Gershman Studio II Speakers

Written by Soulsik



February 22, 2020



Speakers

Gershmans have been handcrafting speakers in Canada since the 1993. Now, their office and state of the art listening room is connected right beside a real studio where tracks are recorded, mixed, and mastered. Located right here in downtown Toronto, I had to visit.

As you may have seen in the studio tour video, they have access to most instruments. They are probably one of the very few manufacturers who are able to directly compare the actual sound of the instruments to their loudspeakers in the same listening space.

While I was there, I borrowed a pair of the Gershman Studio 2 speakers to review. When I set them up and listened to them for the first time, I knew these would be one of the most interesting speakers I have ever reviewed till date.

The Gershman Studio 2 is a 6 ohm speaker with 87db sensitivity. It is a two way sealed design with 1 inch silk dome tweeter and 8 inch alumium cone driver. The crossover is hand built using point to point soldering with high quality parts. High density board is used for the cabinet which is a slightly better choice than medium density fiber-board used by most speaker manufacturers.

The Gershmans rate the studio 2 speaker down to 25hz. First looking at the frequency range, I found this extremely odd and had doubts of my own. Bias that had been formed based on what I have heard over the years supported these doubts even before I heard the studio 2.

To my defence, most speakers are not able to reproduce down to 30hz and many speakers exaggerate the mid bass region to give the impression of a fuller bass. This is true for most bookshelves and even most floorstanders. There are only handful of speakers I have heard that truly reproduced below 30hz without a subwoofer; and those were all high end floorstanders. The Gershman studio 2 speakers are the first bookshelf speakers that I have experienced that truly go down lower than 30hz.

This is very apparent when you play tracks like Bass I love you by bassotronics. When I play this track, speakers’ woofers move regardless of if it can play lower notes or not. In fact, this is the exact track I use to shoot my b-rolls for my video reviews. On the Gershman studio 2, the woofers not only move but reproduce the low notes in the tracks perfectly. You are able to not only hear but feel the speakers pressurize the room.

“

The midrange is going to be smooth and warm

It has a meaty bite to it. No instrument nor voices sound muffled yet it does not sound sharp. If you are someone that enjoys the sharpness in some instruments (ex. scraping of the guitar strings or violin), the gershmans will sound smoother and not as sharp when compared to other speakers. It may perhaps be the only speaker I was able to play and enjoy modern tracks that I found just too painful to listen on other speakers due to its recording quality.

Higher frequencies are going to ultimately depend on where you are coming from.

If you like a lot of brightness and excitement then, the Gershman studio 2 may sound too closed down for your liking. However, if you have the speakers ear level and titled directly towards your ears, you will be pleasantly surprised that these speakers are not as closed down as when they were facing out towards the room. Personally, I had to use lower stands (20 inches) to get the speakers to ear level. Keep in mind that these speakers are larger in size and hence requires a lower stand; I personally recommend 20 inches. This is a type of speaker that you are able to listen to for hours straight without any ear fatigue from the treble. Fine tuning may be required for the treble to be your liking but it is worth it at the end of the day.

If you would like to know more about the placements and components I recommend with the Gershman studio 2
speakers, please check out the video review.