Well I am finally officially part of the GolderEar community! I have wanted to buy GoldenEar speakers ever since I first read a review of the Triton Twos. When my local dealer had the Triton Ones on clearance to make room for the One.Rs I finally took the plunge. I have been loving them so far, but have to upgrade my receiver. My theater room is about 16x18x8 and I plan to have a row of 4 theater seats in front and 3 in the back. I would eventually like to start with a 5.4.4 setup and see if I would need/want to go up to a 7.6.6 setup. I plan on getting HTR 7000s for my atmos height speakers and a SuperCenter Ref for my center channel. I am debating between three options for the rest of the speakers. I would say 80% or more of my listening will be for movies/TV and 20% or less music.

Option 1: Use the Ones as my front main L/R and buy the Two+ for my rear surrounds and possibly add 1-2 subwoofers mainly for bass in the 10-30 Hz range (I am leaning toward the Monoprice Monolith M-215, or their single 15", or the SVS PB Ultra 16)

Option 2: Use the Ones as my rear surrounds and get One.Rs for my front main L/R and possibly add 1-2 of the above subwoofers.

Option 3: Use the Ones as my rear surrounds and get Triton References for my front main L/R and no added subwoofers.

I am leaning toward Option 2 as I will primarily be using them for movies. If I was primarily using them for music I think I would lean toward option 3. What do you guys think?

Hi

Every option you named would work well and sound amazing

If it’s bass slam you want, all three would do that, so you probably can’t go wrong with any choice.

I happen to have your option 3 combo of T Ref’s as fronts and T1’s as surrounds, and with the 2 T Ref’s bass output equivalent to 2 SuperSub XXL’s, the bass is outstanding, rafter shaking. I have also heard setups with a SVS 16 Ultra. Both shake the room.

What I really like about my setup is the 4 corner Tritons with LFE feeds as subs balancing the room modes so well, and the musical balance.
I do play more music, surround or otherwise, than your 20% mix, but the bass balance is superb in all cases.So for me, I love my set up for the movie and music capability.

So your choice, not a bad bass option in the 3.

Whatever you choose, you will have a stable of great Goldenear speakers

Rick

Thanks Rick, I was kind of hoping you would reply as I've seen your posts before and you have a similar setup to what I'm looking to have. What is the size of your listening room? Is there a specific reason you chose the Invisa 525s for your rear Atmos ceiling speakers? Have you ever tested your system to see how low of frequencies it can get to? Usually reviewers only test one speaker so I've been interested in how a system like yours would perform with essentially 4 subs. Have you ever watched Live. Die. Repeat. (Edge of Tomorrow)? I've heard it has a pattern of 16Hz tones at the beginning of the movie. Can you hear/feel them well with your system?

Ultimately I think I will have to go to my local dealer and compare the One.Rs with the References. I did that compared to the Ones and I definitely had a "lifting of the veil" experience with the References.

Hi, Samwise

My listening room is 15 by 25 by 9', open on one of the 15' sides, to a kitchen in a T shape, a fairly large area to fill with sound.

Re the 525's as a top rear pair, no reason other than the 525's were part of my original set up way back when
Goldenear first introduced their speakers and the T2's were their top of the line, so the first surround set up I had was T2 fronts, SuperSat 50C center, and 525 surrounds in the ceiling, all pre the introduction of Atmos. I.E. the system has evolved over time. I have entertained the thought of replacing the 525's with the newer 7000's some day. If starting over with no ceiling speakers, I would definitely opt for the 7000's as top rears. They are very impressive.

Re bass, I haven't watched Live. Die. Repeat., but movies that impressed me with their bass include Pacific Rim and Dunkirk. Dunkirk in particular is amazing. It's in DTS HD Master Audio, but I up mix it to include heights with DTS:X Neural which does a great job of mixing in height effects including planes flying overhead, bombs screaming downward etc. And when the Germans bomb the pier and ship, well, the seats shake, I can FEEL the explosions. Sound mixing/editing in Dunkirk is first class. Bass is exceptional in any movie that has the content. I've said in other posts that the SVS Ultra 16 may go a tad deeper, but the SuperSub XXL's or T Ref's actually "shake the room" more. Like I said, either set up would give you bass galore. I haven't streamed a frequency sweep to the new set up (I can stream 2 to 20k HZ), haven't really felt the need. Everything I play sounds amazing, including the deep bass's from double bass in orchestra's, or deep pipe organ notes. I would match the T Ref's against most anything for making gorgeous, enveloping sound. And for music, whether 2 channel or surround, well, I just love my speaker combo. Heck, even watching tv shows, the sound quality is top notch. And as for music, I am always tempted by the sound quality to search for and play good Blu-ray concert/performance discs, anything from the Eagles to Mumford and Sons to Beethoven. Goosebump time.

I second your thought to give the T Ref's another listen. They are special. I've progressed from T2's to T1's to T Ref's as fronts over time, and loved every step along the way, but the added goosebumps with the T Ref's is worth it.

Happy listening! Whatever you choose among the options, it will blow away, on any movie, what you'd hear in a typical theater.

Rick

P.S. the SuperCenter Ref is top notch also, plays perfectly with the "big boy" fronts.

P.P.S. Just ordered Live. Die. Repeat. Will see how that sounds also.

Thanks for the reply Rick. It is cool to hear from someone who has had first hand experience with all the iterations of the speakers I have dreamed about. Where do you get your Blu-ray music from? Have you listened to much Atmos music? Do you typically upmix your music to Atmos as well? I was worried about Christopher Nolan's decision to avoid Atmos, but it is good to hear that upmixing it to Atmos still sounds great. I would love to hear what results you would get from a frequency sweep. I am also excited to hear your experience with the 16 Hz tones at the beginning of Live. Die. Repeat.

How much can you tell the direction the bass is coming from and where do you have your crossover to the subs set? People say you can't tell the direction of bass, but I swear I can to a point and that is part of why I want to have Tritons in all 4 corners. I was wondering if setting the crossover to the subs lower would allow you to feel the direction the bass is coming from better or if that would decrease the bass impact.

Samwise wrote: Where do you get your Blu-ray music from? Have you listened to much Atmos music? Do you typically upmix your music to Atmos as well? I was worried about Christopher Nolan's decision to avoid Atmos, but it is good to hear that upmixing it to Atmos still sounds great. I would love to hear what results you would get from a frequency sweep. I am also excited to hear your experience with the 16 Hz tones at the beginning of Live. Die. Repeat.

How much can you tell the direction the bass is coming from and where do you have your crossover to the subs set? People say you can't tell the direction of bass, but I swear I can to a point and that is part of why I want to have Tritons in all 4 corners. I was wondering if setting the crossover to the subs lower would allow you to feel the direction the bass is coming from better or if that would decrease the bass impact.

Hi, Samwise

Lots of good questions.

I get most of my Blu-ray discs from Amazon, and play them through my Oppo 105D.

Re Atmos music, the Dolby Surround firmware that up mixes to all channels including heights is a home run IMO. Sandy Gross said much the same in a recent newsletter. Prior up mix options from 2 channel were either multi channel that sent all left channel to all left speakers, etc. or versions that tried to emulate a more concert hall experience but didn't hit the mark. Dolby Surround did hit the mark. The feeling of being there, at the concert hall, is surreal sometimes. I play virtually all 2 channel music in Dolby Surround. My source is either streamed Amazon Ultra or Tidal HiFi/Masters, both of which are 16 bit CD quality, and hi res 24 bit for lots of titles. Sometimes SACD's from the Oppo. The sound quality through the Goldenears is spectacular.

I'll try a new frequency sweep in the coming days. Live. Die. Repeat ( a used copy, no new ones on Amazon) is on the way.

Re bass direction, after I balanced front and back, no, I can't tell bass direction, it's just everywhere. All four Tritons are set as large, sub on, so no crossovers for them. LFE bass feeds come to them from the connected LFE leads via the sub outs, and that is how I would recommend setting up powered Tritons, to take advantage of their considerable bass integration capabilities and prowess. I could move the perceived bass source some by adjusting front/back sub gain settings, but I kind of like the feeling of being surrounded by the deeper bass portions, like explosions, and the same signal goes to each sub, so there is no directionality "built in". But another good reason to set the Triton powered towers on full range is so that 100% of the content specific to that channel goes there only, to provide full range directional clues via the non LFE channels.

I'll say again, for me, the stunning sound quality and music capability of the T Ref's always swings my vote in that direction. I've never looked back. I'll take the goosebumps anytime.

Rick