Loudspeakers and Amplifiers - Can You Turn It Up to 11?
We GoldenEar folks collectively have been involved in the audio business since 1968. In that time there's one uninitiated consumer question that has remained consistent; "How many watts does that
 speaker have?" If you're reading this newsletter we assume you understand that speakers don't have watts. (Well, actually, some speakers like our powered Triton towers DO have watts, but that's a different story.) But speakers need watts to make sound and just about every decent passive speaker on the market lists a recommended wattage range. A dirty little secret within the industry is the fact that many of those ratings are, to be kind, somewhat fictional at best. So how important are speaker wattage ratings and how many watts do you really need? The vast majority of residential speaker systems can be driven to produce sound with an average power level as little as 1 watt. It's generally agreed that the average power levels used while listening to music domestically range between 1 and 10 watts. However, musical peaks and crescendos, not to mention cinema special effects, can ask for upwards of 500 watts, depending on the speaker's sensitivity, its impedance, your listening level and the dynamic range of the source material. Determining your wattage needs should start with the sensitivity of your speakers. Unfortunately, there are often differences in the methods used by manufacturers to determine speaker sensitivity so it can be hard to make direct comparisons. That being said, the vast majority of speaker systems on the market range between 80 and 93 dB output, measured at one meter distance, when driven by a 2.83-volt input (which translates into 1 watt into an 8 Ohm speaker load). CLICK HERE TO CONTINUE READING ...
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GoldenEar Debuts Two Exciting Products at CES 2015
GoldenEar's CES New Product Introductions Were a Sensation! The preview showing of the Triton Five, a $999.99/ea Passive Floorstanding Tower, was a was a mega-hit beyond our wildest dreams. They sounded fantastic, looked great, and basically blew everyone's minds. And, the response to the demo of the new, largest model in the forthcoming SuperSub Series, the SuperSub XXL, a $1999/ea Dual-Plane Inertially-Balanced, 1600 watt Subwoofer, had everyone "on edge".
So impressed was everyone with the Triton Five demo that we were honored with multiple awards:
- The Absolute Sound: Best Sound (For the Money) - Robert Harley
- The Absolute Sound: Best Sound for the Money - Neil Gader
- Digital Trends: Digital Trends Best of CES 2015 Nomination - Caleb Denison
- HD Guru: Triton Five Wins Top Pick Floorstanding Loudspeaker at CES 2015
- Sound Advice: Best Sound at the Show - Don Lindich
- Soundstage: Best Systems of CES 2015 - Doug SchneiderThe Triton Five
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The New Triton Five Being Introduced at CES 2015 in January
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Sandy's Place - A Day in the Audio Life (with some nostalgia thrown in for good measure ...)
As some of you might know, I grew up in Brooklyn, graduated from Midwood High School, went to Johns Hopkins University, then graduated and started Polk Audio with two friends. The rest is history. Brooklyn is almost a cliche of a place, and when I grew up there in the 60s, it was said that one out of nine people in the US had lived in Brooklyn at some point in time. A couple of weeks ago, John Miller, our Eastern Region Sales Director, and myself, spent an interesting day roaming through the wilds of Brooklyn, and then on to an untamed land beyond.
Our first task was to deliver a pair of the new Triton Fives to Steve Guttenberg, who is reviewing them for Sound & Vision magazine. Steve is quite an interesting character, to say the least. He writes for CNET, has his own blog called The Audiophiliac, does some work with David Chesky, among other projects, and is one of the more intense audiophiles and music lovers roaming the planet. Steve is also a talented artist who creates amazing images by computer processing and manipulating photographs. He lives in Brooklyn Heights, a very gentrified neighborhood for those seeking to escape the bustle of Manhattan, but still be within striking distance. We had to get there relatively early, as Steve had to attend a talk by Dr. Edgar Choueiri, the Princeton University rocket scientist, who has been working with Chesky to perfect a device that allows you to properly hear binaural recordings on loudspeakers by basically canceling out the interaural crosstalk (something we also do on our 3D Array soundbars, although not quite as precisely as Dr. Choueiri's much more complex device). We set up the Fives in Steve's loft-like space, amongst myriad pieces of equipment and thousands of LPs and CDs, and let'er rip.
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