Floorstanding loudspeakers — GoldenEar T66

The T66 is a floorstanding loudspeaker with built-in powered bass from GoldenEar Technology. Announced on 1 September 2023, it opened the company's T Series, which takes its layout from the earlier Triton towers and revises many of the parts. US pricing was USD 6,900 per pair in gloss black and USD 7,200 per pair in Santa Barbara Red.

Key specs that matter

Mounted in every cabinet are an AMT folded ribbon tweeter of Reference grade, a pair of 4.5 inch cast-frame mid/bass units, two 5 x 9 inch long-throw quadratic subwoofers and two 8 x 12 inch quadratic planar radiators driven by the back wave. The radiators total 344.3 cm2. The internal subwoofer amplifier is DSP controlled and rated at 500 W RMS, or 1,000 W peak. GoldenEar specifies 91 dB for 1 W at 1 m into 4 ohm, equal to 2.83 V at 1 m, a 4 ohm nominal load and typical response from 29 Hz to 25 kHz, with the anechoic -6 dB point also at 29 Hz. Recommended external amplification is 20 to 500 W per channel. The tower is 19.1 cm wide, 37.5 cm deep and 124 cm tall on its base without spikes, stands on a base of 30 by 43.2 cm and weighs 27.2 kg.

Engineering and use context

Both mid/bass units flank the tweeter in a D'Appolito array and have multi-vaned phase plugs, and felt around the tweeter damps high-frequency reflections from the baffle. Below them, the powered subwoofers are placed one high and one low on the cabinet, which GoldenEar says couples them better to the side radiators for about 1 dB more output. The radiators work in opposing pairs, so their mechanical forces cancel while they add bass output much as a port would, without air turbulence. The crossover is the most elaborate GoldenEar had built at launch and uses AudioQuest PMO-treated bypass capacitors, while internal wiring is AudioQuest Perfect-Surface Copper+. A steel mesh grille replaces the fabric sock of the Tritons, and the cast-aluminium base takes adjustable conical aluminium feet with steel spikes or rubber tips.

Pairing

Because the built-in amplifier handles the subwoofers, the external amplifier only drives the upper section, and a level dial on the rear sets the bass. The dual binding posts allow bi-wiring once the jumpers are removed, and LFE inputs let an AV receiver feed the bass section directly. The subwoofer amplifier switches off after about 30 minutes without signal.

Alternatives

The GoldenEar Triton Five is a passive tower without built-in amplification, using two 6 inch mid/bass drivers and four 8 inch planar radiators.