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First Listen: GoldenEar Triton One floorstanding loudspeaker

First Listen: GoldenEar Triton One floorstanding loudspeaker

When industry icon Sandy Gross founded GoldenEar Technology several years back, his new company’s first product was the Triton Two floorstanding loudspeaker—a model whose core technologies set the pattern for a number of GoldenEar models to come. The basic Triton ‘recipe’, if you will, called for a tall, slender, fabric-covered floorstander that was, in essence, comprised of two distinct sections—a passive tweeter/midrange module positioned near the top the of the tower-type speaker and a self-powered woofer (or subwoofer) section located on the sides and bottom of the tower.

Handling mids and highs, respectively, were a pair of passively driven, long-throw, very wide-bandwidth dynamic mid/bass drivers coupled with a Heil-type High Velocity Folded Ribbon (HVFR) tweeter. This passive three-driver array was arranged in a D’Appolito-like (that is, midrange-tweeter-midrange) configuration, with the array housed in a separate, sealed enclosure located near the top of the Triton Two’s enclosure.

First Listen: GoldenEar Triton One floorstanding loudspeaker

Down below was a self-powered low-frequency driver array consisting of a set of racetrack-shaped ‘quadratic sub-bass drivers’ supplemented by a set of vibration-cancelling, horizontally opposed passive radiators (known, in GoldenEar’s colourful parlance, as ‘inertially balanced, quadratic infrasonic radiators’). In turn, a powerful, DSP-controlled class D digital woofer amplifier/electronic crossover network controlled and supplied power for the woofer section. The amp/crossover network used the Triton’s main speaker taps as its primary inputs. Thus, users simply connect a conventional set of speaker cables to their Tritons and the woofer section’s electronics take care of the rest (an arrangement similar to the one used for many REL subwoofers).  

The overall design concept was that the passive tweeter/midrange section would function as a very high-quality embedded ‘monitor-grade’ speaker—and thus as the primary ‘voice’ of the Triton, while the bass section would function as a built-in and presumably voice matched powered subwoofer that would perfectly complement the tweeter/midrange array. One upshot of this design configuration was that the Triton Twos were meant to be very easy to drive, largely because their built-in woofer amplifiers would handle all the ‘heavy lifting’ entailed in providing full range bass response. As a result, the thought was that the Triton Twos could be driven by anything from relatively low-output valve-type amplifiers and moderately sized AVRs on up to powerhouse high-end solid-state power amps. In short, amplifier choices depended almost entirely upon the listener’s tastes and preferences—not on the dictates of theses easygoing and decidedly unfussy loudspeakers.

 

First Listen: GoldenEar Triton One floorstanding loudspeaker

Did the Triton design concept work out in actual practice? It did indeed, so much so that the Triton Two, and later on the Triton Three, went one to garner considerable critical acclaim and numerous industry awards. But good and versatile though those early Triton models proved to be, some listeners—and I would probably count myself among them, still held out at least a few reservations about the Tritons for use in purist, audiophile applications.

Speaking for myself, I would say those reservations ultimately centred upon the question of whether or not the Triton’s self-powered woofer section was fast and agile enough to be able to keep pace with its excellent passive tweeter/midrange section, which is very ‘quick’ and articulate-sounding. While I would never have called the self-powered bass sections of those early Triton’s ‘sluggish’, I did often have the sense with both the Triton Two and Three that the higher one climbed in the audio spectrum, the more agile and focused the speakers sounded. What was missing, I felt, was that uncanny sense of top-to-bottom speed, focus, resolution, transparency, and coherency that today’s finest full-range passive speakers manage to deliver so effectively (albeit at very steep prices, in many cases).

First Listen: GoldenEar Triton One floorstanding loudspeaker

Well, folks, having recently taken delivery of a brand new, full-production review set of GoldenEar’s new flagship model, the Triton One floorstander ($4,999.98/pair), I’m inclined to say that GoldenEar has finally managed to crack the speed and coherency ‘code’ in a brilliant and compelling fashion, and I say this even while acknowledging that my Triton Ones are not yet fully broken-in. Nevertheless, the performance leap they offer vis-à-vis the original Triton Twos and Threes is a huge and dramatic one.  Here’s why.

In working with his engineering team to create the Triton One, Sandy Gross sought improvements in transient speed and resolution and was also intent on pursuing what is arguably the most accurate and neutral voicing that any GoldenEar model has ever offered. Further, he sought to improve dynamic capabilities across the board in terms of achieving more nuanced and finely shaded dynamics and in terms of delivering higher levels of sheer dynamic power. Finally, he sought to give the Triton One not only deeper bass extension than previous models, but also more detailed, quicker paced, better controlled, and ultimately more tuneful bass than any GoldenEar product to date. Quite frankly, Gross and team have succeeded brilliantly on all counts.

 

First Listen: GoldenEar Triton One floorstanding loudspeaker

To make these sonic goals a reality, the Triton One draws—especially in the design of its tweeter/midrange section—upon the know-how and design insights gleaned from the effort to develop the firm’s all-passive, yet surprisingly potent Triton Seven floorstander (click here to read the Hi-Fi+ review). Accordingly, the Triton One uses two 5.25-inch very long-throw mid/bass drivers and GoldenEar’s signature HVFR tweeter in a sophisticated enclosure system that provides separate housings for each individual mid/bass driver with a unique balanced crossover network including a Zobel network sending high frequencies up to the HVFR tweeter. Importantly, the frequency response of the Triton One’s passive tweeter/midrange section extends lower (much lower) than in any other Triton model using a powered woofer section. Indeed, the powered woofer in the Triton One rolls in well below 100Hz—a frequency much lower than that used in the other powered-woofer Triton models. This fact alone partially explains the Triton One’s superior low-end focus and transient speed.

But the woofer section, too, is significantly improved. Where the Triton Two woofer section featured two powered ‘quadratic woofers’, the Triton One uses three, and where the Triton Two provided two horizontally opposed passive radiators, the Triton One uses four! But the biggest difference of all may come in the form of an all-new 1600-watt, class D, DSP-controlled woofer amplifier and electronic crossover system, which features a fully balanced-topology, phase-coherent crossover network and an all-new 56-bit DSP engine that is dramatically more powerful than the DSP engines used in prior Triton models.

First Listen: GoldenEar Triton One floorstanding loudspeaker

 

The result is that the Triton One stands as a truly full-range loudspeaker whose broad and well-rounded performance capabilities are just jaw-droppingly good (and that’s putting it mildly). In simple terms, the Triton One, more so than any other Golden Ear model, and more so than most other audiophile-grade loudspeakers anywhere near its price, is a no excuses, no apologies, pull-out-all-the-stops, dead serious high-end loudspeaker that, even at this early stage, has shown a dazzling array of sonic characteristics likely to please (if not stun) even the most finicky and jaded of audiophiles.

Full-range frequency response? Check. Big-boy dynamics on demand? Check. Subtlety and nuance by the barrel full? Check. Articulacy and resolution? Check. Killer imaging and 3D soundstaging? Check. Pace, Rhythm, and Timing? But of course. Ease of set-up and placement? You betcha. On and on the list goes, so that I must confess I’m curious to see just how much better the speaker may get (or for that matter, can get) once break-in is complete. Given how good the Triton One already is, I expect its continued sonic evolution during run-in will prove to be quite the wild ride.

First Listen: GoldenEar Triton One floorstanding loudspeaker

I realise this sneak preview of the Triton One sounds like an out-and-out rave, but frankly some products show so much potential so early on that it is impossible not to share the good news with friends, readers, and colleagues. If this First Listen blog were a movie preview, then the ‘spoiler alert’ would be this: when all is said and done, I think GoldenEar’s Triton One is destined to earn a well-deserved reputation as one of the greatest high-end audio bargains of all time. It really does make ultra-serious high-end performance available at—more or less—an Everyman price.

Stay tuned for our full review of the Trition One in an upcoming issue of Hi-Fi+. Until then, happy listening to one and all.

Tags: FEATURED GOLDENEAR

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