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Triad Speakers has been designing and manufacturing three-piece (woofer and two satellites) loudspeaker systems since 1982. The company was formed that year by designer Larry Pexton and has enjoyed steady growth in their market niche. Their original three-piece loudspeaker was a collaboration with Edward M. Long, of "Time-Align" fame, and Ron Wickersham. It was felt that the ideal loudspeaker would have the least cabinet interference, thus the design decision to keep the woofer separate and the midrange/tweeter enclosure small. Triad speakers were selected for inclusion in the Consumer…
Other instruments with mostly midrange energy were similarly impressive. Vocals were pure, smooth, and uncolored. The tonal character of the period instruments on Handel's Water Music (Harmonia Mundi HMU 907010) were reproduced with a realism and palpability that was extraordinary by any standard. In addition to the midrange smoothness, the impression of palpability was heightened by the System Seven's presentation of musical detail. Subtleties of tonal character, low-level information, and fine detail were all presented to the listener. This resulted in an involvement and interest in the…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Satellite/woofer loudspeaker system. Drivers: 5" cone midrange, 1" ferrofluid-cooled, fabric-dome tweeter (satellites), 12" polypropylene-cone woofer in separate enclosure powered by internal 70W amplifier. Frequency response: 140Hz–20kHz ±2dB (satellites), 28Hz–110Hz ±3dB (woofer). Impedance: 8 ohms (satellites), 1000 ohms (speaker-level woofer input), 47k ohms (line-level woofer input). Sensitivity: 88dB 1W/1m (satellites), woofer level control allows matching to any satellites up to sensitivity of 96dB 1W/1m. Power handling: 100W continuous, 300W…
Sidebar 2: Review context
The reference system used to audition the four loudspeakers reviewed here includes the VTL 225W Deluxe monoblock and Krell KSA 200 amplifiers, driven by a Theta DSPro Basic digital processor through the passive Electronic Visionary Systems Stepped Attenuator. The analog front end was a Well-Tempered Turntable and Well-Tempered Arm fitted with a Sumiko Boron vdH cartridge. Phono preamplification was provided by the Precision Audio outboard phono module, connected to the passive attenuator. The phono preamp has enough gain for the moving-coil Sumiko and is able to…
Sidebar 3: Measurements
Fig.1 shows the satellite's impedance magnitude and phase angle. (Note that electrical phase is presented with inductive angles to the bottom of this graph, the opposite of our usual convention.) Since the impedance is generally above 6 ohms, the System Seven should be an easy load for an amplifier to drive. The narrow impedance peak is centered on the frequency that the midrange begins rolling off.
Fig.1 Triad System Seven satellite, electrical impedance (solid) and phase (dashed). (2 ohms/vertical div.)
The System Seven's frequency…
Akeem Olajuwon? Ralph Sampson? Yes, it must be the Twin Towers. No, wait—it's the World Trade Centers!
Such were my thoughts upon first viewing the Altec Bias 550s erect in my living room. So great was the illusion that the dual driver-dirigibles were crowned with two of my toy dinosaurs (that's pronounced "dina-sour" in these parts), suggesting, I hoped, the humanity, humor, and yearning of King Kong's ascent of the Empire State Building—either Fay Wray's or Jessica Lange's version. (Jessica used to live in Santa Fe until just a little while ago—sigh.)
Whoa boy, down to earth—…
Unfortunately, the Altecs as first hooked up displayed abysmal tonal balance, exhibiting an immensely out-of-balance low-frequency heaviness. Thus, I became used to the remote control right off as I strove to even things out. (After running some frequency-response curves, and reporting the results to Altec, it became clear that my pair had been badly misadjusted at the factory before shipment; this report will therefore review two separate pairs, although the second was simply the first pair correctly adjusted.) Here was one of the areas where I feel Altec should have waited a year to study…
What do we get with the speaker thus optimized? On the positive side, I can say that voices, particularly male voices, had astonishing clarity and in-the-room presence, especially at high volume levels. You're not quite aware when listening to other speakers just how anemically a robust male voice is usually presented. At the same time, the male voice does not tread greatly into this speaker's danger area, the below–80Hz range, so there was little excess chestiness.
Female voice, whether classical or popular, was presented with almost as much power, but less grace. The volume levels…
Sidebar: Specifications
Description: Five-way pentamplified moving-coil loudspeaker. Two 10" woven carbon-fiber (WCF) woofers; one each 8" midbass WCF woofer, 6" WCF midrange cone, 2" diamond-deposited polyamide dome, 1" diamond-deposited polyamide dome. Crossover frequencies: 80Hz, 450Hz, 1.5kHz, 4.5kHz. Amplifier powers: 250, 125, 125, 125, 75Wpc. Remote control (within ±6dB limits) of volume, balance, mute (complete), on/off, subwoofer, bass, midrange, high/midrange, high-level controls. Maximum output: 120dB at 2m, 40Hz–20kHz. Sensitivity: 100mV in for 90dB SPL out. Frequency response…
Editor's Note from 1992: This seminal J. Gordon Holt essay on how the art of recording natural sound became compromised in favor of unmusical artificiality for good commercial reasons was originally published in August 1964, in Vol.1 No.8. Though most people these days listen to classical music from CDs, not LPs, in the intervening decades, recording technology has not changed for the better as much as one might have hoped. Nevertheless, the days of wretched multimiking excess described by Gordon are past, and it's rare to find the music treated with the lack of respect typical of a mid-'60s…