METIS HORN

When we founded TriangleART in 1999, our mission was to create the world’s finest and most musical turntables. Our initial goal wasn’t to dwarf other reference-grade equipment, but that was certainly a result of our early efforts. First, we couldn’t find commercially available cables that could match our lab-made, dedicated cables. To allow friends and customers to reproduce the rich, full sound they heard in demonstrations, we decided to refine our designs and materials into a complete product line. We then devoted ourselves to the development of electronic equipment, refining it with an almost obsessive dedication. With technological breakthroughs, our product lineup gradually expanded: phono preamps, control amplifiers, power amplifiers, cartridges, and power filters. This journey ultimately gave birth to the powerful Metis loudspeaker. After years of research, design, manufacturing, and evaluation, we finally created Metis—the ultimate bridge connecting vinyl records to the ultimate listening experience.

In our tuning tests, the ribbon tweeter most accurately reproduced the high-frequency details of music and performed exceptionally well in objective laboratory measurements. Its operating principle involves driving the vibration of a metal ribbon under tension via an electromagnetic field. We used only pure ribbon structures, meaning the ribbon is entirely composed of conductive material, ensuring a uniform response across the entire ribbon to the signal. The ribbon tweeter boasts an extremely fast transient response because its ribbon itself is very lightweight, and in its pure structure, the entire ribbon can respond synchronously to the electromagnetic field. (In contrast, dome tweeters rely solely on the voice coil’s response current to generate air pressure waves, which then drive the dome diaphragm. Theoretically, dome drivers are slower because the air pressure transmitting sound undergoes compression and expansion as it passes through the dome.) Ultimately, we selected the RAAL pure ribbon driver, covering a frequency range from 1.6kHz to well beyond the limits of human hearing (60Hz).

At the other end of the audio spectrum, we chose a massive 15-inch high-efficiency woofer from Acoustic Elegance. The driver is housed in a solid walnut wood ventilated enclosure, featuring a patented internal damping design for exceptional transient response, easily matching the performance of the midrange and tweeter units. The key to choosing such a large woofer is matching. While ribbon tweeters are fast-responding, their sound dispersion characteristics are more demanding than dome tweeters—some create extremely narrow soundstages, while others present extremely wide ones. In either case, the high-frequency soundstage differs from that of mid-low frequency drivers. Because RAAL drivers possess extremely wide soundstage characteristics, we needed a woofer that could seamlessly integrate. This imposing 15-inch woofer delivers a performance that multiple smaller woofer arrays cannot replicate. Neither two 10-inch drivers nor three 8-inch drivers can match the coverage of our 15-inch behemoth. In the bass domain, size is indeed crucial.

The solid walnut horn, mounted atop the subwoofer enclosure, is driven by a Beyma 6.5-inch wide-range cone driver, covering a frequency range of 200 Hz to 1.6 kHz. We opted for a horn-loaded midrange driver, as this is the optimal solution to match the vast soundstage created by the ribbon tweeter and 15-inch woofer. This led to the development of this stunning solid walnut horn.

This carefully selected set of driver units and corresponding load technologies form a three-in-one system, working together to create a high-efficiency, ultra-wide frequency response speaker with excellent transient response and clarity, unmatched in the same price range or even in similar price ranges.

TriangleART Metis is suitable for transistor or vacuum tube power amplifiers, or even both! The midrange and tweeter inputs are separated from the woofer input via a crossover, allowing for independent bi-wired connections or full bi-amp/bi-wire operation as needed. No external electronic crossover is required; the built-in passive crossover uses top-of-the-line Mundorf components. Due to the exceptionally low crossover point of the midrange and tweeter drivers, Metis employs a fourth-order crossover design (24dB/octave) to ensure safe operation of high-power amplifiers. Factory-preset jumper configuration is suitable for standard single-wire connection modes.

Technical Specifications:

Full-range three-way speaker
Frequency response: 20Hz to 60kHz
Nominal impedance: 8 ohms
Sensitivity: 95dB SPL @ 1W/1m (at input 2.83 rmsV)
Driver unit

Woofer: Acoustic Elegance 15-inch
Midrange: Beyma 6.5-inch wide-range cone
Tweeter: RAAL ribbon tweeter
Loading Method
Woofer: Reflex load
Midrange: Horn load
Tweeter: Direct-drive
Crossover Type: Three-way crossover, 24 dB/octave
Crossover Frequency: 200Hz and 1.6kHz
Dimensions: 64 inches (H) x 20 inches (W) x 20 inches (D) (160 cm H x 50 cm W x 50 cm D)
Weight: 210 lbs each