Triangle Borea BR09 Review: The Best Budget Tower Speakers

People that are just starting with their HiFi speaker journey are often looking for big speakers that don’t break the bank, but also sound good with extended bass. The Triangle Borea BR09 seems to check all these boxes.

Build Quality and Aesthetics

The Borea series of speakers is looking super clean. There are no exposed screws, cheap-looking materials, or straight-up low-quality finishes. Instead, they went for a clean, slim aesthetic. It’s clear that they’re made to look neutral and don’t stand out much - in a good way. That makes them simply complement regular living rooms or other places where people with no dedicated listening rooms are going to place them.

Let’s be honest for a moment. When you’re buying such a budget speaker, it’s for a reason. That reason is you don’t have lots of money to blow on audio, which is absolutely understandable. In most cases, it means that you don’t have a dedicated, acoustically treated listening room. This French company knows that very well - they don’t want you to get these speakers, appreciate their sound, but eventually get rid of them because of how they look.

The build quality, despite this speaker being built to a price point, is not bad. The speaker isn’t that heavy, coming at 23kg. Low weight usually indicates lots of resonances, especially in larger speakers. The solution high-end speakers usually go for to counter it, is to use very heavy, thick cabinets, made out of higher-density materials. But that costs a lot of money and is impractical for some people.

That’s why Triangle came up with their Driver Vibration Absorption System to counteract the unwanted resonances and make the cabinet more inert. It involves adding a back brace to every driver that interacts with the rear of the driver’s motor using a high-density foam gasket. It’s made to reduce driver suspension vibrations from being transferred to the cabinet.

In the box, you’re also getting a wooden pedestal, which not only looks good but also serves a purpose. First of all, it makes the speaker much more stable, as it’s larger than the speaker base. Then, it absorbs a small amount of vibrations from the speaker cabinet. And finally, allows for the use of included rubber pads, or even better, included spikes. If you can, go for the spikes. In most cases, for most floor materials, they minimize the speaker’s vibrations from reaching the floor and all the equipment that’s standing on it.

The included fabric grills are magnetically attached, fairly simple, and make the speakers blend in even more. I didn’t use them, as I believe that most speakers sound better with no grills between the drivers and the listener.

Finally, let’s finish with the speaker terminals - once again, they’re very pretty. There’s only one pair of binding posts though, so you can’t bi-wire or bi-amp - but with a speaker of this level, I see very little reason to do it. Quality is the main goal here, not quantity.

Technologies

Borea loudspeakers benefit from research and innovations from the Esprit Ez range, so we can see some trickle-down tech from the higher series.

The tweeterA small, lightweight driver designed for frequencies above approximately 2kHz, using a dome or ribbon diaphragm for low mass and fast response. itself is a regular 25mm silk dome construction, with two special technologies. It is equipped with a next-generation Efficient Flow System, which refers to the vertical phase plug, designed to diffuse the frequencies horizontally for a wider soundstageThe perceived three-dimensional acoustic space in a stereo recording - width beyond the speakers, depth front-to-back, and sometimes height information. and less beamingProgressive narrowing of a driver's radiation pattern as frequency rises, occurring when the wavelength becomes comparable to the driver diameter. Causes the high-frequency response to dim sharply off-axis. effect at high frequencies. Then, the dome itself is placed inside the partial horn, made to reduce reflections and allow for a clear reproduction of the high frequencies. Its transducer is powered by a neodymium motor, known for its high magnetic power per unit of volume. Finally, it has a cooling system internally, for better power handling. That’s a lot for a seemingly ordinary driver.

For the midrangeThe frequency range from approximately 250Hz to 5kHz where most musical information, vocals, and instrument fundamentals reside., Triangle used almost the same driver as in their Esprit EZ series. It’s a 165mm cone, made fully of natural cellulose paper, with no surface treatment. Here, the goal was to avoid any colorationAny consistent deviation from accurate reproduction that imposes the system's own character on recordings; can be pleasant (euphonic) or fatiguing. while retaining realistic vocals and tonality. The profile of the cone was also redesigned to improve the rigidity and increase the breakup frequency. That way they can cross it over higher than previously, and it should improve the matching with the tweeter. Since this speaker is a 3-way design, this driver is doing only the midrange - that’s why it can have a short-travel suspension, which allows for perfect control of the movement. As far as I’m aware, the only difference between the Borea and Esprit EZ midrange drivers is the amount of magnets. In Borea it’s just on one side, while on the Esprit EZ, it has two magnets, one on each side.

For the bass drivers, in this model the BR09, we have 3, 165mm each, the same size as the midrange ones. Here, the goal was to deliver a rich, dynamic sound in the low frequencies while not introducing any unwanted distortion. To achieve this, Triangle has opted for membranes in fiberglass, as their rigidity emphasizes strong impact reproduction. They have a single magnet on one side of the voice coilThe coil of wire wound on a cylindrical former that sits in the magnetic gap of a speaker motor; carrying audio current creates the force that moves the cone., unlike Esprit EZ with two magnets.

Technical Specs

The BR09 is a speaker with a 3-way crossoverA network of filters that divides the audio signal into frequency bands before each reaches its appropriate driver - passive (in the speaker) or active (before the amp). and a front bass reflexA speaker enclosure with a tuned port or slot that allows the rear wave to reinforce bass output, extending low-frequency response. port.

It’s recommended for rooms above 30m² in size - however, that’s just a recommendation. In my opinion, it’s going to do just fine in much smaller rooms, under one condition - you can’t put it too close to the rear or side walls, otherwise you are going to encounter issues with bass.

The recommended amplifier power for this speaker is from 60 to 300 watts at 8 ohms. I’d say that you don’t need nearly as much power, but it’s always good to have some headroomThe decibel margin between the loudest expected signal and an amplifier's clipping point. 10-20dB of headroom is generally needed for unclipped reproduction of dynamic recordings at realistic listening levels.. The power handling is specified to be 170W - that’s a lot for such a speaker.

The sensitivityThe output sound pressure level for a standardized input - typically dBSPL at 1W/1m for speakers, or dBSPL at 1mW or 1V for headphones. comes at 92dB - that’s a fairly high number, meaning you won’t have to provide it with tons of power to get a decent volume level. Its nominal impedanceThe rated impedance value for a loudspeaker - typically its average across the frequency range, often lower than the stated value at resonance. is 8Ω, however, it drops to 3.3Ω but never drops below 3. The frequency responseA graph showing output amplitude vs. frequency - the most fundamental measurement of any audio component's tonal character. goes from 35Hz to 22kHz. Personally, with such bass extensionHow low in frequency a system accurately reproduces sound; good bass extension means 20Hz output, not just 60Hz. a subwoofer is optional, but still highly recommended.

Sound Quality

Surprisingly, it’s a very tonally balancedA signal transmission method using two opposite-polarity signal lines plus a ground; noise induced on both lines is cancelled at the differential input. speaker. From the bass, which is not overdone, through the mids - it can be described as more or less a flat line. The top end is a little spicier than expected on the axis. But as soon as you go around 10 to 20 degrees off the axis, this region becomes much less exciting. Such positioning helps greatly in achieving a wider soundstage, in situations where you can’t put speakers super wide apart.

The midrange of this speaker is full of clarity and transparencyThe quality of a system that conveys the recording with minimal added coloration or character of its own; transparent components are "invisible" in the chain.. It can come off as a bit dry, and it kind of is. That’s why pairing it with warmer, perhaps tube amplifiers, is a good idea. R2R DACs also help with making it just a tad bit more enjoyable.

The bass region has decent extension, but not a lot of presence. It’s good - they didn’t push the drivers past their limits just to get crazy measurements on paper, while sacrificing the bass quality. It’s far from being boomy or overpowering. If you want more, you can get it by putting the speaker closer to the rear wall, or by using a subwoofer.

The soundstage size is surprisingly good for such a budget speaker. It goes quite large laterally - so left to right - with a great sense of scale to the instruments, orchestras, and such. The only thing I’m missing a little bit is the depth, but we can’t possibly expect it to do that at this price.

Summing up, it’s a very balanced speaker that does pretty much everything right, sounds correct, and doesn’t have any real disadvantages. It doesn’t require crazy amplification to perform its best, so you can save even more money on this front. The bass extension is pretty good - you probably won’t need a subwoofer, unless you want to. It lets you experience most of the songs the way you’re supposed to, yet with no clear signs of coloration or other unpleasant effects.