triangle Borea BR03 Hi-Fi Bookshelf Speakers (Black Ash, Pair)

I own pairs of each of these: ELAC Uni-Fi UB5 Klipsch RP-600M ELAC Debut B6.2 ELAC Debut B6 Theyre all AMAZING speakers that sound fabulous at twice, three times, and even five times their price tags. None of them is anything less than superlative. Indeed, reviewers have run out of superlatives to bestow on all of them. The original Debut B6 is the all-time, possibly never to be dethroned, bang-for-the-buck audiophile speakers. If you dont have at least one pair of them, you havent lived, my friend! For $279, they simply turned Hi-Fi upside down, utterly reshuffling peoples expectations for affordable speakers. They were easygoing. Laid back. Powerful in the lower octaves. They make every recording sound great regardless of source material or amplifier. Im still speechless at what they did for THAT kind of money. It made EVERY other speaker company up their game. Dramatically. We owe a LOT to those speakers. The B6.2 had a bit more grown up sound. Simple as that. Lots of goodness there, and a bit more classy. And easier to put closer to the front wall because of the front port. The Uni-Fi UB5 brought affordable Hi-Fi to a whole nother level again. A true 3-way speaker with a coherence and holographic soundstage that leaves you breathless. Just make sure you have a GOOD, powerful, high-current amp to drive them, as theyre not sensitive, and theyre 4 ohm speakers on top of that. Theyre a glass of Châteauneuf-du- Pape, for ones who appreciate perfection and class. They never put a foot wrong. They point their pinkies. Theyre accurate. They have a pinpoint accuracy in the soundstage. But it takes a LOT of clean power to get them to drop the classy act and just light the place up, which theyll do if you ask nicely. And give them gifts. Known as high-wattage amplification. You dont get the most beautiful date to settle for beer and McDonalds, nor can you feed that to these speakers and get away with it. Bring out the Porsche, the medium rare filet mignon, and a Vega Sicilia 1989, and youre golden. (You also get rewarded with ludicrously low, detailed, and powerful bass.) The RP-600M killed all the preconceived notions that horn speakers are shouty and harsh. Good GRIEF, did they ever! And they did it with ANY amplifier. And they are always ready to have FUN. So engaging, refined, and...LOUD. Not very much bass, but did I mention that theyre fun? Id say theyre a really fine tequila. No salt or lime (or courage) needed. Plenty of flavor. Very effective. Lovely to sip in small amounts. But its ALWAYS ready to join you for five more shots, get crazy, trash the hotel room, and jump from the balcony into the pool WHENEVER you say the word. (In an experiment, I ran just the pair of them in my theater room, which is 35x15 feet. I set them on top of my main towers, told nobody that it was ONLY them playing, and they practically flexed the windows with output. Nobody believed me when I told them that I was only running a pair of bookshelves, until they walked over to them. Stunning. Ludicrous. FUN.) Enter the Triangle BR03. Put simply, its basically ALL of the best attributes of the others, but with little no none of the drawbacks. It makes recordings bring you to tears if theyre great, but doesnt punish you for bad recordings. Its presentation of the soundstage is in front of the speakers rather than at or behind them (but not as far forward as the Klipsch), and startlingly real. Its almost creepy. Like you can reach out and touch it-kind of realism. Not quiiiiite as shockingly real as the ELAC UB5, but close enough. Its got class in spades, AND it can party like a rock star. It can play as loud as you want, and it doesnt demand fancy components. There are 2 caveats. To wit: 1) A new pair of loafers needs to soften and mold to your feet. The engine on a new Audi RS7 needs the right number of revs for the right period of time, in order to have all the moving parts get bedded in and seated in their permanent operational positions. A new house needs furniture, beds, and pictures on the walls (and time) for it to feel like home. These arent imaginary concepts. These arent magical, esoteric fairy tales. These are facts. The same is true of the moving parts of a speaker. Trying to reduce it to mere test numbers on a graph doesnt measure what your ears tell you. So, back to the BR03. Right out of the box, they are BRIGHT BRIGHT BRIGHT, and the bass is merely good. This is not only fine; its also as normal as can be. Put on some good source material with plenty of vocals and cymbals for the mids and highs, crank it up, and give them 2 or 3 hours of a good workout. No, you dont need 100 hours. Yes, theyll continue to sound better, warmer, fuller, and less brassy the longer you play them, but 2 or 3 hours of loud-ish vocals and percussion will get them to open up to where you can get the proper idea of how these sound. This brings the brightness down to a still airy, but revealing and beautiful level...and it sends the bass into the stratosphere. I turn off my subs for music listening, and I had to go check the power switches on my subs. TWICE. Its ludicrous what these speakers can do down low. Youll be dumbstruck. That, or youll laugh like a right bloody idiot. Or both. For the woofers, instead of playing bass-heavy music that I find disgusting and repugnant, I skipped the middle man, and I dialed up a test tone of 25 Hz, turned the volume DOWN, then slowly adjusted it to where the woofer cone was giving me about 8-10mm of excursion, and MOST CERTAINLY NOT bottoming out nor making ANY type of untoward noise. I did this five times, at one minute each time. Again: DO NOT do this at high volumes. The result? Ooooooooh MAN. So very, VERY sweet. And POWERFUL. So DO NOT judge them on the very first notes that come out of them. Even just half an hour makes a difference. The first full week you have them, theyll transform from great to AMAZING. 2) Play with the placement. If you do it correctly, youll have a perfect sweet spot that spans the entire sofa (not just the middle seat), and the best part is that THE SPEAKERS WILL COMPLETELY DISAPPEAR. You wont be able to discern ANY sound coming from either of them. Ill tell you how I achieved that. Ive got two wonderful children, so I HAD TO put them on actual bookshelves, right up against the front wall. Everybody will tell you that this is the wrong place to put your speakers. And they would be right. Generally speaking, your speakers are at the front of the soundstage and the front wall is the back of it. Spatially, thats how it sounds. In a perfect world, you should have these on stands, roughly 2 to 3 feet out from the wall. But I couldnt do that. Also, the bass gets radically stronger the closer they are to the front wall. These are so bass-rich, it might be too much for some people. You can fix that with a little bit of EQ. I myself dont mind at all. The key to this all...is toe-in. I learned from The Legend himself, Mr. John Strohbeen (and from New Record Day on YouTube, which has a speaker placement and soundstage tutorial that is amazing) that you can make a HUGE, wide sweet spot where the speakers vanish and all you hear is music happening in your room...with some radical amounts of toe-in angle. So Ill make this quick and easy: put your speakers 9-12 feet apart, and angle them in at 45 degrees. Yes. You read that correctly: 45 degrees. First, try your speakers firing straight out into the room. Theyll sound great, but the sweet spot will be in only one seating position, and youll likely still hear sound coming from the speakers. But angle them in at 45 degrees, and hold on to your hat, because itll be blown off. Along with your brain. So buy a pair. Let them get a little exercise. Warm them up, so to speak. Then set them up correctly, put on Jennifer Warnes Famous Blue Raincoat or Lyle Lovett Joshua Judges Ruth, and be amazed. Believe the hype. Today, in September of 2020, these are the best affordable speakers on the market. p.s. If you want one of the single best system tweaks I have EVER found, get a vacuum tube preamp. But not just any. Get the Schiit Vali 2+. And get an Electro Harmonix 6922 tube, or a Sovtek 6n1p, right here on Amazon, for less than $30. Theyre dual triode tubes, and most everybody finds them to be THE best way of getting a positively MONSTROUS soundstage in width, height, and depth, or razor-sharp stereo imaging. In short, you get thousands of dollars of genuine single-ended-triode tube sound out of your existing amplifier. For next to nothing. Genius. Hope this helps!

I placed these downstairs in the basement for a second audio system. Right out of the box, they sound very good. While my system upstairs on the main level of my home would be considered audiophile grade, for what we use the basement for (exercise, hobbies, etc), the BRO-3s hold their own very well. You can spend a lot more on speakers, however you would need to spend about twice the price of the BRO-3s to really notice any improvements. I have paired these speakers with a subwoofer, but they dont really need it except for the very lowest frequencies. Overall I am pleased with these speakers and am glad I bought them.

Ive been listening to the same speakers (Paradigm Mini Monitor MK2s) for about 20 years. They were a terrific value when I bought them and I have appreciated their sound quality since. However, this past year I decided to upgrade my old HK receiver and Phillips turntable to more current equipment. The last piece of the puzzle were speakers although I was pretty happy with the Paradigms. I decided to try and address the two criticisms I had of them- slightly edgy highs and slightly quiet mids. After a ton of research online I narrowed my choice down to the Triangles vs. The Elac Uni-fi UB52. Then I searched for every YouTube video on both of them. What I heard from sound samples was that the Elacs had a distinctly metallic sound to them. This might be due to their aluminum drivers, not sure. I finally settled on the Triangles and was ready to order. I have been a happy camper ever since. These are definitely an improvement on the Paradigms. Great bass, smoother but well defined highs and nice forward mids for great vocals and instruments. The icing on the cake is that I searched around and found a Black Friday sale for $349! (Sorry Amazon). You WILL love these even at full price.

Out of the box....these speakers are not only alluring and modern....but they sound great out of the box....no break in time required...full bass...separation of instruments...you hear the details of the recording....over deliver for the price...these are now my favorite speakers...i have klipsch...b&w....and buchardts...I am an audio geek...pull the trigger on these....you will not be disappointed but amazed......a true French gem!!!

For the money, these are some crazy good bookshelf speakers. I’m in heaven listening to everything from Brahms Symphony in E Minor to Sza’s new album, in perfect digital clarity. They sound great playing Beatles albums or chamber music on vinyl, too. They have enough bass to 100% satisfy me for classical, jazz, R&B and EDM. Drake and other hip-hop: it’s exciting and fun to listen to, but I’d add a sub if I wanted to truly hear the lowest bass notes. They sound smooth, clean and buttery. There’s plenty of muscle there — my friends were laughing in disbelief when I maxed out the volume — but it’s never an ugly sound. If anything, they sound a lot better when they’re turned up loud. They’re a far cry from PA speakers, soundbars, and basic Sony stereo speakers. For a little more money, you’re stepping into the world of fine speakers, appreciated by music connoisseurs. I don’t usually write reviews, but this product has brought so much joy to my life that I simply had to. I’m a professional musician, but I’ve never enjoyed sitting down and listening to music like this.

I recently purchased a set of Klipsch 600Ms to replace a set of Bose 301 Series 4s, and thought they were outstanding but not quite the full sound I was looking for, especially in the mid-range, where many vocals sounded muddy. So I continued searching; once I heard these Triangle Borea BR 03, I knew they were what I need for a small room (16 x 22) setup. While not as full in the bass as the Klipsch set, theres a sufficient amount for me, since most of my listening is classical, jazz, some vocals and a smattering of rock. If I want more bass, I just switch on the sub-woofer, but I havent really felt the need to use it much. The break-in time for the Triangles was fairly short, less than a day, a sharp contrast to the month it took for the Klipsch to sound their best. The mid-range sounds are full, the bass is certainly there, and the highs are bright (a down-turn on the treble control settles that). Im really more than just satisfied with the BR 03s, since the sound is fuller than what I grew used to over the years. At $400, they were a bargain!

Very good

I compared these to the Klipsh RP-600M + Elac Debut 6.2 + Polk XT20 + Sony SSCS5 all side by side. I was using a Sony 100W $600 amp with a subwoofer. The Arrow were far and above the standouts, only the Klipsch competed, but severely lacked imaging and emotional response and dynamic range by comparison. It did have a lower mid base that seemed a bit more full at times. The Arrow sound amazing from Classical to Rock to Vocals. The paper cones have an incredible ability to reach into your chest and command emotion in a way that none of the others did whatsoever, adding a whole other dimension to music, there is a sweetness and magic to the listening. Zero Fidelity audio review on Youtube called them his favorite speakers under $1,000. There is ton of acclaim for the others in this list but I would ignore it. Maybe compare them to the Klipsh but not the others. The Elac 6.2 was very boring and flat (on mid range 100W equipment), the next step up from them is supposed to be better. The PolkXT20 were very low quality by comparison but also cost less. The Sony were great for $120 range but were lacking in base. There was also an audiophile comparing them with me who agreed with all of the above, I dont claim that but I have a good ear. I had the mahogany ones for anyone comparing colors to sound reviews. Note: make sure to try them without tone controls, they sounded far better without. All that being said, while they definitely have strong base, sometime they seem a bit lacking in the mid bass volume.

Amazing soundstage! Incredible detailed speaker. Solid bracing. Perfect speakers for all music genres. Getting another pair for my folks for Christmas!

I reviewed speakers for months before my purchase. Ive had these now for two months and couldnt be more satisfied. Even though they did not have enough base for the reviewer Joe and Tell, they have more than enough for my taste. So I would guess if you are a basehead, these are not for you. I love the clarity of these speakers. I also purchased the center speaker and together they have fantastic vocal output. For someone who wants more than boom, boom, boom, from their speakers, these cannot be beaten by anything below a $1000 bucks.