Ha ha… Cool picture of happy audiophile(s)
Interesting to hear, that you had the One before T Ref. Was that the One, or the One R? And what difference in sound do you hear?
Golden Ear - Triton (closer to the) Reference
- Thread starter MortenB
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Interesting to hear, that you had the One before T Ref. Was that the One, or the One R? And what difference in sound do you hear?MortenGood that you have opened the cabinet. I can write forever and never get a point across. I was at a point where I would stop posting in the thread, as I have explained the process to the best of my abilities (in a second language). The rest is up to you guys.
Seeing things for yourself is much better.
Maybe you can find solutions I could not. Excellent. It seems you don’t mind modifying the cabinets by drilling new holes etc, and this for sure opens up possibilities, for instance installing the new cross over up behind the mid-woofers as mentioned above. I wanted a solution without external modifications to the cabinets, and that limits the options.
OK, now I understand your idea. That will work for sure, but there will be longer wiring, more connectors in the signal path and a not reverible modification to the ‘’back plate’’ (unless you make a new one of course). For me both the exterior modification, and the extra wire and connectors in the signal path is something I would never do as it will compromise sound. But that’s just me… Very cool set-up though for comparing the original and the new
And yes, you would need to disconnect the input to the DSP board from the speaker terminals, and use the RCA for input to the active bass system instead. My system is super minimalistic: A turntable and two boxes from Thöress in Germany. No preamp out possibility in this system, so for me one of the great thing with these speakers is, that the internal DSP + amp can run from the signal on the speaker terminals.
You have the patience of a God!
Best HigherSound
More than subtle improvements: Better details and overall transparency , mids and upper mids more forward, silkier highs; Better imaging, deeper depth. And yet, still very much the same. Worth of every penny, though we liked so much the Ones, too.Ha ha… Cool picture of happy audiophile(s)
Thank you Mikka. This must be the One, and not the One R? I’m asking as I understand the One R and the T Ref should be quite close in sound, but so far the T Ref is the only Golden Ears I have heard.
Correct, the Ones, not the One.R.
Acquired mine quite early 2016...first pair here. Unfortunately never had chance to hear One.R:s. I understood they're very close to TRefs.
Sad if the new owners of the GE discontinues the Ref line with no successor as it looks.
Sandy Gross got the concept right, high performance vs price ie value. GE had an amazing engineering team to make it realized at this price point.
According to the Danish dealer where I bought my (now discontinued) T Ref, there will be a new top model out soon. It will replace both the T Ref and the One R.
Basically a bigger brother to the T66 model.
Basically a bigger brother to the T66 model.
I understood the same. It is sad that Sandy Gross will not be part of the development anymore. Also GoldenEar is sold (again) from The Quest Group (AudioQuest) to PML.
I find the looks of the T66 very nice. Especially the feet are a major improvement.
I find the looks of the T66 very nice. Especially the feet are a major improvement.
Interesting, good to know.
T66 like pedestal/feet, bi-wiring, fashionable colors...what else do we wish or expect?
Re T66, our dealer told, when compared side-by-side to One.Refs, 2/3s who heard both, preferred One.Refs....unscientific statistics.
Not heard them myself.
Hope new owners of the GE would not let to compromise quality over making more profit to investors. Also i'm curious to see how the tariffs will hit in the States, which is the main market. This may have an impact where GE will source manufacturing.
When talking about TRef's feet/pedestial - is anyone using IsoAcoustics Gaia or similar. Any impact on perceived sound?
From what I heard the new top model will be around 30% more exensive, than the T Ref, and what they say is, that the money goes into improving quality: The better metal base, better internal wiring etc etc… But who knows, what the strategy will be under the new ownership.
It interesting with Sandy Gross who has been working in the speaker industry for around 40 years or so, but he is not a speaker designer as such (his own words in interviews etc). He defines the concept, the goal etc, and his team of engineers does the cross over design and more. So if the new owner keep the skilled and experienced engineers, they should be able to develop new models - as they did with the T66 where Sandy Gross was not involved.
An intersting thing with the T66: I read the Stereophile review, where the new designers who came after Sandy Gross talks about where they have spend the money after lifting the price point. Notice the text from the review I have highlighted where the mention the cross over and getting rid of ferrous parts. I was exited thinking they god rid of those really nasty ferrous core coils on the mid-woofers, that would for sure be an important improvement… But then… Somewhere online I found this picture of the T66 crossover, and the ferrous core coils are still there. Terrible… What they have improved is the connectors for the wiring, and they added small bypass caps (small red ones next to the yellow caps). So still A LOT of room for improvement, and that’s what we do here with the new cross over.
It interesting with Sandy Gross who has been working in the speaker industry for around 40 years or so, but he is not a speaker designer as such (his own words in interviews etc). He defines the concept, the goal etc, and his team of engineers does the cross over design and more. So if the new owner keep the skilled and experienced engineers, they should be able to develop new models - as they did with the T66 where Sandy Gross was not involved.
An intersting thing with the T66: I read the Stereophile review, where the new designers who came after Sandy Gross talks about where they have spend the money after lifting the price point. Notice the text from the review I have highlighted where the mention the cross over and getting rid of ferrous parts. I was exited thinking they god rid of those really nasty ferrous core coils on the mid-woofers, that would for sure be an important improvement… But then… Somewhere online I found this picture of the T66 crossover, and the ferrous core coils are still there. Terrible… What they have improved is the connectors for the wiring, and they added small bypass caps (small red ones next to the yellow caps). So still A LOT of room for improvement, and that’s what we do here with the new cross over.
GoldenEar Technology T66 loudspeaker
Loudspeaker company GoldenEar Technology was founded in 2010 by audio industry veteran Sandy Gross after he left Definitive Technology. With a design team based in Canada that included Martyn Miller, who is still GoldenEar's senior acoustic engineer, GoldenEar produced a series of relatively...
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I’m too much of an engineer (bacground in electronics, specialized in audio from 30-40 years back, but no longer work professionally in this field). With my ‘’engineer mindset’’ I will never spend serious money on something like feet. I’m happy to spend serious money getting rid of the ferrous core coils in the cross over etc etc, but not feet. Also, the more you lift the speaker, the higher off the floor the tweeter level will be = you must tilt the speakers forward, and to me this looks really wierd, like they are about to fall over.
As mentioned by Markuzz earlier, I also think the best we can do is to design a new base/foot for the speaker, that has a wider footprint making it more stable. The challenge is to make something that works better than the original, without messing up the industrial design.
Someone has said Music is Art, Audio is engineering.
I'll throw in another one: art can be forgotten, beauty must be realized
I also have some issues on spending relative large amounts on (de)coupling loudspeakers. I made an investment on my previous diy horn loaded loudspeakers, by putting them om Townshend Seismic Podia. The Townshend's ensure a full decoupling of the loudspeaker from its underground..... also acoustic 'cross talk' is brought back to a minimum. The results were nothing short of astonishing. But the result was very depending on the material of the floor. For instance, on wooden floors the impact was huge and on concrete the impact was less. In any case, this experience made me less reluctant to invest in a good base.
Morten has a good point on the height of the tweeter. It should not change too much. On the other hand, the included spikes with the Tref's also lift the speakers slightly, so there is some room.
Circling back to this topic, here is a subjective review on the differences between the Reference and the One:
Audiogon Discussion Forum
I’ve now had my Goldenear Triton Reference speakers for over week and, having put about 25 hours of active listening and 75+ hours of burn-in, I figured...
forum.audiogon.com
The thread becomes a little sour, and even Sandy had to step in. So it is an interesting read
I fully accept many of these things actually work, especially ‘’mecanical ones’’ like you mention here. Some of them have serious engineering behind them. It’s just hard for me to spend money on that kind of stuff - and that’s also my limitation.
A few of my ‘’audio buddies’’ have seriously expensive systems, and have spend maybe 50.000 - 100.000 Euro/USD on footers, cable risers, cables, crystals and other ‘’devises’’. When they visit me, they always feel my system is not optimized, not showing full potential, because for them we don’t have full potential before implementing all these ‘’devises’’ costing more than a new car. They feel I leave a lot on the table. One of them almost got angry with me seeing my Thöress electronics on an old piece of furniture with rattling sliding doors etc. Others who visit me has heard the other guys system, and when visiting me they ofte say stuff like: Finally a system that about the music, and not ‘’hifi optimized’’ where the music is lost.
I don’t know…
Circling back to this topic, here is a subjective review on the differences between the Reference and the One:
Audiogon Discussion Forum
I’ve now had my Goldenear Triton Reference speakers for over week and, having put about 25 hours of active listening and 75+ hours of burn-in, I figured...forum.audiogon.com
The thread becomes a little sour, and even Sandy had to step in. So it is an interesting read
Thanks, Audiogon's discussion was new to me. I concur original posters' review very much the same, though having different background of speakers, Mirage M1s late 80's early 90', Dunlavy SC-IV and IVa s early 2000's, then Audiophysics late 2000's until the One in 2016 and TRef last year. All of them had pro's and cons.
As an overall performer i only loved Dunlavy SC-IVs with its limitations (bass extension), fell love again on the One and went insane after TRef.
Yes, there's always question about price of diminishing returns. Ours though, were no-brainers as discounted.
And yet, there are enthusiasts - even on this forum- who are happy to pay 6-figure on theirs and that's perfectly ok.
Yes.... don't we all know those audio buddies with their 'folder wisdom' that listen to sound instead of music
I do however know that not all is snake oil. For instance, cables are not just conducting electricity and acoustics do make a big difference in the listening experience. In my experience, it mostly comes down to system matching. If components work together in harmony (and according to taste) you are golden.
Would love to hear Thöress one day. Not aware there's any here in far North.
Which reminds me that Tritons are very sensitive with the gear. Even they are easy load for an amp, but they're also very revealing. With bad recordings cannot say they are forgiving. At all.
I don't know many ultra high-end hobbyists with 6-figure gear, but have noted more expensive gear one has, less interested are they going to live concerts, especially classical. Would wish just in order to calibrate ears. That would put things in perspective. But that too is ok, this is just a hobby.
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Thöress is the best gear I have ever owned. It’s insanely transparent, and at the same time very natural sounding, and on top of that Reinhard Thöress is such a nice person. Check this review of the EHT Integrated and read the white paper if interested. Also you’re more than welcome to visit and listen to upgraded T Ref’s with Thöress gear
Gramophone Dreams #77: Laissez-faire Listening & the Thöress EHT MKII integrated amplifier
With a system like this, Thoreau would never have gone into the woods to begin with.
www.stereophile.com
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