Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion HiFi & HT Chat Trinnov Audio quality

A friend of mine is interested on the Trinnov Amethyst for his analog stereo Ayon equipment.

Does anybody have experience with the audio quality?
It will be with a CD transport and a Ripnas as sources.

The other possibilty is only to use the Room Processor ST2-HiFi and keep his preamp and D/A converter.

Any suggestions, ideas experiences?

As a recent new owner of an ST, I can tell you that Amethyst uses different DAC's then the rest of the Trinnov group. People I spoke with seemed to believe the ST/MC DAC stages were better. Trinnov will just tell you they are "different..." I think if your keeping your DAC's , it all comes down to the quality of your DAC.

Full disclosure, I will be returning my ST and going to the MC, as I want multi channel digital inputs. (Oppo Vanity HD). I will tell you one thing that isn't great for some is that the ST and MC don't have standard volume control. So you need to buy a USB volume control or use web based/RS232 control. That is NOT the case with the Amethyst, which has direct volume control. The Amethyst also has inputs for streaming music and a more expansive preamp stage.

In terms of sound quality. I can tell you my system has never sounded as good, and I highly doubt that it is a function of the DAC stages.

Let me know if you need anything else.

Thanks Yetsis for your very good detailed info.
My friend use a Hovland M100 preamp Testreport
and a D/A converter + DSP processing AMR 77 manufacturer link and test report

We will test tomorrow the Amethyst against the preamp D/A converter combo (see above) with a CD transport as a source.
Should I report if you like?

Why don't you go for Altitude or Magnitude 32?
Is it a money question or are some technical reasons beind that?

Thanks,
Robert

I would love to hear your thoughts on the unit. I admit that I goofed going with the ST initially. I am in the process of getting an MC. As for the Altitude, I don't think anyone actually has one yet, as they are shipping in the US over the next couple weeks(months)? Either way, it would have been a waste in the application I am using it, as I am really only using the front three channels (LRC). I guess I cheaped out a little on the ST, but correction in process. Depending on how this goes and the renovation of the weekend house, I hope there will be a Altitude in my future.

Make sure you take your time with the room correction, and do lots of samples. That said, I guarantee you will have one reaction when doing the RC with Trinnov (being a M user), that being, "wow, that was easy"...

One things that I am toying with is the idea of using the MC and its ability to function as an active crossover, so having two channels per speaker. If I understand how the Trinnov works, I should get better time alignment. A couple people use the MC in this fashion and seem to have a lot of positive results.

Looking forward to hearing your result.

Thanks, I will listen and report.

I like the concept of Trinnov, but my first personal hearing experience will be tomorrow.

Robert

First impressions- more on the next days.
Integration on the system is logical and easy-all done via an app on an iPad.
The measurements are done very fast, important is here to position the special mike head very precise.
We did not move any speakers yet as we are first interested on the audio quality and DSP corrections.

The sound was very good before so we don't expect to much improvement or even any.

The "new" sound - all listened with correction on - is something different in terms of more true (maybe less "beautiful/wrong"), all voices/unplugged instruments sound as they should, of course I only can report on instruments as I don't have heard the voices unplugged...

The dynamics/impulses are much better and clarity of listening(so called resolution) to, the (too much/wrong) bass is gone.
All that differences/improvement are not night and day as the system was/is very good, but all changes are subtable-clearly audible.

As you also can customise the sound as preferred with edit/make new "presets" you can do your "target" sound,
save it and make some other presets so you can play/decide where you finally go.

For example, you can "only" make a room correction, a placement correction or even crossover and impulse/timing (like EBA or even better) processong on the loudspeaker.
So you can leave your preferred sound of the speaker or can try to get the "best" out of it.

We are very impressed what nice product Trinnov delivered here.
At the moment we don't have a motivation to "going back" and listen again the sound before...

We will try more/other things out in the next days and listen more, enough for today for a first impression.

Robert

I think you have captured my experience, though I am not using a preamp or aftermarket DAC. Being as your testing the Amethyst, should I assume your not using the Pre/amp discussed earlier? With that, where in the chain are you placing the Trinnov?

One of the things that I liked about the Trinnov is the ability to make your own "Trifield". So with a bit of skill, you can use LRC on stereo audio. Not sure if your test environment has the capacity or the desire, but its something to consider as well.

Looking forward to round two of your review.

I’m curious about Trinnov and Amethyst. I’ve migrated from an 861v4/DSP3100 system to Devialet D400/Raidho C1.1. Also have a pair of JL Audio F110’s. Devialet has no room correction (speaker correction it does), but it sounds glorious above 80hz in my room without it. The F110’s play great in this setup too, other than boominess I know is caused by room modes. My sources are Bryston BDP-2 streamer (digital), Oppo BDP-103D (digital), and VPI Scout turntable (analog). Assessing whether my best bet is to:

1) Leave front end alone and just apply room correction to analog subwoofer outs from Devialet to the F110’s (suffering A/D/A conversions, but maybe not audible at these frequencies?); or
2) Apply room correction to sources before digital in to the Devialet, correcting above 80Hz for the Raidho's too.

For option #1, the Trinnov seems like overkill. Thinking a DSpeaker Anti-Mode 2.0, a Velodyne SMS-1, or even re-purpose my 861v4 for MRC only on the subs. But option #2 with the Amethyst going into the Devialet is apparently getting extremely glowing reviews. And perfect bass I would pay almost anything to have in my room. Any thoughts on which way to go?

I would go for option #2.
I had the chance to listen the Trinnov with different components by my friend and by a very friendly dealer.The rooms are extreme different and he audio equipment to.
In all cases the Amethyst make a perfect job and improve the sound very much.
We are listen very critical, bit didn't find any point for criticism , even found out that out that the whole sound get improved in any way.

And don't forget, you have so much possibilities to "tailor" your sound in many ways. For example you can customize the sound in that way that it have the same tendency as you like or used-maybe a slight rolloff of higher frequency or whatever you like- but still have the correct timing of each chassis.And the integration to the subs is done in a perfect way, we have listen to electrostatic speakers with active and and with passive subs, and in both cases the integration was seamless.
The best way is that your (trained) dealer setup your system and you get the experience how your system can sound at home.

Robert

There are many other options which are a LOT cheaper.

I use a DDRC22 minidsp running DIRAC as the front end of my devialet D prem and Giya G1's at $899.

I am running 4 subs right now, a swarm, and dirac corrects it all, planning to run 2 additional SVS subs as well ... dirac will take care of it all...

It does nothing to diminsh any SQ and the room correction is beneficial to an order of magnitude over and above amything else.

What you have to remember with these units is that flat correction at listening position sound terrible... you HAVE to have a target curve with a rising bass and a sloping treble i.e. you need to get the target curve to correspond with your taste.

DRC never does a good job above 500Hz ... I haven't used Trinnov, but have used sigtech, z-sys, tact, lyngdorf room perfect, acourate, KrK ergo, D speaker antimode 2 etc. and all work best when just messing with bass.

Thanks for all the input on this. It’s nice to have different options since the ideal solution (Devialet implementing DRC in their boxes) looks pretty murky. Rodney, with your minidsp do you output full range digitally into Devialet and the Devialet does the crossover to the subs or do you go high pass in to the the Devialet for the Giya’s and crossover in the minidsp for analog out to the subs? I guess you turn off SAM? Also, if you have a vinyl source it needs to be digitized first and then input to the minidsp?

I output full range from miniDSP into the Devialet

I run the G1's full range and use the devialets pre outs to drive the subs , the pre outs are low passed imternally in the devialet.

Oddly enough , my speakers arent SAMed ..but I dont like SAM in most cases and my speakers go almost full volume down to 16hz all by themselves.. not sure what SAM will do for me.

Vinyl/analog is an issue with using the miniDSP .. the devialet has a superb phono stage that you cant use if you want to use a miniDSP in the digital domain only..
You actually can get the miniDSP with analog input/output etc if you want.
In essence , you need to do an AD on the vinyl before the miniDSP
The unit to use if you do have analog and digital sources is the 4x10HD .. but it does not run dirac .. but tons of other ways of "correction"
I can never see devialet implementing DRC ..