The Gearhead: Triangle Borea BR03 Bookshelves... Wow.
I try not to deal in hyperbole too often on these blog posts, but I also know what I want to accomplish. I’m not going to write a blog about every piece of audio equipment I hear — that would be tedious for me and even moreso to read. It would make blurry the lines between what is merely good, and what it truly great. And it would probably slow my testing output down to a trickle, which wouldn’t be useful for anyone involved.
What I’m trying to do here in the blog section of The Music Room’s website, given my position as a testing technician at the world’s largest online reseller of high end audio gear, is pipe up only when I come across something truly extraordinary.
Recently I’ve talked about a few sets of speakers, and have largely ignored source gear and amplification when singling out products for praise. In part this is because I’m such a speaker guy, but it’s also a nod to the important role speakers play in the eventual sound characteristic of a system. If there’s going to be distortion in the mix, it’s most likely added by either the speaker’s design characteristics, or the placement in the room.
Yeah, well. Here I am again today, gushing about a pair of speakers. Don’t worry, these ones are a little more attainable for the common customer. They’re a pair of budget bookshelves. But that, really, is why they stand out so much to me. A pair of speakers at this price almost never sounds this good. And truly being honest… I can remove the “almost” in that previous statement.
The Triangle Borea BR03 bookshelf is by far the best-sounding sub-$600 pair of speakers my ears have ever beheld. The frequency balance, imaging and soundstage ability remind me distinctly of my friend Darren’s 6-foot tall pair of Dunlavy SC-IVa speakers run by his roughly $50K front end. Playing the same Avishai Cohen track from the album Flood (“First Drops”), the piano tonal makeup and harmonic structure is very close to what I remember from our listening session at his house yesterday.
These fit my ideal blog paradigm in being remarkable for their pure bang for the buck for anyone looking for bookshelves or standmounts. I had to ask around to The Music Room staff to find anyone looking for such a pair of speakers before I felt comfortable blogging about them, as I suspect these words may encourage their quick sale and exit from our Colorado headquarters.
All things considered, they get the highest rating from me. Considering also that this specific pair received the highest cosmetic rating we offer, if you’re in the market for something like this I wouldn’t sleep on them!