Gary SteelGoldenEar’s spectacular Triton Reference loudspeakers will be here for winter.
The celebrated Triton One loudspeaker shocked the hi-fi world with its spectacular sound quality at an affordable price, but some felt that the “sock” that covered it lessened its visual appeal.
Stevenson, Maryland-based audiophile mavericks GoldenEar have responded with a supercharged version aptly titled the Triton Reference, which will be available to dealers through PQ Imports from late June. This premium loudspeaker boasts more or less the same column form factor as the Triton One, and the same essential idea (full spectrum sound, a combination of planar drivers, folded ribbon tweeters and genuine on-board sub-bass) but the differences have been flooring hi-fi critics since they debuted at the CES fair in January.
Sticking to their motto ‘We Make High-End Affordable’, GoldenEar set out to create a flagship model that would joust with the best, raise the bar, and set a completely new performance standard for reasonably priced, affordable loudspeakers.
The Triton Reference began its public life by winning the prestigious CES Innovations Design and Engineering Award. Visually, the speaker features a hand-rubbed piano gloss-black lacquer finished one-piece monocoque cabinet.
But the reboot on the Triton isn’t merely visual. All the components – the active sub-bass drivers, upper-bass/midrange drivers, and high-velocity folded ribbon tweeter – are new, and have been specifically developed for use in the Reference. The fully balanced crossover is specially engineered for the Reference, and the powerful subwoofer amplifier and 56-bit DSP control unit are an evolution of those used in the Triton One and their SuperSubs. The new 6-inch upper/bass/midrange drivers are cast-basket units that incorporate a low-massvoice coil and a newly developed cone with unique low-mass bonding to the butyl rubber surround for improved transient response. In addition, they have a large, newly designed, specially engineered ‘Focused Field’ magnet structure, which better directs the magnet flux to the voice coil gap. The newly engineered 6-inch x10-inch active low-frequency drivers for the built-in powered subwoofers have 40 percent more surface area than the active drivers used in the Triton One, along with a larger diameter voice-coil and an even more massive magnet structure, which also utilizes ‘Focused Field’ technology. The new Reference High-Velocity Folded-Ribbon tweeter incorporates 50 percent more rare-earth neodymium magnet material than do GoldenEar’s other HVFR tweeters, for improved transient response and higher efficiency. The four inertially balanced 10.5-inch x 9.5-inch side-mounted (two on each side), planar, infrasonic radiators are similar to those used in the SuperSub X, but have been retooled to allow for even greater excursion.
Sonically, the Reference has been engineered to perform with a dramatic and authoritative voice comparable to speakers that sell for 10 and more times its surprisingly affordable price. They completely disappear, with superb three-dimensional imaging that stretches from wall to wall and beyond, and depth that makes the wall behind them seem to vanish. The astonishing bass is rock-solid with low-frequency performance that is tight, quick, highly impactful and musical with extension flat to 20Hz and below. Another GoldenEar signature is a silky smooth high end that extends to 35 kHz with a lifelike sheen but no trace of hardness, sibilance or stridency so common with lesser tweeters.
A special bonus is the Reference’s extremely high 93.25 dB sensitivity, which gives them tremendous dynamic range and allows use with almost any high-quality amplifier, including many SET tube amps.
* The GoldenEar Triton Reference will be available in New Zealand from late June for a mere $14,999. www.pqimports.co.nz
