I always enjoy taking tours of our vendors factories, because it helps you understand not only their product better, but who they are as a company. After only 10 minutes or so of talking with their employees , the first thing you realize is these folks don’t make speakers because they think it is a good way to make a living, they make loudspeakers because they are passionate about sound. They make individually, hand crafted speakers that are not only great sounding, but beautiful to look at. And they make them in such an efficient way, that they are competitively priced with mass produced “cookie cutter” speakers that are made overseas. Triad has a 30 year history of making world class speakers right here in Portland, OR.
We started our tour by getting an overview of their product lines from Trainer Steve Colburn. We then entered the factory floor, where we were able to see the entire process a speaker goes thru from being cut out on a precision CNC router machine, to custom paint or veneer finishes, to final assembly and packaging. One of the components I was surprised to learn they make in house, was the crossovers for each speaker. This important step gives them a great deal of control over the final voicing of the speakers, to bring out the optimal performance.
If you have spent any time studying loudspeaker design, one of the first things you come to understand, is that making a great sounding speaker is a combination of Science and Art. Many companies focus exclusively on the Science part, and are satisfied if the speaker measures a flat frequency response in an audio test. Triad takes things a step further. They not only test and refine the performance of their speakers in their own custom built anechoic chamber, they also evaluate the speakers with two very sophisticated pieces of test equipment. Their ears! This helps bring out the intangible qualities like imaging and transient response that separate good speakers from great speakers.
We ended our tour… how else…listening to music and movie clips in their dedicated listening theater. The recent development of Dolby Atmos has breathed new excitement into the home theater realm, after a relatively quiet period. Triad has been deeply involved with this advancement in cinema sound, working as a Dolby Labs Atmos Development Partner. As we started to watch the first movie clip, I quickly became lost in the intense action sequences and drama of the movie Unbroken. We sampled some music tracks and other movie clips as well, on a full Silver System. It was nothing short of fantastic. With a custom solution for almost any room or application, Triad is a great choice for any listening environment.
