- Manufacturer & Model
-
GoldenEar BRX (Bookshelf Reference X) Speaker
- MSRP
- $799.00 Each
- Highlights
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Compact Size (8 1/16" W x 12 1/4" D x 12 1/8" H)
2-way Speaker
1 – High-Gauss Neodymium High-Velocity Folded Ribbon Reference Tweeter (HVFR)
1 – 6" High-Definition Cast-Basket Mid-Bass/Mid-Range Reference Driver
2 – 6 ½" Passive Planar Low-Frequency Radiators
40Hz – 35kHz Frequency Response
90 dB efficiency
4Ω Nominal Impedance
Recommended Amplification Power – 20~250 Watt/Channel
- Summary
-
The BRX (Bookshelf Reference X) speaker is a beautiful, compact, 2-way bookshelf speaker. The sleekly styled cabinet is finished in a hand-rubbed piano black lacquer. The BRX incorporates a GoldenEar 6" cast-basket bass/midrange driver. The tweeter is the GoldenEar Reference series High-Gauss High-Velocity Folded Ribbon. The two drivers are blended with a unique "balanced crossover design." A pair of inertially balanced 6.5" planar infrasonic radiators are located on either side of the cabinet for tight, quick, powerful bass response. The BRX delivers high performance for stereo systems and home theater systems. In addition, the BRX was designed to provide three-dimensional imaging and high-resolution clarity.
The Review
I make no bones about it; I'm a fan of GoldenEar products. I firmly believe they are one of the very best "value to performance" loudspeaker companies in the marketplace today.
As I think back on it, maybe, just maybe, I'm more of a Sandy Gross fan. I seem to gravitate toward speakers designed and made by him and the companies he has been associated with as co-founder and designer.
As a case(s) in point, I purchased a pair of Polk Audio SDA 2A speakers in 1985. (Polk Audio Founded 1971 - Co-Founders Matthew Polk, Sandy Gross, and George Klopfer)
Next, in 1995 along came a pair of Definitive Technology BP-2000s. (Definitive Technology Founded 1990 - Co-Founders Sandy Gross, Don Givogue, and Ed Blaise)
Then in 2010, GoldenEar was launched by, you guessed it, Sandy Gross and co-founder Don Givogue. Warp forward to Stardate 75827.3 (December 2019) and after a ten-year hiatus from SAP (Sandy Associated Products :-), I purchased and now use a pair of GoldenEar Triton One.Rs that serve as my "Reference" speakers. More recently (April 2022), I bought and installed a GoldenEar SuperCenter Reference to augment the Triton One.Rs when used in their home theater/multichannel audio role.
Even though Sandy has moved on once again, this time toward retirement (?), he has left an indelible mark on the companies he has touched and the speaker industry in general. And while Sandy may have left GoldenEar (GoldenEar is now owned by the Quest Group), his design legacy and philosophy remain firmly implanted within the company.
So, when I was offered the opportunity to review the GoldenEar BRX (Bookshelf Reference X) speaker, I jumped at the chance to get a closer look at yet another GoldenEar loudspeaker.
Delivery Day
The GoldenEar BRXs showed up one sunny spring day in Texas via FedEx. The speakers arrived in two separate, double-walled cardboard boxes. Aside from a good-sized breach on the side of one of the boxes, they appeared to be in good condition. Unpacking and inspecting the speaker in the disfigured box confirmed it was unscathed and undamaged.
The speakers were firmly secured between two Styrofoam foam endcaps and wrapped in soft cloth baggies that were, in turn, wrapped in plastic bags.
The plastic bagged grille assembly was packed in a small box (see above) tucked into a niche in the foam end cap.
The only other item in the boxes of my review samples was an instruction/setup guide.
First Impressions
The smallish (8 1/16" W x 12 1/4" D x 12 1/8" H) BRX is not overly impressive in stature. However, I kept reminding myself that it was not the size that mattered. Instead, it is the performance and sound of a loudspeaker that is truly important. So, I set aside my size prejudices and took a closer, more revealing, look at the BRX.
The BRX displays a distinct family resemblance to its much larger siblings, the GoldenEar Triton Reference and the Triton One Reference Speakers. The finish is the same hand-rubbed piano black lacquer of the larger speakers. The sides and top of the speaker are subtly and similarly sloped and shaped, while all external edges, and the top of the cabinet, are softly rounded/radiused.
The finish and cabinet joinery on my review samples were perfect, and at 12lbs, the speaker had a substantial feel vs. its physical size.
The folded ribbon (Heil Driver) tweeter, the 6" woofer, the grilles for the two side-mounted passive radiators, and the rear-mounted binding post cup fit seamlessly in the cabinet with no visible mounting hardware, except for the four Allen-head screws holding the tweeter in place.
The speaker’s removable perforated formed metal grill attaches via invisibly embedded magnets in the speaker's body. All edges of the grille assembly that contact the finished cabinet are covered in a soft felt material.
The bottom of my review samples had four little rubber donuts glued to the cabinet in lieu of screw-in feet or spikes.
The speaker’s sturdy, 5-way, all-metal binding posts appeared to be brass (non-ferrous) and are topped with a ½" hex head cap. The wire opening looked like it would directly accept up to an eight-gauge (or bigger!) wire or pin. I inserted a ten-gauge wire, and it rattled around with room to spare.
Construction and Design
Cabinet
As previously mentioned, the fit and finish on my samples were perfect. The finish is the same hand-rubbed piano black lacquer of the larger Reference Series speakers. The sides and top of the speaker are subtly sloped and shaped to provide non-parallel internal walls, reducing internal reflections, and standing waves. All external edges, and the top of the cabinet, are softly rounded/radiused to control diffraction artifacts.
Giving the cabinet a good rap during the "Knuckle Rap Test" (AKA my "Little Rubber Mallet Test") produced only a solid "THUNK!" with no hint of hollowness or ringing detected. The cabinet is constructed of milled MDF that ranges in thickness from 15mm (0.6") to 22mm (0.87") as structurally required. The interior contains a Dacron batting for internal damping of the woofer/midrange driver’s backwave.
The sealed cabinet also sports two side-mounted 6.5" passive, inertially balanced (opposing), planar infrasonic bass radiators to tune and bolster the low-end instead of a port.
Drivers
The speaker’s tweeter is GoldenEar's proprietary version of an AMT (Air Motion Transformer/Heil Driver) design. The BRX uses the same High-Gauss Reference HVFR (High-Velocity Folded Ribbon) version of the driver found in GoldenEar's upper-end Triton Reference and Triton One.R models.
The woofer/midrange is a 6" High-Definition, Cast-Basket driver with a low-mass voice coil coupled to a powerful high-gauss "Focused Field" motor assembly. This architecture is designed to direct the magnetic flux into the voice-coil gap to increase control and efficiency more precisely. This driver is essentially the same mid-bass/midrange driver used in the other "Reference Series" speakers minus GoldenEar’s "Multi-Vane Phase Plug" tech widget.
While not active drivers, there are two 6.5" passive, inertially balanced (opposing), Planar Infrasonic Bass Radiators hiding behind the perforated metal grilles occupying the cabinet's side panels. These two passive radiators tune the speaker cabinet via mass and compliance, much as a port tunes a speaker cabinet via port length and diameter, allowing the woofer to operate more effectively within its optimal range. There is an MDF disk layer with a metal doughnut applied to the back of the passive radiator to provide inertial damping and tuning.
Crossover
The crossover is a 3rd-order balanced crossover design providing an 18dB/Octave crossover slope, with the electro/mechanical crossover frequency set at 3500Hz. This higher crossover point makes perfect sense considering this is a two-way system and the types of drivers used. The unique "Balanced Crossover" design topology uses high-quality film capacitors and other precision parts to perfectly blend to two drivers at the crossover point.
Setup
I set the BRX speakers on two projector stands on hand, a less than optimal solution cosmetically but they worked well enough for my testing purposes. Recommended support is either bookshelf or 30" stands (or whatever size of stand that will get the tweeters to ear level). My seating position is at least 4" higher than might be expected due to the thickness of my room’s shaker platform and its 2" rubber Isolation feet. My target height was 40" at the tweeter, which was right in line with my ears when seated.
I built up the more undersized projector stand on the left using three of my speaker isolation platforms (18" 18" x 2" concrete pavers), giving it plenty of damping mass. I used the right-side stand at its lowest setting. To add more mass and damping to the right-side stand, I placed two twenty-pound light-stand weight bags on the table-top of the projector stand.
I experimented a bit and found that the best placement, in this case, was with the front of the speakers 60" from the front wall and 54" from the sidewalls, and about 9.5' apart. Toe-in was adjusted for the best imaging, and as usual for my room, the toe-in angle crossed the tweeter center-line axis a foot or so behind my head.
I ran an Audyssey room calibration to eight places with the speakers in position. Then, using the Marantz/Audyssey MultiEQ app, I restricted the Audyssey effect range to 300Hz and below for the front speakers. I then promptly turned the Audyssey OFF, set the BRX speakers to the full range (Large) setting, ran a few measurements, and listened a bit to hear what the BRXs would sound like raw and unsupported by subwoofers.
The equipment used in the big room was my Marantz AV-7703 Pre/Proc and Parasound Halo A21 amplifier. Speaker Cables used were twin leads of Belden 5T00UP 10 Gauge (7 Gauge equivalent) speaker wire terminated with locking and stacking banana plugs. Sources included my OPPO UDP-203 for CD, SACD, Blu-ray/DVD Audio and Blu-ray movies, Apple TV 4K for movies and music, and a Pro-Ject Debut Carbon with Ortofon RED 2M cartridge for vinyl. Music was also direct streamed using the Marantz AV-7703 via the Denon/Marantz "in-box" HEOS streaming application.
Measurements
My limited test setup consists of REW used with a MacBook Pro and a MiniDSP UMIK-2 microphone. Of course, the other component of my test setup is MY ROOM. So, now in full disclosure mode, these are measurements performed in my less-than-perfect room and within the limitations of my modest test equipment. These measurements are not meant to supplant or contest the measurements given by the manufacturer. Instead, these measurements offer a comparison point from a real-world environment.
I started with the UMIK-2 at one meter, directly on-axis with the tweeter. (See Figure 1 below). All 1-meter testing was done with Audyssey off, the BRX running full range and no subwoofers. Only the left speaker was used for the 1-meter testing. One trace is with no smoothing applied, while the second trace is 1:3 smoothing. As shown in Figure 1, the curve is flat from about 90Hz to beyond 20kHz, where my equipment limitations kick in.
There is substantial bass energy down to 40Hz (about 10dB down from 100Hz), where it starts to taper off smoothly. GoldenEar states the frequency response of the BRX as 40Hz to 35kHz with no ± given. While I can't verify the claims beyond the 22kHz mark, there is a clear indication that the response carries on beyond the limitations of my equipment.
I also tested horizontal off-axis response at one meter (see Figure 2 below).
The horizontal response fell smoothly as I moved the microphone from directly on-axis with the tweeter to 15˚, 30˚, 60˚, and entirely to the side of the cabinet at 90˚.
I tested vertical axis response (See Figure 3 – below) by elevating the UMIK-2 to 6.5' and maintaining the 1-meter distancing. This placement gave me about a 60˚ angle at one meter above the tweeter. Response smoothly fell across the board, confirming the radiation pattern commonly attributed to this type of tweeter, broader in the horizontal, narrower in the vertical.
Doing a walkabout confirmed that the high frequencies dropped off smoothly as the angle diverged from the tweeter center axis, but the speakers continued to sound natural at all but the most extreme angles.
Moving to the listening position, I performed a few additional tests using the right and left speakers from the listening position.
In Figure 4 below, the Green Trace is a full-range sweep at the listening position with Audyssey OFF. The Blue Trace represents the same measurement with the Audyssey ON (correction is full range but modified to eliminate the standard Audyssey roll-off above 14kHz). The effect of the Audyssey is seen mainly as smoothing in the bass region under 300Hz, a filling-in of the midrange, and an elevation in the high frequencies above 4kHz.
n Figure 5, below, I've added the subs into the mix with the Audyssey correction turned ON.
Figures 4 and 5 indicate, to me, a well-tuned and flat response in a minimally treated room within the functional limits of the speaker.
Does a flat response always translate to an excellent-sounding speaker? Read on to find out!
Listening
I approached listening as I usually do, by gathering some of my favorite media in different formats.
Initial listening was with the BRXs unsupported by subwoofers. I listened to some CD selections from Thomas Dolby, "Airhead," Spock's Beard, "The Light," and the opening track of the Windham Hill compilation CD, Soul of the Machine, "Rizzo." These are all tunes that I know to contain substantial, tight, and sometimes deep-digging bass passages.
All the material was enjoyable using the BRXs sans subwoofers. But something was missing, as I now expected for someone (me) whose ears are tuned to what subwoofers can bring to the table.
While the speakers supplied decent and enjoyable bass from 40Hz and up, the low-end slam I was looking for was MIA. The small 6" woofers, even with woofer compliance effectivity boosted by the tuning provided by the passive infrasonic radiators, could not present the ultra-deep bass content that I knew was there with convincing authority. The normal bass range supplied by conventional pop, jazz, or symphonic music was perfectly fine and enjoyable through the BRXs. The extreme low end of a synth or 5-string bass was there but very subdued.
I reengaged the subwoofers, changed the speaker settings back to small, and returned the crossover to 80Hz. The addition of the subwoofers gave the BRXs the needed room to breathe and operate more effectively within their design parameters and returned the slam and weight to the extreme lows.
All subsequent listening was with the subwoofers on unless noted.
Music
To start the listening session off, I queued up a bit of vinyl.
First up on vinyl was the Styx 1978 classic, Pieces of Eight. Playing through side two of the LP, I listened to "Blue Collar Man," "Renegade," "Pieces of Eight," and "Aku-Aku," while skipping "Queen of Spades." The slightly bombastic, prog-leaning, and somewhat overcooked top-end LP played very well on the BRX speakers. The sound was full and together with a decent bottom-end, smooth midrange, and that aforementioned, slightly overdone high end. I particularly enjoyed the forward, rocking presentation of "Renegade."
Next on vinyl was the 1975 pop, leaning toward jazz fusion, of Gino Vannelli's third album, Storm at Sunup. All of Gino Vannelli's albums are well crafted and well recorded. A plethora of synthesizers and keyboards coupled with the bass, drums, guitars, percussion, and even some tasty saxes make this a nicely layered and dense (in spots) recording. Gino's vocals are spot on and just drip with that lovely '70s reverb.
Tracks sampled included the title track "Storm at Sunup," "Love Me Now," Mama Coco," and I finished on side two with "Love is a Night." The GoldenEar BRX speakers rendered each selection with a smooth, articulate, and uncolored mid-range and a lovely extended and transparent high-end. The bass and kick drum had good weight and authority and were well connected. Synths had good edge and growl ("Mama Coco") while vocals rang clear and just dripped with those endless reverb tails (Hey! It was a thing in the seventies!).
The imaging was excellent with both albums, presenting a wide and open soundstage with a solid center image.
I experimented a bit listening with the speakers set to "Small" or "Large" (full range) and the subs on and then off. With the vinyl samples, the speakers were perfectly listenable either way, with the subwoofers contributing very little to the bottom end of the Styx recording. However, the Gino Vannelli album was considerably different. The addition of the subwoofer added quite a bit of impact to the sound of the LP. I attribute that to the instrumentation and recording that included the heavier use of synths and keyboards, providing a more substantial low-end than the Styx LP. Ultimately, despite the limited bottom-end, I found myself enjoying the music from vinyl, whether the subs were on or off.
Jumping to CD and starting with the 1985 Dave Grusin and Lee Ritenour release of Harlequin, I listened to the first three tracks, "Harlequin," "Early A.M. Attitude," and "Yan Ysidro." The BRX speakers rendered a deep, detailed, and focused soundstage with a solid center image. The vocals by Ivan Lin in "Harlequin" were striking, with a clear presentation that highlighted the subtle, and sometimes not so subtle, pleasant edge that rides the top of his voice. The drums on all tracks were well portrayed, and the kick drum was solidly connected to the bass. The piano was featured appropriately when central to the tune. The same could be said of Lee Ritenour's guitars which blended in the mix perfectly until called forward. The bass, reinforced by the subwoofers, was solid and enjoyable, and the BRXs blended seamlessly at the handover point.
Of course, no listening session would be complete without a little Steely Dan. Their 2000 release of Two Against Nature continues to be one of my favorites and my "go-to" benchmark reference for studio sculpted sound. I sampled the first three tracks on the CD. Track one, "Gaslighting Abbie," is a tune driven forward with that trademark Steely Dan sound, tightly connected bass and kick drum, a snare sound that was ultra-defined with weight and snap, and tight, crisp high-hat and cymbal work. The bass, in this case, had a bit of noticeable, but very pleasant growl as it navigated the tune. The keyboards and guitars were clean and tasty throughout.
The somewhat depressing "What a Shame About Me" returned to a much cleaner bass sound. The piano was muted by comparison throughout the song, while the "chicken-plucked" guitar was forward and central throughout the song.
The final selection I listened to was the title tune, "Two against Nature." This song rocks along with many percussion embellishments, subtle piano layers and embellishments, and the occasional sax breaking the surface along with a horn section. "Two against Nature" is a very textured and layered song, with the definition of the different instruments clearly on display through the BRXs.
I finished up my official CD listening with a bit of Johann Pachelbel (1653 – 1706), Canon & Gigue, and Various Chamber Works performed by the London Baroque Orchestra (Harmonia Mundi – 901539). The strings were sweetly woody and smooth, with a lovely violin edge riding on top. The Clavecin (Harpsichord) was somewhat receded but was clearly identifiable and well defined with that typical Harpsichord tinniness and shimmering vibrance. Overall, the BRX speakers presented the classical chamber music very well, with a slightly forward but natural feel, with a slight extra bit of edge on the top.
For an SACD sample, I called upon one of my favorite female vocalists and audiophile darling Norah Jones from her inaugural release, Come Away with Me, to get a feel for a female voice-centric recording. This album is one of my multichannel SACDs, but I started by listening in stereo to get an impression of the BRX speakers on their own. The speakers cleanly rendered Nora's breathy vocals with no hint of congestion or chestiness. All the instrumentation was clearly delineated and securely in place. The upright bass was deep, warm, and woody. The drums, while subtle, were clear and present, with the soft, detailed brushwork very defined. The grand piano was warm and full of excellent detail. When I switched to 5.1 surround, the BRXs blended perfectly with my GoldenEar SuperCenter Reference center channel. The surrounds on this release are used primarily for ambiance, and the BRXs blended and played seamlessly with the surrounds.
Continuing with SACDs, I played two selections from piano master Hiromi Uehara. While some of Hiromi's work is straight piano, much of it is combo-driven. The opening track of the Brain SACD, "Kung-Fu Champion of the World," is a great, high-energy tune that is driven ruthlessly forward by the keyboards (Hiromi), bass (Tony Grey), and drummer (Martin Valihora). The interplay between the instruments, especially the bass and the synthesizers, is fast, frenetic, and syncopated. The BRXs handled the musical acrobatics effortlessly, maintaining the separation and definition of the instruments throughout.
The next tune on the SACD, "If…," is a more straightforward, piano fronted, jazz combo style rendering, but this time featuring bassist Anthony Jackson on the six-string contrabass. The piano sound was clearly defined, open and effortless, while the bass sound was big and solid, warm, and rounded in presentation. The BRX speakers handled the change-up in sound character without breaking a sweat. The oft difficult to reproduce grand piano sound was clear and natural sounding.
Home Theater
I always ran the BRX speakers at the "Small" setting for home theater duties, with the front channels crossed over at 80Hz with the subwoofers on.
The lineup of all GoldenEar front channels worked seamlessly together, and the sound produced by that cooperation was superb.
I started with some Halo action on Paramount+ (ATMOS, Dolby Vision). The sci-fi action played perfectly on the tiny BRX speakers, delivering a MUCH BIGGER sound than I thought possible.
Sticking with Paramount+ (ATMOS, Dolby Vision), I queued up the third episode of the new Star Trek: Strange New Worlds series. I like this new series and find the characters and action more to my liking than the more laid-back and cerebral Star Trek: Picard or the somewhat over-wrought Star Trek: Discovery. The action is intense at times, and the BRXs never failed to deliver the impact, or the ambiance, of the well-crafted soundtrack as needed.
I turned to iTunes and my Apple TV 4K (Dolby ATMOS, 4K Dolby Vision) to stream the newly released Tom Holland and Mark Wahlberg action flick, Uncharted. This movie, reminiscent of the Indiana Jones series, gave all the speakers in the system a workout. Again, the BRX performed admirably, never sounding stressed or strained, EVEN DURING THE LOUDEST PASSAGES. The on-screen action remained firmly connected to the excellent surround soundtrack at all times, and the effects tracked perfectly around the entire surround sphere.
A Change of Venue
Much as I've done in the past with smaller speakers, I moved to my much more compact office space and replaced my PreSonus ERIS 5 bi-amplified nearfield monitors (5.25" Woofer and 1" dome tweeter) with the GoldenEar BRXs powered by my Sony STR-DH800 receiver.
I played several of the same CDs to which I had listened upstairs in the big room and found the sound in the nearfield to be tight, concise, extremely detailed, and musical.
I also streamed a lot of music via Amazon Music HD. From a repeat of the Hiromi tunes on the Brain album, this time in stereo, to the saturated heaviness of Tool's Ænima and Lateralus albums, the little BRX delivered it all with conviction and aplomb, never faltering or missing a step.
All the material played in the tighter office venue with a much more convincing bass presence, even unsupported by a subwoofer, than was the case in the larger theater room when played without subwoofer support.
Summary and Closing Thoughts
I loved the diminutive GoldenEar BRX speakers. The Quest Group now owns GoldenEar and is certainly holding the quality of the products to the highest levels.
So, what is the "sound" of the BRXs? I would say open, airy, and transparent, with a smooth extended high-end, a clear, uncomplicated, and uncolored mid-range, and a tight, articulate, and solid bass right down to the design limits of the speaker. The sound was very detailed and inviting across any genre. Imaging and soundstage were excellent in all respects, wide and deep, with a rock-solid center image in stereo.
Depending on the material supplied to them, they could be a little strident on the top end, but it is hard to blame a speaker that measures with such an obviously smooth response across the high frequencies. I blame if that’s the right word, the current state of the recording industry. For example, I listened to the new release from Harry Styles, "As It Was" from Harry's House, on Amazon Music HD and found it harsh and unpleasant to listen to. However, comparing the sound of other recent releases from Day Wave, "Loner" or "Dead" from PEAKS!, using the same Amazon Music HD source, brought the smile back to my face. The sound of those releases was much smoother and more together to my ears, and the recordings were a pleasure to listen to. But to get to those two tunes, I had to parse through ten or so songs from the Amazon Music new releases playlist.
I guess, in reflection, I may be just an "Old Fuddy-Duddy," stuck in the pre-DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) production era of the '60s, '70s, and '80s. A rounder, more gentle, more analog sort of time where there was no desire or contest (seemingly) to stack two hundred tracks on top of each other just because you can.
That is not to say there haven't been great recordings and releases in the 90s and 2000s; there have. So, to make sure my ears weren't blown out or Amazon wasn't delivering a compromised stream, I pulled up the 2004 release of Big and Rich's Horse of a Different Color. This recording sounded great through the BRXs, very organic, balanced, and never harsh or grating.
I tend to call this the "Earbuds First" mixing phenomenon. To my aging ears (and, yes… sensibilities), modern music is often mixed much too hot on both the high-end and the bottom-end. It might sound good on "earbuds" or grab your attention on the radio, but on good, accurate speakers, maybe not so much. The BRX speakers straight up disagreed with that particular “production value" (Thankfully!) of the "Earbuds First" hyped-up aesthetic so many artists adhere to these days. So, hopping off my soapbox and putting the above rants aside, let's get back to the subject at hand!
Bottom line, the BRXs sounded excellent at any volume and worked well in the two very different environments I tried them in. The "Big Room" of the home theater/media room and the much smaller space of my home office. In either of those spaces, they filled the room with clean, coherent sounds at any volume that I asked of them. In fact, they functioned well in any scenario I threw them into and were equally at home as the heart of a stereo/multichannel audio system or home theater.
Do the BRXs fall short in any respect? Indeed, they could use some more bottom end, but Physics being the harsh mistress she is, deep bass extension is mostly impossible for a small speaker to accomplish. The careful cabinet/woofer tuning accomplished by the Planar Infrasonic Radiators used in the BRX took a valiant stab at bypassing those harsh limitations imposed by Mistress Physics. Still, they couldn't really supplant the necessity for bigger cabinet volumes and moving more air. Solution? One or more tight, musical subwoofers paired with the GoldenEar BRX speakers will “cure those ills!” While I thought these speakers would only shine in smaller environments, I was wrong! When competent subwoofers support the BRXs, they can certainly hold their own in rooms big and small, at any volume a semi-sane person like me would want to subject themselves to.
Yes, they are small speakers, and at $1600 a pair, they are not inexpensive small speakers. But, considering the beautiful looks, robust construction, careful design application, great warranty (five years on the speaker) and service, and the stellar sound they produce, it is undoubtedly a price point that I can live with and recommend for almost any situation.
Specifications: GoldenEar BRX (Bookshelf Reference X)
Frequency Response: 40 Hz – 35 kHz
Crossover Frequency: 3500Hz
Efficiency: 90 dB
Nominal Impedance: 4Ω (Compatible with 8Ω)
Driver Complement:
One High-Gauss Neodymium High-Velocity Folded Ribbon (HVFR) Reference Tweeter
One 6" high-definition cast-basket mid/bass Reference Driver Two 6.5" side-mounted planar low-frequency radiators
Recommended Power: 20 – 250 Watt/channel
Dimensions: 8-1/16" (20.5 cm) W x 12-1/4" (31.1 cm) D x 12-1/8" (30.8 cm) H (includes feet)
Weight: 12 lbs. (5.44 kg)
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