Hi Icharis,
That is VERY odd, and like you said, could be put down to one of many things.
Having just read the HomeTheaterReview on the Triton Ones, a professional audio equipment reviewer of some note, who had the Triton Ones in is home, two different systems for some weeks of listening, and he had nothing but praise for the speakers as being nearly perfect; it would seem something definitely was wrong in your demo.
I know I too have been at demos, or rather, I have had speakers, including the GoldenEars demoed for me REALLY poorly. And these people were trying to sell speakers to me. You would have thought they would know better.
I had one dealer argue with me when I said he needed to toe the speakers in toward my listening position. He said, NO, these kind of speakers HAVE to be played straight ahead. This is contrary to the owners' manual and every thing we have been told by GE here and other places.
But I have those same speakers in my home now and they rock!!!!!
Just sayin' I don't know what happened, but I hope you can have another listen.
Enjoy the ride, high-end audio is definitely a journey,
God Bless,
Wayne

Icharis...something sounds fishy here. What electronics were used...did they use acoustic panels in the set up?

According to your post, I'm not sure...did you buy the T1's?

I was at the event last night as well here in NC. and I thought the Triton ones were stunning last night with the GE rep demo.
Everyone in my demo was in agreement. Folks were gushing over them, big time !!
I own them and they sound pretty close to my set up even though they had Audio research gear driving them vs my Rogue. The room, well treated with acoustic panels was way too small for the demo, but they still sounded spot on.

The only speakers that I thought were better, were the new Neoliths from Martin Logan, but those cost 80 large (yes, you heard that right) The B&W pair sounded great to my my ears, as they have always made very good speakers, but for that price and compared to the Ones they seem vastly overpriced. Everyone has their own opinion and tastes, so fully respect your thoughts. I will say though that you were in the minority of hard core audiophiles attendees that came away with that conclusion. That is not a bad thing, just your taste.

The thing I love about an open forum like this is it is self-correcting. Thanks to Winefix for adding his comments as another visitor at the event. I took the opportunity to speak to GoldenEar's Eastern Region Sales Director, the person running the demo, for some answers to questions raised.

System: Ayre Integrated, Audio Research CD player.
Demo Material: Sandy's v.2014 demo material. Same stuff played at RMAF and most GE trade show demos.
General Consensus: They sounded spectacular, lots of raves from listeners, and other speaker vendors.
Some Possible Issues: Very limited demo time, much too small a room for Triton Ones with a lot of seating (there were 20 chairs, would have been OK for maybe 4).

If I was to guess, I'd say icharis had a bad seat (well outside the small room sweet spot) or didn't care for the limited demo time and/or material. As much as I agree with "to each their own", it has been my experience (and NRC testing confirmed years ago) that virtually everyone likes the sound of a "great" speaker that has no real limitations, which is exactly what the Triton Ones are.

Obviously I'm in the minority and I could have very well been outside of the listening area. My wife and I set to the right side of the room and it was a bit packed. What struck me was that we had such a good demo of other GoldenEar speakers in the past that something just seemed really wrong and perhaps my expectations were so high. Before our purchase we will demo this in our home when we move in and go from there. (i was really close to convincing the wife to scrap the SuperSat's and go with some towers but haven't quite made that jump).

Moderator,

Can you post a list of Sandy's demo material v.2014?
I would think some thought went into compiling a list of songs that showcases your products the best at trade shows, etc..

Just curious, thanks