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Focal Sopra 2's vs Titron GoldenEar Reference speakers

Hello there, After a long and drawn out process, I’m finally down to a couple of choices for my New Speakers. The two speakers are the Focal Sopra 2 and the Golden ear Triton Reference Speakers/ I’ll either buy the golden ears new or buy second hand sopra’s 2’s only used for 2 months. The price is the same either way. I have heard both speakers in perfectly attuned rooms that were tweaked out. The last set of speakers I purchased sounded very different in my NON dedicated listening room than they did in the store. After this speaker purchase " which is a big one for me at these prices" I don’t want to even think of buying new loud speakers for years. I’m not one to change his gear often. Though I do change my underwear everyday. That was a very poor attempt at humor. If any of you reading this have heard both of these speakers, I would love to hear your thoughts on them good, bad or indifferent. My non dedicated listening room DIMENSIONS are 8 FEET HIGH,20 FEET LONG and 14 FEET WIDE. I will be using Mcintosh solid state preamp and power amp for the new speakers. After the speaker purchase, future purchases and time spent reading about hi-fi will be dedicated to room improvements. I like to listen to music loud, very rarely do I listen at low volumes. I’m 50 percent split on the music of my youth, Metal and punk. The other 50 percent Diana Krall, Duke Ellington
and more audiophile like music. It seems to me at the 11 Canadian price point it’s hard to find a speaker that does it all well. I have to admit I’m a huge mark for the look of the sopra 2 loudspeaker. Of course the Golden ear reference come with built in woofers which is a plus. I’m not a big bass head though. If any of you fine people could offer me your opinions or some insight to either speaker, It would be greatly appreciated. I;m a bit antsy as this is a big purchases for me and I don’t want to mess it up. A huge thank you for taking the time to read this long winded post. Would love to hear some strong opinions. Enjoy the music.

Mikey

riverboat

Showing 4 responses by audiotroy

audiotroy's avatar
audiotroy
3,909 posts
 
Riverboat, both of these speakers are fantastic choices.

The Triton References punch way above their weight and in terms of image size and placement and of course deep bass they are hard to beat. The Triton R are very musical and excel at dynamics.

Based on having Mcintosh gear we would advise you to seek out the Focals. the Golden Ears are on the warm side and the Focals Beryilium tweeter is more detailed so the combination with the Mcintosh which is very laid back would favor the Sopras.

With different equipment it might be different. 

Hope that helps.

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ Golden Ear dealers
audiotroy's avatar
audiotroy
3,909 posts
 
Erik, hard to believe that is what you heard, most Heil AMT drivers are distinctly less bright then metal dome tweeters, 

A Heil AMT is a folded piece of mylar and such the resonant frequency  and break up modes are way lower then a metal dome or ribbon driver.

Most Heil Drivers sound distinctly less bright. 

We heard the Triton 1's the older version as a couple of stores usually they sounded boomy on one demo they sounded bright. 

The new Reference versions are wonderully smooth. The Focal's tend to be a bit more resolute in the treble. 

We heard the Sopra II at Axpona and they were not sounding that good, the much less expensive Triton 1R smooked them at Axpona.

We have heard the Sopras before and thought they were very good hence our recommendation. 

Dave and Troy 
Audio Doctor NJ Golden Ear dealers
audiotroy's avatar
audiotroy
3,909 posts
 
Have to agree with Emcdade, the new Sopras are fantastic and the new sound of Focal is way less metalic then the older versions.

At Axpona the Sopras on a Naim Uniti Nova sounded very good, but that system was not amazing. 

The Golden Ear's at Axpona sounded amazing, the system was not a super expensive one but we think it was more expensive than the Nova however, the speakers cost almost 1/3rd the price

The take away was the Golden Ear Tritron 1R were spectacular at Axpona.

We were so impressed by the demo there we signed up to be Golden Ear dealers on the spot after having mixed feelings about them for years.

After having our demo pair for a few weeks they are very impressive, not as transparent as we would like, but smooth, big soundstage, fantastic bass.

On a few passages they were spooky as certain effects and voices on some tracks just popped out of the loudspeakers. 

As a home theater rig again spectacular.

The Golden Ear Tritron 1R are just an insane bargain and they do give more expensive loudspeakers a run for their money. 

On our last client demo we compared the Tritron 1R to the Legacy Signatures, the Paradigm Persona 3F and the PSB T3, each speaker had a few strengths, the Golden Ears won for price, performance, deep bass and of course stunning value, the only issue is they come in one color gloss black.  We were going to switch in the Kef Reference 3 but ran out of time.

The take away is the Golden Ear Trion 1R are vastly superior to the older non reference models and the fact that a $6k loudspeaker can easily hang with $10k and above models is testment to what a great job Sandy Gross did with the new models.

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ Golden Ear, Legacy, PSB, Paradigm, KEF dealers
audiotroy's avatar
audiotroy
3,909 posts
 
EJR the Naim Uniti Nova is hardly a thin and lifeless sound with the Sopras, the issue is that many Naim dealers use Naim cables which are really okay sounding, because the amplifiers are designed to be used with a cable with a known inductance, and  many higher end cables are low inductance, with better speaker cables the Naim Nova sounds really good, however, with $14k speakers we do like to see more expensive electronics used as the speakers will sound far better. 

So we would agree with your choice of the better Macintosh gear, if you heard the Sopras with the higher end Naim separates you would have also been smitten 

As per the battle of these two great speakers you couldn't lose with either. we would agree with the Sopras having a bit clearer midrange and top end,  with the Golden Ears having a smoothness and deep bass that is better than the Sopras.

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor Golden Ear dealers
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