A novice compare and contrast type review on 3 speakers. Powered tonight by Sailor Jerry, a rack of smoked ribs, and a man movie night (mostly)wife free. Jack will be providing back up drool and foot warming assistance when needed.
The golden ear Triton 2 towers
http://www.goldenear.com/products/triton-two-tower
The martin logan purity
http://www.martinlogan.com/products/purity
Paradigm signature s6
http://www.paradigm.com/index.php?option=com_mtree&task=listcats&cat_id=144&Itemid=2
I will preface this review with a few facts, starting with the fact I purchased the MLs so I am biased. I will also state that price matters. That influences all my purchases. However the price change from these 3 speakers was not enough to sway me one way or another. I'll also pass on what my wife feels about these speakers. On to the review.
I listened to all 3 pairs of speakers in 2 different rooms. One large room and one small room. They were all powered from a pre pro and amp in the large room and a similar lower budget rig in the 2 chan room.
I'm going to start with general descriptions of the sets of speakers.
The S6's, to me, hand's down win the best looking award. I originally set out to audition the s8's or the studio line. Of all the paradigms I listened to the s6's were the best. They were the most flat sounding speaker at moderate listening volumes. The imaging had real depth and the s6's had amazing detail and clarity. They had a decent size sweet spot where you could get that great imaging and clarity that I wanted to experience. Perhaps this is also the cause of my complaint, as I think all of the imaging and detail came from a really amazing use of the tweeter. This may be a sensitivity issue to me alone but my wife then shares it. There is a harshness to the 'digms in all their detail. While all the instruments in that highest frequency were really put forward in the music, they also had the ability to make me wince. Even at normal talking volumes my ears would get sensitive in 10 min of listening to anything with a flute or the highest keys on a piano. With the combination of looks and brilliant clarity, and the ability to still have impact into the mid bass really made me with they didn't wear on me so quickly. One other small niggle is that since the highs were so in your face it messed with the imaging in the mid range. They had the least change in sound based on placement. If you like these but don't want to cough the cash up, I think the NHT classic 3's are really close in detail and perhaps have better imaging.
The wife's thoughts on the s6 are that they were clear and balanced, and much brighter than the other 3.
The golden ears were maybe the best overall speakers I have heard in a LONG time. Def techs never appealed to me, but these sounded much cleaner to me. They have an amazingly versatile sound with a lot of bass reinforcement, and a great ability to use that huge bass power without overpowering the rest of the sound. Even if you give the bass a little boost it never made the rest of the music muddy or stressed like some other super sub speakers can. The tritons could be at home in a theater or in a dedicated 2 chan room and I think make the best compromise for a theater. Even more so if you may be going with only 2 speakers for a while. While I wouldn't want to go without a sub because I love over the top LFE, only quite demanding tracks or those who run the bass hot would complain. Music was powerful and lively. There was more punch in these speakers than anything I listened to that day. These bad boys really filled up the larger room with bass to the point I could feel the energy and vibration in my pants and in the seat.
Wife likes that they made big sound without being insane monoliths, and that she liked that you didn't have to sit exactly in front of them to have impressive sound.
Finally the ones I decided to live with, the Puritys. The MLs have such an amazing deep, rich, realistic sound. They bring out vocals with a clarity that is above the other 2 by a huge margin. At first this could sound like softened background and it wasn't exactly appealing, especially if your recording is compressed or badly recorded. Many people have mentioned that rock or metal or punk doesn't work on Logans but I will tell you right now if you listen to pop in Pantera and play a little cemetery gates you will know why so many metal heads worship Dime Bag Darrell. In general electro stats that I have heard have all had a capacity to work the mid range and these are up to that. They also have a lot of mid bass punch, and that's something unique to electro stats of this size. I might hold them on a pedestal but the Maggie 20s are the only other speakers that can bring imaging and depth to the table with more impact than the Martin Logans. With the 'digms and other image champs like the NHT classic 3 you get the height and to a certain level depth. The Purity make that soundstage wide. The best analogy is like going from a 720 wide screen TV to a better than 1080 3d anamorphic imax kind of image. Why I felt these speakers are some of the best I have ever heard comes down to the fact that where it counts they do their job. Maybe they loose some "sparkle" in the super high hz, and they don't have space shuttle like bass, but they bring razor sharp detail. The purity has imaging that when I close my eyes, I can nearly plot each instrument on a map. And finally they have a depth of sound that I can't describe without sounding like some emotional high fi nut. The best word to describe that "mocha cocoa mids" might be that they have an extremely rich sound.
How my wife described them when asked. She threw up the horns and said "They are cool, like boobies." She also likes the look and that the"are modern and classic. They also sound great for music, more than anything she can remember auditioning. Multiple types of music sound good, and that was a great surprise.