Triangle Altea Ex review

Gallic grace

By SUJESH PAVITHRAN

Here’s some French fare to tempt those in the market for a pair of fuss-free floorstanders.
TRIANGLE ALTEA Ex
WHAT THEY ARE: Floodstanding speakers
LUST FACTOR: Verve and bass heft. Easy to drive and partner. Graceful looks.
REALITY CHECK: Dry-ish treble and little else.
PRICE: RM8,499
DISTRIBUTOR: MAXX AUDIO VISUAL (06-762 0811/017-677 8820/ website: www.htkaki.com)

IT takes a considerable paradigm shift to assess a pair of dynamic loudspeakers when you’re so used to ribbons or electrostatics. Still, I’ve heard a small number of cabinet-bound speakers that fired my imagination, although they all had one thing in common – swoon-inducing price tags.
Back in the real world, there are admittedly some fine dynamic speakers to be had for a modest budget. Denying their abilities would be an insult to the decades of hard and innovative work that has gone into this field. So, if you didn’t already start your hi-fi journey seduced by the magic of panels, you’re very likely to find an affordable pair of boxes to keep you happy for years.

French flair: The Triangle Altea Ex floorstanders ... amazingly excellent value.

 

One brand that’s an easy fit for most budgets, living rooms and systems is France’s highly acclaimed Triangle, cruelly under-represented here in the past. Now that the anomaly has been rectified, I took the opportunity to arrange for a review – the first Triangle to be brought through my doors was the Altea Ex floorstander, the second-largest model in its entry-level Espirit range.

Cognac or wine?
The Altea Ex is a two-and-a-half-way, bass-reflex design, with the port located in front. The tweeter section is rear ported.

The manner in which the Altea’s cabinet is decoupled from the floor is unique, at least for the price – a four-point plinth is provided to stand the speaker firm, and the massive screws can be adjusted from atop the platform to level the cabinet. Also, out in front below the port, a giant spike protrudes, to be screwed down against the floor or any support. I’m told this is Triangle’s proprietary vibration-control device for the cabinet.
The recessed tweeter, with its elongated conical wave-guide/dust-cap and flared port, is another Triangle feature; also provided are two mid-bass drivers of the 6.5-inch variety, one of them seemingly a radiator.
Triangle quotes a frequency range of 45Hz to 20kHz, with a sensitivity of 91dB and minimum impedance of 4.4 Ohms (nominal 8 Ohms). Power handling is 100 watts, and two pairs of binding posts are provided if you want to bi-wire the Altea.

Each cabinet measures 1000 x 200 x 355mm (h/w/d) on its own, while the plinth adds 60mm to the height, 170mm to the width and 25mm to the depth. The 20kg weight per speaker presents a manageable mass to move around for one person. Two finish options are available – cognac and black.

Good conduct
The distributor was thoughtful enough to help me with the initial set-up, after which I set about to do some fine-tuning and discovered the Altea to be less fussy about placement than many. Of course, there’s always an optimal position for the fastidious listener, but some rough guesses should get you close to the sweet spot in no time.

The review pair of Alteas hadn’t been run in, so I hooked up my iPod/dock to the system for a few days – even at initial listen, I heard something about the speakers that made me want to explore further.
Driving the Alteas was the Odyssey Tempest 2/Khartago Extreme SE pre-power combination, with the Ayon CD-1s as digital source. Wiring was MIT CVT Terminator 1 and 2, while the electronic gear was hooked to an upgraded AVIA balanced power transformer. Also used as sources were a VPI Classic turntable mounted with a Benz Gullwing cartridge and Rega P7 turntable with Rega Apheta cartridge.
It would be unfair to make comparisons between dynamic and panel designs at similar price levels, but in their favour, the Alteas presented me with significantly fewer hassles in positioning. They were much easier to drive, too.

Initially, I thought the treble sounded a bit dry, and this was an impression that never completely left me right through my sessions with the speakers. Yet, in the mid and upper frequencies, the Alteas were honest, with timbres that were almost right mostly, save for the occasional brightness with strings and a less-than-convincing grip of piano reproduction.

Interestingly, acoustic bass tracks presented more challenges than electric ones – for the latter, on the Larry Carlton album Kid Gloves, the rhythmic work of bassist Abraham Laboriel and drummer John Ferraro possessed a weight, snap and precision I’ve seldom heard reproduced so effectively in smaller speakers.
Similarly, with other recordings of a non-acoustic variety, the Alteas got the nuances of guitars and drums just about right, although I would never have mistaken them for anything other than a dynamic design. The heft in the lower frequencies was most reassuring, and should serve rock and jazz fans well.

Playing some tracks with vocals also showed the Alteas to have their fundamentals in the right place, as they projected the singer effectively from the mix, while setting a reasonably well-spread stage. I was advised to settle for just the minimal toe-in, and while this allowed a wider stage, I felt the extremities were somewhat softened, with less air on the top than I would have usually liked.

What, however, was gripping about the Alteas was how the whole exceeded the sum of the parts – overall, the presentation was snappy, authoritative and gripping. Plus, the speakers went loud without going all over the place; time and again, I was tempted to play at levels I seldom do, and the conduct of the Alteas, especially in the lower frequencies, was impressive.

Easy, not fussy
Given the attributes of the Triangle Altea Ex, I’m willing to look past minor niggles – that the speakers are easy to drive and not fussy about placement take much of the headache out of the equation, allowing the listener to focus on musical enjoyment.

These are well-made and brilliantly presented loudspeakers – just how the French can deliver this level of performance and finish without asking the punter to break the bank has always amazed me.
Those who want to look beyond the British or Italian sound should start here.

http://sites.thestar.com.my/audio/story.asp?file=/2011/2/14/afreviews/8024085&sec=afreviews


Specifications:

Number of channels	2.5
Loudspeaker type	Bass Reflex
Sensitivity	91 dB/W/m
Frequency range	45 Hz – 20 KHz (+/- 3 dB)
Power handling	100 W
Nominal impedance	8 Ω
Cabinet dimensions	1000 x 200 x 355 mm
Dimensions with plinth	1060 x 370 x 380 mm
Weight	20 kg
Finish	Cognac