The Tripos fills the gap in our Reference range of passive speakers between the 2-way Kurre and the 3.5 way Kantu with elements from both. The cabinet is from the standmount Kurre but with a new baffle to house the superb midrange unit from the Kantu. In many ways it is a standmount version of the Kantus without the extra bass driver and associated cabinet volume.
Like all Legend speakers the Tripos aims to reproduce your music as it was recorded with very low distortion so you hear all of the detail and emotion of the music as intended – and not some coloured or romantised version.
At the heart of theTripos is its superb 90mm midrange unit that is also used in our top-of-range Tikandi Grande Bes. It is made from high strength Mg alloy coated on each side with very hard ceramic so that it remains pistonic and aurally clean well above its crossover point. Behind the midrange driver is a tapered cone that more effectively absorbs the back waves from the cone so they do not muddle the forward waves projected into your room. The overall result is extraordinarily low distortion through the critical midband region allowing these most important frequencies to come through with great clarity and without the muddle of many loudspeakers in this region.
The tweeter also has a ceramic-coated aluminium-alloy dome that combines the exceptional detail of a metal dome with the smoothness and non-fatiguing characteristic of ceramic with superb high-frequency extension of high-strength of aluminium-alloy. It has a copper cap to reduce voice-coil inductance and so minimize phase shift. And it has a saturation controlled motor for extraordinarily low distortion. The result is crystal clarity throughout its treble without hardness or confusion.
We have taken from the Kurres and Kantus their low-distortion bass unit also made from very strong aluminium-alloy with ribs to further increase their strength so cone break-up only occurs well above its crossover frequency. Together with excellent motor and suspension systems, the ensuing low distortion allows the listener to hear tonal structure in bass notes, again resulting in greater realism of the reproduced music – and not just some homogenised version.
All this driver clarity is maintained by the very high quality crossovers. They have been designed with our long experience to use the drivers over their optimum ranges for minimum distortion and to combine them so you hear them as an integrated whole and not individual units. The crossover filters use very high quality components including special polypropylene capacitors (often in parallel to reduce distortion), large-gauge air-cored inductors and high-power non-inductive wire-wound resistors, all directly soldered to each other – and to the drivers via high quality wire including Litz wire with individually coated strands to the midrange and treble drivers.
As shown by the attached measurements, because the new Tripos are so accurate with such flat frequency response and low distortion they are very faithful (high ‘fidelity’) and truthful to the music and equipment preceding them in the reproduction chain so will take on the latter’s sound character. If you prefer your music ‘warm or sweet’ then you must partner them with a suitably ‘warm or sweet’ amplifier – perhaps a valve amplifier. Or if you enjoy your music fast & dynamic then choose a suitable fast & dynamic solid-state amplifier. But given the right preceding equipment you will hear through the Tripos all the emotional drama and nuances of the artists’ playing. Like being there!
