Loudspeaker manufacturer GoldenEar Technology was founded in 2010 by a team led by Sandy Gross, who over the decades was responsible for a succession of affordable high-performance loudspeakers from Polk and Definitive Technology.1 Gross continued that tradition with GoldenEar: Even the company’s flagship, the Triton Reference, which I favorably reviewed in January 2018,2 was priced a couple of dollars short of $8500/pair. (GoldenEar was acquired by The Quest Group, the parent company of cable company AudioQuest, in January 2020; Gross continued with the brand as president emeritus.)
When Stereophile Editor Jim Austin asked if I would be interested in reviewing GoldenEar’s new stand-mounted design, the BRX (for Bookshelf Reference X), which is competitively priced at $1599/pair, I was interested to find out if what I had liked about the brand’s floor standing models had trickled down.
The BRX
“Trickle-down” is the appropriate term: The BRX does indeed feature technology from GoldenEar’s Triton Reference. The 6 polypropylene-cone woofer is basically the same as the Triton Reference’s upper-bass/midrange driver, with its cast basket, low-mass voice-coil, and what GoldenEar calls a Focused Field magnet structure, designed to better direct the magnetic flux into the voice-coil gap. However, the BRX’s implementation of this drive-unit has a conventional dust cap rather than the ribbed pole-piece extension featured in the Reference. The BRX woofer is reflex-loaded with a pair of 6.5 flat passive radiators, one mounted on each sidewall so that their reactive forces cancel.
This story is from the September 2020 edition of Stereophile.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the September 2020 edition of Stereophile.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
AURAL ROBERT
Another \"outlaw\" country artist
Nina Simone: Wild Is the Wind
By all accounts, Eunice Kathleen Waymon, aka Nina Simone, who passed in 2003, was a troubled person and a brilliant artist. Why she was not more acclaimed during her lifetime is a question several recent film projects have tried to answer. Did her fierce stand on civil rights lose her fans?
Vintage hi-fi, old and new
Many audiophiles and serious music lovers are passionate about vintage. Vintage has become a popular \"way in\" to the hobby, especially popular among younger folks.
Tekton Moab Be
LOUDSPEAKER
ARCAM Radia A25
INTEGRATED AMPLIFIER
Wharfedale Heritage Series 90th Anniversary Dovedale
LOUDSPEAKER
Technics Grand Class SL-1200/1210GR2
RECORD PLAYER
Thrax Audio Siren
Based in Bulgaria, European audio company Thrax has been active since 2009.
EMM Labs MTRS
STEREO POWER AMPLIFIER
SPIN DOCTOR
Alternative phono cartridge technologies and the DS Audio DS-W3 optical cartridge system