GoldenEar Technology is at CES in Las Vegas this week showing off new additions to their lineup including upgraded tower speakers and a tiny new subwoofer which packs a punch, despite its diminutive size.
GoldenEar Technology first launched the Triton Two tower speaker over five years ago, to great critical acclaim. The Triton speakers' "secret sauce" is their High Velocity Folded Ribbon Tweeter, which gives the speakers a wide open sound with excellent imaging and soundstage. Careful crossover and cabinet design, midrange and bass driver selection complement the HVFR to create punchy dynamic tower speakers with deep extended bass and excellent articulation.
After a few more years of intense listening and R&D, GoldenEar launched their flagship Triton One tower speakers which were an improvement over the already excellent Triton Two. And now GoldenEar is applying what they've learned with major updates to the Triton Two and Triton Three. The Triton Two+ ($1,749/each) and Triton Three+ ($1,249/each) now more closely resemble the Triton One in sound character, but remain a bit smaller (and less expensive) so they'll fit smaller spaces (and tighter budgets) without major sonic sacrifices.
Some specific components that were changed include redesigned upper bass/midrange drivers, which incorporate a new cone, surround, spider and voice coil and a completely new balanced crossover with polypropylene capacitors, similar to the one developed for the Triton One. Additionally, the DSP low-level control unit has been completely reprogrammed.
GoldenEar's Sandy Gross says, "Sonically, both the Triton Three+ and Triton Two+ benefit from a significantly smoother, higher resolution, more open, more revealing and more highly detailed sound. In addition, there is dramatically more expansive imaging and tighter, faster, and better integrated bass." I gave the smaller towers, the Triton Three+ a listen at CES, and must say I was impressed, particularly considering the relatively low cost ($2,500/pair). The Three+ doesn't quite go down as low as the much larger Triton One, but its bass is deep and taut, without a hint of boom or sloppiness. And the liquid smooth midrange and high frequency detail left my ears smiling (yes, ears can smile).
Across the hall, GoldenEar was showing off the brand new SuperSub X subwoofer ($1,249). One of the challenges of reproducing realistic concert-level sound at home is that it typically takes a very large cabinet to reproduce low bass well. With the SuperSub X, GoldenEar is trying to relax that requirement. With a cabinet size only slightly larger than a 1-foot cube (12.5"x13.5"x12.5"), the SuperSub X is said to extend all the way down to subsonic frequencies (12 Hz!) without losing definition. Also, the cabinet is so dense and there is so little resonance that a nickel placed on its side on top of the speaker did not fall over, even when the SuperSub was seriously kicking out the jams.
GoldenEar says that they're able to achieve this remarkable bass extension in such a small cabinet thanks to a unique patent-pending, 360 degree dual-plane inertially-balanced driver and sub-bass radiator topology, combined with a very advanced electronics package. The enclosure of the X is constructed of thick, high density medite, finished in high-gloss piano black lacquer. It uses substantial internal bracing in order to minimize resonances or flexing of the panels.
The sub uses two fully inertially-balanced 8-inch long-throw active drivers in the horizontal plane and two fully inertially-balanced 10"x11" planar infrasonic radiators in the vertical plane. This force-cancelling inertial balancing focuses all the energy produced by the transducers in order to effectively move the air in the room (rather than in the box). And yet is does this while preserving fine low frequency detail. There is also a 1500-watt Class D Digital Amplifier on board, originally developed for the Triton One, controlled by a 56-bit DSP device with a 192 kHz sample rate.
The Triton Two+ is shipping now with the Triton Three+ expect to follow next month. The SuperSub X is expected to begin shipping some time this Spring.
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