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I made a lot of exciting hardware discoveries this year, some of which even garnered awards. Looking at the bigger picture, those awards seemed a very logical conclusion. With my review assignments, I generally made choices based on recommendations and personal interest in promising gear such as the recently reviewed Emillé Labs Cha'am integrated. This left little room for chance encounters with perfect strangers. Picking only one from amongst all those wonderful devices was nevertheless not really difficult. Curiously it led me to the only product I awarded which was completely unknown to me before entering my listening room. My personal favorite for 2010 is thus the Triangle Magellan Duetto monitor.

These speakers have become my fixed reference at home and replaced a collection of imposing floorstanders without regret or evident subsonic lack. I had believed for a long time that it was important to own several speakers to enjoy a sum of qualities that would be quite impossible to concentrate in just one loudspeaker. I won't claim that the Triangles are universal speakers for one and all. It's simply very much the case where my personal tastes are concerned.

I ended up acquiring the black lacquer loaners after some hesitation over the white gloss finish. I had both finishes at home for a few weeks after which Christine and I finally decided that the black version was the more elegant using the matching black stands (a white stand is unfortunately not available in Triangle's catalogue).


After six months with the Triangle Duettos, I am still enchanted by their sound. They truly represent to my ears the kind of sonic compromise that makes each listening moment more involving without causing any fatigue which could be invoked by some previous realizations of this French brand. More than this, the flat and extended bandwidth and wide open soundstage are special attributes where the Duettos compete against far costlier rivals.

Even so, one doesn't sacrifice Triangle's house sound. The famous clarity and vividness remain but simply in a stunningly exalted perspective. Summing up, the Magellan Duetto is a reasonably sized loudspeaker which achieves the highest level of transparency and incredible dynamics whilst maintaining its own personality and flavor. I have heard bookshelf monitors costing three times more and though sharing some qualities of my Triangles in terms of resolution, rhythmic fidelity, fluidity and linearity, I hardly ever had the same sensation of being completely involved. With my new French monitor speaker, I've now arrived at that destination!
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