The retail price of the Trinity dac is eur 39 900,- and of the Trinity Transport is Eur 19 500,-. An awful lot of money but still way below the retail price of the complete Dcs Vivaldi stack.
Trinity DAC
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The retail price of the Trinity dac is eur 39 900,- and of the Trinity Transport is Eur 19 500,-. An awful lot of money but still way below the retail price of the complete Dcs Vivaldi stack.
That is a lot considering that the Trinity transport it basicly is a computer in a nice, matching chassis. I was hoping it would cost around 10k or less.
The Aurender W20 - which also has a very nice box, high quality USB/SPDIF converter on board, clock input, 2x3TB internal storage, battery power supply, two high quality Amoled displays, proprietary software, isolated USB out etc - costs only Eur 17 000,-.
And Aurender S10 - which is very similar minus 2x3TB internal storage, battery power supply, isolated USB and clock input (all of which Trinity transport also lacks) - is only Eur 7 000,-.
AFAIK Aurender can accomodate any external USB CD-Rom drive to do on-the-fly ripping, so that at least partially offsets the advantage of having a build in CD-Rom drive in the Trnity transport.
Plus new server projects are showing up almost weekly - here is a render I got last week from a Polish company Amare of their new upcoming Diamond streamer, with a projected retail of Eur 3500,- (IMO unrealistic, but time will tell):
BTW - I have noted a substantial improvement by running my CAPS v3 PC-Server on Teddy Pardo Ultra Low Noise linear power supplies vs standard SMPS type. So the quality of the computer source still matters.
The Aurender W20 - which also has a very nice box, high quality USB/SPDIF converter on board, clock input, 2x3TB internal storage, battery power supply, two high quality Amoled displays, proprietary software, isolated USB out etc - costs only Eur 17 000,-.
And Aurender S10 - which is very similar minus 2x3TB internal storage, battery power supply, isolated USB and clock input (all of which Trinity transport also lacks) - is only Eur 7 000,-.
AFAIK Aurender can accomodate any external USB CD-Rom drive to do on-the-fly ripping, so that at least partially offsets the advantage of having a build in CD-Rom drive in the Trnity transport.
Plus new server projects are showing up almost weekly - here is a render I got last week from a Polish company Amare of their new upcoming Diamond streamer, with a projected retail of Eur 3500,- (IMO unrealistic, but time will tell):
BTW - I have noted a substantial improvement by running my CAPS v3 PC-Server on Teddy Pardo Ultra Low Noise linear power supplies vs standard SMPS type. So the quality of the computer source still matters.
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The proud owner of the Dcs Vivaldi stack compared his stack to the Trinity dac. See for his findings the Audio Exotics website. Although upfront very sceptical about the qualities of the Trinity dac compared to his Vivaldi stack he clearly preferred the sound created by the Trinity dac. An interesting read I believe!
Audiocrack - are you the guy behind the Audio16 blog ?
http://audio16.wordpress.com/2013/10/03/bavarian-voice-88/
http://audio16.wordpress.com/2013/10/03/bavarian-voice-88/
No I am not. And just to be sure one more time: I am a music lover and audiophile with more then 30 years of experience and with no financial connections to any of the brands I am using at home in my audio systems. I choose these brands because they impress me sonically; as I am no technician I only judge with my ears.
Not questioning that. I was just curious. The guy behind Audio16 blog is also a regular audiophile AFAIK. I had a chance to exchange some emails with him a while back - just thought that maybe that was you
Not questioning that. I was just curious. The guy behind Audio16 blog is also a regular audiophile AFAIK. I had a chance to exchange some emails with him a while back - just thought that maybe that was you
No problem, Adam. I wanted to make my position absolutely clear one more time as there seems to be quite some mistrust on this forum.
+1. I have both the SACD and a regular CD.
The interesting thing is, the better the DAC, the more listenable this recording becames. On the Trinity - it sounds awesome.
IMO, since there is a lot of things happening in the HF, it just shows up all the grain and glare of the lesser DACs. When you remove all that grain - it suddenly becomes listenable.
That was my favourite recording when I did my USB/SPDIF converters shootout. Nothing spotlighted the differencies between those converters as good as this one.
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Adam,
How are you controlling volume with the Trinity? I noticed Trinity also offers a preamp. Will you be shopping for a preamp?
How are you controlling volume with the Trinity? I noticed Trinity also offers a preamp. Will you be shopping for a preamp?
Please - no more torture! Audioarts just got in the Trinity transport and I'm scheduled to come in to audition in two weeks. Will hear it with a pair of Zellaton Reference speakers and will shoot out with the (less expensive) CH Precision. Btw, how does it sound with just regular 16/44 ordinary recordings or internet radio which I listen frequently? I really don't listen to sacd or high rez....
It sounds very good with redbook but to me good high res is of a different order, in particular the dynamics and the way the soundstage is presented. Furthermore high res sounds more fluid and smooth, that is more like music performed in front of you by real artists. Given the quality of the Trinity dac I believe it would be a pity only using it with redbook (and/or internet audio). There is really an awful lot of good high res available. For classical music lovers I refer to eg the website of Channel classics: I have a few of their recordings available, most of them in the 24/192 format. These recordings sound stunning with the Trinity dac and transport. The same applies to the 24/176.2 recordings of Reference Recordings. One of Dietmar's favourites is The album Folk singer of Muddy Waters: listen eg to the song called my captain in 24/192 and you will be very likely enormously impressed.
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To compare with the CH Precision, you need to use the ethernet streaming connection because that's where the C1 is at its best.
I have settled on the Jriver internal volume with output set to 24-bit (to limit the damage). Not an ideal solution, but sounds better than my MSB Diamond with analog attenuator option anyway. No iminent plans to get a proper preamp though, as my piggy bank is broken, LOL. I havn't been using a pre for the past 6 years, that is since I bought the dCS Puccini and discovered it beat my old ARC Ref-3.
I'm listening to CD-rips almost exclusively, and that is how I conducted my shootout with MSB Diamond. I have a very few hi-res or DSD files (need to change that ASAP). I reckon it will sound better with MP3s than any other DAC for the same reason CD-rips sound so extraordinary - the complete lack of grain and digital glare. I belive this is a direct atribute of an extremely low jitter design.
Hello all as I came to this party late but was a good boy and read the entire thread.
I do have a couple of questions . First how is it companies make claims that that other companies just flat out change
The level of the playing field and no one here calls it out. First point MSB claims there galaxy femto clock is 77 femto,s to be the lowest.
The trinity trashes this number and no point is made of this. A second point is jriver volume attenuation is superior to a MSB analog attenuation much less there claim at being great at this too. I am not saying this to put one company against the other here. And I am not claiming to have a system of the level of people have in this thread . As at this level I can spend 300 k
And not make any claims to people here who have a far better understanding of what is really better then I do.
I would just like a clarification in this please.
Al d
I do have a couple of questions . First how is it companies make claims that that other companies just flat out change
The level of the playing field and no one here calls it out. First point MSB claims there galaxy femto clock is 77 femto,s to be the lowest.
The trinity trashes this number and no point is made of this. A second point is jriver volume attenuation is superior to a MSB analog attenuation much less there claim at being great at this too. I am not saying this to put one company against the other here. And I am not claiming to have a system of the level of people have in this thread . As at this level I can spend 300 k
And not make any claims to people here who have a far better understanding of what is really better then I do.
I would just like a clarification in this please.
Al d
I find your comment very disturbing - for me the most important aspect is how it sounds with Redbook. I always test DACs with CDs or 44.1/16 - it will be more than 95% of my digital listening.
But I will like to know how a DSD file transcoded to 24/192 sounds like compared to native DSD.
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