Exactly one year ago today, I had a big plain white truck deliver several plain tan cardboard boxes to my home. The contents of those innocuous cartons was anything but plain. My Triton Two system had arrived! I wrote a review shortly after installation and calibration was completed. At that time I had put about 100 hours of usage into the system. Now it has been a whole year and my Tritons have seen well over 1,000 hours. The manual advised that it would take 80 to 100 hours to “break in” the speakers. My experience was closer to 150 hours. I do not tend to listen to movies or music at very high volume and I believe that this contributed to the length of the break in period. I also believe that in subtle ways my Tritons have continued to improve even after that early adjustment was done. The sonic image is even more three dimensional than before. During music listening (2 channel) the illusion that the image is wider than the distance between the towers, the apparent depth of instrumentation and even (seemingly) the feeling that some sounds are above others, regardless of frequency; all contribute to a thrilling result. With regard to specific frequencies, the Tritons continue to impress.

The improvement in ultra-low bass response has been dramatic. Even the deepest sounds (20 to 40Hz) are organized, powerful and enveloping. I have kept the amps set to the 12:00 position. I decided not to crumble my home’s foundations. The rest of the bass is managed entirely by the Tritons as I do not use LFE. The response is even, distinct and musical without being boomy, tubby or overwhelming. As for midrange, voices (male and female) are rendered exactly as recorded. One unfortunate downside here is that I can hear every shortcoming of the recording process. If the vocals were mastered with any errors, (distortion, improper angle or distance from the mike or even relative level compared to the instrumentation) they are revealed by the near-perfect transduction of the Tritons. As for the amazing HVFR tweeter, very little needs to be said other than that they continue to perform superbly well. I have not seen significant improvement here, but there isn’t much room for any. The tweeters did very well right out of the box and their improvement took place during that early period.

I purchased a Supersat 50C and 4 Supersat 3 speakers to complete my 7 channel system at the same time I bought my Triton Two towers. During the past year, I have used my system to listen to many movies presented in formats ranging from Dolby PLllx to TrueHD and DTS-MA. The truly impressive aspect of the Supersats is the matching sonic values. When sounds are panned around the channels or even arrow through the center of the sound field, the effect can be startling. During a scene in “Pirahna”, a fish swims right through my head! In “The Return of the King” the flying ring wraiths seem eerily real and scary. I mentioned before that I do not use LFE. It is my opinion that many film companies are rumble-happy. They add an overblown sound of rumbling or thumps where they are not needed. It is the same effect I noticed when color television was relatively new. Directors and editors went out of their way to turn the screen into a rainbow. I felt that LFE was unnecessary, and wow was I right. Film soundtracks have plenty of low-end punch without the additional processing and wiring needed by other speakers. I am not sure why Goldenear even put the jack on the back of the Tritons at all. Maybe it makes some listeners feel better, because it is familiar and well known where much of the rest of the technology packed into the Tritons is new, innovative and not as well known. In the Blu-Ray disc of “Avatar” when the rockets explode destroying the giant tree, the sound is amazing. Even when I cranked my system way up, the very busy and immersive sound was rendered perfectly. Every detail was clearly audible whether fixed or panned, the surround effects are so accurate that the actual position of the speakers was lost in the complete sphere of sound. Even the Supersat 3 speakers display the same three dimensional characteristics as the towers. Here again, be advised that any errors or shortcuts that the filmmaker let through, will clearly reveal themselves with these speakers. I can easily tell when a film has been (re-mastered) for surround sound from a previous 2 channel recording. The “feel” of the surround sound is different. I also find it easy to detect the difference between Dolby Digital and PLllx as the panned effects are vastly superior and the surround sound field seems more balanced. I did not notice any of these differences until I had my Tritons. Rest assured that even with the ability to hear imperfections in sound with them, I still give my Triton home cinema system a perfect rating. The only job speakers have is to reproduce sound. My Tritons do so much more! In the film “Where the Red Fern Grows” the dog barks are so well done that my Seeing Eye dog guide spent several minutes searching for the dog he kept hearing. What better recommendation can there possibly be? One year of Triton Two ownership behind me,,, many many more ahead!!!

Note to current Triton Two owners. Want to have a bit of fun with your dog? Get a digital recording of the Pink Floyd release “Animals” and play the track “Dogs”. Watch what happens when your dog hears it. The band put hyper-sonics in the tune that dogs respond to. The Tritons really do respond well beyond human hearing. Your dog will prove it. It’s a guaranteed grinner!