A Better Bookshelf

RATING

AT SOME POINT when I reviewed GoldenEar Technology’s Triton Reference tower in early 2017, it hit me that the company may have backed itself into a marketing corner with its new offering. After all, how do you push the performance envelope further after developing a “Reference” speaker? The company’s agenda, as it turned out, was to scale its $8,500 flagship down in order to deliver variations on the Reference experience. To that end, GoldenEar quickly followed up with the Triton One.R ($6,000/pair), a smaller and less pricey tower that to my ears didn’t compromise on performance in any substantive way. Now, the company has introduced the BRX ($1,599/pair), a passive bookshelf entry in the Reference lineup. Since a key component of both the Reference and the One.R is a built-in powered subwoofer section that enables the speaker to deliver true full-range sound, I was eager to see—and hear—how the company had navigated the challenge of getting Reference-level performance from a compact, passive package.

The first part of that puzzle makes