TRI-ART OPEN 5

price tag says, “Yeah, I know, we shouldn’t be able to do this. But, we’re doing it. Ha!” And I sit back and enjoy with one question, “Are you taunting me?”

Hilary Hahn’s “Sonata No. 1 in G minor: Adagio” (Hilary Hahn Plays Bach: Violin Sonatas Nos 1 & 2; Partita No. 1, Decca) is brilliant. Her violin scales treble heights as if borne by wings, all the while energetic, the tone and timbre rich, with air and ambiance and space in abundance. Whoa! No doubt, the OPEN 5’s tweeters and super tweeters are hard at work, making things seem ‘easy as pie’. Bravo!

Conclusion

The TRI-ART OPEN 5 at $7500 is a game changer in that it will challenge, easily, speakers at multiples upon multiples of its price. All one need do to achieve this, is to feed it sufficient, well enabled power to bring it to life (100 watts+)!

Yes, its complement of drivers—two-18” and two-15” woofers, 2-8” midranges, two-1” tweeters, and 2-super-tweeters—allow the OPEN 5 to easily mark all of the audiophile check boxes—transparency, resolution, Pacing, Rhythm, and Timing (PRaT), detail retrieval, soundstaging, microdynamics, weight, etc.— while pleasing music lovers to no end. And there is its finesse, its open air ambiance, its wealth of spatial cues, and the incredible spaciousness, as a result, which, in my opinion, make it other—not electrostatic, not boxed, not planar—but perhaps some mix of all in addition to being open baffle.

TRI-ART OPEN 5 is a music lover’s and an audiophile’s ‘for sure’ bargain and for us an award winner and easily so. We award the OPEN 5 our highest award—DIAMOND AWARD—for outstanding musical prowess and for its various assembled, technical abilities that make it a truly extraordinary speaker (and at such an outstandingly low cost!). Can you say bargain? Bravo! Bravo!

Pros: Incredibly musical and exceptionally proficient transducer, technically, that performs leagues above its retail price and that challenges speakers leagues above its retail price (when properly powered). Cons: Needs amplification greater than 50 watts to excel.

The Company

TRI-ART AUDIO

OPEN 5 Speakers $7,599 www.triartaudio.com

4 Harvey Street, Kingston ON K7K 5B9