Decided it was about time to upgrade my system as my signature will show some components are dated. Decided on Triton Ones to replace DCM Time Frame 600s for LF/RF. Guess I like sock speakers! Tritons blew me away even if powered by Denon 3805 AVR with Oppo BDP-105 as pre for now.

Concerned AVR was underpowering the Tritons so got a Crown 1502 class D amp. It did indeed give even more air to the sound. Things were fine and upgraded to 12 AWG Monoprice wire for all speakers. At some point a couple of months ago, there was one event where a loud, disconcerning noise emanated from the RF Triton, looked up to catch an orange/yellow glow at the top 2/3rds of the speaker and immediated powered all down. Also noticed a possible electronic smell. Checked all connections, and noticed the new banana plugs I got with Monoprice wire was loose on Crown amp for the RF speaker, which are now directly connected.

After an hour, repowered and all seemed fine. The blue light was fine and sub seemed to be working as usual. Sometime during all these little upgrades of wire and amp, also decided not to use the Denon's outdated auto room EQ, and began using AIX's Calibration Blu-ray and my trusty RS Digital SPL to balance the trims on the OPPO as the Denon was set to pure direct. Since the one scary episode, began to notice on room speaker movement tweaks and further room calibrations, that the speaker balance trim for the RF Triton needed bumped as compared to the LF Triton. The measurements have been consistent in needing a 5 decibel bump. This last weekend, finally got around to swapping the speaker positions and confirmed that the original RF speaker, now in the LF position, still needed the 5 dB bump so ruled out room acoustics. Confirmed the same with using only the Denon, taking the Crown out.

Called the dealer this week and after explaining this, he thinks the Crown class D amp with lose connection may have sent bad mojo to speaker. That is my term, not his. Now the sound is still good from this speaker, better than the DCMs. I even used the AIX frequency sweep test on both Tritons trying to A/B them and could not notice much of a difference. On the speaker balance test, the possibly damaged RF Triton seems to have a slightly bassier pink hiss sound. If I listen to some of my best hirez music recordings such as 2L recordings with violins, there may be less high end and airiness on the RF. Taking that speaker in soon to be tested at dealer.

Tweeter was damaged, possibly crossover too. In order to light up the tweeter (that's where the glow came from) like that it would have had to delivered a VERY significant amount of bad power. After replacing damaged tweeter confirm levels now match. If not, replace crossover too and confirm proper functioning of the two midrange drivers.

No offense to the Crown amp. but our experience would suggest that would be a better choice for a PA system then a high-performance home stereo.

Eiffel62,

Welcome to the forum. Between the T1s and the Oppo 105, you've got a great foundation going. I would agree that a better amp would be beneficial. If you want to keep costs down, there are a lot of good options out there. I considered Crown for a bit but read too many reviews that didn't appeal to me.

Emotiva and Outlaw Audio both offer well rated amps at reasonably low cost. There are other brands as well. I've been very happy with my Emotiva gear. I think an XPA-2 or a pair of XPA-100s would serve you well and not cost too much. A lot of audio dealers have demo models for sale as well and you may be able to find a used amp for a really great price.

I hope you get your T1s sorted out quickly. I'm glad they still sound good in the meantime. Based on previous conversations on the forum, the tweeter and crossover are as expensive as I would have thought. Your repairs should be too much or take too long and GETs customer service is second to none! Good luck and please let us know how you get on.

Cheers,

T Cobe

T.Cobe,

Thank you for your welcome. I have been lurking here since even before I got my Tritons back in late November. I want to make clear the potential, suspect damaged Triton still sounds wonderful. I just A/B'd my best digital mono source, a DVD-Audio of The Beach Boys, Pet Sounds, and could hear no sonic difference other than a balance slightly favoring the LF (undamaged) Triton. The dealer technician indicated it may be a damaged cap. That will be determined once I get it to dealer hopefully this weekend.

The Crown amp was a temporary choice until full decision is reached regarding full replacement of Denon 3805 now being used as an external amp. The Crown amp will be moved to replace a really old, lofi JVC AVR I have had for decades in the office.

I am researching using this and other audio forums to help with those decisions. In particular, I have been following your thread regarding your decision to purchase the Anthem AVM 60. This product is certainly in the top running of a very short list of products in consideration. I want to wait till DTS:X is enabled and some of the issue reports settle down as they most surely will. My dream preprocessor would use Dirac, ARC is a close contender, and support all three 3D audio formats including Auro-3D, in the 3K price point. The AVM 60 comes really close and will probably be my purchase in the next few months.

As for amps, I am torn between getting current reduced priced Emotiva Gen 2 heavy A/B amps such as the XPA-5 and XPA-2, as you suggested. I do have a concern of having multiple, heavy behemoth amps to support the 3D audio formats which is why monoblocks are low in consideration. If only I had not heard of hi-rez multi-channel music, the decisions would be so much easier.

Emotiva is revamping the XPA line with its 3rd Gen amp which uses the XPR topology and highly flexible modular channels. It will be both class A/B and some Class H power topology. There is also the upcoming class ICE power D Emersa EDA line amps but the specs on those will probably not be up to the level of the 3rd Gen XPA line. Of course, these are all vaporware as of now. I do not mind waiting and spending a little more, to get a lighter weight amp that sounds as good as what is out there now in the 3-4K price point for 7.1 with an eye on 7.1.4 or more.

Eiffel62,

I'm glad our discussion of the AVM 60 has been helpful. That was my hope when I started the thread. If the price falls within your range, I'd definitely recommend an audition. Despite a few quibbles that will likely get worked out during firmware upgrades, the processor has been amazing! The glitches that occur are few and far between. I go days without an issue. The level of detail and clarity have been a revelation and ARC is great.

Audessey can't even come close to ARC in my opinion. The ability to see the frequency response of each speaker before and after calibration is great for making adjustments to the physical environment. It also provides a significant amount of flexibility that just isn't there in Audessey. I'm sure Dirac provides similar benefits and may even be better, but ARC is has been great in my setup.

Regarding Emotiva, I have been very impressed by the value they present. My XPAs have been very good for the price. The complete overhaul and pending price increases make me a bit nervous. Hopefully the quality and sound will increase with the price and this isn't the beginning of a downward trend representing selling out what made the brand so popular in favor of adopting a big box brand business model. Time will certainly tell. I can see the appeal in class D amplification. Hopefully they will live up to expectations and present consumers another viable option. Like you, I don't mind a price increase IF the sound quality is improved commensurate with the price. By the time I am ready to amplify a set of height speakers, the Gen 3 should be out and they will definitely be at the top of my list for an audition.

Please let us know how the service inspection goes with your T1s. I hope it's something simple and low cost. If everything still sounds good, I can't imagine it will be too extensive.

Cheers,

T Cobe

As per my experience Emotiva and Outlaw Audio both offer well rated amps at reasonably low cost. There are other brands as well. I've been very happy with my Emotiva gear. I think an XPA-2 or a pair of XPA-100s would serve you well and not cost too much. A lot of audio dealers have demo models for sale as well and you may be able to find a used amp for a really great price.

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