GoldenEar T44 Loudspeaker Review

[shadyJ]

​

In 2023, GoldenEar announced the launch of a new series with the T66 tower speaker. It was an upmarket move relative to their Triton series speakers: a nicer, more luxury-oriented mid-sized tower speaker. The Triton speakers were an acclaimed series, but they had been around for a while without much change. The higher-end offered higher margins, and other manufacturers were doing the same pivot upmarket, a sensible move considering the rising costs of virtually every index of consumer electronics manufacturing. The T66 was well-received, so GoldenEar has now expanded that line with a smaller and more space-friendly tower in the T44. The T44 gives up dynamic range for its more reasonable size, but it looks like it should work well in small to medium-sized rooms. In today’s review, we look at the T44 to see what GoldenEar has done to justify this higher-end item. The T44 has a hi-fi price and hi-fi look, but does it have a hi-fi sound? And how does it compare to speakers within the same class? Read our full review to find out…

READ: GoldenEar T44 Floor-Standing Loudspeaker Review

 

[Mikado463]

Thanks James !

 

[TLS Guy]

View attachment 79898​

In 2023, GoldenEar announced the launch of a new series with the T66 tower speaker. It was an upmarket move relative to their Triton series speakers: a nicer, more luxury-oriented mid-sized tower speaker. The Triton speakers were an acclaimed series, but they had been around for a while without much change. The higher-end offered higher margins, and other manufacturers were doing the same pivot upmarket, a sensible move considering the rising costs of virtually every index of consumer electronics manufacturing. The T66 was well-received, so GoldenEar has now expanded that line with a smaller and more space-friendly tower in the T44. The T44 gives up dynamic range for its more reasonable size, but it looks like it should work well in small to medium-sized rooms. In today’s review, we look at the T44 to see what GoldenEar has done to justify this higher-end item. The T44 has a hi-fi price and hi-fi look, but does it have a hi-fi sound? And how does it compare to speakers within the same class? Read our full review to find out…

READ: GoldenEar T44 Floor-Standing Loudspeaker Review

Why is that designers of commercial speakers seem obligated to make at least one "howler" of a mistake and often more than one?

Crossing over to a 4.5" midrange at 113 Hz, is just insane design. So no wonder the speakers has compromised dynamic range. That is a bigger power band between there and 400 to 500 Hz range. That contains the bulk of the fundamentals of pretty much all musical instruments and the human voice. These guys most be totally oblivious to the power range versus frequency if instruments and voice. This data is available all pver the place. But no, just walk into a massive hole that was easily avoided.

This sort of nonsense is so common in speaker design and easily avoided. This was information I was well aware of before the age of 10, as Gilbert Briggs (dear old GAB) published it in his book on speaker design in the 1950s. So this has been known for a long time. GAB encouraged his readers to take note of this data in particular when selecting optimal crossover points. This is sort of stupidity in design is just totally uncalled for.

 

[lovinthehd]

As part of the Fraudioquest group, would never consider buying the Golden Ear brand myself. However, it seems the brand was sold by Fraudioquest to PML Sound Intl (Paradigm, Martin Logan, Anthem) last year so I can put them back into consideration . Better report than I expected except in the area of the powered "sub" which seems more as expected. Interesting aesthetic somewhat.

 

[TLS Guy]

As part of the Fraudioquest group, would never consider buying the Golden Ear brand myself. However, it seems the brand was sold by Fraudioquest to PML Sound Intl (Paradigm, Martin Logan, Anthem) last year so I can put them back into consideration . Better report than I expected except in the area of the powered "sub" which seems more as expected. Interesting aesthetic somewhat.

The problem is, I think these designers are taught to rely on measurements alone. Speaker measurements do not tell you the whole story, as there is a huge amount they don't tell you about a speaker. At this time experience really counts.

Shady has already alluded to the limited dynamic range. The experienced designer would look a the design and predict it. I suspect Shady was kind and somewhat minimizing the problem. If I heard that speaker, I'm pretty sure I would zero in on the problem immediately.

The design is badly flawed, no doubt about it.

 

[lovinthehd]

The problem is, I think these designers are taught to rely on measurements alone. Speaker measurements do not tell you the whole story, as there is a huge amount they don't tell you about a speaker. At this time experience really counts.

Shady has already alluded to the limited dynamic range. The experienced designer would look a the design and predict it. I suspect Shady was kind and somewhat minimizing the problem. If I heard that speaker, I'm pretty sure I would zero in on the problem immediately.

The design is badly flawed, no doubt about it.

Taught and what corporate restrictions are more likely tell more of the story....

 

[Nondemo01]

Why is that designers of commercial speakers seem obligated to make at least one "howler" of a mistake and often more than one?

Crossing over to a 4.5" midrange at 113 Hz, is just insane design. So no wonder the speakers has compromised dynamic range. That is a bigger power band between there and 400 to 500 Hz range. That contains the bulk of the fundamentals of pretty much all musical instruments and the human voice. These guys most be totally oblivious to the power range versus frequency if instruments and voice. This data is available all pver the place. But no, just walk into a massive hole that was easily avoided.

This sort of nonsense is so common in speaker design and easily avoided. This was information I was well aware of before the age of 10, as Gilbert Briggs (dear old GAB) published it in his book on speaker design in the 1950s. So this has been known for a long time. GAB encouraged his readers to take note of this data in particular when selecting optimal crossover points. This is sort of stupidity in design is just totally uncalled for.

I think this criticism assumes the T44 is trying to be something it is not.

The T44 is not really designed as a high-output SPL monitor or a large-room reference speaker meant to play at punishing levels. It is better understood as a high-fidelity tower for modern listening spaces: compact footprint, powered bass integration, good imaging, strong tonal balance, and enough output for sane real-world listening levels.

Could you argue that a 4.5-inch driver crossed that low has theoretical dynamic limits? Sure. But that does not automatically make it a design failure. Crossover frequency by itself does not tell the whole story. Driver excursion, enclosure loading, filter slopes, DSP, powered bass behavior, protection, and the speaker’s intended listening distance and playback level all matter.

A limitation that may show up when you push the speaker beyond its intended use may not be meaningful at the levels and room sizes this product was actually designed for. Not every speaker is engineered to be a studio main monitor, a PA speaker, or a large-room cinema system. Some are engineered to sound refined, coherent, and full-range in normal living rooms.

GoldenEar has earned a pretty solid reputation for sound quality, imaging, and clever bass integration. Sandy Gross may no longer be directly involved, but the design philosophy associated with GoldenEar did not suddenly disappear. You may not like the design tradeoff, and that is fair, but calling it “insane” or “stupidity” seems like judging the speaker against a use case it was never really intended to serve.

 

[Nondemo01]

View attachment 79898​

In 2023, GoldenEar announced the launch of a new series with the T66 tower speaker. It was an upmarket move relative to their Triton series speakers: a nicer, more luxury-oriented mid-sized tower speaker. The Triton speakers were an acclaimed series, but they had been around for a while without much change. The higher-end offered higher margins, and other manufacturers were doing the same pivot upmarket, a sensible move considering the rising costs of virtually every index of consumer electronics manufacturing. The T66 was well-received, so GoldenEar has now expanded that line with a smaller and more space-friendly tower in the T44. The T44 gives up dynamic range for its more reasonable size, but it looks like it should work well in small to medium-sized rooms. In today’s review, we look at the T44 to see what GoldenEar has done to justify this higher-end item. The T44 has a hi-fi price and hi-fi look, but does it have a hi-fi sound? And how does it compare to speakers within the same class? Read our full review to find out…

READ: GoldenEar T44 Floor-Standing Loudspeaker Review

Great review James! Thank you.

 

[TLS Guy]

I think this criticism assumes the T44 is trying to be something it is not.

The T44 is not really designed as a high-output SPL monitor or a large-room reference speaker meant to play at punishing levels. It is better understood as a high-fidelity tower for modern listening spaces: compact footprint, powered bass integration, good imaging, strong tonal balance, and enough output for sane real-world listening levels.

Could you argue that a 4.5-inch driver crossed that low has theoretical dynamic limits? Sure. But that does not automatically make it a design failure. Crossover frequency by itself does not tell the whole story. Driver excursion, enclosure loading, filter slopes, DSP, powered bass behavior, protection, and the speaker’s intended listening distance and playback level all matter.

A limitation that may show up when you push the speaker beyond its intended use may not be meaningful at the levels and room sizes this product was actually designed for. Not every speaker is engineered to be a studio main monitor, a PA speaker, or a large-room cinema system. Some are engineered to sound refined, coherent, and full-range in normal living rooms.

GoldenEar has earned a pretty solid reputation for sound quality, imaging, and clever bass integration. Sandy Gross may no longer be directly involved, but the design philosophy associated with GoldenEar did not suddenly disappear. You may not like the design tradeoff, and that is fair, but calling it “insane” or “stupidity” seems like judging the speaker against a use case it was never really intended to serve.

It is not deigned as a good speaker at all. That speaker will not properly reproduce an orchestra, choir, opera or an organ recital in any satisfying way at all. All the drama will be knocked well and truly out of thrilling performance. I would find any speaker with one 4.5" mid crossed at 113 Hz totally useless. As an aside I would probably blow that 4.5" mid on the first day.