Note that we didnt make a budget pick for powered speakers because we didnt like any of the inexpensive ones we tried. At a minimum frequency of 46 Hz, Borea BR03 will provide an average bass depth so depending on your use case, you may consider supplementing your system with a subwoofer. Style and build quality: If you dont want to throw off your homes feng shui, youll want to ensure your speakers complement the rest of the room theyre in, rather than overpowering it. When we auditioned the Edifier AirPulse A100 for our previous round of tests, it sounded a little better than the Edifier S1000DB (the predecessor of our new powered pick, the S1000MKII), with somewhat clearer treble. The Klipsch R-41PM (which we did not test) is a smaller version of the R-51PM with the same features but a smaller woofer. These could be for you. Despite the use of a relatively large, 6.5-inch woofer, the B652s compact enclosure limited its bass output to an average of 102.2 dB for two speakers from 40 to 63 Hznoticeably below that of any of our other picksalthough this set had fairly decent output of 89.2 dB all the way down to 31.5 Hz. highend666. Create an account to follow your favorite communities and start taking part in conversations. Our panelists liked it pretty well for instrumental music, but found it tended to de-emphasize the sound of voices. O seu design e componentes so inspirados nos desenvolvimentos tecnolgicos de mais de 40 anos da Triangle Hi-fi e beneficiam das inovaes acsticas desenvolvidas na aclamada srie Triangle Esprit Ez. Price: All of the speakers weve chosen are priced at $500 or below for a pair. I'm auditioning both the BR03s and Q150s right now through an Emotiva TA-100 for a desktop nearfield setup. Triangle Borea BR03. I asked him to pick out the speakers playing but he couldn't, they created such a good sound stage. You must log in or register to reply here. My space accentuates bass a little bit, which helps balance the rear ported KEFs that may otherwise be light on bass for some people's tastes. The 3030is are also considered unfussy speakers, which really just means theyll work well with most (budget) amplifiers and wherever in the room you place them. Not surprisingly, the ELAC Debut 2.0 B5.2 set sounded very similar to the larger B6.2 pair (listed in Other bookshelf speakers we like), just with less bass. However, the B6.2 is much larger and sports the plain, vinyl-wrapped black-box look for which speakers are often loathed. 16K views 1 year ago. Unfortunately, in our tests this pair had almost no bass and distorted easily. Our picks in that guide are tailored more for use in a home theater setup, where the speakers dont need as much bass (because the use of a subwoofer is assumed) and high volumes are more common. No worries its an idea of where you "should" be at the end of the day given the quality of the speakers.. You can also often pick these up in good condition used on ebay or similar these days also. Triangle promises it will maintain an inventory of parts for at least 10 years after a product is produced. The other is that the speaker-cable connectors are the cheap spring-clip type, which tend to produce a looser connection than good binding posts dobut for inexpensive spring clips, they keep a pretty firm grip on the speaker cable. I used the output at 1 kHz as the reference for 0 dB. We used a wide variety of music for testing, including Tracy Chapmans Fast Car (found by audio testing experts at Harman International to be the all-around best overall choice for speaker listening tests), Lil Babys Woah, Ccile McLorin Salvants version of Wives and Lovers, and the live version of James Taylors Shower the People digitally dubbed from the Live at the Beacon Theatre DVD. Buy. Digital assistants and smart speakers are all well and good, but sometimes you just want to output your audio the old-fashioned way: through quality speakers. Given you have an AV receiver with dubious power ratings into 6ohm i think the triangles will not be the best idea for it My 607's are on a shelf "alcove" with the wall around 10cm behind and sound great. I demoed the B&W's 607's when I bought my Rega Brio Amp a before lockdown. The build quality on the DBR62 was the most disappointing of the group. The Triangle Borea BR03 has a frequency response of 46Hz - 22kHz with +/-3dB. Cookie Notice The Fluance XL8S pair put out a good amount of bass for its size and price, but voices sounded somewhat thin and harsh. KEF . Press J to jump to the feed. I hear that the Q150s are supposedly even better, despite their smaller profile. 2023 Wirecutter, Inc., A New York Times Company. I would try both at home, then see which speakers you prefer. We cover everything from under-$50 budget speakers up to audiophile-oriented models costing as much as $600 per pair. 1 Home Entertainment Tech Resource. The B652 set isnt handsome, but its surprisingly good for the price, making it perfect for workrooms, kids rooms, and other places where expensive speakers dont make sense. The R-51PM set is especially suitable for use with a TV not only because of its optical digital input, but also because the manual provides codes for programming remotes from DirecTV and RCA satellite receivers and AT&T, Bright House, and Xfinity cable boxes to control the R-51PMs volume and mute functions. By rejecting non-essential cookies, Reddit may still use certain cookies to ensure the proper functionality of our platform. KEF amazon.com. We all hear different. Wirecutter is the product recommendation service from The New York Times. B&W's generally need a fair amount of space to breathe or they become boomy being rear ported. So even though this speaker set seems intended for audiophiles, who tend to prefer acoustic music, its also a great choice for hip-hop, R&B, and electronic music. Suggestions for amp/speaker upgrade: Marantz, Musical Fidelity, KEF, Dali - how does it all fit. If you have a question about a model not discussed here, leave a note in the comments sectionif weve tried that model, well be happy to share our impressions. In addition to our subjective panel testing, we measured each system to get an unbiased second opinion and detect any anomalies. These speakers also had a less attractive finish and were harder to drive than some other models. This is also our runner-up pick in our guide to the best surround-sound speakers for most people. But I reckon these ones will be all right. I liked the look of the black fascia with the Walnut cabinets but the bare metal grill over the tweeter really stood out to me and I felt it would have looked better had it been a flat black or a gloss black instead. Rega Planar 2, Rega Brio, Rega Fono Mk3, IFI Zen Blue 2, Marantz CD6006UK, Dali Opticon 1 Mk II. Best were the 607's and the Dali Menuets but they're 850 and I couldn't justify +2x of the 607's. Klipsch also offers a smaller model with the same inputs and features, the R-41PM; we havent listened to it, but considering that the larger R-51PM could use a bit more bass, we expect wed feel the need for more low end to an even greater extent with the smaller model. The Polk Audio Monitor XT20 comes very close to the performance of the Q Acoustics 3020i, with clear highs and natural-sounding voice reproduction, but its bass sounds slightly boomy and for the price, its looks are rather plain. These Q Acoustics speakers offer excellent sound quality at a great price in a handsome, wood-panelled package. Learn more. Try comparing or getting your ears on other speakers in the same price range as the Q150's like the Triangle Borea BR03, or for your application, the Triangle Borea BR02. The DBR62's have a very wide soundstage and decent bass response for a front slot ported design. See What to look forward to for details. In the decade since its introduction, the Dayton Audio B652 has become synonymous with good super-cheap speaker. Despite its cost-slashed construction and parts, the B652 set manages to sound better than most under-$100-per-pair speakers, with surprisingly clear sonics on male voices (though female singers can sound a bit harsh). Triangle Borea BR03 Review (bookshelf speaker) | Page 2 | Audio Science Review (ASR) Forum WANTED: Happy members who like to discuss audio and other topics related to our interest. The HD3 offers a rich array of features, including aptX HD Bluetooth, a USB digital input, and a front headphone output. The Spektor 2 has the best bass response, is reasonable smooth but not as revealing. Speakers with boosted treble can sound more exciting than the BR03, but to us they dont sound as natural. I will mostly be using them to listen to classical music and watch films at my computer which is in front of a wall. Note that all of these speakers have tone controls that will let you tailor the sound to your liking and that can reduce the sonic differences among them, if youre willing to do a little tweaking. Before conducting listening tests, I broke in each speaker pair for 10 hours with music. The Q150s are renowned for their soundstage. If you want a slightly smaller, more affordable upgrade option than the Triangle Borea BR03: The KEF Q150 bookshelf speaker pair was our previous upgrade pick in this guide because it sounds even clearer and more detailed than the Q Acoustics 3020ibut the Triangle Borea BR03 equals the Q150 in performance while offering roughly double the maximum bass output (10 decibels more). A better comparison may be the Polk L200 vs the KEF R series bookshelf speaker (3-way design). KEF Q150 Compare: 2-way : 86 dB: 8 ohms: 51-28k Hz: Polk ES20 Compare: 2-way : 86 dB: 8 ohms: 41-40k Hz: Frequently Asked Questions about Triangle Borea BR02. The BR08 fairs a little better in this regard. A general standard of what represents a well-designed speaker is one whose output stays within 3 decibels through most of the audio range when measured on-axis, directly in front of the tweeter. The Triangle Borea BR03 is widely considered to be a great Bookshelf Speaker at its $460 budget. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. But thank you for the suggestions. What Triangle has done with the Borea range is ensure that it is very definitely less marmite than some previous offerings from the company. I then moved on to more formal testing, in which I concealed all the speakers behind a sheet of thin, black fabric in my acoustically treated listening room. A good set of passive bookshelf speakers is an investment that will last longer than most other audio gear you can buy today and will never become obsolete. Our journalists combine independent research with (occasionally) over-the-top testing so you can make quick and confident buying decisions. These switchers allowed me to match the levels of all the speakers within 0.5 decibel, using channel-level calibration tones recorded from a Dolby Digital receiver along with an NTi Minilyzer audio analyzer and a Mini SPL measurement microphone set for flat response (that is, no A- or C-weighting). Klipschs R-51PM, which was another pick in our previously separate guide to the best wireless powered bookshelf speakers, is one of the most versatile powered speakers weve encountered because it has almost every type of audio input we can think of, including a phono input for connecting a turntable, a USB input for a computer, an optical digital connection for TVs, Bluetooth, and a standard analog line input. It also has no output to connect a subwoofer, if you want more bass. These are the speakers to do it. The B652s frequency response measurements werent impressive, although any attempt on Dayton Audios part to make them better would almost certainly involve increasing the cost. As lovely as all this sounds. The difference will come down to taste. Sound quality: Arguably the biggest part of picking any speakers, youll want to know that your music or content will sound great when its being played. To our ears, it didnt sound quite as good as the Edifier S1000MKII pair, but our eyes appreciated the R-51PMs more compact form and contemporary look. If you really want bass for a B652-based garage sound system, youd better add an inexpensive subwoofer. On sale, they're hard to beat. Good luck. Following are our impressions of some of the other speakers weve tested for this guide. I'm curious, between the Triangle and L200, which would you keep? Id be interested to hear a comparison between the Triangle Esprit Comte EZ and the Polk Legend L200 as they are more similarly priced to one another and feature the same size drivers. Thanks all for the suggestions. Its a well-tuned system that delivers fuller, more natural sound than almost all of its competitors, and it has more refined (if old-fashioned) looks and sturdier construction than most of them. My Own Devices Audio Channel. The Micca COVO-S is a cute little concentric (tweeter-inside-woofer) speaker set. Sorry, no experience with Triagle speakers you mentioned. Read More. Credit: Triangle Manufacture Electroacoustique These monochrome offerings from Triangle come in both black and white pairs and are pretty sizeable, making a true. Where I'm based (Belgium), the following deals seem best to me (but please let me know if you know of any others): Music stuff - Roksan Kandy KA1-MKIII, Dynaudio DM2/6, REL Strata III, 16.0mm 6181Y Double Insulated Cable (commonly electrical meter tails). If you want smaller active speakers for an office or bedroom where you may not need or want loud volumes and deep bass: Even though the Audioengine HD3 powered speakers measure only 7 inches high, they put out a surprisingly full sound that our listeners liked in previous panel tests. And measuring 8.11 x 12.36 x 14.96 inches, the Borea BR03s are the largest on this list, too. The speakers are also nicely designed for the price, with custom binding posts, magnetically attached grilles, a decor-friendly 10.875-inch height, and nicely rounded corners that resist chipping. Its performance is bound to please practically any listener, and we like the sophisticated, minimalist design, which should suit almost any space. How big is your room? New comments cannot be posted and votes cannot be cast. For example, the BR02 are significantly smaller. The Pioneer DJ DM-50D-BT is the best-sounding pair of computer speakers weve heard in the $200 price range. Copyright 2000-2023 M2N Limited E. & O.E. KEF Q150. Our panelists found it plays deeper than anything else weve tried in the under-$200 price rangealthough its nearly 16 inches high, and its treble response sounds a little soft, so high-frequency instruments like cymbals and bells sound a bit muted. The Edifier S1000MKII is the best affordable powered speaker system weve heardas was its predecessor, the S1000DB, the former top pick in our now-retired guide to the best wireless powered bookshelf speakers. For reference, the lowest note of a standard bass guitar or double bass is E1 at 41.2 Hz, so 40 Hz is deep enough for most rock and jazz recordings. If so, buy both. In the charts below, the flatter the trace is, the more natural the speakers sound. The enclosure uses point-to-point bracing to focus the stereo output, and is available in a series of colours (were quite partial to the walnut version) to ensure it fits with your homes interior design. This subreddit is for the budget minded audiophile that wants to grow out of soundbars, boomboxes, mini systems, portable bluetooth, lifestyle speakers, and PC peripheral branded audio solutions. what amp would you recommend? AVForums.com is owned and operated by M2N Limited, The Polk Alpha AM5 has a more focused and intimate sound that fans of jazz, classical, and acoustic pop may find appealing, but it distorts more with bass-heavy music. $599.99. The right speaker houses the amplifier and inputs, including optical and coaxial digital inputs and two stereo analog inputs. Europe's busiest forums, with independent news and expert reviews, for TVs, Home Cinema, Hi-Fi, Movies, Gaming, Tech and more. ELAC tweaked everything, from the enclosure size to the tweeter to the speaker drivers, and the result is a robust bookshelf speaker that reproduces balanced, if a little too mature, audio. It offers standard speaker-cable connectors to join the speakers, so you can sub in a longer cable if you need it. The binding posts are short, which makes it somewhat challenging to fit in bare speaker wire larger than 14 gauge. The pair I like better depends on my mood and what I'm listening to. Im mentioned in the most popular text on speaker design, Loudspeaker Design Cookbook, and I have written for Voice Coil, the leading trade magazine for the speaker industry. The Triangle Borea BR03 comes with a magnetically attached speaker grille. The R-51PMs audio performance isnt quite as good as that of the Edifier S1000MKII, but the 5.25-inch woofer in this speaker does allow the system to produce a reasonable amount of bass. Triangle Borea BR03 (300 euro) KEF Q150 (360 euro) They would be used for nearfield listening now (desk usage), but hoping to use them in a medium-sized room at some point in the future. The Polk Audio Monitor 40 Series II doesnt sound as natural as the less-expensive Monitor XT20; high-frequency sounds like cymbals and tape hiss are accentuated, and the bass sounds boomy. Is there any of these that should be a clear favourite? Each speakers cabinet is finished in a vinyl wrap that looks far better than the faux wood grain you usually see at this price. Triangle Borea BR03. Just found out another possible problem. Getting your music from the cloud has never been easier. The Kanto YU4 offers a cool design, a phono input, and a reasonable price, but only one of our panelists really liked its sound. KEF Q150. New comments cannot be posted and votes cannot be cast. Copyright 2000-2023 M2N Limited E. & O.E. I'm looking to invest in my first set-up with the current sales. On more mainstream pop recordings in our tests, the 3020i set performed equally impressively, presenting a natural and detailed sound on voices and guitars. I intend to use whatever I pick for a long time, so I may in the future use it in the living room of a small apartment in New York, if this should in any way affect my decision making. The Edifier S1000MKII had excellent measured on-axis frequency response by any standard, but its results were especially good for a speaker in its price range. Particularly for jazz and classical. The system cant pump out low bass, but it doesnt sound thin, eitherand adding a subwoofer is easy, thanks to an analog audio output whose level you control with the HD3s volume knob. If for no other reason the KEFs coaxial setup will image better, especially on a desk.