@ieales -- Thanks for responding. As I said, my knowledge about high-end is quite limited, so you may already have identified some things that I can tinker with about my current setup to improve it. To clarify, what I have currently are the GE Triton 7’s, not the GE Triton References. Which was the GE Triton that in your experience was only bested by B&W 800 D3s & dual REL subs? -- was it the Triton References..?
My current setup:
GoldenEar Triton 7’s, crossed over at 60 Hz to:
Hsu Research VTF 15H MK2 sub. It has plugs to keep the two ports open/closed; currently both ports are open. (When I initially set it up I thought it sounded best that way, but I should probably experiment again with closing the ports).
Source: AIFF files on a Mac laptop, ripped from CDs at 16 bit, 44.1 KHz.
Connections: Mac optical out --> Toslink --> Marantz AV 7704 pre/pro --> Emotiva XPA-5 Gen 3 --> speakers.
Room: short description: irregular shaped, approx 8000 cubic feet.
Longer description: L-shaped open-plan main living space (living/dining/kitchen). Horizontal area of L is the living area where the music system is; this area is a rectangle approx 25’ (length of lowest line segment of L) x 16’ wide, with arched vaulted ceiling of average height approx 12’; so 4800 cu. ft for this area of the L. Vertical area of L (not including horizontal area at all) contains the dining and kitchen, and is a rectangle approx 25’ long x 16’ wide, with 8’ ceiling, so 3200 cu ft. for this area of the L, so total 8000 cu ft in total for the room. Unfortunately, this is the only possible "listening room", as I spend very little time in any other room except to sleep.
Speaker placement: Triton 7s are approx 7 feet apart on wall at base of L, roughly centered wrt the vertical part of the L. So, approx 3.5’ and 10.5’ from lower left corner of L, along lowest line segment of L. Hsu sub is *approximately* in the lower right hand corner of the L.
Not much flexibility in placement, because of furniture and needs of other family members (wife and kid).
Not sure how much sense that made, sorry...
What I like about current setup:
good lower end, decent midrange, upper end not too bright ("neutral", I suppose), non-fatiguing -- that was a big reason for choosing GoldenEar.
Why I’m thinking about upgrading:
-- I would like bigger/deeper "soundstage", and greater midrange "presence" -- hope I’m using those terms correctly. The current lack of those may be a function of T7 speaker size relative to room size, which is why I hoped bigger speakers like the GE Triton Reference could help.
-- I would also like a bit more clarity and detail in the midrange and upper (which I’m beginning to think may require going non-GoldenEar).
I very recently auditioned the GoldenEar Triton Reference at a dealer, repeatedly swapping the T Refs out with [Triton 7’s + JL Audio sub]. (The dealer was great, left me in there by myself for over an hour to play my own music from laptop --> toslink --> preamp, and swap speakers back and forth as I wanted). I also had a second opportunity the next day to compare TRef and [T7 + sub] swapped back and forth at another dealer, but for a much shorter period of time, and with interruptions.
On both auditions, I thought the Triton Reference had maybe 40% bigger soundstage than the [Triton 7s + sub], and at most 5% more midrange/upper detail/clarity. To me, those improvements feel too small to justify replacing $1.4K speakers with $8.5K speakers.
Hence the rabbit hole of other speakers...
Not sure if that made enough sense for comments/thoughts...
-- otinkyad
