Folks,

Any experience with Triton twos, adding a tube pre-amp to a ss amp?

Wondering if a fine tube pre-amp will really add some warmth, or if I have to go to a full tube amp to achieve the "tube" / warmer sound.

Thx for your help

TJ

Hey TJ,
I went back and saw on another thread that you have the Triton 1s on order and that you have heard the Trion 2s with an Emotiva amp and found it perhaps a bit bright.
Of course, I don't know the T1s, but I can say for a fact that the T2s are not guilty of being bright. They just faithfully play what is presented to them, IMHO.
So, I suspect you are right and on the right track, you may want to look for some warmer sounding electronics.
I can totally relate to that, have been chasing that dream for years my own self.
And I have tried tubes. And I like em. But tubes are not perfect for driving all modern speakers, especially the less efficient ones around. However, the Tritons are pretty efficient, especially considering you don't have to "drive" the subs per se, since they have their own amps.
So tube amps can be a good solution. At higher volumes you have two things going on, 1 is that high powered tube amps are EXPENSIVE and not the sweetest sounding of tube amps. And pushing them to distortion is not a good thing. But 2, when you do push them to distortion, they do so fairly politely, so they still sound WAY better than SS pushed to distortion.
The other problem I found specific to the Triton series of speakers is the side firing woofers can blast wonderful, loud, beautiful bass right at your amps tubes. IF not protected, those tubes will take offense. It is called microphonics or some such. It induces a sound in the tube from the outside that is not faithful to the music. So, you may want to make sure they are covered well or placed much higher than the subsn when playing.
I am playing the Triton 3s with a 45 wpc integrated all tube amp and it sounds great. But I don't play much loud rock with it, smaller sounding music for the family in the living room.
My T2s just must rock and for that I don't think solid state can be beat, power and lots of it. These are in my home theater, but it is also used for 2 channel and 5 or 7 channel music. I love surround sound.
So, like you, I checked into a tube pre-amp to "warm up" my Bel Canto class D or Aragon 4004 MkII power amp. The best I heard, and this by a long ways, was the Conrad Johnson ET3 pre-amp. It sounds delicious and not overly warm, but certainly NOT bright. It just sounds wonderful. But I could not afford it, for one thing, and could not figure out how to use it sensibly in my home theater set up. It does have a HT bypass, so if you can afford it (it is way more than the budget you previously mentioned), check it out, it just might make your system purr.
I ended up going with the Vincent SP-T800 mono blocks which are hybrid amps, with tubes in their first stage before the transistors.
The sound now is a little warmer, not overly and not syrupy, LOTS of power and bass, and my Marantz surround processor can play through it , everybody plays nicely together. The Vincent SP-T100s are a bit warmer yet, but less power and because they are warmer, the highs and spacial information are a little rolled off to me.
You can get some really great equipment used and sometimes that is the way to go, at least until th budget recovers from buying the speakers.
I hope this helps,
let us know what you decide, which way you go, and try your best to listen to these pieces in your own home and with your new speakers if you can.
Have fun with it, it is a ride,
God Bless,
Wayne

I've been running the Triton 2's with Emotiva xpa-1 monoblocks and a PrimaLuna Premium tube preamp, can sound spectacular with the right source material but have always wondered what all tube amplification would sound like in my system. Today I came across decware.com...hand made tube amps. The Zen Torii MK IV looks very interesting, I think I'll do more extensive reading/questions/ phone calls about this amp and others they sell.

The more I read about this amp the more I like. 25 watts per channel. It works perfectly well WITH or WITHOUT a preamp. There is a control outside the signal path that let's you make fine adjustments to the high frequencies. It also has a bass switch that let's you adjust the bass character of your speakers to eliminate room boom automatically and add or remove weight.
There are no bias pots to adjust.

Decware owner and chief engineer Steve Deckert claims his amplifier is "the last one you'll ever want."
Decware guarantees its amps for life...that's something to get excited about.

Thanks Wayne,

Question was for triton ones, but asked about the two since that's all that is out currently.
All good ideas, will check into and also I will try and audition the Rogue Spynx and Cronus magnum. While awaiting the ones to arrive.

I did receive my center, the super XL, and so far, I like it, but don't love it. It replaced a Martin Logan theatre I and I wanted a seamless front and so keeping all the speakers in the same family. Jury is not out on this speaker vs what I had. Sound is a little closed and boxy and has some slight distortion with mid-bass sometimes? The speakers are broken in now with 50 hours on them, but kind of weird as I was expecting exactly what I heard for the triton twos when in the same space. Maybe defective, or I should have kept the ML? I will decide once I have all the speakers playing together and fully broken in.

I think I will love the triton ones because I auditioned the twos in my room for a week and they were much better than my magnepan 1.7s.
Just keen to find a the right amp / preamp combo.

Thanks again
TJ

Winefix wrote: I did receive my center, the super XL, and so far, I like it, but don't love it. Sound is a little closed and boxy and has some slight distortion with mid-bass sometimes?

That doesn't make any sense (unless it is defective, which is very unlikely). Is the speaker on (or angled at) ear level axis? Is the speaker free of reflective surfaces above, below and to the sides? Are you using an appropriate crossover (at least 40Hz, probably 60 or 80Hz is preferred)? Have you turned off any room EQ?

Thanks for your reply-

Some notes:

1) no eq

2) pointed up slightly to my ears

3) tried several crossover points- same sound

4) sitting on a wooden stand, which I believe it is designed for table top use?

Just heard another pair of triton 2s and the super center XL does not sound as clear in the upper bass / midrange.
(Granted different space and equipment) I think when I receive the triton ones, it can assess at that time and know for sure what is going on. Thanks again-

TJ