TOWERS of POWER! GoldenEar T66 review

Рет қаралды 58,207

Darko Audio

Күн бұрын

Пікірлер: 111

@terrynguyen236 Ай бұрын

Yes! More floorstanders please :)

@michaelstaruszkiewicz8798 Ай бұрын

GoldenEar Tower designs have always utilized powered subwoofer units in their mid- & higher end speakers. Great Sound for the money; absolutely LOVE their BRX Standmount Speaker!

@jimbanville Ай бұрын

But aren’t they made by the guy who worked at definitive technology, whose towers with powered subs had notoriously unreliable amps? Hope these are a more reliable made-in-china design, with better chinesium parts 👍🏼

@michaelstaruszkiewicz8798 Ай бұрын

@@jimbanville Sandy Gross departed GoldenEar roughly 2 years ago.

@sonicmainliner Ай бұрын

Did not expect this one! Good stuff, not one of your usual brands to be reviewed.

@Artemis_Prix Ай бұрын

Brilliant, absolutely brilliant 👏 Thank you so much for including a stand mount + sub option in your comparo. Honestly, I can't recall a review in which such a direct comparison was performed back to back with full range speakers. Well-done! That's precisely the type of insights the Hi-Fi community wants, but so rarely receives.

@DarkoAudio Ай бұрын

Thanks for your appreciation. 🙏

@buffal0bilious Ай бұрын

I added a pair of subs to my system not too long ago. The (near) full-range extension revealed all kinds of sub-bass detail I'd been missing across my music collection. Now that I'm hearing those extra frequencies, I wouldn't want to give them up, to say nothing of the mid-bass frequencies I recovered after the subs' positioning flexibility helped me defeat some gnarly room nulls.

@AudiS4orce1 Ай бұрын

I was at Axpona and didn’t know which room I walked into. I heard incredible sound as soon as I walked into this room, from all over the room from the back to the front. Then realized it’s golden ears. Can’t remember which model but it sure sounded absolutely incredible and had a huge soundstage and excellent sound from many parts of the room.

@dal2258 Ай бұрын

Nice video and thank you for the many comparisons! Looking forward to the T44 review 🙂

@richardjennings4855 Ай бұрын

Great review 👍 These were on demonstration at a local Audio show and they drew quite a crowd. Being very impressed by their overall performance I’m now the proud owner of the T66. The first thing that struck me was how BIG and wide the soundstage is, the performance is clean, effortless and exciting that makes music a fun and engaging experience. 😊 Great to hear your comparison with one of the big players in this game, Kef 👍

@michaelrossmaessler200 Ай бұрын

I love the red and the grills. Form follows function with an artist's touch. Thanks for the review John. 😊

@DarkoAudio Ай бұрын

Thanks for watching!

@andrewtomlinson6664 Ай бұрын

The The Ensoulment... Listening on your recommendation John, what a great album. Thanks!

@Jack96993 Ай бұрын

I have the Grandfather of the T66, the Definitive Technology Mythos ST's with built in powered subs & gain control If fed a good source like my tube amp & tube pre amp they sound pretty darn good!! I also have 2 SVS Ultra 13 subs with DSP I really enjoy the full range music they deliver, plus the way my subs can energize a room

@mullerhun 10 күн бұрын

So you added 2 subs to your floorstanders?

@m4nc1n1 Ай бұрын

That intro music on the Klipsch Fives and a 10" Sub was killer!

@60zeller Ай бұрын

Good call on the Ensoulment record. It has really grown on me. Going to see them live in three weeks

@DarkoAudio Ай бұрын

Yes, it's definitely a grower. And you'll need to love it as the first half of the live show is the band playing the album in full. The second half is an impeccable selection of classics. GIANT to close!

@jonathanmoore8886 Ай бұрын

good review. I look forward to more info about the T44

@Jonathanbm4 Ай бұрын

Fantastic review. Thank you for that! They look amazing, I like the color! And smart thinking about the subs being active so that the speakers are more versatile. It would've been a cool take with a comparison between those and the B&W 702 S3.

@sixergixer Ай бұрын

Great review, John! Succinct and to the point but with plenty of helpful details and comparisons. I've been kinda smitten with the GoldenEar towers ever since your pal Michael Lavorgna reviewed some of them on Twittering Machines and I still feel I would enjoy them immensely. And I must say, you have some of the best licensed music in all of KZbin-land. Nice!

@stillaliveandwell5291 Ай бұрын

😊Tubes! I know you said Sandy wasn't involved but he loved tubes.Perfect compliment for 91 db sensitivity. I already have the MTM (5.5 M) set up in the Zen Acoustic Adagio used with the REL S510 sub. Using only 27 watts triode from VAC Integrated Amp. I can switch to 60 watts ultralinear with a little less magic in the midrange but don't really need the extra power as the amp barely makes it to 12 O'clock in triode mode with $10K vinyl rig and even less into CD. The sub has only one great location (for the sub not for me😅) in my weird room so it would be great to integrate to a speaker that has it all. Alas l have to try open baffle next. Going to build from some plans shown elsewhere on yt. Great review here exactly what l needed to know.

@LOUDERthanU Ай бұрын

I bought the Triton One way back when. Updated those to the Triton One.R a few years back then added a sub last year - very happy with the sound so I’m done - for now……😎

@mullerhun 10 күн бұрын

What sub did u get? How big is your room?

@gregmatula9749 Ай бұрын

Thanks for the coverage of Golden ear I love my Triton 7s. I use WIIM pro to pull down 13 kilohertz. I like to point the speakers directly at me for imaging.

@sohrabtaee Ай бұрын

Hey John! Thanks for another great review. I really appreciate that you’ve started including more floorstanding speakers and the side-by-side comparisons are super helpful. However, I’ve noticed that some of these comparisons feel a bit brief. Personally, I’d love to see either fewer comparisons with more in-depth analysis or, even better, more detailed side-by-sides in a longer video. Keep up the awesome work!

@KeenanWagner-u9i Ай бұрын

Love to see some Tipper thrown in the mix. Great review!

@nick_yt23 Ай бұрын

Great info. It would be great to see also how they measure in your space.

@johnpischedda6951 Ай бұрын

Thanks John, semi passive / powered !! that's a first for me !

@MoonHouse-cu3py Ай бұрын

I have Def Tech 9080X and they are insanely good for the secondary market pricing of ~$2000-$2500/pair

@NeilLavitt Ай бұрын

Really looking forward to seeing The The live in Sydney when they pass through here.

@DarkoAudio Ай бұрын

They were really good in Berlin last night 👍

@johnmckay428 Ай бұрын

I find bass gain requirements are different for different music and movies. So I really need a remote control that can adjust bass gain depending on what I'm listening to.

@budgetaudiophilelife-long5461 Ай бұрын

THANKS JOHN 🤗💚💚💚

@dougg1075 Ай бұрын

They look the biz. Beautiful

@crimlarksSteve Ай бұрын

Nice review John. (Love The The - I'll have to pick up the new CD)

@01010100001010101001 Ай бұрын

That Matt Johnson album is brilliant ! Thank you !

@DominicNSX Ай бұрын

Here is an idea for a product review: radiant acoustics clarity 6.2 speakers!

@flyheli Ай бұрын

I’ve heard the LS60s in three different stores and never was really impressed…considering it’s an all in one solution it’s fairly priced but my dream speakers are the Kiwi Three 😍

@jeffreythurston1822 Ай бұрын

I love the new The The album. Sounds great on vinyl too.

@ShoganGeorge Ай бұрын

How cool is that CD player, had such a mission trying to get to play my old CD's on an Xbox recently. Works great for 4K Blu-ray's, but CD's it's a flippin nightmare 🤦

@MrBonger88 Ай бұрын

That’s a Pro-Ject CD Box RS2 T. What a mouthful of a name lol

@stephenshaler6678 Ай бұрын

Enjoy your takes on gear over the last few years years and have a ROON playlist entitled "DRKO suggestions" :) Good stuff. I moved up (significantly) in sound quality to the KEF LS60 about 4 months ago (in part due to your reviews and of course the $2000 US price drop)- and so was interested in your side by side comparison. T66 + Amp is about ?3x? the price of LS 60's and I took your point as if the T66's were a bit but not that much better. Maybe I'm trying to self-reinforce my buying decision but find it strange you made more of a comparison with the KEF stand-mounts and sub-woofers than with the LS 60's. At any rate, keep up the great work and hope you're enjoying your time in Portugal.

@kennethjrgensen2087 Ай бұрын

You need review the new Danish speaker. Radiant Acoustics Clarity 6.2. Design by the best people from Denmark. Heard them today, driven by Lyngdorf TDAI-3400. Its was fantastic

@scherge Ай бұрын

Have you ever tried speakers made by Orbid Sound? They're real hidden gems, imo. I had their Pluto's for over a decade before switching to some nice Jupiters. I've tested countless Klipsch speakers and other well reviewed brands in a one to one comparison over the years and always kept my Orbids. I got all my friends hooked to those speakers. One of them even bought Galaxies, which are just insane. You could power a concert with those. Again, I've tested many of their speakers, I've been using them for almost 20 years now, and I still can't recommend them enough.

@dicmccoy Ай бұрын

Kef has an inherent problem with bass lagging behind in time. This happens still even with bass management active.

@stevenkelby2169 Ай бұрын

By how long? What's the time delay?

@dicmccoy Ай бұрын

@@stevenkelby2169 I don't remember what Dirac set the time delays to. Time delay and high passing won't fix it. It's an issue with the design. I suspect it's a combination of multiple things. Group delay, step response, and their implementation of an extended bass shelf. The only thing that greatly improves the timing issue but doesn't completely fix it is an amp with a very high damping factor which I find very strange and interesting.

@kenmcfarlane8624 Ай бұрын

Im here for the “more boom in your room”

@cenkisil574 Ай бұрын

Hi John, great video, again. When I biamp, I found after an initial wow, that different topologies don’t work well. Doing some homework I found out that Frankenstein-ing even and odd harmonic dominant amps bothers our auditory after a while. Could it be the reason you preferred the NAD over the Hegel in this case? thank again for the video.

@TheCharlesAtoz Ай бұрын

Micro-dynamic flicker??? New verbiage to me. Please describe what this means.

@corymollak2093 Ай бұрын

I just won a bid on a set of Bowers & Wilkens...... $20 for the set and they looked IMMACULATE. The late owner shared one of the last name: Bower... only the 's' was missing. I'm sure just coincidental None the less, how'd I do? I was the only bidder so I hope they are good. Guess I will find out in 4 days

@jimbanville Ай бұрын

The lid on that cd player would be nice if made of clear glass so you can see the disc spinning👌🏼

@sanderwagter5428 Ай бұрын

Are you planning to review the new monitor audio gold series? Im curious how the studio 89 will compare to the gold 50 & 100

@dilbyjones Ай бұрын

Ls60 just killer speakers😊😊

@thethirdman225 Ай бұрын

‘For people who want a speaker that sounds technically impressive’… Oh yes. That’s been my point of difference for years. It’s something that is very popular in - unsurprisingly - American designs. I have no problem with this but if you want something like that is totally neutral, you can bypass manufacturers like GoldenEar and go for simple studio monitors. After all, they are supposed to be the most neutral (unless you’re Bob Clearmountain). It’s not that I think music should be coloured by speakers. It’s that I think a lot of people - me including - buy speakers simply because we like the combination of the sound they produce and other considerations, not because of what their waveform looks like on a CRO.

@therealistic1z Ай бұрын

John, any reason you had the speaker cables hooked black up and red down? Is it how you always use it or the t66 sounded better that way and if so , why is that? Thanks

@jean-francoisrousseau896 Ай бұрын

I think the engineer who made that speaker have a dustfree house! How you do the cleaning of that thing? Except that the speakers are very cool.

@andrecobb8938 Ай бұрын

Sorry, was it the Forcefield 30 you were using as a sub for the R3 Metas?

@normrubio Ай бұрын

So these replace the 2+'s? Because there's no way they replace the One.R's

@damienlahoz Ай бұрын

had the same question

@nodoubt1616 Ай бұрын

How is 5he nad m66 ? Are all the bugs worked out? Also has home theater bypass been implemented

@Anox99 Ай бұрын

would love you to test Elac FS 247.4

@tobiasolsen8547 Ай бұрын

Hi John! Are you going to test the new Radiant acoustics - Clarity 6.2 from the hands of Peter Lyngdorf?

@DarkoAudio Ай бұрын

I wish I had the time!

@tarichar8 Ай бұрын

How do these compared to the Piegas you had in a few months ago? They are about the same price I think and I’m looking at getting one of these speaker systems.

@DarkoAudio Ай бұрын

The Piegas are long gone. Sorry.

@pablogp3266 Ай бұрын

To the point John always makes (correctly, as usual) that HiFi gear is not just about sound, that looks matter: I'd never have those speakers anywhere near my home. lol.

@ChrisJohnson-c3s Ай бұрын

I don't own either speaker, could it be possible that the balance between the bass units and the upper frequency units on the t-66 could be unintentionally balanced louder on the mid treble end? If that were the case it could possibly explain a lot of your impressions

@spiritualarchitect4276 Ай бұрын

Congrats to John on sneaking into Septembers Stereophile issue (page 34). But why Wombats?

@DarkoAudio Ай бұрын

Is that Alex H's Munich report? If so, Alex's tale is a gross mischaracterisation of events.

@gordonarmstrong1077 Ай бұрын

Are the passive radiators supposed to face inward, or depending on room, can the speakers be switched around to have them facing outwards? For what it's worth,my Rega RX 5 sound better in my area facing inward as well.

@DarkoAudio Ай бұрын

Per the video, there is one on each side of each speaker.

@gordonarmstrong1077 Ай бұрын

Ah, thanks.

@mikek6726 Ай бұрын

Is it necessary to use the LFE input on these?

@damienlahoz Ай бұрын

LFE is for home theatre, its bypassed for two channel automatically.

@mesterha Ай бұрын

@@damienlahozI believe they are summed. No bypass.

@dabatchko Ай бұрын

ensoulment is really great, probably the most anti-trendy album of the year (with the upcoming new album by the cure).

@ERRORFACE1 Ай бұрын

What's that hockey puck thing on the dac m8 ? Thanks

@thethirdman225 Ай бұрын

Haven’t you heard? That’s a polariser. It’s job is to align the ionic waves emitted by the DAC and has been shown to massively improve high frequency transients, as well as eliminate the notorious switching problem distortion. Actually, I believe it’s just a weight he uses to stop the DAC being dragged off the top of the unit by the weight of the cables. I think he mentioned it a couple of years ago.

@rubinsteinkleer8334 Ай бұрын

Micro dynamic flicker !!! my head hurts, 😂

@knivesandfire1 Ай бұрын

Thanks for having introduced me to The The in a previous video when you featured the Mind Bomb album. I recently found Infected on vinyl which is hard to find at my local record shops, and I’m looking forward to seeing them live in Seattle in November.

@thewaygokid3135 Ай бұрын

LOVE ME SOME MATT JOHNSON! I’m going to see The The in Detroit next month. Soul Mining came out during my college years. Been a fan ever since. Interesting speakers….Thank you John!

@nationalsfanaticable Ай бұрын

Off Topic - any plans to review the new Schiit Audio Saga 2 anytime soon? Thanks

@MrBonger88 Ай бұрын

So this replaces the One.R and Two +? Spec wise this looks like a downgrade from the One’s

@Arrionflows Ай бұрын

Rared on a diet

@DarkoAudio Ай бұрын

* reared

@gregw988 Ай бұрын

"Reared on a diet....."

@HectorHughMunro Ай бұрын

I know the CD player is a Project but it reminds me of 47 Labs industrial design. Beautiful.

@DarkoAudio Ай бұрын

I really like the 47 Labs gear. Is it still being made?

@HectorHughMunro Ай бұрын

@@DarkoAudio I haven’t seen them for years. I absolutely loved their designs. They’re up there with Braun for me.

@thehaakone Ай бұрын

No wife in this world would accept these in the living room 😂

@JonnyParker- Ай бұрын

Why not just make the whole speaker active I don't get making only half the unit powered but fair play I guess there are a few reasons why . Would they would get better sound alchemy if they had all the same amps used ,maybe I dunno?

@damienlahoz Ай бұрын

think Sandy was a fan of low watt tube amps, with this set up the sub bass is covered and you can run the rest of the speaker with almost any amp at any wattage. even a decware will run tritons without issue, probably these ones too

@GamersGettingPlayed 9 күн бұрын

buying a tower speaker with any sort of plate amp or power unit is asking for trouble. Just ask the people that have been buying the cheap crap from China that Klipsch is now putting out. It's one more thing to go wrong and if people are gonna spend this kind of money, they probably have a very powerful amplification system anyway.