Retirement? He showed me a photo of a plain, cloth-covered, black tower speaker and promised to keep in touch. When next I heard from him, it was to announce that, along with his wife, Anne Conaway, and his former partner at DefTech, Don…
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Back in January 2010, in Las Vegas for the Consumer Electronics Show, I was prowling the corridors of the Venetian Hotel when I bumped into loudspeaker auteur Sandy Gross, cofounder first of Polk Audio and then of Definitive Technology. Knowing that Gross was no longer associated with Definitive, I asked him what he was getting up to in his retirement.
The Triton Reference is a lot more sensitive than other speakers I've had in my room in recent months, or even years—I had to turn down the volume control on the DACs I was using by 10dB or so to set the playback level to what I'm used to. I used the MBL Corona 15 monoblock amplifiers during Gross's visit, which he didn't feel were quite optimal for the Triton References. As I was scheduled to measure the Pass Laboratories XA60.8 monoblocks, to accompany Jim Austin's review of the Passes in the December 2017 issue, I hung on to them after the testing. My review findings are based on driving…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Three-way, reflex-loaded, floorstanding loudspeaker with powered sub-bass section. Drive-units: High-Velocity Folded Ribbon (HVFR) tweeter, two 6" MVPP mid/bass drivers, three 10" by 6" sub-bass drivers, four 10.5" by 9.5" passive radiators. Subwoofer power amplifier: 1800W. Frequency range: 12Hz–35kHz. Sensitivity: 93.25dB/2.83V/m. Nominal impedance: "compatible with 8 ohms." Recommended amplification: 20–750Wpc.
Dimensions: 58" (1473mm) H by 6.75" W (172mm) W front by 9.25" (235mm) W rear by 18.75" (476mm) D. Base: 13.5" (343mm) W by 22.25" (…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Analog Source: Linn Sondek LP12 turntable with Lingo power supply, Linn Ekos tonearm, Linn Arkiv B cartridge.
Digital Sources: Aurender N10 music server, NAD Masters Series M50.2 digital music player; Ayre Acoustics C-5xeMP universal player; PS Audio PerfectWave DirectStream D/A converter; AudioQuest JitterBug, UpTone Audio ReGen USB cleaner-uppers; Mac mini running Audirvana 1.5, Pure Music 3, Roon 1.3, Vinyl Studio; Ayre Acoustics QA-9 USB A/D converter.
Phono Preamplifier: Channel D Seta L.
Power Amplifiers: MBL Corona C15, Pass Laboratories…
Sidebar 3: Measurements
I used DRA Labs' MLSSA system and a calibrated DPA 4006 microphone to measure the GoldenEar Triton Reference's frequency response in the farfield, and an Earthworks QTC-40 for the nearfield and in-room responses. The GoldenEar's sensitivity is specified as a very high 93.25dB/2.83V/m; my estimate was close to that at 92.5dB(B)/2.83V/m, which places the Triton Reference in exalted company. Speakers this sensitive are rare. Fig.1 shows how the impedance and electrical phase vary with frequency. The magnitude does dip below 6 ohms in the midrange and high treble, with…
Manufacturer's Comment
Editor: Everyone at GoldenEar is thrilled that JA so enjoyed his time with the Triton References. This was especially meaningful as he had spent much time over the last year listening to many hyper-expensive top-of-the-line speakers from hallowed names like Magico, Rockport, Vandersteen, Vivid and Wilson; the least expensive of which sells for over four times the cost of T Refs.
As JA observed, T Refs are significantly more efficient than most other speakers that he has had in his room for a long time. It was a challenge to engineer an extremely natural…
In 2010, down in the East Village, on Delancey Street, at the NYC debut party for Robert Plant's Band of Joy, the assembled rock press, assorted hangers-on, and wannabe VIPs patiently sipped drinks as we waited for the guest of honor. Suddenly, with no fanfare or even announcement, he stepped out of a closet or secret passage of sorts into a roomful of astonished smiles. He'd been there all along.
In the rock world, it seems as if Robert Plant and his former band, Led Zeppelin, are always hovering somewhere nearby. While some 1970s acts have not remained relevant to younger generations,…
A huge fuss was made over Aurender's first music server, the S10, when it premiered in 2011 at the California Audio Show. While I didn't feel that the room acoustics and setup were good enough at CAS to permit an honest appraisal, the looks and features of the S10 (now discontinued) thrust Aurender into the spotlight. So when John Atkinson, who had very favorably reviewed Aurender's N10 server in April 2016, asked if I would evaluate Aurender's new A10, the opportunity to serve so many audiophiles with a single review elicited from me an unequivocal "Yes!"
What have we here?
As part…
It also made me realize that an honest assessment of the A10 required removing multiple shelves of dCS gear. Once the A10 had a shelf of its own, I further isolated it from noise by placing it on a Grand Prix carbon-fiber Formula platform. These relatively lightweight platforms contribute greatly to the "black"-background transparency of my reference system. On the empty shelf below the Aurender went a Mytek HiFi Brooklyn DAC ($1995), set atop a second Formula platform.
My plan was to first listen to the A10 by itself for an extended period of time. Once I was clear on how it sounded as…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Music server running Linux with integrated digital-to-analog converter. Formats supported: AAC, AIFF, ALAC, APE, DFF, DSF, FLAC, M4A, MQA, WAV. Internal storage: 2.5" 4TB hard-disk drive, 120GB solid-state cache drive. Conversion: PCM to 32-bit/384kHz, MQA, DSD64, DSD128. Dynamic range: 128dB. Resolutions supported via USB: PCM to 32/384, DSD64, DSD128 (DoP). Inputs: Ethernet, two USB Type A, one TosLink S/PDIF (supports up to 24/192 PCM). Outputs: USB Class 2.0 (Type A jack), balanced (XLR) and single-ended (RCA) left and right analog outputs. No…