Triad In-Room Gold LCR Speaker Review (by ErinsAudioCorner)

[sweetchaos]

Price per pair?
Approximately $6600.

Spinorama:

Video review:

Erin's conclusion:

Parting / Random Thoughts​

See video linked above for subjective and objective analysis. But just a couple notes:

The Triad LCR Gold is a good speaker. It’s not bad. It’s not great; at least out of the box. It performs very well in terms of output above about 80Hz and the distortion and compression data both back this up. It doesn’t get low but it wasn’t designed to. It has wide horizontal radiation, extending as much as ±80° up to about 6kHz where there are some effects of diffraction and the 1-inch dome tweeter begins to beam extending to about 30° at ~13kHz.

The “meh” part for me comes in when I consider the non-linearity of the frequency response. The average sensitivity is measured at about 89dB @ 2.83v/1m with about ±3dB deviation. There are some notable non-linearities in response at ~200Hz and ~1kHz that were bothersome in “raw” state in my listening sessions. These contribute to some characteristics that I wasn’t fond of. Notably, the lack of weight of male vocals causing them to sound rather ‘thin’. Another thing that bothered me but is the sharpness of sibilance right around 4-5kHz which shows up in the data as well. The dip around 1kHz wasn’t something that was immediately noticeable but once I applied some EQ to this area (Graphic EQ at 1kHz, +2dB) the result was a more “thick” male vocal. This, combined with the dip around 200Hz both made male vocals sound rather dale. Luckily, these can be equalized to provide smoother response due to the linear directivity. You’ll just need to make sure you have the ‘headroom’ in your equalization/amplifier path.

At about $3300/each ($6600/pair), the very first thing that came to my mind as a contender was the Arendal 1961 Tower speaker. The Arendal has similar performance in output capability (i.e., distortion and compression), better on-axis linearity and, at $1699/pair, is less than half the price of a pair of the Triad speakers. It is worthwhile to note the one thing that these Triads sync with better to my personal tastes: radiation width. The Triads - which use a dome tweeter on a flat baffle - have a average horizontal radiation width of about ±70° on average which is much closer to my subjective preference compared to the Arendal’s ±40° thanks to their waveguided design. This provides more room interaction which I find pleasant and yields a typically wider soundstage at the expense of pinpoint imaging. Tradeoffs.

Link to Erin's review:

Triad In-Room Gold LCR Speaker Review

Triad In-Room Gold LCR Review

www.erinsaudiocorner.com

 

[Jon AA]

Man, that tweeter needs a waveguide.

 

[mj30250]

This seems like it would at least be a pretty decent HT speaker with some EQ and subs (obviously).

But, $3300...a piece? Why?

 

[Atmosphered]

This seems like it would at least be a pretty decent HT speaker with some EQ and subs (obviously).

But, $3300...a piece? Why?

These are sold by AV integration dealers, so there is a middleman profit margin built-in. They are also hand built in the U.S., so I would assume Triad is not hiring, in essence, indentured servants to craft their products on the cheap.

 

[Datec]

I have those in a 7.1 HT bought those new a while ago. I talked to Amirm about sending one for him to test but the $210 one way shipping was a little to harsh. I'm glad to see someone did have theirs tested cause I was very curious how they measured and what they would think of the performance.
I don't agree with the sharpness at the upper freq I have never experienced that at all. In fact I would say they are a little to laid back (for me anyway) for exciting dynamic movie scenes. I have heard other speakers that have more dynamic detail for less money some for way less money. As for the mids they do sound very good IMO and do crank to ear bleeding levels without breaking up. They play clean but that might be due in part to the mild almost smooth sound signature. They do have detail but just need more dynamic detail (sparkle) in the upper freq to be (IMO) a high end HT speaker. For some people that sound is what they want but for me it has been an endless exchange of equipment, wires and inner connects trying to get them to where I think they should be and nothing really made that big of a change.

As for a wave guide for the tweeter comment I really don't think that would do anything. I would have liked to see him take it apart to see what the crossover consists of and what if anything could be improved, mabey something there could help but that's not in my wheelhouse to figure out not to mention you really shouldn't have to reengineer their design. At that point you should just buy new speakers.

 

[Atmosphered]

I have those in a 7.1 HT bought those new a while ago. I talked to Amirm about sending one for him to test but the $210 one way shipping was a little to harsh. I'm glad to see someone did have theirs tested cause I was very curious how they measured and what they would think of the performance.
I don't agree with the sharpness at the upper freq I have never experienced that at all. In fact I would say they are a little to laid back (for me anyway) for exciting dynamic movie scenes. I have heard other speakers that have more dynamic detail for less money some for way less money. As for the mids they do sound very good IMO and do crank to ear bleeding levels without breaking up. They play clean but that might be due in part to the mild almost smooth sound signature. They do have detail but just need more dynamic detail (sparkle) in the upper freq to be (IMO) a high end HT speaker. For some people that sound is what they want but for me it has been an endless exchange of equipment, wires and inner connects trying to get them to where I think they should be and nothing really made that big of a change.

As for a wave guide for the tweeter comment I really don't think that would do anything. I would have liked to see him take it apart to see what the crossover consists of and what if anything could be improved, mabey something there could help but that's not in my wheelhouse to figure out not to mention you really shouldn't have to reengineer their design. At that point you should just buy new speakers.

A waveguide would have narrowed the tweeter's dispersion. Some people like a somewhat wider apparent soundstage. There are compromises in most any speaker design. It's which ones you can live with.

 

[AnalogSteph]

You wouldn't need very much of a waveguide, just enough to alleviate the issues around 5 kHz. It would even be widening dispersion further up.

 

[Datec]

You wouldn't need very much of a waveguide, just enough to alleviate the issues around 5 kHz. It would even be widening dispersion further up.

What issues at 5khz?

 

[Curvature]

What issues at 5khz?

There's a directivity error at 5Khz.

Triad In-Room Gold LCR Speaker Review

Triad In-Room Gold LCR Review

www.erinsaudiocorner.com

See where the lines touch?

 

[Datec]

There's a directivity error at 5Khz.

Triad In-Room Gold LCR Speaker Review

Triad In-Room Gold LCR Review

www.erinsaudiocorner.com

See where the lines touch?

Yes I do but I'm not sure what that intails. I know he said he had a slight issue with treble in that area but my system in my room has never sounded remotely bright or gave me issues and I have had them for quit a while and watched a ton of movies thru them. In fact I feel they are kind of lacking in that area and need to present more detail with a little bit more help in the upper frequencies.

 

[Datec]

I know everyone likes to see things tore apart to see what makes them tick. Well I took one of mine apart to see what's inside. They are very heavily braced inside, the tweeter and mid is in its own box and everything is heavily glued. 1 Pic is the tweeter other Pic is the mid.

 

[Datec]

Bracing behind woofer.

 

[Datec]

Woofer.

 

[Datec]

Cross over.

 

[Datec]

Not sure what all this crap is.

 

[Datec]

This is how thick the cabinet is.

 

[Datec]

Mabey those with far more knowledge with what makes a speaker tick and sound the way they do can shed some knowledge on what improvements could be made to improve their sound. Not that I'm gonna modify these just curious what you might do and what improvements could be had. These are not cheep $$ like it has been stated but for me they need more upper frequencies dynamics. I bought these brand new for those wondering and always ran with quality power Bryston 6b sst.

 

[dfuller]

Yes I do but I'm not sure what that intails. I know he said he had a slight issue with treble in that area but my system in my room has never sounded remotely bright or gave me issues and I have had them for quit a while and watched a ton of movies thru them. In fact I feel they are kind of lacking in that area and need to present more detail with a little bit more help in the upper frequencies.

More or less - it means the reflected sound is not going to sound the same as the on-axis sound. This is less than amazing for a variety of reasons.

 

[moonlight rainbow dream]

These look like they would greatly improve with EQ. Have you tried that yet? The components are of very high quality, but the execution of the crossover design is quite off. It doesn't give you the smooth frequency response you would expect from the pedigree of the drivers used. The small directivity error could probably be fixed by lowering the crossover frequency between the mid and tweeter.

As for "more upper frequencies dynamics".. toe these speakers in directly at your listening position, if they aren't already.

 

[Datec]

I have calibrated using Multi-x but haven't had much time to really tweak the curves enough except to make them sound worse so went back to where Audyssey had it. As for toe in yes they are toed in and we sit 20ft back from the front LCR because they are in a multi task living room.