ADS L1590/2 vs Golden Ear Triton 7


Toying around with replacing Thiel CS2 2 with one or the other of the above. L1590/2s are used but in great shape and cost about a grand. Golden Ears new and 1400 plus tax. No real way to do a fair comparison audition.

Amplification is McCormack DNA-1/Audible Illusions M3A. Very eclectic taste in music, including lots of solo piano, chamber music, big orchestral, jazz and rock, but no real headbanger/house party type needs (though I do like bass). Room is medium sized with high sloping ceiling.

Nothing wrong with the Thiels. Just thinking about a change.

Anyone got anything interesting to say?
rnm4
I haven't heard the Triton, but the L1590-2 is a very good speaker for largish rooms and those who like the power of live music. They have A LOT of bass, and will do 20 hz. in-room, but the cabinets talk and add boom to it. I lined mine inside with rubber mats glued in place and it improved them greatly. Mids and highs are very nice indeed. This is a much better speaker than the 1290 and others in the ADS line, by virtue of higher quality drivers unique to the model.
I suspect these are apple and orange speakers. If you like power in your music the 1590s are a great speaker, unbeatable for the $.
I owned the L1590's little brother, the L1090 from 1987-1996, so I'm very familiar with the L-series ADS sound. I started shopping for new speakers in the $1500-2500 range last Fall. After auditioning the GoldenEar Triton 7 (twice), some heavy used McIntoshes (I forget the model), Aperion T6s, Sonus Faber Venere 2.5s (twice), MartinLogan Motion 40 (twice), and Magnepan 1.7s (twice), I came away with the Magnepan 1.7s and for me it wasn't close. The effortless, phase-coherent, large-wavelaunch low-inertia presentation of the Maggies in a resonance-free frame captivated me and made it easy to heard deeply into the music. At home I already had a very quick pair of subwoofers to fill out the 36-50Hz region.

In a direct comparison of the Triton 7 and Maggie 1.7, the Magnepans did a much better job of maintaining multiple melody and harmony lines in a dense orchestral/choral work, and its dipole configuration helped keep bass waves from overloading the room when things got loud.

I comes down to your tastes in music and what you want your speakers to do, but for me, the Maggies give me the best of what my L1090s offered but with an airier presentation and complete lack of boxy resonances (though the L1090s were excellent at that by mid'80s standards).

Anyway, the easiest $600 I spent was deciding on the Magnepan 1.7s over the Triton 7s.