Reviewed at $2650 CDN

I remember buying a set of high viscosity paint for my art project way back when I was in high school. Believe it or not I was quite artsy back then and did art work on my spare time. Hell I was good enough to sell some of my art work to the local gallery.

Now fast forward all the years and I see the same branding on this speaker as I did on my high viscosity paint. Yes, Tri-art is a company with a background in painting which is unusual in the world of hifi and when I first saw their speakers online, I thought it looked pretty interesting.

What is more interesting is the fact that they specialize in making every component they sell in bamboo and with no exception these Open Baffle speakers are bamboo. While it is known to the general public that open baffle designs are simple and easiest to make, that is not even remotely true with the Tri-art open baffle designs. I go over the details of the complicated design in the video or at least I attempt to but I just want to point out that there has been a lot of thinking and attention to detail that went into designing these speakers – which is apparent the moment you see and hear these speakers for the first time.

I heard my first set of Tri-art open baffle speakers at the Montreal Audio Fest this year. The Open 5 speakers blew me away as it had exceptional controlled bass. This was funny because open baffle speakers are known to be terrible with bass. Of course, the mid range and high frequency was drastically better than most speakers I heard at the show as it should with a correctly designed Open Baffle speaker. I drop my business card to Tri-art and few months later, I was asked to review their Open 3 Speakers.

The Open 3 Speakers were nothing short of a disappointment when I first hooked them up using my Atoll in200se integrated amplifier. I still remember the frown I had on my face. I thought there was something incredibly wrong and there was. I had not adjusted the high frequency dial control on the side of the speakers – it was tilted way up; making everything sharp and bright in my room. Once I dialed the speakers down to the correct setting for my room, It sounded incredible minus the bass. It was only when I hooked it up to the Billi Amp (an integrated using Class D amplifier and tube pre amp section) that I got a tremendous amount of bass from these bad boys while retaining the beautiful mid range and air around the notes that were just floating and seemed incredibly open – not a hint of congestion within the sound field.

All in all, the Open 3 Speakers will be more room and gear dependent than typical speakers due to its sophisticated open baffle design. However, the good news is that it can be dialed down to sound incredible in any room – you just got to have the patience for it.