A Talented Beauty
As an audiophile, I must firstly admit that my personal experience with the Triangle brand is quite short. I have heard of their many products as well as seen them in the flesh both at shows and at stores, but when it came down to actually sitting down and listening to a pair, that is something I haven’t properly done. For the uninitiated Triangle, a company with more than 40 years of experience in speaker manufacturing, hails from France. When TEG reached out and offered to send a pair of AIO Twin for review, I was excited.
Upon receiving the box from TEG, I immediately plonked it down and started to unbox the system. Inside you have a master and slave speaker system, a pair of magnetic grills, a remote control and of course the complement of cables. Let’s go over each one by one. Boring stuff first, the cables included are the power lead, a single speaker wire to connect the right to the left and an ethernet cable. So, nothing special here.
The Master speaker is fixed to right unit, which houses the amplification and the electronics. A pair of speaker binding posts are provided to send power to the left. It would have been great if there was a provision to switch the speaker to either left or right as it would allow freedom in placement, but this is a small complaint to me. On the master unit we see a switchable RCA input which can toggle between line or phono, a 3.5mm mini jack line, and an S/PDIF optical input for your conventional audio connections.
Wireless audio is supported by both Bluetooth 5.0 as well as build in Wi-Fi. If you like a more stable connection, a wired RJ45 network connector is provided which supports 10/100 Mbps. A USB type A port is also available should you wish to connect a thumb drive or external storage device. This port however does not support connections directly to a PC to decode audio. So, if you plan to use it in a desktop setting you may need to consider your connecting options or add a component like a DAC between the chain.
Moving to the front, the speaker showcases a 13 cm woofer paired to a 25 mm tweeter that sits in a waveguide with a dark gold coloured ring around it. The Master unit has two little black button like circles under the woofer which are the IR receiver on the right side and a display light on the left. The display light illuminates in various colours to indicate status as well as the active source. The indicator is quite bright but can be dimmed and even turned off if you find it distracting.
The cabinet of the speaker has a beautiful smooth matt finish which look very chic. The overall aesthetic of this speaker will allow it to blend in seamless with a wide variety of home décor styles. A welcome feature since most speakers do tend to stick out like sore thumbs. The elegantly finished fabric grills are held on with magnets but my advice is to remove them during listening. A practice I found to be more enjoyable when playing music.
These are speakers with plenty of poise and a great amount of refinement, especially given its price point. The speaker has a slightly energetic sound especially up top without sounding bright or harsh. Cymbal clashes and the shimmer during cymbal taps are crisp and clean as they should be. Ultra-sibilant recordings could bring out some harshness, but this is no fault of the speaker.
Bass is fast, taut and snappy although it does lack in overall weight and slam. A shortfall which is unavoidable given the size of the driver and the speakers sound signature which has a focus on clarity. The midbass and upper bass regions are very nuanced and retains a great amount of detail and texture. If you like, the AIO allows tweaking for both treble and bass to suit your environment and preferences. I thoroughly enjoyed listening to grittier live acoustic sets like Alice in Chains, “Unplugged” where the AIO’s traits made the entire album just pop!
The option to add a subwoofer is available but as I was without a suitable sub to partner it with, I was unable to really test out the system with one. However, based on the sound and the fact that the output is properly managed, adding a flexible speedy sub would pay immense dividends in the overall sound quality. TEG does have a number of great options of subs which will pair excellently with the AIO. There is also a special price for a subwoofer add-on, giving you a complete full range sound!
I almost forgot to talk about the Triangle AIO App. This app allows for control of all the speakers functions, as well as playback control for both Spotify and Tidal. The app also allows for control of multiple AIO devices as well as syncing all of them together. During use the app was buttery smooth and did not hang or lag in any way. If anything, my experiences were hampered more by my home network stability! I also found the layout to be sufficiently easy to navigate and straightforward to use.
In the end, a point I cannot praise enough is the aesthetics of this speaker. It’s absolutely gorgeous! The lovely cabinet work with its smooth clean lines, beautifully laid drivers and of course the little aluminium feet in a champaign gold bar that span the front and rear. The entire composition just elevates the aesthetics beyond your run of the mill speakers. The build quality matches the level of looks with immaculate finishing down to the finest details. No problems at all when it comes to getting your partner or family members approval with this beauty.
The icing on the cake, is this speaker sound is every bit as good as it looks. Yes, it needs some tweaking to bring out the best, and also a subwoofer is you plan to fill a larger room with bass. But at this price point, given its looks, build and features, this is a very promising pair of speakers worthy of consideration. Here’s hoping Triangle will put out an aesthetically matching sub to go with this cracking pair of speakers! Recommended!!
The Triangle AIO Twin retails for RM 4,428. Triangle products are sold and distributed by TEG Sdn Bhd.
For more info,
The Experts Sound (TEG Sdn Bhd Showroom),
S 207, The Gardens Mall
59200 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Or Call – 012 – 646 2738
