Quote: Triangle’s midline Esprit Altea Es has been a runaway success in Europe. If there’s any justice, the speaker will become as popular a destination for American audiophiles and music lovers as the Eiffel Tower is for U.S. tourists.
Our Comments:
Quote: The Altea is a finely finished floorstander that's unusually tolerant about even ridiculously under-powered valve amps where she'll still generate impressive and clean levels. But powerful transistors too are well served and sound very peppy and bursting with vitality. The overall sonic character is clear, lively and full of presence but free of superficial effects. The highs are exceptionally silky and transparent, the mids dynamic and the bass well-balanced and fast without emphasis.
With proper setup, staging is exceptionally spacious and well transcends the borders of the triangular speakers/chair layout. Due to tech specs, actual sonics and spatial traits, I'd recommend Triangle's Altea EX particularly for all live-vibe music. Jazz of all ages, singer-songwriters and high-level Rock or Pop won't ever disappoint and chamber music and symphonics are served as well. To really disappear into a deeply drawn stage merely requires that you not leave the hot seat...
Features:
This is the latest upgraded version of the Altea featuring new drive units derived from those used in the top flight Magellan products. This Altea retains all the drive and dynamics (and more) of its predecessor but with increased balance and detail. 2 1/2 -way floorstanding loudspeaker with a full scale presentation.
An excellent compromise between performance and size. With its 6.5in diameter, its mid-bass driver will assist the bass driver to reproduce their respective frequencies.
Finishes: black or cognac.
Recommended for 215-430sq ft (20-40m2) room.
NZ$2,666.00/pr
incl GST
Original RRP $2,666.00
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h: 1000 mm w: 200 mm d: 355 mm
Reviews
Jochen Reinecke of hifi & stereo magazine fairaudio.de
...these Frenchies admittedly had me enthralled in no time. I didn’t even have to close my eyes to feel transported into a smoky, beer-swilling Jazz bar. took note of clean, harmonically defined bass, colorful warm mids and exceptionally present but not spiky highs. A beer glass toppled at far left and the responsive snare mesh scintillated seductively in the intro. The stage was broad, the venue deep and everything appeared so realistic that I felt compelled to slink about emptying ash trays on the tables. A good start.
The Altea EX remained unfazed, clear and articulate. Higher SPLs did not upset the balance and mids and highs remained clear, not always the case with mid/woofers. The Triangles however did stay the course perfectly.
Altea's dynamic prowess slaps your ears one moment, caresses them the next... [review
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Neil Gader
The speaker’s character is pace-oriented, with a warm yet not overly heavy-handed bass response.
...it was clear that the Altea wasn’t built to be a sedate ride.
Classical and jazz aficionados, take note: Not only is the Altea capable of popping a commode off the bathroom floor, it possesses the microdynamic finesse and low-level resolution to capture details of the recording process itself—the squeaking seats and rustling pages of an orchestra, the clinking glasses in the background of Mary Stallings’ Live at the Village Vanguard [MAXJAZZ].
What lights the fuse of my enthusiasm for the Altea is its overall holistic and balanced approach to music. It emphasizes the totality of the performance, connecting the listener with music on an artistic level rather than a sonically fetishistic one.
The Altea reproduces double basses, trombones, and bassoons with resonant and dimensional physicality and not as mere cardboard cutouts.
The Triangle Esprit Altea Es enters a fiercely competitive field of “gateway” speakers—serious but accessible two-channel designs that open the door to a complementary line of multichannel products. Every manufacturer worth its high-end pedigree is hitting this pricepoint hard, and it’s a tribute to Triangle that I had to continually remind myself that the Altea retails for a modest NZ$2995. The speaker joins a very short list of contenders that sound as if they should cost twice as much. [more]
Paul Messenger
As with other Triangle designs, the real strength here lies in its expressive and dynamic midrange and top end. This is certainly lively and engrossing......
The bass lacks a little warmth and authority....but its timing is good and it's bouncy, quick and generally informative, if somewhat understated. (typical of most French speakers)
Image focus seems pretty good and there's little evidence of enclosure colorations here.....the Altea Ex is always entertaining and involving, with fine voice articulation..... [more]
The Triangle Heyda EX loudspeakers are surround units that have been designed to be used in multi-channel arrays, no matter whether we're talking about Heydas as rear left/right channels or in rear center position. These speakers pack a lot of technology and offer a very good sound, yet sell for affordable prices despite their heritage.
The Triangle Heyda EX are rather small enclosures meant for placement in almost any corner of your home with ease and minimal fuss: you will be able to instantly mount them on walls with the supplies brackets. At the same time, they come with a neat, unobtrusive design that would fit in almost any room décor without further changes being needed. The curved front baffle ensures no diffraction will affect the sound while offering a more noble look as well.
The 2-way sealed enclosures are made from wood with enhanced strutting for less vibrations; the drivers are affixed to the front baffle by means of rings (the bass/midrange) and a small frontplate in the case of the soft-dome tweeter. TheTriangle Heyda EX works with the same impedance as the rest of the EX loudspeakers so matching them with pretty much any amplifier around the house will be a trouble-free task.
These nifty cabinets will fit in almost any home décor as they come in real wood cherry veneer. The front grilles are removable while the performance specs make these loudspeakers a neat choice for a small to medium size room: 60W power handling with 120W max peaks and serious 91dB sensitivity, all in a 100-20,000Hz frequency range.
The GENÈSE range has sprung directly out of the research carried out for the MAGELLAN programme and offers the same main features.
All of the parts used to build products in the GENÈSE line have been thought up and developed by TRIANGLE, from the loudspeaker to the cabinet and including all of the components used for the finish.
Elegant, slender shapes, dictated by technological constraints, mean that the GENÈSE line provides harmonious, easy integration.
A smooth, even listening experience allowing you to enjoy the widest possible variety of musical pleasures.
NZ$2,500.00/pr
incl GST
Original RRP $5,555.00
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h: 1170 mm w: 233 mm d: 372 mm
Reviews
Johnyrs - AudioEnz
After 4 hours listening at Audio Reference in Hamilton and an hour or so at Image listening to some Revelations....then 5 days auditioning at home, we've taken the plunge & bought a pair of Triangle Genese Quartets.Beautiful sound, they fill the room with pure sound and no frequencies particularly pronounced. They remain clear at all volumes and are beautifully made and looking.... just the upgrade we were looking for. [review
link]
HIFI Choice
the Quartet was noteworthy for the sense of true authority that it brought to the party.
Fine dynamic expression, further contributes to the vividness and realism of its musical performance....The bass end is clean, dry and even....it shows decent speed and freedom from overhang....Voices are very communicative....Likewise the top end is clean, incisive and detailed....Imaging and coherence are both thoroughly competentT
The Quartet delivers a fully competitive all round sound quality, but in one notable respect is streets ahead of the pack. Provided the partnering amplifier has good current capability, this speaker has a substantial advantage in loudness. Not only through its higher sensitivity, but also the substantial power handling advantage of its three-way multi-driver array.
A leading French acoustic enclosure manufacturer, Triangle, has been designing, building, and assembling top-of-the-line products for more than 25 years at its plant in Villeneuve Saint-Germain, nestled between Champagne and Ile-de-France, a region that became the birthplace of many a French King. Developed by a team of engineers and technicians, Triangle loudspeaker enclosures are unique products, with each part having been meticulously designed, engineered, and fitted with the unique goal to guarantee future owners a technological and esthetic product in line with their discriminating palates. Triangle’s philosophy is to continually invest in research and development, which together are the driving forces behind the ever-innovative nature of the company and their product lines.
Our Comments:
The Cello is sonically sophisticated, with pace, soundstage and dynamics, more Gallic of charm than the quintessentially American bass buster.
NZ$12,000.00/pr
incl GST
Original RRP $16,666.00
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h: 1140 mm w: 420 mm d: 450 mm
Reviews
Srajan Ebaen
The list of strong suits for the Cello includes articulation, articulation, articulation (the real estate equivalent of location); fantastic decays and hall sound; very well damped 'fast' bass with great pitch definition; and related to it all, a sense of speed. The general sound thus remains of the lively energetic sort. It's deliberately spiked to promote excitement while very high intelligibility contributes to a sense of great visibility
Soundstage lovers into high sorting and exactitude will appreciate the Cello's mastery of that domain and Naimies who cue up a Jazz or Swing record to tap the heel and bop the head should too.
Compared to Burmester's AMTs as repeatedly heard during trade shows for example, Triangle's treble quality is far more silky.
...the Cello is sonically sophisticated, more Gallic of charm than the quintessentially American bass buster.
This is a very dialed and refined speaker from appearance to performance which makes a particularly fine match with powerful 100-watt valve amplifiers endowed with linearity and drive. [review
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Triangle quote re Magellan series:
"A search for the absolute, for a complete, exclusive product, with every detail having been meticulously thought through, each component part having been made from the finest possible raw materials, and resulting in a perfect marriage of technology and esthetics.
An absolute labor of love, with an entire team of men and women putting all of their energies into one single, ambitious goal: to provide future owners of this product with the sensation of witnessing a unique moment in time, time and time again".
Our Comments:
The new Triangle Magellan Concerto SE2 are loudspeakers that will not only deliver you awesome sound quality but also have a most noble look, well-worthy of complementing any interior, whether we're speaking of modern or retro décor.
Tall, slender wood cabinets with a lustrous finish that will enrich any home décor, the whole structure resides on a substantial, neat-looking baseplate with spiked feet for exceptional decoupling from the floor.
Features:
The front foot is independently adjustable for tilting back the unit and thus benefit from a better directivity, and like a cello it also helps dissipate cabinet resonances, a unique Triangle application.
The cabinet sports a bass reflex architecture with massive ports at either ends, with rounded, sculpted baffles for minimal venting noise and a perfect air flow.
The LF response of the Triangle Magellan Concerto comes from a massive array of three 210mm woofers whose response reaches a deep and tight bass at 32Hz, the cones of these woofers sport a sandwich structure made from fiber glass and a cellular layer with critical strength and rigidity for minimal distortions at high pressure levels. The round and fairly large bass reflex port has sculpted baffles for minimal venting noise and a front-firing position allowing placement close to the walls.
The upper section of the loudspeaker's front baffle contains the midrange driver and the tweeter; these two drivers can deploy sound as high as 20kHz, offering very present vocal representation with sparkling clarity and a sonic imaging that will immerse your hearing in a sound field with an amazing, natural feel. Both drivers are carefully developed and manufactured with ultimate precision for minimal distortions and reliable performance with any kind of audio.
Two additional rear firing mid/high drivers also add dimension and depth to the overall soundstage.
The Triangle Magellan Concerto SE2 loudspeakers sport 90dB sensitivity and 4 Ohms impedance with a massive 300W power handling with blasting 600W short-term peaks.
The technologies used by TRIANGLE, from the design stage all the way to the final production of our loudspeakers, have been established in order to provide our client base of music lovers and connoisseurs, a range of products that is consistently innovative and continually delivers the truest and most natural possible sound quality.
This quality is the result of calling on the same cutting-edge design and simulation software tools that are used in the automotive and aerospace industries.
Of course, our commitment to the latest technology does not mean that we have neglected our long-standing tradition of artisanal, hand-crafted design:
- carefully designing the voice coil and hand-assembling our drivers are the roots of our expertise that we could not do without;
- in this same tradition, we still spend many long hours listening to and fine tuning our acoustic enclosures.
A Happy Marriage of Innovative Technologies and Old-World Craftmanship
MAGELLAN series is a product without compromise...
Our Flagship product dedicated to delivering the pinnacle of musical performance required five years of research and development and no fewer than 415 individual pieces of equipment.
The TRIANGLE engineering team set out on the ultimate challenge. Their goal was to demonstrate their know-how and expertise using their own designed processes, while at the same time incorporating the astonishing range of innovations that had allowed them to set new standards in applied technologies. And these innovations have in turn resulted in the company’s ability to offer top quality products at lower costs to our customers. [review
link]
Alvin Gold
I have no hesitation in concluding that the new Concerto is a better, more transparent and wider ranging loudspeaker overall, and certainly among the best in class.
In part perhaps reflecting my own personal prejudices and musical tastes, I see this loudspeaker primarily as a precision tool for the exploration of high-resolution acoustic recordings. High resolution reflects its capabilities, and the fact that it makes greater sense with high-res material, and specifically SACD orchestral and jazz recordings. It has the qualities necessary to succeed with rock and electronic material too, but high resolution is always an advantage with well made recordings, bass definition has been enhanced with extra weight and authority, the mid and treble have improved in quality, and the system appears to be capable of very high SPLs given the space and input power to do so. Plus it looks much better than its already impressive predecessor. [review
link] [more]
The Magellan still probably offers a better focused and sharper image of the music than some of the Utopias.
The Concerto SW2 sounded completely at home and in proportion in the new surroundings, which impressed.
The Concerto SW2 is a powerful and expressive speaker, with enormous reserves of resolving power.
The SW2 a reformed character; it is deeper and fuller. The bass is more extended and muscular, and when it is needed, this speaker knows how to put its foot down to make a point. [more]
Awards
Winner of:
D'OR diapasson Hi-Fi award
HiFi Choice Editiors choice award
Best of HiFi Video Home & Cinema award
Features: 
Jochen Reinecke of hifi & stereo magazine fairaudio.de 
Neil Gader 
Paul Messenger 
Features: 
HIFI Choice 
Features: 
Alvin Gold 