Loudspeakers

GoldenEar quotes 92dB sensitivity for the Triton One.R and, on the face of it, our measurements confirm that, with 91.6dB SPL at 1m recorded for pink noise input at 2.83Vrms. But a glimpse at the on-axis frequency response [see Graph 1, below], measured at 1m on the tweeter axis, shows that the One.R has rising output above 5kHz, which inflates the sensitivity – hence our 'music' figure being 1dB lower. The rising treble can be countered by toeing the speakers out and listening a little off-axis – firing the One.Rs straight down the room – but the effective sensitivity then will be more like 90dB. Because of that rising treble, response errors are rather high at ±4.2dB and ±5.2dB for the pair but prior to the uptilted treble the errors are a tight ±2dB, with only a mild presence band suckout. Over the same 200Hz-20kHz frequency range, pair matching error is a little high too at ±1.3dB but this is mostly due to disparities in the high treble. Below 14kHz it drops to a creditable ±0.8dB.

Although GoldenEar uses the meaningless phrase '8 ohms compatible' to describe the One.R's impedance, this is a 4ohm loudspeaker – at a push. We measured a minimum modulus of 2.9ohm and a minimum EPDR of 1.3ohm at 92Hz, with further dips to 1.6ohm at 219Hz and 2.0ohm at 584Hz. So the One.R is a tough loudspeaker to drive, despite its powered bass section. Talking of which, I was unable to record a bass extension figure because nearfield measurements of the forward-firing drivers and side-mounted ABRs all displayed peaks at about 25Hz and 72Hz with a pronounced 'saddle' in between. The CSD waterfall [see Graph 2] shows some treble resonances, suppressed here because of the rising treble. KH