I'm late to this thread, but I currently own a pair of the Tonian TL-D1s, and previously had owned a pair of high-end Green Mountain Audio speakers. These two designs may very well represent the extreme ends of the spectrum between the resonant and non-resonant.
As discussed above, the TL-D1s have the lightweight, resonant layered plywood cabinets. Green Mountain does away with wooden braced cabinets altogether in favor of a housing that's made from a marble-like "Q-Stone" compound that's basically immune to vibration.
So what's the difference? To my ears, there is no question it's a trade off, and the cabinet design is a major factor. I would say the GMAs have a significantly cleaner sound that is superior when it comes to timbral accuracy and pinpoint imaging. The Tonians, while impressively detailed, sound a little rough around the edges compared with the GMAs, and are far more vulnerable to fatigue.
Part of this, no doubt, is because the Tonians are more efficient than the GMAs, and more capable of revealing nasty stuff upstream in your system. But there's also the sense that the GMAs are these heavy, fixed objects, creating a safe place for an almost photographic, harmonically accurate presentation to occur - the Martin guitar can be identified as a D-28 rather than a D-18, etc.
Likewise, there's a strong sense that the resonant cabinets of the Tonians are exactly what's killing their ability to pull off that trick the way the GMAs do. The Tonians, however, excel at dynamics large and small because of those thin plywood cabinets, and the ribbon tweeter adds a considerable sense of openness and airiness. These two things together make for a presentation that, while obviously distorted to some degree, is far more lively and exciting - and, to my ears, ultimately more convincing. You may not be able to call it a D-18 every time, but you can hear and feel the thing vibrating like it's in the room.
That's not to say the Tonians can't be a little aggravating at times, and I do miss some aspects of the GMAs. If I had to sum it up, I'd say that if the GMAs evoke a painting by Rembrandt, then the Tonians evoke a painting by Van Gogh. While Rembrandt is revered for good reason, a lot of folks would prefer to live with a Van Gogh.
As discussed above, the TL-D1s have the lightweight, resonant layered plywood cabinets. Green Mountain does away with wooden braced cabinets altogether in favor of a housing that's made from a marble-like "Q-Stone" compound that's basically immune to vibration.
So what's the difference? To my ears, there is no question it's a trade off, and the cabinet design is a major factor. I would say the GMAs have a significantly cleaner sound that is superior when it comes to timbral accuracy and pinpoint imaging. The Tonians, while impressively detailed, sound a little rough around the edges compared with the GMAs, and are far more vulnerable to fatigue.
Part of this, no doubt, is because the Tonians are more efficient than the GMAs, and more capable of revealing nasty stuff upstream in your system. But there's also the sense that the GMAs are these heavy, fixed objects, creating a safe place for an almost photographic, harmonically accurate presentation to occur - the Martin guitar can be identified as a D-28 rather than a D-18, etc.
Likewise, there's a strong sense that the resonant cabinets of the Tonians are exactly what's killing their ability to pull off that trick the way the GMAs do. The Tonians, however, excel at dynamics large and small because of those thin plywood cabinets, and the ribbon tweeter adds a considerable sense of openness and airiness. These two things together make for a presentation that, while obviously distorted to some degree, is far more lively and exciting - and, to my ears, ultimately more convincing. You may not be able to call it a D-18 every time, but you can hear and feel the thing vibrating like it's in the room.
That's not to say the Tonians can't be a little aggravating at times, and I do miss some aspects of the GMAs. If I had to sum it up, I'd say that if the GMAs evoke a painting by Rembrandt, then the Tonians evoke a painting by Van Gogh. While Rembrandt is revered for good reason, a lot of folks would prefer to live with a Van Gogh.