable. Danny's bass driver is GOOD. One thing to note is that the lowest bass cuts off VERY quickly. I agree that it's better to have no bass than to have weak bass, and I guess this follows that philosophy to an extreme. It also makes them much easier to integrate with a subwoofer. The AV-1 tweeter I found to be very gentle, laid-back, musical. But too unoffensive for my tastes. The tweeters do exceptionally good for most percussion, very good shimmery cymbals and crystal-clear hats, for example, but one thing I wanted more of was that shattering snare that makes your eyes clamp shut when you hear it. Once I noticed this, it was hard for me to like the AV-1 as much as I initially had. After this, I tried some quartet Tango music, which for me is a good test of tweeter 'bite' via the cello's sound. With this style of vigorous bowing, almost every bow stroke should sound strong and grainy, and the notes should have a vehement attack. I didn't hear enough of this, and found the soft dome too polite for my tastes. On a similar note, I also found that it didn't quite do the attack of a piano right. The soft-domed Dynaudio Esotec I'm used to can do this to a fair degree... one of the reasons I like it is because it gives me a lot of attack detail, especially in percussion, without the slightest bit of forwardness.
The AV-1's tweeter is very good for acoustic instruments and vocals, but I kept wanting more bite. For this, I think the hard Focal Tc90Tdx inverted dome is a much better candidate. We moved to the Paradox 1 after the cello and it was more what I was looking for. Similar large soundstaging, ultra-lush midrange, excellent imaging, but much better bite in the top end. I did not expect the Focal tweeter, which is reknowned for its forwardness, to sound so smooth and even a tad laid-back. I'm sure the Rega and the tube pre had a little to do with this, but the speaker's character did not change much when we changed the electronics behind it. I'd love to hear it with my electronics. Danny wasn't joking when he said he has tamed the Focal tweeter. We felt that it did everything the AV1 did right for us, and had the added more lifielike aggressiveness in the top end.
My brother ended up opting for the Paradoxes, since he's a string player and so the lifelike top end was more important to him. We brought the kit home and built it together... a very fun little project. He worked hard on the glossy tung oil finish, and with the third and final coat, the pair looks beautiful. Took all weekend for the staining, and about 6 hours to build the speaker itself. We had a little bit of trouble with the 4th-order series crossover, because the inductors are very large and somewhat unmanageable in such a small enclosure. We ended up making a small 3"x6" platform from plywood for mounting the inductors on. The big 3" diameter inductor was mounted flat on this board, and the smaller 2" inductor was mounted vertically, with capacitors/resistors between. The assembly was small and compact, fitting through the driver holes easily. All inductors were at right angles to the drivers, the assembly mounted right behind the tweeter on the top wall of the cabinet. Before I left for Chicago, we hooked it up to an inexpensive NAD and my old CEC CD-3100 CDP with Home Depot wire to test it out, and I must say that the sound is excellent - without woofer break-in! The highs and midrange give my Dyn's a run for the money.
Since I have towers, Danny said I would probably like the Paradox 3. Unfortunately, we didn't have time to hear it, maybe next time. He was also working on a new MMTMM floorstander using a vertical magnetic ribbon (?) that he said I would really, really like. I wish I had more time to listen, or maybe live with the speakers for a while. Perhaps my brother will post some time in the future with his long-term impressions.
A word about the amps we heard... the 8W tube amp is *just* enough for the small bookshelf speakers. It wasn't quite enough for my usual listening volume, which is usually above 80dB. Was very sweet-sounding, but I do prefer the 30W solid-state. The pre was lush enough, and adding that extra tubiness at the expense of power I felt was unnecessary.
Lastly, we had the treat of listening to his legendary Alpha LS towers. These are the highly efficient 7ft tall cabinets using 8 custom drivers and 9 magneplanar tweeters in a line-source array. Each bass driver has a port right behind it, and they're spaced quite close together. The sound was, in one word, heavenly . I couldn't say that the sound was by any means perfectly accurate, but it was soooo utterly seductive, drawing one straight into the music. It imaged so naturally, like nothing I've ever heard. Bass was super-clean and well-extended (Danny says it's 6dB down at 30Hz - I couldn't believe him!). I had hoped to listen to only one song before we left (You Don't Know Me from Patricia Barber's Nightclub - a cute/sad song about a lesbian in hopeless love with her hetero friend). It was mesmerizing - I was transfixed, so of course we couldn't just listen to one song. I felt so bad because usually if I hear something very nice, I let others sit in the sweet spot and experience it, but with these, I just couldn't move. After the piece, we looked at each other and wanted to say something, but we couldn't. We ended up listening to many, many songs after that... a total of four hours at GR Research that evening, it was so hard to pull away!
I've never heard anything quite like the Alpha LS's. I've heard B&W N801/2's, Meridian DSP8K's, ProAc Future Two's, a few other > $15K speakers. Nothing comes close to the sheer musicality and personality that these speakers impart to the listening experience (or allow through , if you prefer that description). And the best part is that the kit costs less than $2,000. You simply cannot go wrong.
Anyway, I had a great time visiting GR... If any of you inmates have any reason to go near my little hometown, you owe it to yourself to stop by GR. It's about 2.25 hours drive from Dallas, just south of the TX-OK border. I know that I personally won't be buying or recommending a pair of <$3K commercial speakers in the future with GR as an alternative. The GR sound is something most anyone would like, (except probably more hifi-ey resolution- or bass-freak types); none of what we heard at GR was the least bit fatiguing or unnatural-sounding... It offers sheer musicality at unprecedented value.
Chris

Product Weakness: Top end slightly rolled off. Piano could probably sound a little more lifelike. Would be nice for less skilled kit-builders if kit came with an easy-to-mount crossover board or something. Nevertheless, I could not ask for more at this price.
Product Strengths: Utter value, sheer musicality... Seductive midrange, very natural highs. Excellent for vocals, small-scale instrumentals. Great, clean bass for enclosure size. As far as I can tell, easy to match with electronics. Smooth, smooth, smooth. Near-perfect sound for the music I listen to.

Associated Equipment for this Review:
Amplifier:	NAD T750, C340 / Dodd power amps
Preamplifier (or None if Integrated):	NAD built-in / Dodd custom pre
Sources (CDP/Turntable):	CEC CD-3100 / Rega Planet 2K
Speakers:	GR Research Paradox 1, AV1, Alpha LS, (NHT 2.5i as makeshift reference)
Cables/Interconnects:	Home Depot 12AWG / A-C Goertz
Music Used (Genre/Selections):	Instrumental jazz, vocal, modern string quartet, some pop, a little bit of electronic
Room Size (LxWxH):	25 x 16 x 9
Room Comments/Treatments:	None / (GR research shop treatments)
Time Period/Length of Audition:	5Hr / 5Hr
Other (Power Conditioner etc.):	none
Type of Audition/Review:	Product Owner
Your System (if other than home audition):	NAIM CD5, ultra-tweaked NAD 553, Lehmann BC, Sonneteer Alabaster, AP Oval 9, Dynaudio Contour 1.8mkII

Product Weakness:	Top end slightly rolled off. Piano could probably sound a little more lifelike. Would be nice for less skilled kit-builders if kit came with an easy-to-mount crossover board or something. Nevertheless, I could not ask for more at this price.
Product Strengths:	Utter value, sheer musicality... Seductive midrange, very natural highs. Excellent for vocals, small-scale instrumentals. Great, clean bass for enclosure size. As far as I can tell, easy to match with electronics. Smooth, smooth, smooth. Near-perfect sound for the music I listen to.