Free Shipping on US orders above $49
Editors' Choice Award 2024 – The Absolute Sound Magazine
Recommended Component 2024 - Stereophile
Outstanding Product Award – Hi-Fi News
Five Stars – the-ear.net
"Incredible Value" Ultimate High-Performance Bookshelf Speaker
The BRX Reference X Bookshelf Speaker from GoldenEar Technology incorporates a 6" cast-basket bass/midrange driver, basically the same driver used in the Triton Reference. It also features a Reference High-Velocity Folded Ribbon AMT Tweeter. The two drivers are perfectly blended with a unique "balanced crossover."
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 beautifully styled cabinet is luxuriously finished in hand-rubbed piano black lacquer. The BRX delivers superior reference level performance for both two channel as well as home theater systems.
Award-Winning Performance
The Absolute Sound magazine honored the BRX with an Editors' Choice Award for 2024.
"The BRX sits at the top rung on the ladder of GoldenEar’s Bookshelf Series. This two-way features a silky ribbon tweeter, plus a responsive mid/bass driver that’s augmented by a pair of passive planar radiators. Sonically, the BRX seemed nature born to play the classics, with chamber music and jazz possessing the timbral and harmonic complexities and spatial qualities heard in real acoustic settings."
It also won an Outstanding Product Award from Hi-Fi News magazine, which reports, "Low-end power and poise, courtesy of its ABRs, is a standout trait, and the BRX doesn't overdo it at the expense of instrumental and vocal presence, nor fall short when the volume is set high. When compact speakers can be this good, you might wonder why slender floorstanders even exist!"
"Recommended Component" Honors
Stereophile honored the BRX by awarding it the magazine's coveted Recommend Component status for 2024.
According to Stereophile, "The optimal listening axis is just below the tweeter, so JA used 30" Sanus SF30 twin-pillar stands to get the best sound. The result is superb stereo imaging accuracy and uncolored, natural-sounding midrange and treble with the grilles, but a touch too much mid-treble energy without them. Excellent low-frequency extension, to 50Hz, for such a small speaker, JA found, with fleshed-out upper bass even with the BRXes used well away from the wall behind them."
"Made a Big Impressive Splash"
"The tiny GoldenEar has made a big... impressive splash. Auditioned on a wide variety of program material, the BRX displayed a clean and open top-end, an uncolored midrange with solid imaging and bass response was more than comfortably deep," reports Tom Norton in his Sound & Vision review
"An incredible value...bass was solid and impactful...when fired up, these new speakers put out a sound that was dramatically opposite to their small size with a huge enveloping soundfield that put a big smile on my face," notes Carlo Lo Raso, Secrets of Home Theater & High Fidelity.
"Listening to the sonic excellence of the BRX... it is hard to imagine that a bookshelf speaker can sound this good," writes Maureen Jenson, Technology Insider, praising the BRX's "airy and detailed, solid bass and excellent imaging."
Ultra-High-Performance with Flagship Technology
The BRX is the ultimate high-performance compact bookshelf/stand-mount loudspeaker. The goal of the BRX development project was to create a gorgeous, luxuriously finished, ultra-compact loudspeaker which would incorporate the latest advanced technology developed for GoldenEar's Triton Reference and Reference One.R speakers in order to achieve truly superb sonic performance typical of larger, much more expensive units.
Drivers Derived from Triton Reference Speakers
For extraordinary sonic performance, the BRX incorporates a 6" cast-basket bass/midrange driver with a focused-field magnet structure. The cone is formed with a proprietary curve from a special formulation of polypropylene, which combines superior internal damping with a high speed of wave transmission through the cone (Young’s Modulus). This is basically the same driver used in the award-winning Triton Reference tower.
The tweeter is the same Reference High-Gauss High-Velocity Folded Ribbon used in both the Triton Reference and Triton One.R as well as the SPS. The two drivers are perfectly blended with a unique "balanced crossover" with a floating configuration that incorporates high quality film capacitors.
New internal speaker wire, which has a unique twist as in the Triton Reference, is utilized. A pair of inertially balanced 6.5" planar infrasonic radiators located on either side of the cabinet, acoustically load the active 6" driver as well as couple the internal bass energy to the room for tight, quick, extended bass response.
"Great Quality for the Price"
"It delivers great quality for the price. You get high-end performance in a compact package, all for a wallet-friendly price tag – useful in these times of inflation and high energy prices. I especially appreciated how it loved all genres of music, sounding good with mediocre recordings and fantastic with well-recorded tracks," reports Eric Teh, StereoNET, November 5, 2022.
"The character of the GoldenEar BRX is adaptive, that the speaker’s strengths compensate when there’s another issue present," observes Marc Phillips, pt.audio, June 6, 2022. "In the case of the slightly miniaturized soundstage I heard in the first two rounds, the side-firing passive radiators added an increased sense of three dimensions within that slightly smaller space."
Three-Dimensional Imaging and High-Resolution Clarity
The BRX has been engineered to deliver superior reference level performance for both two channel as well as home theater systems of the highest quality, with extraordinary three-dimensional imaging and high-resolution clarity. It has been voiced to match the Reference towers, with a tremendous sense of you-are-there lifelike immediacy.
Overall frequency response is 40-35 kHz, efficiency is 90 dB and recommended associated amplification is 10-250 watts/channel.
The beautifully styled 12"H x 8"W x 12.25"D cabinet is luxuriously finished in hand-rubbed piano black lacquer.
Top Rating of "Five Stars"
"I have no hesitation in recommending the Goldenear BRX miniature for its engineering and sound quality. It will not fail to entertain with its lively, engaging balance which puts involvement to the fore," observes Trevor Butler in his review for the-ear.net, July 7, 2023, which gave the BRX its top rating of Five Stars.
"These GoldenEar’s are a nice dynamic, exciting speaker that excels at resolution," notes Simon Price, 13thnote.net, January 20, 2024.
