The all-new Triton is Symphonium's new 3-driver hybrid in-ear monitor featuring a dynamic driver and 2 balanced armatures. It retails for $899 USD, and features their FLAT linear impedance design, and custom IEM cables. In addition, it has a stainless steel round case, and a black anodized shell made from aluminum 6061-T6.
Several months back, I reviewed the Helios, which was Symphonium's first partnership release with Subtonic, and this Triton release marks their second collaborative effort. The Helios is a really wonderful technical IEM with a fun, sub-bass focused sound that works well with a lot of modern genres, as long as you can get the shell design to work with your ears.
The Triton, unfortunately for me, uses the same black metal shell design as the Helios that did not sit well in my ears. With this, I did struggle to get a comfortable and secure fit, but I was still able to get an adequate seal allowing me to pull off lengthy listening sessions with it for this review.
Before I go into the my sound impressions, I do want to thank the friendly folks at Symphonium and Subtonic for organize a small North American tour of this unit, and allowing me to be one of the first to review this product. This is a loaner product, and will sent over to various other reviewers in the community over the next couple months, so keep an eye out for more impressions in the coming weeks.
Sound Impressions
The Triton has a warm-bodied sound that I feel is natural, engaging, and pleasing to the ears. It takes one of the small nitpicks I had with the Helios and adds more mid-bass to make the lower-end have more body and more stout to it. In doing so, I felt the Triton to sound more correct in its tonal balance than the Helios, but it is also less capable in other areas.
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Source Impressions
During the week, I spent time with this IEM on various sources. Initially, I just used Hiby R5 Sabre digital audio player using the 4.4mm balanced output. I also swapped over a bit with the Chord Mojo/Poly setup with Roon streaming. I also threw this on my phone with the Apple USB-C dongle and the Meizu USB-C dongle, and finally, to my surprise, had to bump up the volume a bit on my desktop amplifier setup at work (Topping D50S/A50S) and my home set-up (Holo Audio Spring 3 KTE + Bakoon AMP-13R).
Using these various sources had varying outcomes with the Triton. First off, this is not a run of the mill IEM in terms of sensitivity. It does require quite a bit more turn on your volume knob to get going, however slightly less so than the Helios before it. From a desktop amplifier standpoint, I had my volume settings around the same location I would on the Sennheiser HD580 and HD600 headphones.
I had no issues with the Chord Mojo and Hiby R5 Sabre playing the Triton to loud volumes. Both of these sources are on the warmer side of the sound spectrum, and to match with a somewhat warm IEM can be a bit too much. With the Mojo, it sounded great and dandy. The R5 Sabre, despite being the more neutral sounding version of this player, was still a bit too overly warm and sometimes lacked the detail and air I hoped for.
It did struggle with the Apple dongle attached to my Samsung phone. Now, keep in mind, the Apple USB-C dongle is somehow gimped a bit when used with Android devices, so it's potential is locked. That said, most IEMs behave fine, but in the case with the Triton, I was just barely getting it loud enough at 100% volume. So, this dongle became useless. My other Meizu dongle worked fine however, and sounded quite good.
Finally, with my stereo rack Bakoon AMP-13R + Holo Spring 3 setup, I was actually able to use the Triton without any power noise or worry about the volume dial being too loud, like I would experience if I tried using most any other in-ear. The sensitivity of this IEM is low, and is more like using a headphone than an in-ear.
My best experiences with the Triton came from using this full audio setup, and with the Chord Mojo/Poly.
More Sound Impressions
Back to the Triton. Holistically, I really enjoyed listening to this in-ear. It has a natural and smooth sound to all my music. The fit does bother me some, and not feeling secure wearing it gave me caution in how much movement I could use with them in. That said though, sitting down and listening to this IEM was a pleasure.
The body and amount of bass on the Triton is really good. It is a touch warm, and add in the fact that it's upper-mid range is relaxed from neutral, gives the overall impression of a more lush and engaging musical sound. Perhaps, this is why I prefer this IEM with a brighter or more neutral source chain pairing, and it doesn't quite jibe with my Hiby DAP.
For those that crave big impact and large slam, huge dynamic swings, similar to what you found in their previous Helios release, this Triton may come off a bit disappointing. Even on the tracks that have the most impact and slam, the Triton seemed a little reserved, given how warm the overall sound is. It still has decent impact though, but falls slightly to the Unique Melody MEST CIEM, and to the Empire Ears Odin. It's more impactful and slammy than the Hidition Viento CIEM, however, but falls quite a bit behind the Dunu Zen on this front.
The most interesting comparison I had in my arsenal were between my two CIEMs: Viento and MEST. Both are a tad higher but they do share some similarities. The Viento's overall bass and mid-range quantity is right in-line with the Triton, while the reduced and relaxed upper-mids remind me a bit of the MEST's. That said, neither of these three, as a whole, remind me of any of them. They all have difference overall signatures, and technical performances.
The Triton presents one of the more natural presentations of the many IEMs I've listened to recently. It's subtle and analog in its presentation, but isn't smeared by haze or any of that. The subdued upper midrange makes this sound a little more cozy and inviting than many of the other IEMs I've been listening to more recently, which accentuate and lift this area up.
Technically, the Triton is above average overall, but I do feel like it does not reach above it's price range either. It has good detail retrieval, but not great. I don't have an out of the world experience listening to this in-ear, and it's also not an out of ear experience either, with soundstage being rather limited and intimate. This IEM has a forward, and intimate overall sound, but it's engaging and likeable.
Wrap-Up and Final Thoughts
The Triton is another solid release from Symphonium. This IEM has a tasteful and enjoyable tuning, that I don't see too many people disliking. Some may want more impact and slam, and some may want more raised upper-mids, but I can't see anyone hating this tuning at all, and at worse, it's easy to use across any genre.
The Titon's shell design will make it challenging for some people, myself included. I struggled to wear these for long periods of time, and it may not be the best option for any ear shape. That said, there are people out there who have had great success with the Helios fit.
Finally, the Triton comes on the heels of the Helios which turned some heads with its all-BA powered dynamics with really good impact, slam, and resolution at a price that was lower than many of its competition. The Triton, in a sense, is a step-back from that, but comes with a more fitting tuning for some of my favorite genres, and probably a better-all-arounder listen.
I'll be posting a follow-up article comparing this IEM to a few others in the coming days, as I'll be getting a few of my IEMs back from loan, as well as borrowing a few other IEMs that people may be interested in hearing comparisons too. Stay tuned.
What a nice review, keep up the good work!
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