GoldenEar Towers, Sans Built in Subs
GoldenEar has made its name with wonderful sounding towers that have built in, powered subwoofers. They start at $2500 per pair and go up. They’re terrific speakers at good prices.
A lot of visitors are surprised that GoldenEar also makes two towers that do NOT have powered subs on board. They make sense for the customer that wants GE sophistication- without the powerful bottom end. Maybe you’re in a condo. Maybe you have a nice outboard sub already. These two towers have the same attributes as their bigger brothers- with less shock and awe in the bass.
Triton Seven $1400 Per Pair (39 3/4h, 7 1/4w, 5 3/4d)
T-7 features GE’s gorgeous ribbon tweeter and D’Appolito paired bass/mid drivers, each 5 1/4”. T-7 features a pair of side firing 8” radiators to provide tight, controlled bass.
T-7 is every bit as smooth as GE’s $5k speakers, the Triton Ones. GE has no bite in the high frequencies. T-7 also images as well as the big dogs. Anyone who has spent time with GE’s will tell you how well they cast a center image. They are very forgiving of less than ideal placement. The imaging is so broad that your listening position isn’t critical either.
Triton Five $2000 Per Pair (44 1/4h, 8 /18w, 12 3/8d)
Triton 5
T-5 is a bigger, stronger version of T-7- but still doesn’t have powered subs built in. T-5 uses 6” bass/mid drivers and four 8” radiators.
T-5 is ideal for the customer who wants real weight in his music/movies- and already has an outboard sub. T-5 retains the smoothness and great imaging of all GE speakers. It has a good deal more kick than T-7 above.
GoldenEar towers reveal detail and smoothness you’re not going to get from all the dome tweeter alternatives you’ll find in the same price range.
Rega Planar One With Ortofon Red Cartridge $575
We get regular visitors making the plunge into vinyl. Some are old, excuse me, mature, guys with old turntables in bad shape. Many are our sons. They want to buy a $50 cartridge and get a lot of used records. Sorry, it’s a bad idea.
Hunting for this and that in a used bin can be fun. But the odds of getting what you want, in good condition, is a long shot.
Running your 25+ year old brand X turntable is not a good idea. Almost all, OK, excuse me, all, have problems with rumble and speed. If we’re honest about it, they weren’t very good to begin with.
Heading to Barnes and Noble for a $150 plastic turntable isn’t a very good idea either. It will rumble and feed back like mad.
Pursuing vinyl can be great fun. But to make the effort pay off, you have to have a good turntable and cartridge. Look no further than Rega.
Rega
Rega is a British company that builds its own tables. Planar One is the entry model and yet its performance is quite sophisticated. The bearings are machined by Rega to insure low friction. The tonearm is made by Rega to insure stability- with low friction bearings. Low friction bearings mean you hear more of what’s in the record grooves. Even the bearing well from Rega is special- made of brass instead of aluminum or nylon. All of this attention to the detail of high quality mechanical parts yields better sound and longer life. The Planar One runs $475 alone, and is a wise investment.
We recommend you buy an Ortofon Red ($100) cartridge for your Planar One. The Red has a proven track record for great tracking and smooth sound. With fairly high output, the Red is forgiving of a less than state of the art phono preamp.
We know you’re going to hunt for used records. It’s in your DNA. We get it. But be sure to buy some NEW vinyl too. New vinyl is virgin, not recycled. New vinyl is much thicker than the old dogs you’ll find used. The new records are made from stampers that are in good shape. Stampers are generally good for 5000 pressings. Back in the day with popular bands, they’d press many thousands. The odds of you or I getting a good $5 record back then were not very good. Imagine how the odds are against you now- buying those used!
Sigismond Thalberg (1812-1871)
Thalberg was a great pianist. As a pianist, he was Chopin’s equal. As a composer… not so much.
Chopin was famously introspective and played everything softly & beautifully. Upon leaving a Chopin recital in Paris, Thalberg began shouting to his friends at the top of his lungs. “I’ve been listening to piano all the evening, and now, for the sake of contrast, I want a little forte!”