The Altea EX remained unfazed, clear and articulate. Higher SPLs did not upset the balance and mids and highs remained clear, not always the case with mid/woofers. The Triangles however did stay the course perfectly.


Anything amiss? How 'bout classical? An SACD of Mahler's Second with the Vienna forces under Gilbert Kaplan would call out dynamics, dimensionality and depth layering. The first posed no challenges. Altea's dynamic prowess slaps your ears one moment, caresses them the next. It's with soundstaging where we encounter a peculiarity by way of a narrow sweet spot. If you're in it, welcome to due holographics. When you're out, it's still nice but you do miss the speaker's true potential.


To put it squarely, Triangle's Altea is one finicky diva during setup. It's advisable in fact to call upon one or two willing subjects who, while one hogs the comfy plush seat with furred brows, follow persnickety commands—a tad more to the right, now turn inwards, stop, too far—until everything locks in and fits to taste. To not overdraw, the Altea is already fun outside the sweet spot but does reward proper attention with far higher interest rates than most competitors in this class. My favored geometry was the classic equilateral triangle of at least 2.5 meters in side length, without toe-in but a slight rearward elongation.