Triangle Borea BR08 — recessed mids at moderate listening levels, worth keeping?

[fraverfraver]

Hey everyone, looking for some input on whether to keep these or return them.


I've had the BR08s for about 11 days, already past 100 hours of break-in. My amp is a Marantz M1 (100W + 100W @ 8Ω, 125W + 125W @ 4Ω). The issue I'm running into is that vocals and upper mids feel recessed and thin — less body, less presence than my previous speakers (JBL Stage A170 and Dali Oberon 5). Suzanne Vega's Luka is a good example: her voice just sits further back in the mix than I'm used to.

Here's the thing — above 80 dB the body and presence actually come back and the speakers start to make more sense. But my normal listening is 68–73 dB at about 2.5–3 meters, and that's where I'm spending most of my time with them. At those levels they just feel lean in the mids.

The only workaround I've found is enabling the Dialog Optimizer or Night Mode on the M1, and while it does bring the presence back, that's not really how I want to be listening long term.
So I'm sitting here genuinely unsure: is this just how the BR08s are voiced and I should return them, or is this something a more powerful amp could actually fix? I'm not convinced more power changes what's happening in the midrange, but I honestly don't know.

Anyone with experience on these speakers?

 

[LiveTek]

EQ.

 

[tw 2022]

Hey everyone, looking for some input on whether to keep these or return them.


I've had the BR08s for about 11 days, already past 100 hours of break-in. My amp is a Marantz M1 (100W + 100W @ 8Ω, 125W + 125W @ 4Ω). The issue I'm running into is that vocals and upper mids feel recessed and thin — less body, less presence than my previous speakers (JBL Stage A170 and Dali Oberon 5). Suzanne Vega's Luka is a good example: her voice just sits further back in the mix than I'm used to.

Here's the thing — above 80 dB the body and presence actually come back and the speakers start to make more sense. But my normal listening is 68–73 dB at about 2.5–3 meters, and that's where I'm spending most of my time with them. At those levels they just feel lean in the mids.

The only workaround I've found is enabling the Dialog Optimizer or Night Mode on the M1, and while it does bring the presence back, that's not really how I want to be listening long term.
So I'm sitting here genuinely unsure: is this just how the BR08s are voiced and I should return them, or is this something a more powerful amp could actually fix? I'm not convinced more power changes what's happening in the midrange, but I honestly don't know.

Anyone with experience on these speakers?

you are already looking for an "out" ... if you can return them my advice is to do so.. you're gonna have fomo if you don't .. get something that measures well and you like .. then stop frequenting web sites that will (also) create above mentioned "fomo"...philharmonic Audio , ascend , ascilab, Wharfedale , steer towards known quality ... best of luck...edit: add: kef, elac, mofi to the list of known quality speaker lines...

 

[MAB]

Hey everyone, looking for some input on whether to keep these or return them.


I've had the BR08s for about 11 days, already past 100 hours of break-in. My amp is a Marantz M1 (100W + 100W @ 8Ω, 125W + 125W @ 4Ω). The issue I'm running into is that vocals and upper mids feel recessed and thin — less body, less presence than my previous speakers (JBL Stage A170 and Dali Oberon 5). Suzanne Vega's Luka is a good example: her voice just sits further back in the mix than I'm used to.

Here's the thing — above 80 dB the body and presence actually come back and the speakers start to make more sense. But my normal listening is 68–73 dB at about 2.5–3 meters, and that's where I'm spending most of my time with them. At those levels they just feel lean in the mids.

The only workaround I've found is enabling the Dialog Optimizer or Night Mode on the M1, and while it does bring the presence back, that's not really how I want to be listening long term.
So I'm sitting here genuinely unsure: is this just how the BR08s are voiced and I should return them, or is this something a more powerful amp could actually fix? I'm not convinced more power changes what's happening in the midrange, but I honestly don't know.

Anyone with experience on these speakers?

A few things.

Speakers barely change sound with break-in, so what you heard initially hasn't really changed.
A more powerful amp or a different amp aren't going to change the character of these speakers.
The smaller bookshelf versions of these were reviewed by Erin, and he found the resonances in the design and interesting things going on in the midrange. Speakers with resonances are difficult to EQ.

"I understand that some might like it without a reference, but there are just too many issues tarnishing my enjoyment. The bass is reasonable for its size, but it’s the upper-midrange and lower treble areas that concern me. These regions have resonances, breakups, and other problems that make the midrange sound recessed compared to the higher frequencies. The frequency response has numerous dips and peaks, resulting in inconsistent sound. Directivity issues appear around 1.2kHz and ~4kHz, likely due to port and crossover problems, respectively. Outside of this, the nonlinearities can be equalized if targeted properly.

Harmonic and multitone distortion are high, indicating design shortcomings. I’m willing to overlook this given the price but these are worth pointing out. Compression at higher output volumes is another concern, and I find the compression/distortion combo ~3kHz interesting.

Despite its visual appeal and some possible equalization remedies, I didn’t find this speaker appealing due to its inconsistent sound and technical flaws. It’s possible that individual preferences and the ability to EQ might mitigate some issues, but as it stands, I’m not a fan of this speaker."

Triangle Borea BR03 Bookshelf Speaker Review

Triangle Borea BR03 Bookshelf Speaker Review

www.erinsaudiocorner.com

 

[fraverfraver]

EQ.

Yeah, that's actually where I'm heading. I'm planning to try Dirac Live — the thing is, the Dialog Optimizer and Night Mode on the M1 only work on the analog and optical inputs, not through the internal streamer, so those aren't really a proper solution anyway.

I'll try to find a good target curve that lifts that vocal/midrange region specifically. If anyone here has dug deeper into Dirac Live and has suggestions on how to approach that, I'd really appreciate it.

 

[LiveTek]

I would tune things and show us the measurements Dirac comes up before doing anything else.

 

[fraverfraver]

you are already looking for an "out" ... if you can return them my advice is to do so.. you're gonna have fomo if you don't .. get something that measures well and you like .. then stop frequenting web sites that will (also) create above mentioned "fomo"...philharmonic Audio , ascend , ascilab, Wharfedale , steer towards known quality ... best of luck...edit: add: kef, elac, mofi to the list of known quality speaker lines...

I'll give Dirac Live a shot first and see if I can dial in that midrange region with a proper target curve. If that doesn't get me where I want to be, then yeah, returning or selling them is probably the move. The tricky part is I'm in Peru and proper return policies are basically nonexistent here, so it'd more likely be selling them before too much time passes.

And just to be clear — it's not that they sound bad, not at all. It's more that they might not be the right fit for how I listen, and I don't usually go above 80 dB. We'll see.

 

[Curvature]

Some low resolution measurements in this thread: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...orea-br08-floorstanding-speaker-review.15895/

I would sell them and not struggle.

 

[tw 2022]

The tricky part is I'm in Peru and proper return policies are basically nonexistent here, so it'd more likely be selling them before too much time passes

there-in lies the problem...try the eq first for sure then....

 

[LiveTek]

Some low resolution measurements in this thread: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...orea-br08-floorstanding-speaker-review.15895/

I would sell them and not struggle.

Pretty crappy response. I would definitely sell or return and get something else.