Having owned the Golden Ear Triton One for 14 months and subsequently selling only because of the forthcoming Triton Reference - which I am patiently waiting another 7 weeks or so for - my recommendation is Golden Ear. Admittedly, I never heard/seen the tekton double impact speakers though.
Still waiting for my pair of Reference as well. I am keeping my Triton Ones though and moving them into my secondary system. The Triton Twos in the secondary system will be posted for sale by end of Summer.
I never heard the double impact speakers but I did have a pair of the Pendragons in my system for a period of a week. Personally, I didn't care for them so back they went to the factory.
I’d go with the Golden Ear Triton 1, even though I haven’t heard them, I have a problem with the thought and the physics of asking that all those tweeters in the Tekton can act in perfect unison without any smearing/time lag problems, painstaking matching of all of them still can’t be exact as one good tweeter working in it’s optimal power and frequency range.
George, the tweeter array in the Tektons sounds marvelous. Don't write them off just because they're unconventional. I have the Double Impacts and the 7 tweeter array produces a magical sounding midrange. Live recordings and vocals are amazing on them.
George, the tweeter array in the Tektons sounds marvelous. Don't write them off just because they're unconventional. I have the Double Impacts and the 7 tweeter array produces a magical sounding midrange. Live recordings and vocals are amazing on them.
I second that and I hear more clarity,weight,as much detail and inner detail along with delicacy when the recording has it and just plainly sounds real and sized correctly than any other speaker that I have owned or heard including panels.
I haven't heard any of the GE speakers and really don't care too they look pretty quirky to me.
Also I do believe that Eric tests and matches the 7 tweeters in the array mine are marked with numbers on the back of them.
George, I have heard some line array speakers in the past that have the problems you mentioned but the DI's simply don't I'm stil amazed everyday with mine.
I don’t believe that you can view a speaker and accurately predict its sound quality. Preconceived ideas can be misguided and simply wrong. You have to listen to a product. Word of mouth impressions from actual owners/listeners say that the Double Impacts sound superb. Charles
I like too go by impressions from owners and not so much from just one or two reviews ,Offcourse always best to actually try something in your own room and gear.
Check out the Double Impact thread. The tweeter array is the key along with low crossover freq. of the drivers. I love my DI's. While I have not heard the GE's I have read several posts comparing the two with the DI's coming out on top. Please do not assume the DI's sound like the Pendragons or other models in the Tekton line. Again the tweeter arrray is what defines this speaker. Good luck in finding your speaker.
I never heard the triton but I just picked up a set of Tekton double impacts that will replace my Tekton Lore, after all the nearly 100% praise from actual owners on several threads around the web I had to try these, and boy did they put a smile on my face, I can tell you that these are staying with me for a long time, unless I win the lottery, the sound stage is tall, wide, these speakers disappear with little to no room placement tweaks. The sound is detailed, clear and presented with authority. If you can listen to both of course it would be best but, these are worth a listen. I had the Lores, Emotiva stealth 6 and now the DI plus one Xapona show under my belt for reference.
I own a pair of GE Triton 2s and have heard a pair of Tekton DIs at a local dealer. For me the DI's were significantly better. One reason is that the DI does not require close room boundary reinforcement for the bass. My Triton 2s sound absolutely anemic to me when pulled well out into the room (away from the FW).
Please allow me to clarify that I am an imaging and soundstage lover. I am not satisfied with speakers which do not throw a HUGE 3D soundstage behind the speakers. The DIs play huge with excellent bass and a great soundstage well away from any walls, let alone the FW.
Every time I have heard Triton 1s at shows they are crammed a few feet from the FW, so I am assuming they also require it. If so, they are not the proper speaker for me. But then again, I am a depth and soundstage freak, so take my opinion with a grain of salt.
Hi Cardiffkook- What I understand is DIs performed well when placed away from front/side wall, I was thinking only Bipole speakers (i.e., Def. Tech) performance depends on how far we place them away from front/side walls and Tekton DIs are not bipole in nature. Correct me if i'm wrong!
The Triton Ones were a strong contender, among speaker choices for me. The Reference was announced about a week after my first lengthy audition of the Ones. The dealer stepped up and offered me an excellent trade-up offer if I started with the Ones, given the potentially long release time for the Refs (at that time).
So the question for me was whether I would wait for the Ref; or go with the Ones and then decide to upgrade; or go with another speaker choice. I chose to take a risk with the Double Impacts, primarily on Terry London’s just posted (at that time) review.
There isn’t a ’wrong’ choice here; rather, both are excellent choices. I personally don’t get into the ’what’s better than something else’ discussions since there are so many variables involved with our choices.
Having said that, I haven’t thought of the Ones, one bit. The Double Impacts just make it happen for me and my needs. And, having said that, I still plan on auditioning the GE Reference once my local dealer has them on their floor.
I recently bought a pair of Sonist Recital 3s as I was looking for more efficient speakers to allow a single ended lower power scheme (scheme…yeah man). They're fabulous sounding and built to a very high standard with solid poplar cabs, fancy wire, ribbon tweeters made from actual ribbon (recycled from birthday and holiday gift wrapping), and general grooviness. One should look for grooviness in speakers.
One of my local dealers has some Triton 1s hooked up to some high-dollar McIntosh amp. It is one of the absolute worst systems I've heard. They are ear piercing bright in his setup. I've heard $500 systems that sound far better.
I heard them a couple times , sounded OK to me but nothing special. Of course, casual listening in a dealers room is not conclusive but I've been doing it for 50 years so I usually get pretty close . Did not listen my best because I would never buy any speaker with built-in amp .
I don't know which amp. It was a big one with meters, something from their recent lineup as he only began carrying the brand about a year ago. I didn't take notice of the exact model because I couldn't stand the system for more than a couple minutes. The room/setup looked professional and well done, so I'm not sure how much that contributed to the poor sound. I've only heard GE speakers at this retailer, the Triton Ones and the Triton Fives, neither sounded good to my ears. The Ones were running off the McIntosh amp and the Fives were running off an Onkyo Integra AVR. Both setups sounded shrill and bright with weak bass. The Monitor Audio and Revel speakers he also sells were far more tolerable in the treble region.
Honestly, I can't imagine how anyone could like the GE speakers if they typically sound like the ones I heard. I haven't heard any Tektons, but after my experience with GE, I'd risk ordering the DI's if I had to choose between these two options. Have you looked into Salk Sound? I almost took a gamble on their Song 3 towers.
I have auditioned the Titan 1s at length and then decided to take a chance on the Tekton Double Impacts. The Titans sounded very nice but the DIs are in a different league. I have not heard the Reference GEs but I can't imagine them sounding better than the DIs. They are also much more expensive. I have owned several high end speakers from the likes of Dunluvy and Avantgarde....they do not compare to the DIs. I STRONGLY recommend you call Eric at Tekton and try the DIs for 30 days...you will NOT return them. Cheers
With a user name of "tekton", only 5 posts to your credit, and given that you are unable to even understand the correct name of "Triton" and not "Titan", no doubt you would recommend Tekton.
Here is what one dealer I know had to say about the Tekton Double Impacts.
"This Tekton designer is stating obvious facts that are known by all loudspeaker designers, that is why multi way speakers are around. The smaller midranges and tweeters are lower in mass and handle the upper harmonics of instruments. His stating that a guitar producing a 41hz note is only being reproduced by a subwoofer with a 200-300 gram cone is totally false, the upper harmonics of that guitar note are being reproduced by the midrange and tweeter which are much lower in mass and able to reproduce the harmonics. He also doesn’t state what his speaker does that is different to try and diminish the mass of the drivers, they look pretty typical to me. I think this is pretty much snake oil."
Great that you auditioned and are now "taking a chance". Best of luck.
I agree with you 100%. I feel he is shilling for Tekton. I tried a pair of their Pendragons 2 years ago at my home was very unimpressed. I kept asking where is the bass?
I think you and I are 5-6 weeks away to our GE References. I was told they will be arriving to the US warehouse by July 10th, then off to the various dealers. I've been waiting since February 15th and am getting very antsy. I hope they are as easy to dial in as the Triton 1 were.
@gdhal/@stereo5 , Your experiences are your own and hence I respect that. But I am looking at the Tekton Double Impact thread that is growing and also read the professional review @Hometheaterreview.com. Looks like the DIs replaced some $20k loudspeakers that the reviewers had. I am thinking that maybe the DIs are a complete different ball game than the Tektons that you auditioned?
I heard Teajay's DI today with the MicroZOTL as a preamp and a Triode Lab 2A3 amplifier and it really is amazing. The speakers are an incredible bargain but they are huge! I cannot comment abut their technology but they are excellent. What makes them so tempting besides price is how efficient they are allowing the use of single ended triodes. The 2A3 amp made the system sublime. I have old Beveridge Electrostats so that should give you some reference of what I like. The system sounded very open and transparent. The timbres were just gorgeous! This is all IMHO. I really don't know the Goldenear Triton series except for shows. I thought they were also dry impressive. I don't think anyone could go wrong with either speaker. Just because one may have a preference of one speaker over the other takes nothing away from the speaker not chosen.
Without my even trying to get into any king of "pissing contest" or having to "defend" anything here, please allow me to provide feedback to your latest post within this thread.
I too note the Tekton DI thread on the forum, and I can gather by all the positive comments that they are likely a good sounding speaking and perhaps more importantly a great overall value. And as for professional reviews, I have yet to see any professional review that doesn't have a lot of positive things to say about whatever it is he/she is reviewing.
As for Golden Ear, I'm willing to bet that for every satisfied Tekton DI owners, there are at least twice as many satisfied Golden Ear Triton One owners. While as you state it looks like the DIs replaced some $20k loudspeakers that the reviewers had - and I take you mean "bested" - I've seen reviews comparing the T1s to $50K loudspeakers and besting them. In fact, I personally have auditioned the Alta Statement Towers with an MSRP of $200K and prefer the sound of the T1.
Golden Ear has more accolades than perhaps any other speaker manufacturer.
I had the Triton 2's a few years ago. I thought they were pretty good sounding. I replaced them with much more expensive Monitor Audio speakers. I just ordered the Tekton DI's so we'll see how they do.
Here might be a different outlook between these 2 speakers.
Disclaimer, I'm a very happy satisfied DI owner that passed buying a nice set of magico Q'3 at 22k,they were a demo pair that my wife and I spent about 3hrs listening too at a out of state dealer.Now we all know that magico speakers are world class speakers but in the end I'm not going to spend that kind of money for a set speakers that are only 3 to 5% better in the presentation of sonics that I desire and they would have been at the top of my budget just for speakers.
Now even though I bought a upgraded pair of DI's I have upgraded mine much more and I really like mine.I haven't heard any of the GE's at all and personally I would'nt even consider them because I'm not a fan of powered speakers in any respect.Now I belong to a local audio club and maybe somebody will buy a pair and then I would give them a fair listen,I'm a open minded kind of guy,but I really don't care for reviews to much I would rather hear something myself.
I realize that some of the info about the DI's is kinda vague in general and I would like give some more info about for those folks that are interested.
I have taken some measurements of my DI's just to answer some of the questions that I wandered about them, The six outer tweeters are crossed at 480hz to 10k and the middle tweeter plays 10k to 30k.The 2 midranges are crossed at 250hz to 5 to 6k and the 2 woofers are low passed by a simple 2nd order crossover at 250hz.
With all this being said here is a explanation that may provide a better understanding.
Even though these are tweeter transducers the six of them that form the circle, based on what frequencies they handle, radiate acoustically as if they were one six inch mid-range driver. The transducer in the middle is being used as a tweeter and handles the high end frequencies up to 30Khz. So, acoustically you have a six inch mid-range driver with a coaxial mounted tweeter which means it functions as a single point source. Now, by Eric figuring out how to make this work you get all the advantages of a coaxial driver, however the mid-range array weighs close to nothing leading to blazing speed/dynamics/micro-details compared to a regular six inch driver, regardless of what materials it is made out of it cannot be as light in weight. Yet, you still get not only remarkable transit response, but great control because each driver is small and well behaved. The closet you could come to this regarding weight/control would be a ribbon or AMT which cannot be used coaxial design as a single point source. Brilliant on his part!
The more I listen to the DI's regarding mid-range and high frequencies they easily rival any panel design/ribbon/AMT I have had in my system and surpass them in low end extension/dynamics and overall macro-dynamics.
Now I have been in this hobby of ours for more than 30yrs and I have owned and heard several speakers of all kinds and the DI's beat almost all of them for the sonic presentation that I want.
I'm not wishing to fuel any kind of pissing match I just want to give my opinion and back it up with actual measurements and other details.
I truly believe that either speakers would be very good It just depends on personal preference.
I don't have a dog in the fight. I have heard Trition 1s with a modest quad integrated amp and pretty nice Ayre separates. Not even close to bright or shy bass. In fact I thought it had a very smooth top end and amazing bass.
I am very sensitive to hot or bright treble. I use Vienna Acoustics Mozart Grands if that tells you anything.
Never heard the Double Impacts if they are at the same level or better than the Trition's I would say they are a pretty amazing speaker.
I have to say I think the GE sensitivity is deceiving. I found they were waay better with a high current ss amp. They sounded good with tubes but lost lots of impact. The class D amps that power the woofers take on the characteristics of the amp to match the mids and highs which makes sense. The DIs despite their 4 ohm rating do much better with tubes IMO. Maybe a flatter impedance curve? Not sure. At the end of the day I found the best combo with both speakers is a tube pre with ss amp.
I've never heard the Tekton DIs so I have no opinion on them. Would be interested to hear a pair some day.
Like Darkstar1, I'm very sensitive to brightness - particularly on massed strings. A hard, bright treble will send me screaming from the room. (Previous speakers over the years include various Maggies, Alons and Nolas with mostly Cary and Herron electronics.)
The spouse and I auditioned a boatload of speakers over the past few months and heard several Golden Ear Triton models powered by a variety of ss and tube amps.
The one thing *none* of the Tritons were was "bright". I would characterize the GE house sound as smooth and non-fatiguing, just slightly sweet in the mids and with open, extended treble and ample bass. The latter is adjustable depending on associated gear and room acoustics as well as personal preference. The Tritons are also remarkably coherent top to bottom. (I, a singer and former organist, and the spousal unit, a retired symphony musician, are quite the sticklers on this.) I thought the sound staging and imaging quite fine as well: as a bonus for us, since we often listen together, the sweet spot is fairly wide and room placement is not difficult. As you go up the Triton line, you get more of everything - neutrality, transparency, deeper bass, greater impact etc etc. But to my ears the speakers all bear a strong family resemblance - I heard no brightness in any of them. I look forward with interest to hearing the new GE Reference speaker when it hits dealers.
The GE line wasn't originally on our radar. (I'm skeptical of speakers du jour.) Along with reviews, what steered us towards them was our fondness for ribbon tweeters and the recommendation of a former symphony colleague who now owns a high end AV studio. After listening for ourselves, we like the GEs so much, and feel they offer so much value for the $$$, we plan to buy the 2+ or 3+ when our ship comes in this August. They tick all the right boxes for us. We plan to drive them with a ss integrated, not tubes, but I know people who are very happy with their Triton Ones and Twos mated with tube or hybrid integrateds from Rogue, Prima Luna, Vincent and Line Magnetic.
Never heard of di but i have an tekton enzo xl for the price i paid this speaker is a champion when it comes to details and clarity the trumpet sounds like real trumpet not like toy you can almost hear if the snare drum is metal or wood or thick drum head or thin head. I can write more but u got the point.
As a fan of the triton series and owner of both the fives and ones, I am very interested in hearing thoughts about the double impacts. From personal experience it's unwise to get trapped into a "my speaker is best mindset" so I love to try new things that come highly recommended by fellow audiogoners.
I'm particularly interested in the tweeter array, which I've hear resembles the dispersion of good old horn loaded speakers. Has anyone been able to compare the sound to horns? I'm a long time fan of horns but don't like the large size and aesthetics. The even higher sensitivity than the tritons is also appealing since I really like sound of 300B tubes. Has anyone tried the DI's with low powered SET amps?
As far as the tritons go, I have found them very forgiving with regards to placement to rear or side walls. The most important thing I have found is getting as close to a right triangle as possible, with the tweeters pointing just behind my ears. Interesting that a lot of people above preferred them with SS. I tried a couple SS that weren't by any means spectacular and preferred tubes. Push pull amps gave more pleasing and realistic colors to the sound, but with muted dynamics and slower energy. Then I tried the line magnetic lm-518ia 845 SET and it really seemed to bring the best of both worlds. Of course what I really mean is it fit my personal preferences and, to me, made the tritons the most lifelike.
That being said I would still like to try the tektons, and if they are indeed as similar in strengths as it sounds from others comments, it would make them an even better bargain.
Well, maybe I'm a little late to the conversation, but... I quite recently had the chance to purchase a used set of DIs with the upgrades, and between all the reviews and hub bub, and the killer price, and my sickness that has me swapping perfectly awesome gear to try new stuff, I jumped at it. And I must say; no regrets! I think that all good speakers have their ideal sweet spot -- paired with the right electronics, in the right room, with the right music. For me and my music, the Tektons blew me away.
My system is in a really large space -- a great room with vaulted (23') ceilings. So I need some juice and speakers that will throw sound, have a large sweet spot, but still allow for critical listening in the "perfect seat". I originally paired them with Red Dragon Leviathan monoblocks, and they performed admirably -- great detail and extension, and very nicely balanced, high-to-low. Then I paired them with a set of 845 monoblocks that push 50+ w/ch, and WOW, did they ever sing.
I've owned some pretty nice speakers in my day, including a couple "world beaters" like Vandersteen 3a Sigs, open baffle designs, Audio Physics Virgos, Thiel CS5i, Zu Audio -- to name a few.
The speakers that they were going to replace were a pair of PureAudioProject Trio15Voxativs -- fantastic speakers indeed. Here's how I'd sum it up. The open baffle architecture of the PAPs fills my large room with luscious sound, giving me the sensation of being mid-concert hall. The Tektons put me in the 5th row. More slam, easier to place instruments on the stage, better extension on both ends, and more detail (microdynamics?) without being etchy. Where the Tektons really shone (shined?) was on small ensemble jazz, and acoustic rock.
Now, I realize that a lot of my perception might well be attributed to The "shiney new toy" syndrome, so I dragged a few friends -- listening buddies -- over for a glass or two and a listen. It was unanimous; the Tektons were regarded by all as the best speakers we'd ever heard in my system. Chet Baker/Bill Evans, Joni Mitchell, Jason Mraz, Dave Brubeck, Stephen Stills, Jason Isbel, Father John Misty; all just brought my room to life through the Tektons like we'd never heard before. And for that matter, Zeppelin II sounded better than I ever remember hearing it also.
So, now I'm in a quandry. Looks like I'll be selling off some excess gear b/c I've found my listening Shangri La -- until the next urge hits me. But for now, I can whole-heartedly recommend the Tekton DIs. If they can sound this good in my shitty/non-ideal environment, then I'm dead-certain that they'll make a lot of people happy. My only hedge would be to recomment that you treat them like higher-end speakers, and pair them with the gear that one might intend for much more expensive speakers.
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