garylkoh
WBF Technical Expert (Speakers & Audio Equipment)
Having heard at least five pairs of IRSs in my years, I can say that properly set up, they were magical. IMHO, one of the best speakers I've ever heard with the caveat that the biggest issues was the parts quality (as it seems for so many speakers; the designer puts all the effort into the drivers and runs out of money and has to cut corners on the xover)
Redid an IRS Xover for a friend and it was a different beast. He also had the servo redone and that was a marked improvement. But very few speakers (and I assume based on reports that Gary's version does this too!) could move the quantity of air the IRS did. When HP talked about air conditioning noise in Symphony Hall, it was there; when HP talked about the underground under Kingsway, you couldn't miss it! I rmemember introducing HP to Emerald Forrest and will never forget the look on his face when they started to play the drums and his pants started to flap in the breeze
That's why I was pushing Gary to debut them back East
Myles, no corners were cut on the G1.2's or on the Dragons. No other speaker I know can move this much air - the IRS had twelve 12-inch woofers. The G1.2 has twenty-four, and each woofer has twice the excursion of the old IRS woofers. Towards the end of the night, we were playing club music at club levels - Frankie Goes to Hollywood at realistic levels
One of the problems with the IRS was that the speaker came with a servo controller but not the amps for the woofers. So, the quality of bass and integration with the midrange was a bit of a hit-n-miss. The G1.2 is supplied with 12,000W of amplification for the 24 woofers, and the crossovers are integrated.
