Tower Speaker Reviews

I gave these speakers a listen in a high end store connected to high end equipment. I was not impressed at all by these speakers as the mid-bass to bass crossover was very pronounced. Mr. Gross has some work to do but I believe he will eventually get it right. I think most expert reviews so far have given in to the hype and are still riding the coattails of Mr. Gross' legacy.

I spent about 6 hours over the past two days trying to fall in love with these speakers after all the rave reviews. After the first 5 minutes, one of the repair techs in the showroom asked what I thought and I said, "loved it on the first piece, couldn't find the singer on the second."

I then spent another few hours listening that day and came back with different recordings the next. After all that time, I can say that for string music (guitar or orchestral strings), I LOVED the Towers. Percussion instruments in any genre are particularly exciting too. Cymbals and high-dynamic hits are present, but aren't pronounced like so many bright speakers.

So here's the problem. Vocals were muddy in choral music (relative to other speakers in the showroom costing less, the same, more and MUCH more), and solo vocals were poorly imaged. Great speakers can make you think you have a center channel where none exits. That makes solo piano a particular challenge for speakers that don't image well. These speakers created a massive soundstage and almost made the walls of the room disappear, but regardless of the source material (Chesky to local bands demo CDs), solo performers on any instrument that could be easily placed in the middle of the soundstage on 3 or 4 other speakers were just not centered on the Towers. Leaning left and right totally altered the sound of the system.

We towed them in more, less, moved them around the room, I moved myself around the room. . . I tried everything to hear what the reviewers call $2500 speakers that sound like $10k - $25k. Side by side with a $10-$25 B&W system in the room, I can attest to the fact that for my ears, they aren't anywhere near that price point.

I also think that people forget that they have 2 powered subs in them. To say that this is two channel music but a 2.1 system is blasphemy is true audiophile ridiculousness. Comparing these to any system without 8-10 inch woofers seems dumb to me. They can't compare in the low end at that point. Adding a high quality matching sub to a nice pair of main speakers will open the soundstage, it will give more depth to the tubas, cellos, string and electric basses, etc. All that said, if you don't have the money for a sub or don't already own one, then these might be a huge financial win for you.

For the right listener, they're probably worth $5k, but for people who don't have all year to work on placement or anyone with a widely diverse collection, I'd highly recommend a demo. Do not buy these without hearing them compared to other speakers in the same room. I would have been sold after the first song, but am thankful I listened to a second, third and fourth!

We all have different ears, so I just wanted to say that for my ears as a huge music enthusiast, but non-audiophile, they were great speakers, but only 50% of the time. Go and listen yourself.

I think the reviews accurately describe what these speakers are capable of. I don't think there are any speaker brands out there right now(that i know of) that can compete with the sound or build quality of the Tritons in the same price range. I purchased the Aon 3's a few weeks ago and am elated with how well they've handled every form of content I've thrown at them. Everything from classical music to Terminator 2 on Bluray. Wish I had the room for the Tritons. Mr.Gross did his homework as far as I'm concerned.

Darryl, I really enjoyed reading your review. I don't understand the GoldenEar's logic on this system - you have some monster tower speakers paired with a center channel designed for wall mounting. You said the gripe was a small one but I completely agree with you in wanting a "beefier" center. Have you heard or read of any plans for the company to come out with a true match for the critically acclaimed Triton towers?

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Thanks. I ended up calling GoldenEar directly. It was explained to me that if the center is setup correctly, with the HPF set at 120 HZ and set to "small", then the SuperSat 50c will keep up with the towers just fine. Keeping the crossover at this point will create a "phantom" sub for the center channel which makes sense. Cari Uang Lewat Ekiosku.com I look forward to giving these a shot!

Any one around $1000

After all the glowing reviews I called Golden Ear with some questions and spoke with Mr. Gross himself. After specifying I wanted a speaker for two channel music he recommended I listen to the Triton 5's and 2's. My local dealer had both to sample so I decided to head over.

When first listening to the 5's I was wowed. The 5's seemingly had everything going for them and the clarity from the ribbon tweeters was amazing. Unfortunately the salesman failed to realize at first that he had a powered a sub on and then turned it off. Immediately all the bass disappeared and I was shocked at how hollow and lean the five sounded. There was virtually no bottom end. I then tried the Triton 2's and the bass and soundstage was full and impressive, but two things were deal breakers for me. First, the vocals sounded a bit recessed and weren't as forward as I would of liked them to be. Second, the highs on the 2's seemed a bit recessed when compared to the sweeter sounding 5 model. I even called back Mr. Gross who verified that the 2 and 5 were 'voiced differently.'

While I found Golden Ear to make some really good speakers that do some things exceptionally well, I personally didn't find them amazing or comparable to other more expensive speakers that many give a better overall presentation.