The T+A Elektroakustik Criterion speakers use a transmission line for deep, flowing bass.
"T+A loudspeakers are criminally underrated in the North American market."
Every time you research transmission-line speaker design, someone says: "Done badly, transmission-line bass is slow and bloated."
Here's a crazy idea. What if it's, you know, not done badly? What if it's done well?
Enter the T+A Elektroakustik Criterion S 230 and S 240, new models featuring a bass-enhancing technology that T+A has been using and perfecting for 40 years; the transmission line. (It's worth noting that Siegfried Amft, founder of T+A, uses the bassoon as an example to remind us that transmission-line technology has been around for hundreds of years.)
Founded in 1978, the German company is known in Europe primarily as a loudspeaker brand. With T+A's wonderful electronic forays captivating the North American market (and tipping the European market), the company is known more here for its great DACs and its mighty HV series.
"T+A loudspeakers are criminally underrated in the North American market," says our in-house T+A speaker fanboy and content manager, Gautam Raja. Unchanged in his main system at home for several years, are the middle offerings in the predecessor to the Criterion line, the TCD 210 S. Though there have been system upgrades and additions all around these big floorstanders, they have stayed firmly put, with Gautam finding that he'd need to far exceed his income bracket to afford a proper upgrade.
The T+A Criterion S 230 has two 7" woofers, two 5" mids, and a 25 mm magnesium tweeter.
The bigger S 240 offers 8.6" woofers, and 6" mids.
The Labyrinth
A speaker transmission line is essentially a long port, often called a "labyrinth", that runs through the cabinet to increase sound pressure at low frequencies. With T+A's mastery of this low-end maze, bass from the TCD and Criterion is anything but slow and bloated, combining high start-stop speed with real depth and authority. Meanwhile, up top, the mids and highs are handled by a D'Appolito setup, which is another of those cautionary "if done badly" design choices. But this is a company called Theory Plus Application, the science-y dryness of the name promising that nothing is done badly, even as it utterly belies how much these speakers make you find religion.
"I love that the warmth of the TCD isn't an artificial bump or roll-off," says Gautam, "but a preservation of the natural warmth of instruments and voices."
Even so, the TCD's woven dome tweeters can be polite up top, a voicing that's been balanced out by the Criterion's magnesium tweeter. At 87 and 88 dB, the Criterion remains on the lower side in terms of sensitivity, and these speakers love big amps, getting lighter and airier with every power amp upgrade.
Cabinets with internal mazes need to be capacious, so you are signing up for a couple of monoliths, big and bigger. However, once the 230 or 240 S's are properly situated and dialed in, it'll be like they're simply not there. The well-executed transmission line is so addictive, that, unlike Theseus, you'll find yourself happily trapped in the labyrinth, knowing that the only thing that'll lead you out is either the $60,000 T+A Solitaire S 540 or, at the very least, the $32,000 Solitaire S 530.
Browse T+A loudspeakers.