How do these (Triton 2's) compare to the Definitive Technology STS Super Towers? I notice that the Triton's retail for approximately $500 less per pair than the STS's. Has anyone had the chance to hear both? Outwardly they look to share a lot of similarities with each other, and well they should, as Sandy had a hand in both of them.

I am sure many have made this comparison at their local dealer so perhaps some will comment here on their listening impressions. They are certainly similar, as you point out, because of their shared design heritage.

But the Triton Two from GoldenEar has the advantage of being from a new company that can adopt new technologies immediately. Things like the HFVR ribbon tweeter (not just another dome tweeter), the advanced midrange drivers, the latest-technology 1200 watt (not 300 watt) digital amplifiers with digital frequency shaping and microprocessor control of distortion and other performance parameters, driving dual active woofers (and two large passive radiators) gives the Triton a huge performance advantage. Nothing "leftover" from last year's products, or tools, or engineers, was used to create the Triton. Just the best and newest technologies, employed by the industry's premier speaker designer and his engineering team (with over 100 years of combined successful loudspeaker development experience). I think the reviews so far seem to say it all.

I replaced my STS's last Monday with Triton 2s. Actually, I moved my STS's to the back of my room as surround speakers, with a Gem XL as center surround.

I've been waiting for the Tritons (and a SuperSat50c) to break in some before commenting. I probably have 20-30 hours on them by now.

In short, these are insanely good speakers. I auditioned them first in my dealer's showroom. He had them in a room full of mid-priced speakers, but only had perhaps 10 hours on them. WIth my reference CDs, I was clear there was something special going on with these speakers. I asked to hear a true top-dollar speaker, just for comparison's sake. I was shuttled to another room, with much better room treatment, more careful speaker setup, and at least $150,000 in electronics hooked up to Nola Baby Grands. Yes, the Nolas had more "air" and resolution, but in truth, the Tritons were not in the least embarrassed in the comparison, and certainly didn't sound $52,500 inferior.

Although they share a bit of a family resemblance in voicing, compared to the STS's, the Tritons are much more refined and relaxed. Others have commented on a slight high-end glare from the STS's. No such glare from the Tritons. After adjusting the bass level (*see below), and having found a rather nice sweet spot to position the speakers, I'm hearing incredibly good integration between the various drivers. I've been listening to Classical (orchestral and opera), jazz (instrumental and vocal), blues, and pop; mostly hi-res HDTracks purchases, along with some vinyl. On well-recorded material, voices sound THERE. Horns sound like horns, pianos like pianos, drums like drums. In 3D space.

The Tritons' bass goes lower and with more sense of authority and effortlessness than the STS's.

The Tritons also seem rather easy to drive. I'm listening to them across the short distance of a 13d x 18w (x8h) room--they're ~3' from the front wall and ~8' apart, I'm ~3' from the back, putting me around 8' from the speakers. They're being driven to 90db+ levels at my listening position without any sense of strain by Michael Yee's amazing 25w class-A PA-3 amplifier. The STS's sounded somewhat compressed at higher levels driven by this amp. Mike's 100w PA-2 helped a great deal. In comparison, the Tritons, driven by clean 25 watts sound more open and effortless at higher levels than the STS's driven by a bigger amp.

The HT setup with Tritons, a SuperSat50c, and my STS's and GemXL as surrounds (the larger speakers driven full-range) integrate beautifully (with the help of Audessey). "Dark Side of the Moon" in 4-channel discrete is simply amazing!

These speakers (along with a Benchmark USB Pre and Michael Yee's PA-3 amp) are the best audio products I've purchased in decades. I am thrilled to own them. I've been spending WAY to much time reacquainting myself with my music collection and watching movies. As they say in postcards: WIsh you were here!

-Tom
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*I'm using a method for setting the bass level that worked beautifully for me with the STS's: one speaker at a time, put on a pink noise track and run the free RTA Lite iPhone app as a 1/3 octave RTA. From my main listening position, I simply adjust the bass level on each speaker so that it is is as close in level to the rest of the audio bands as I can. A five minute process that doesn't rely on either my taste or my knowledge of the mix engineer's taste for any particular recording.

Tom, thank you for the insightful review. The fact that you listen to hi-res downloads from H-D Tracks with a variety of genre's speaks to the fact that you are much more than a casual listener. Your room dimensions (volume) are similar to mine, so I won't have to worry about my restored Fisher 400 or AES (Cary) 6 pacs driving them to credible levels my room . I think the biggest difference in the STS and the Triton's would lie in the quality of the tweeter - dome vs. folded. Again thank you.

GeezerRocket:

I think you're right about the tweeter, but Sandy and his team have managed to get the rest of the drivers to keep pace with those tweeters. The last time I had as refined a sound in my home (in a much larger room) was from a pair of Apogee Stages, and the Tritons beat the pants off the Stages with regard to imaging and deep bass.

-Tom

Thanks Tom - great stuff. Just wondering - what did you use for a pink noise source?