GoldenEars’ New Triton 1

Both the speakers from Sandy Gross’s GoldenEar company that have been reviewed in Stereophile—the Triton 2, reviewed by Bob Deutsch in February 2012 and the Aon 2, reviewed by Bob Reina in November 2013—impressed us with the very attractive combination of price and performance. And at the 2014 CES, Sandy introduced me to the new flagship, the Triton 1, which will sell for $2499 each or $4998/pair when it comes to market in late April.

The Triton 1 combines GoldenEar’s folded ribbon tweeter with two 5.25” midrange units arranged above and below it, three 5”x9” “racetrack-shaped” woofers operating below 100Hz, and four passive radiators, arranged on pairs on opposite sides of the cloth-wrapped enclosure. The woofers are driven by a 1600W class-D amplifier, and the crossover to the upper-frequency unit is unusual, in that it is balanced.

Demmed with an MSB transport and Analog DAC (the latter to be reviewed in the APril issue of Stereophile, with an Audio Research Reference 5SE preamp and Pass Labs XA100.5 power amplifiers (above), in a room sensibly treated with RealTraps, the Triton 1s may have been tall but sounded acoustically small; the balance on a piano/bass/drums jazz track was smooth without being mellow, inviting yet detailed. And on Copland’s Fanfare for the Common Man, the bass drum knocked me back in my seat. AT a hair under $5k/pair, this speaker should be a best-seller.

Source : stereophile[dot]com