I recently auditioned a pair of Triton Two Towers (strictly using carefully selected and very challenging music) at a shop and at the end discovered that the source in use was faulty which could explain the ok performance instead of the great performance I've read about. I will be going back to re-audition them again.

In the meantime, I have a couple of questions:
I already have a high-end sub that I want to keep even though placement is not optimal in my listening environment due to room restrictions.
My question is if I find that using the built in subs (not a fan of them as a rule) are somehow more convienant in my environment, I wonder if they can handle HT application. While I am 90% music and 10% HT I want to get the same performance and result (reaching down into the low frequencies that can be felt more than heard) using a seperate sub. Of course I can't plug in a seperate sub and the subs on the towers at the same time. My receiver (Onkyo TX-R705) only has one LFE port and I would think can not send good signal to 3 subs at once.
I did try them with the subs turned off and while the bass response was barely ok, it had no punch and somewhat muffled sounding, so the subs need to be on at just the lowest level or so to fill out the sound which is fine by me, but again if they can't deliver HT than I would have to unplug them to watch a movie and then plug them back in and disconnect my stand alone sub for music, what a hassle! Leaving the subs disconnected and off would force me to use my stand alone sub for music which is something I rarely do even with my current 25 year old cheapo Kenwood speakers even though my sub is designed for music and HT with the flip of a switch and adjusted port. I like tight musical bass. not loose cannons. If I have to use my separate sub then I don't need the towers and can get some bookshelves even though I find almost all bookshelves lacking.

I also notice that there is no removable grill on these things. So how does one check them if something doesn't sound right or even show them off if one desires?

I'm also questioning the ribbon tweeter. I'm not a fan of ribbon tweeters, although I must say that during demo I noticed they performed extremely well for vocals, but mediocore for other highs. I like clear crisp highs, not shrieking and distortion. (I tried a pair of Berhinger speakers with ribbon tweeters and they were absolutely appaling). Agian though, this may have been due to a faulty source and I am going back to re-audition.

I'm also concerned about longevity and reliability. My current speakers are 25 years old and still in near pristine condition, but long in tooth and electronic components in speakers and design have come a long way which is why I want to upgrade along with the important fact of performance. So if I am going to plunk down a whole year worth of saving on a pair of speakers I want them to last a good 20 years as it is a huge investment to me.

I must say though that inspite of the percieved shortcomings they blew away the B&W 683,684, CM8 and CM9 hands down. I measured an 18 db more effiecient ability in the Triton Towers over the B&Ws.

I'm not yet sure these are the speakers for me. Can you shed some more light on them beyond the brochure and pushing by the shop salesman just because they are the latest thing?

Wow - where to begin? I'll try to help....

The Triton Twos are full range speakers and if you ignore the "built-in subwoofer" aspect, for your purposes here, things will be much clearer. The Tritons will be connected with speaker wire just like any other full range speaker. If you wish to add a subwoofer to augment the Tritons, it would be connected to your receiver's sub-out. It would have to be a "substantial" sub to actually augment the Tritons - but assuming it is, set the Tritons to Small and start with a crossover point of 40 Hz. Turning down the level control on the Triton does not turn the subwoofers off, just down. That would not be the right approach, nor would unplugging them as they are an integral part of the speaker's overall performance and not just subwoofers.

The grille does come down if you are so inclined, however the drivers are still under a metal frame grille. All of our speakers go through 100% QC, and if they did arrive damaged in some way I'm quite sure you wouldn't need to pull the grille down to figure that out.

The HFVR tweeter is spectacular in all respects - it is not a conventional ribbon. It is more efficient with exceptional extension, power handling and extremely low distortion. All of our testing seems to show the HVFR tweeter is all but indestructible. Many of our dealers have commented they can't believe how loud the Tritons play without showing any signs of stress. "Effortless", "Smooth", "Extended" are the words being used to describe this tweeter - prompting the question "Are domes dead?" from industry experts and reviewers. This smoothness can also be perceived first as rolled-off, especially after listening to aggressive horn-loaded dome tweeter speakers. This tweeter is only "bright" when something bright is played on it.

Thanks for your interest in the products - I am sorry your initial demo was underwhelming, but as you pointed out other issues were perhaps the cause. And we have found that some store environments and setups have not been conducive to getting the best sound from the speakers. Fortunately, consumers, dealers and long time industry reviewers have all agreed - these speakers are something very special.

Well, as I said I will be going back to audition them again as I don't feel they were given a fair chance with the faulty source.
I think I understand the subwoofer part and the roll it plays now.
Do I understand correctly that I would only connect the speaker wires and no LFE cable (sub out) is required?

You mentioned something about them needing a good environment to really perform. Unfortunately, as the potential is with any speaker, they may fail in my environment. Of course so may any speaker,
Perhaps a description will help you in speculating whether or not the towers will be for me or if I should look for a different design based on my needs.
Presently my environment is as follows:
Room size approx 18' X 14', hardwood floor, two sky lights. There is a very large throw rug on the floor and also a coffee table and sofa. One side of the room is a brick fireplace and a sliding glass door. The opposite wall has cabinets along it. The rear of the room opens into a dining alcove approx 9.5' X 8'.
The sub I have is an HSU VTF-1 which is approx one half size down from what it should be I'm told, but I don't buy that because it can rattle the house at 1/3 power. It is placed next to the left main speaker I have now which is unfortunately not the premium spot for it, but the only spot for it.

What I am looking for is a L/R speakers set that can adapt or be adapted to almost any listening environment. I know there is no such thing as a miracle speaker. I may move in some time and would like to be able to take the speakers with me and have them work whether it be house or apartment or what have you.
Like I said this is an investment not to be taken lightly and I'm not one of those people into upgrading every 6 months.

The tweeters do seem a bit warm to me, but again I need to re-audition with better source equipment. I like soft-dome tweeters the most I think. Horns are too shrill and hard tweeters can be good or bad depending, mostly bad. As I said though so far these particular ribbon tweeters are not as muddy as others I've heard in smaller speakers to boot.
I listen to everything from classic rock to alternative rock to folk to blues to symphonic classical to ambient "new-age" type music to world music. I've auditioned speakers that have turned to dust with classical and ones that can't handle Yanni live to ones that fall apart with sonic rock. These towers though have held up through my first audition and I threw everything at them. Now I need to see if they can hold up and perform spectacularly.

Also concerning a Center speaker and "timber-matching". The brochure and all readings state that not only do I need to buy the Golden Ear sub which is inferior to my HSU in my opinion, but I need to buy the Golden Ear center channel as well to get a match. I'm of the theory that says that having to buy a center from the same maker in order to have good "timber-matching is BS! That is called marketing. I believe one merely has to look for a center that meets specs (and there are choices) and sounds good in the mid-range anything more is gravy. While buying from the same maker makes it fool-proof, I'm not convinced that one needs to pay the same price they paid for the mains in order to have a matching center. I don't know how much your centers go for, but I fear they are in the thousand range therefore I don't need it. I can either use my current Polk CS-1 with it's lack-luster performance or find something in the low price range that will match any speaker I decide to get. If not near the thousand range then I can give strong consideration to purchasing a Golden Ear center as well should I decide on the towers. If your centers are really great and reasonable then I would consider one even if I get different speakers.

I'm looking forward to re-auditioning the towers either this weekend or next and I'm hoping they blow my mind. I want to give them a second chance due to technical difficulties. I'm sure they will perform quite differently in the positive direction. I'll also be testing them to see how they do for HT.

As you can tell I"m discerning and skeptical and am not taken in by loads of praise from magazines, or paid industry experts. When it comes to speakers it's really all subjective.

In reply to the questions and comments from your recent post:

1. Yes, standard connection is with speaker wire only and, for a HT setup, Left/Right set to "Large";

2. Regarding room size, big performance full-range speakers tend to overload small rooms. The Tritons, by virtue of the bass level control, have some control over this fact, which sets them apart from other large full-range speakers. Your room size is not too small - the Tritons should sound wonderful in the room you described;

3. As proven by the NRC in their landmark loudspeaker study, "good" speakers sound good regardless of what kind of music is played on them;

4. There is no requirement to buy a GoldenEar subwoofer stated anywhere in our brochure or our website. We obviously recommend our sub be used with our SuperSat speakers, which require a subwoofer (they've even been designed to work together when used in a 2.0 setup). We also obviously feel our subs represent unprecedented value, even compared to your very nice direct-from-manufacturer HSU sub (I might suggest a side by side comparison before calling anything "inferior");

5. I do not know any one in the Home Theater community that does not agree with timbre-matching as it pertains to center speakers and left/right speakers, as do we. I would not suggest you purchase a GoldenEar center speaker unless your intention was to have matching GoldenEar Left/Right mains.

I hope you are pleased with you next audition of the product.

Moderator wrote:

In reply to the questions and comments from your recent post:

1. Yes, standard connection is with speaker wire only and, for a HT setup, Left/Right set to "Large";

2. Regarding room size, big performance full-range speakers tend to overload small rooms. The Tritons, by virtue of the bass level control, have some control over this fact, which sets them apart from other large full-range speakers. Your room size is not too small - the Tritons should sound wonderful in the room you described;

3. As proven by the NRC in their landmark loudspeaker study, "good" speakers sound good regardless of what kind of music is played on them;

4. There is no requirement to buy a GoldenEar subwoofer stated anywhere in our brochure or our website. We obviously recommend our sub be used with our SuperSat speakers, which require a subwoofer (they've even been designed to work together when used in a 2.0 setup). We also obviously feel our subs represent unprecedented value, even compared to your very nice direct-from-manufacturer HSU sub (I might suggest a side by side comparison before calling anything "inferior");

5. I do not know any one in the Home Theater community that does not agree with timbre-matching as it pertains to center speakers and left/right speakers, as do we. I would not suggest you purchase a GoldenEar center speaker unless your intention was to have matching GoldenEar Left/Right mains.

I hope you are pleased with you next audition of the product.

You make a fantastic point I had not thought of with #2. That could resolve many issues for folks, not to mention give me part of what I am looking for. It kind of makes them like my sub in that they become rather versatile!

Of course good speakers sound good regardless of music played on them, but when one is researching and auditioning speakers one needs to know that said speakers can handle whatever is thrown at them. Obviously, when one runs across a speaker that can't handle a selection one listens to then that is a sign of an inferior speaker in some way, could be component based, design flaw, what have you. Of course that's not the case with the Golden Ears.

Since I have no intention of replacing my sub (why would I), I won't be testing your sub any time soon. That said, though I still can't imagine your $1000+ sub (hardly unprecedented value), would outperform my $450 sub because it has nothing to do with price and everything to do with design including drivers and amps. I put my HSU sub up against a $1200 Velodyne when I got it and the HSU chewed up the Velodyne. Not to say the Velodyne was a terrible sub, it was a decent sub indeed, but not as versatile as the HSU. This only shows that one doesn't have to spend their life saviings to get a good quality product.

As to the center channel theory: I believe those in the HT community are wrong on this point when applied to L/R and Center seperates. I'm sticking by my theory on that one until proven otherwise through practical application. I don't see the reason to buy a $1k+ center just to throw money away when a similar center can be had for half that whether from a different maker or not. (I have not priced your centers yet, so I will do that and I am hoping at least one of them falls within my range as that will make it a no brainer for me shouild I go with the towers). That said however, there is a time when getting L/R & Center from the same maker is paramount. That's when one is looking to go to LCR speakers, at that point it is absolutely crucial to get all three from the same maker.

So really now it's down to my only concerns are the performance of the towers for HT application and the center channel performance and price. I think the rest of the issues have been answered well by the speakers themselves as you have pointed out. I can hardly wait to re-audition them.

Just to clarify for others, our subs are $499 and $699 U.S. MSRP. The SuperSat 50C center speaker is $499.

Thanks again - enjoy the music.