In the more practical domains of the tech world — with a focus on top audio quality, gaming performance, Wi-Fi speed etcetera — the focus tends to be just on maximizing the performance, and everything else can be dropped. Design? Easy set-up? Intuitive user interface? Value for money?

The best product for the average customer though — myself included — would happily lose some quality to gain back an overall balanced experience. And from my research and testing, for a mid-range pair of Hi-Fi speakers, Triangle’s Borea BR03 Connect are hard to beat.

Founded in the 1980s, Triangle is a French audio company of some renown, with a focus on great sound quality and beautiful design, and though they sell more expensive speakers, it’s their BR03 that made them famous. On the slightly large side of the book-shelf speaker range, they’re easy to set up, sound great, and are available in a range of sophisticated palates — from the industrial all white, to a light cream and oak that I own, as well as beautiful dark green and dark blue versions, which looks particularly good. They also come with fabric covers, to hide the drivers should you please, which attach magnetically.

The standard BR03 are a great choice, offering great sound for the money, but my pair are the BR03 Connect; a significant price upgrade that mostly comes into convenience. Namely, these are active speakers with all the connectivity choices, letting you play directly from a turntable, from a Pre-AMP, from USB, over HDMI, optical, coaxial, 3.5mm cable, or even over Bluetooth, compatible with the high resolution aptX codec. This connectivity is useful to have.

I have the speakers set up at my desk, and this lets me switch seamlessly between playing audio on my turntable, my computer, and my phone; and these can be used as a stereo TV solution, and connected to a turntable too. Listening to podcasts over these is a bit overkill, but when you’re cooking and don’t want earbuds in, why not?

You control all of this with a rather plain black plastic remote, as the only physical control on the speaker is a backup volume knob at the rear. I wish Triangle sold a stylish aluminum remote, even as an upgrade, but this is extremely easy to use, letting you adjust EQ, volume, and audio source, and feedback communicated easily with the speakers colored LED.

The sound is where the speakers get really special — albeit, not quite out of the box. Namely, first plugged in, the bass is this obnoxious, unpleasant thick rumble, drowning and flattening the rest of the sound. This seems to be a result of their “bass boost” mode, built into the speakers, conflicting with the standard EQ they assign for the speakers, and I am astonished this hasn’t been complained about in reviews. Thankfully though, this is easily remedied. Keep the “boost” on – but just drop the bass down by three, and up the treble by two.

Having done so, these speakers are pretty mind-blowing. The precision and instrument separation is fabulous; the sound stage is pretty wide, particularly for their size; and the bass is thick, textured, and more than powerful enough to make hard-rock and hip-hop sound just fantastic. The sound is best described as lush, or luxurious; it just has so much scale and drama that you fall into whatever you’re listening to. Whether listening to the beautiful country vocals of Ian Noe, the intricate piano of Ryo Fukui, or the dramatic, electronic tinged alternative metalcore of “bad decisions” by Bad Omens, I’ve never enjoyed music more on a pair of speakers than with the BR03 Connect.

They’re so good that, rather than just return my review sample and go on without them, I bought a pair for myself, which now have a permanent place at my desk. For $699, they’re an increase over the passive standard BR03, but for an all-in-one, easy-to-use solution, the upgrade seems more than worth it to me.