It seems like just a few weeks ago that I brought home my Triton Ones, but it been just a bit over a year. It's been an interesting year and I've learned a lot as I have tried to fine tune and get the most from them. The Triton Ones are an incredibly accurate speaker that seem to have an almost unlimited potential for improved sound with each and every improvement in one's system.

Positioning/Spacing: Sandy's Setup Tips are a great place to start with the powered Tritons. This is absolutely where every new owner should begin. I have settled in on a setup very close to these recommendations. I have a relative equilateral triangle with the T1s toed in directly at the listening position. If you're using them mostly for home theater, you may be better off with less of a toe in angle.

The biggest thing I've noticed with my setup is that the T1s definitely sound best about 40" from the front and side walls. This is most noticeable with bass. To test the spacing in your room, put in an album with very tonally rich bass. Jazz is a great choice. Listen closely to the bass response with the same track as you make adjustments. You will hear the difference and know when you've hit the correct distances. Additionally, I had some nulls in my 100 to 300 Hz range that also seem to have been addressed with this 40" spacing. I believe there is a relationship with speaker and ceiling heights that come into play here and these distances are specific to my setup. Your results will most likely vary but you will hear the changes.

Cables: When I first purchased my T1s, I was of the mindset that cables didn't matter and with my old Kenwood receiver and MTX speakers, they probably didn't. With the T1s, all of my previous notions have been changed. What can I say folks, cables matter! Every cable is different and effect sound differently. Some good, some bad. Don't believe me? Try a little experiment yourself and see. With a relatively minor investment in a few different cables, you can see for yourself if your hearing is good enough and your system is detailed enough to hear the difference in various wires.

If you want to test XLRs on the low level signals, invest in a few balanced cables from Monoprice and Mogami. The Monoprice cables are very inexpensive and the Mogami cables are less than $50. The difference between these two cable brands is very noticeable! To test differences in speaker wire, I would suggest testing a Belden 5T00UP 10 gauge speaker wire against a generic 18-7 Cerrowire that can be purchased at your local home improvement store. While the differences in the XLR cables are more noticeable and effect the entire soundstage (most noticeably bass response), the speaker wire test should be done with an open and airy track with a lot of high frequency information, such as cymbals. Again, you will notice a difference.

It's not much different than other electronic components. A good example is video cards for computers. The same make and model video card, despite using the same components, will perform differently. There is a lot of technical info that comes into play here and you could spend an incredible amount of time and energy trying to figure out the science behind it OR you can simply listen for yourself and trust your ears. My general impressions on cables are that you can get modest improvements without spending a fortune. The recommendation of 20% of your budget seems reasonable to me now. I'd recommend auditioning any cables I a risk free manner. You can either borrow cables from your local dealer, order from an on-line retailer that offers a 100% money back guarantee, or simply audition them at your dealer with similar equipment to your own. Bottom line, trust your ears. If you don't hear a difference or don't like the difference, take a pass.

Supporting Equipment: The T1s are like a ProBowl quality quarterback in that they need a good supporting cast to truly shine. An inexpensive AVR and Blu-Ray player from your local big box may sound okay, but investing in higher end gear will pay huge dividends. You don't necessarily have to spend a fortune to make huge improvements. Depending on your needs, an integrated amplifier and a high quality disc player can be added to great effect. In my case, I added a pre-amp with balanced connections and home theater bypass, a balanced CD player, and 2 mono-block amps for around $2,500. The sound improvement for music playback has been significant. The Triton Ones are fantastic, but don't expect them to bring home a Super-Bowl ring without a decent team around them.

Acoustic Treatments: Hire a professional! Again, this is another area that requires a lot of science and a bit of technique. You could spend a lot of time and money trying to correct room problems without success. I've purchased several acoustic panels and have a heavily treated room and I'm not measuring as flat a response as the Tritons are capable of. This is an area I still need to invest additional time and resources to address. Besides hiring a professional, there are kits out there that allow you to measure your frequency response to see how simple adjustments impact your sound. Do not underestimate this area. Treating the acoustics of your room can make a huge impact on sound. It's almost like suits. A $300 professionally fitted suit will look better than a $1,000 suit that fits poorly. The Triton Ones and a host of expensive gear can sound sub par if you have a significant number of issues with your room acoustics.

Well, there you have it. These are some of the lessons I have learned in the past year while owning my Triton Ones. A wise industry pro once said its not just the speakers. Everything in the system works together to produce the resulting sound. Careful and meticulous efforts can create a synergy and result in an amazing sounding system for a relatively reasonable cost.

Cheers,

T Cobe

Great report, T Cobe!

What I might add from my experiences: the T1's are absolute jewels, just waiting to be brought out with the rest of the system.

A few things that blossomed mine: Anti-Cable Reference 3 power cords on the sources that just made everything so clear, natural, Signal Cable Ultra speaker cables, a boost from a NAD amp, and placement.. it's worth spending some time moving them some to test SQ effects. Probably every room is some different. Usually further from the back walls is better.

As you so well covered, it's well worth the effort to feed them "good stuff", and locate them properly to bring out the best from absolutely mind blowing speakers. When you get it even close to "right", the SQ is just mesmerizing... I wouldn't trade my T1's for anything I've ever heard, including professional speaker set-ups at concerts. They are that good. I've listened to lots of speakers, and usually I'm thinking, if only the bass was a little cleaner/deeper, if only the the mid range was just a little richer, if only the treble was just a little less harsh at volume.. there ARE no "if only's" with T1's, just "I am there and it's amazing" sensations.The reviews say it all "Orgasmic", etc.

Thanks for taking the time to share!

Happy listening!

Hi T Cobe,

I agree on the positioning and the acoustic treatments for sure. The cables, well, let's just say that we both agree that high quality cables and sources are important, and a weak link can make a big difference in a bad way. That said, a high quality cable could be $50, $500, or $5,000, so the price ranges vastly among them, and I don't think there always a value in some of these products. But no doubt, quality is important.

Good to hear from you Murphyslaw1978! Thanks for th video on the T1 sock and grill replacement. How are your T1s blending in your setup with the DIY subs? Looks like you have your T1s back in mint condition? I hope you're enjoying them.

I agree on th cables. There is a lot of snake oil out there and some outlandish pricing. My best advice to anyone would be to start with Monoprice or Blue Jeans cables and build up from there with auditions of as many cables as possible: risk free. Between the Mogami Gold and Monoprice cables, I'm confident they are both good quality but they sound very different. There are a lot of folks out there that argue there is no difference in sound between cables. For those folks, I'd recommend experimenting with these two cable brands. That said, there are good quality cables out there for very reasonable prices and deciding which cables are best is a very individual process.

At the end of the day, it's all about building a system within each of our own constraints that lets us enjoy our music and home theater programming. I'm enjoying the process and my music more everyday. I don't know that I'll ever get to the point where I'm done seeking ways to improve my sound, but I feel like the bar is pretty high at this point and I'm well into the point of diminishing returns.

Cheers,

T Cobe