triangle Borea BR03 Hi-Fi Bookshelf Speakers (Black Ash, Pair)
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r.gillespie
> 3 dayI really like these speakers for Jazz, Folk, Acoustic etc....I do not enjoy loud hard rock through them...just not their thing. But if you appreciate tonality, these little guys have it for miles. Mine are partnered with two SVS Pro SB1000s.
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Richard
> 3 dayDecent fidelity for the size. I am unable to place them 20 from the back wall as I think was recommended (despite the fact that the bass ports are in the front of the speakers). Mine are only about 10 from the back wall. In my opinion, the bass is a bit prominent (but muffled) for accuracy (comparing to my Sony MDR-V6 headphones, which are said to be VERY accurate). The treble seems good. Piano sounds excellent on these speakers. Overall, I am pleased, considering the small size and placement in my small area. Not surprisingly, they sound a bit better with the grill removed. I will add that break-in seemed to improve things only a bit.
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Customer #1020000333
> 3 dayReceived these 4ohm speakers today. Mated with a Krell s300i stereo amplifier with 300 watts driving each speaker. These nicely built speakers sounded very good right out of the box with separation and soundstage. Bass should be just fine for most. Itll be interesting to hear after 100 hours or so. Im impressed.
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Story Angel
> 3 dayI own pairs of each of these: ELAC Uni-Fi UB5 Klipsch RP-600M ELAC Debut B6.2 ELAC Debut B6 Theyre all AMAZING speakers that sound fabulous at twice, three times, and even five times their price tags. None of them is anything less than superlative. Indeed, reviewers have run out of superlatives to bestow on all of them. The original Debut B6 is the all-time, possibly never to be dethroned, bang-for-the-buck audiophile speakers. If you dont have at least one pair of them, you havent lived, my friend! For $279, they simply turned Hi-Fi upside down, utterly reshuffling peoples expectations for affordable speakers. They were easygoing. Laid back. Powerful in the lower octaves. They make every recording sound great regardless of source material or amplifier. Im still speechless at what they did for THAT kind of money. It made EVERY other speaker company up their game. Dramatically. We owe a LOT to those speakers. The B6.2 had a bit more grown up sound. Simple as that. Lots of goodness there, and a bit more classy. And easier to put closer to the front wall because of the front port. The Uni-Fi UB5 brought affordable Hi-Fi to a whole nother level again. A true 3-way speaker with a coherence and holographic soundstage that leaves you breathless. Just make sure you have a GOOD, powerful, high-current amp to drive them, as theyre not sensitive, and theyre 4 ohm speakers on top of that. Theyre a glass of Châteauneuf-du- Pape, for ones who appreciate perfection and class. They never put a foot wrong. They point their pinkies. Theyre accurate. They have a pinpoint accuracy in the soundstage. But it takes a LOT of clean power to get them to drop the classy act and just light the place up, which theyll do if you ask nicely. And give them gifts. Known as high-wattage amplification. You dont get the most beautiful date to settle for beer and McDonalds, nor can you feed that to these speakers and get away with it. Bring out the Porsche, the medium rare filet mignon, and a Vega Sicilia 1989, and youre golden. (You also get rewarded with ludicrously low, detailed, and powerful bass.) The RP-600M killed all the preconceived notions that horn speakers are shouty and harsh. Good GRIEF, did they ever! And they did it with ANY amplifier. And they are always ready to have FUN. So engaging, refined, and...LOUD. Not very much bass, but did I mention that theyre fun? Id say theyre a really fine tequila. No salt or lime (or courage) needed. Plenty of flavor. Very effective. Lovely to sip in small amounts. But its ALWAYS ready to join you for five more shots, get crazy, trash the hotel room, and jump from the balcony into the pool WHENEVER you say the word. (In an experiment, I ran just the pair of them in my theater room, which is 35x15 feet. I set them on top of my main towers, told nobody that it was ONLY them playing, and they practically flexed the windows with output. Nobody believed me when I told them that I was only running a pair of bookshelves, until they walked over to them. Stunning. Ludicrous. FUN.) Enter the Triangle BR03. Put simply, its basically ALL of the best attributes of the others, but with little no none of the drawbacks. It makes recordings bring you to tears if theyre great, but doesnt punish you for bad recordings. Its presentation of the soundstage is in front of the speakers rather than at or behind them (but not as far forward as the Klipsch), and startlingly real. Its almost creepy. Like you can reach out and touch it-kind of realism. Not quiiiiite as shockingly real as the ELAC UB5, but close enough. Its got class in spades, AND it can party like a rock star. It can play as loud as you want, and it doesnt demand fancy components. There are 2 caveats. To wit: 1) A new pair of loafers needs to soften and mold to your feet. The engine on a new Audi RS7 needs the right number of revs for the right period of time, in order to have all the moving parts get bedded in and seated in their permanent operational positions. A new house needs furniture, beds, and pictures on the walls (and time) for it to feel like home. These arent imaginary concepts. These arent magical, esoteric fairy tales. These are facts. The same is true of the moving parts of a speaker. Trying to reduce it to mere test numbers on a graph doesnt measure what your ears tell you. So, back to the BR03. Right out of the box, they are BRIGHT BRIGHT BRIGHT, and the bass is merely good. This is not only fine; its also as normal as can be. Put on some good source material with plenty of vocals and cymbals for the mids and highs, crank it up, and give them 2 or 3 hours of a good workout. No, you dont need 100 hours. Yes, theyll continue to sound better, warmer, fuller, and less brassy the longer you play them, but 2 or 3 hours of loud-ish vocals and percussion will get them to open up to where you can get the proper idea of how these sound. This brings the brightness down to a still airy, but revealing and beautiful level...and it sends the bass into the stratosphere. I turn off my subs for music listening, and I had to go check the power switches on my subs. TWICE. Its ludicrous what these speakers can do down low. Youll be dumbstruck. That, or youll laugh like a right bloody idiot. Or both. For the woofers, instead of playing bass-heavy music that I find disgusting and repugnant, I skipped the middle man, and I dialed up a test tone of 25 Hz, turned the volume DOWN, then slowly adjusted it to where the woofer cone was giving me about 8-10mm of excursion, and MOST CERTAINLY NOT bottoming out nor making ANY type of untoward noise. I did this five times, at one minute each time. Again: DO NOT do this at high volumes. The result? Ooooooooh MAN. So very, VERY sweet. And POWERFUL. So DO NOT judge them on the very first notes that come out of them. Even just half an hour makes a difference. The first full week you have them, theyll transform from great to AMAZING. 2) Play with the placement. If you do it correctly, youll have a perfect sweet spot that spans the entire sofa (not just the middle seat), and the best part is that THE SPEAKERS WILL COMPLETELY DISAPPEAR. You wont be able to discern ANY sound coming from either of them. Ill tell you how I achieved that. Ive got two wonderful children, so I HAD TO put them on actual bookshelves, right up against the front wall. Everybody will tell you that this is the wrong place to put your speakers. And they would be right. Generally speaking, your speakers are at the front of the soundstage and the front wall is the back of it. Spatially, thats how it sounds. In a perfect world, you should have these on stands, roughly 2 to 3 feet out from the wall. But I couldnt do that. Also, the bass gets radically stronger the closer they are to the front wall. These are so bass-rich, it might be too much for some people. You can fix that with a little bit of EQ. I myself dont mind at all. The key to this all...is toe-in. I learned from The Legend himself, Mr. John Strohbeen (and from New Record Day on YouTube, which has a speaker placement and soundstage tutorial that is amazing) that you can make a HUGE, wide sweet spot where the speakers vanish and all you hear is music happening in your room...with some radical amounts of toe-in angle. So Ill make this quick and easy: put your speakers 9-12 feet apart, and angle them in at 45 degrees. Yes. You read that correctly: 45 degrees. First, try your speakers firing straight out into the room. Theyll sound great, but the sweet spot will be in only one seating position, and youll likely still hear sound coming from the speakers. But angle them in at 45 degrees, and hold on to your hat, because itll be blown off. Along with your brain. So buy a pair. Let them get a little exercise. Warm them up, so to speak. Then set them up correctly, put on Jennifer Warnes Famous Blue Raincoat or Lyle Lovett Joshua Judges Ruth, and be amazed. Believe the hype. Today, in September of 2020, these are the best affordable speakers on the market. p.s. If you want one of the single best system tweaks I have EVER found, get a vacuum tube preamp. But not just any. Get the Schiit Vali 2+. And get an Electro Harmonix 6922 tube, or a Sovtek 6n1p, right here on Amazon, for less than $30. Theyre dual triode tubes, and most everybody finds them to be THE best way of getting a positively MONSTROUS soundstage in width, height, and depth, or razor-sharp stereo imaging. In short, you get thousands of dollars of genuine single-ended-triode tube sound out of your existing amplifier. For next to nothing. Genius. Hope this helps!
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D.A.W.
> 3 dayThis speaker is not decent in bass response without some EQ or a sub. Thats disappointing given its size. Otherwise its okay. I do think the Elac Reference speaker out shines this Triangle offering for about the same money. Want to sample? buy this speaker on the promise of a return if dissatisfied. For some setups it could shine like a diamond. Sadly, not so for me. I find it lacks just too much in the bottom end for classical & jazz music without help from a sub. Good build quality and stylish drivers. Perhaps nice for a second hi fi setup with casual use.
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Justin K.
> 3 dayIve owned speakers that cost 10 times more than these (Paradigm Signature S2 V3), and while the much more expensive ones were better, it wasnt by a great margin. It blows my mind that these are selling for about $300. Their original MSRP was around $600, and they were a steal at that price. These sound fantastic. The bass is detailed and actually reveals texture and tone that most speakers obscure. The midrange is open and revealing. Music with several layers of instruments can be peeled back if the recording allows. Instrument separation is really good with these speakers. Voices sound incredibly natural. Theres no hint of boxiness or congestion. They reveal so much texture in vocals. Voices like Norah Jones and Don Henley that actually have a lot of subtleties sound superb. The treble, is very sweet and detailed. Cymbals, hi-hats, strings all also reveal a lot of texture. I hate to keep using that word, but nothing is glossed over with these speakers. If its in the mix, youll hear it. The midrange and the treble are a bit forward, but not in a bad way. These are energetic speakers. They are dynamic and lively. Although they are front ported, they do like to be pulled out a bit into the room for the best soundstage and imaging. With the right placement, the soundstage can get wide (beyond the speakers), but never really gets very deep. But vocals and some instruments seem to jump out into the room. So there is good front to back soundstage. But it doest often sound like anything is going on behind the speakers. The only reason I even notice this is because the $3000 Paradigms were so damn good at it. I never get tired of listening to them. In the past, Ive had urges to upgrade equipment, especially speakers. But not with these. The Borea BR03s will keep me happy for a long time.
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stape66
Greater than one weekThis is not an expert review, but these speaker are really good. I started with a little 10 watt tube amp and these speakers sound great. They have a nice sound stage with a little toe in. Real nice mid and treble without being harsh. Bass for me is a little light but that could be my listening environment and low power amp, rather than the speakers(and the are book shelves). Right now I am only able to stream the music, and am excited to get the chance to listen with a larger amp using CDs and vinyl
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Bob G.
> 3 dayI love these speakers. Theses speakers sound great ! Great separation, the instruments never sound muddled. Nice clarity. The mid range is prominent but does not get in the way or overpower, it enhances the listening experience. The treble is smooth, never bright. I am not a bass head and for me the bass is nice, its strong but not over powering. the bass, treble and mid range all blend evenly but each is distinct. I dont think you could find a better sounding or more enjoyable speaker to listen to for $549.00. Adorama shipped them very quickly. I ordered them late on Thursday and they were delivered on Monday morning. Great service. Excellent speakers.
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thewinechairman
> 3 dayOut of the box....these speakers are not only alluring and modern....but they sound great out of the box....no break in time required...full bass...separation of instruments...you hear the details of the recording....over deliver for the price...these are now my favorite speakers...i have klipsch...b&w....and buchardts...I am an audio geek...pull the trigger on these....you will not be disappointed but amazed......a true French gem!!!
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J
> 3 dayI was worried when I first got these that I would need a subwoofer, but with proper placement you dont need a thing! Just hook these bad boys up to your amplifier, sit in the middle of them and enjoy! Incredible sound staging for these size speakers, great detail and not lacking anywhere that I can find! They also look fantastic without the grilles on! Well worth your money if you want something sleek looking and with a fantastic audio quality. Tested on multiple amps and all ranges of volumes, they have yet to fail me in any way. If youre unsure, try them out. Return them if you dont like them, but Im sure you wont! Whether or not you believe burn in ( I dont ) I found that with multiple listening sessions on these guys gave my ears plenty of time to adjust to the treble forward sound. These are extremely detailed and work well with all types of music, from classic to modern rap, these handle it all with ease all while looking great!