Tripoint emperor : a breakthrough

People that have read the Tripoint Troy thread that I started quite a while ago know that I loved and still love the Tripoint Troy signature. I owned two, one for each of my two systems. Because I sold my Tidal Sunrays speakers about 4-5 months ago I was able to install two Tripoint Troys in my Genesis set up. In combination with the Trinity dac, Trinity PC & drive, Taralabs Grandmaster evolution speaker cables and one set of Taralabs grandmaster evolution ic's my Genesis sounded better than ever.

And then Miguel launched the Tripoint emperor, a state of the art 'grounding' device, firstly shown to the public by Audio Exotics at an audio show in Hongkong. After (i) extensive talks with Miguel, (ii) quite some deliberation on my part because of the costs involved as well as my real enthusiasm for the Tripoint Troy signature and (iii) having learned to trust Miguels ears and claims, I ordered a Tripoint emperor grounding.

I expressed on WBF more than once my reluctance to write about my experiences with the Tripoint emperor. And just to be clear about this: my reluctance has nothing to do with the product itself. Nevertheless some fellow audiophiles have requested me to write about my experiences and therefore I have decided to start this new thread.

First of all, please keep in mind that I have installed the Tripoint emperor for only one week in my Genesis set up. It definately needs more breaking in time. Probably the emperor will need at least 4-6 weeks to fully stabilize.

Furthermore, due to the size and weight - including the crate the total weight is 420 pounds! - of the emperor I needed to rearrange my Genesis setup. The Genesis system consists of the following components:
- Genesis 1.1 loudspeakers. The Xovers have been completely reworked by a friend/technician, using only Duelund silver caps. The Genesis 1.1 is an active system coming with two (3000w solid state) power amps that are being used only for the woofer towers.
- Kondo Gakuoh 300B (Western Electric) push pull amps.
- Kondo M1000 mark 1 preamp. I prefer the mk 1 to the mark 2 version, partly because of it’s fully tubed power supply.
- Trinity dac and Trinity pc & drive.
- Walker audio black diamond mk III and Blue Pearl Jem turntables.
- Various cartridges, including Lyra olympos and Lyra Atlas as well as Koetsu coral stone platinum diamond.
- Two specally made wooden racks that are standing on Halcyonics Vario active (magnetic) devices.

Before installing the Tripoint emperor I removed all audio components (apart from the G 1.1) and installed a new larger wooden rack as well as new cables. I needed to do this in order to create enough space for the emperor. I made the following changes in my cable loom:
- New 1 meter Taralabs Grandmaster evolution loudspeaker cables that are being used between the G 1.1 Xovers and my Kondo power amps (they replaced the (fully played in) 2 meter Taralabs grandmaster evolution loudspeaker cables that I will use in my other set up)
- New 1 meter Taralabs grandmaster evolution ic replacing my Taralabs zero gold ic between Kondo preamp and Trinity dac
- Replacing my Argento silver cable between Kondo preamp and Genesis woofer amps by the former mentioned Taralabs zero gold ic.

So all in all a lot has changed before replacing the two Tripoint Troy signatures by the Tripoint emperor.

Because of all these changes (and because it is always difficult to attribute the changes in sound you experience to certain changes in the audio chain) I started with only (signal) grounding all my Taralabs ic’s with a Tripoint Thor se. Why? Because I was doing the same in my former Genesis 1.1 set up in combination with my Troy signature se. The Taralabs ic’s are supplied with their own grounding boxes – ‘double’ boxes that are connected to eachother in case of the Grandmaster ic’s – and I connected the (very small) Taralabs grounding cables to the Tripoint Thor se. Today I added a second Tripoint Thor se, connected to my Trinity pc & drive. I have one Tripoint Thor se left for (chassis) grounding my Kondo preamp. I want to make only one step after another in order to fully understand what the Tripoint emperor is actually doing.

So after this long introduction: what am I actually hearing? To put in three words my preliminary findings (my new Taralabs Groundmaster evolution cables are not played in yet and I can hear this. And, like I mentioned before, the Tripoint emperor needs to settle in as well): refinement, purity and serenity.

My Genesis 1.1/Kondo set up has always been able to touch me deeply, that is getting me involved emotionally into the music. For me that is much more important than audiophile expressions like power, dynamics, transparency, etc. After replacing the two Tripoint Troy signatures by the Tripoint emperor the system has undoubtedly become more refined, fluid, smooth and pure, that is the emotional impact is even (and clearly) more profound. The same applies to the calmness/serinity of the musical presentation: that was already very good indeed before installing the emperor but has gotten even better. Eg voices are sounding glorious, that is clearly more natural. But at the same time the system has become clearly more transparanet and revealing. In short, the sound reproduction is more natural than ever before, that is the use of technical means for reproducing music has become much less obvious.

In all honesty, I can hardly believe my ears. Absolutely astonishing. Please be assured that I am not an audiophile greenhorn getting a kick out of a new audio toy. I have been a music lover and audiophile for more than 30 years, heard an awful lot of equipment and I am very hard to please as regards my greates hobby in life.

I started the thread on WBF regarding the Tripoint Troy signature because I love it and imho much more audiophiles need to hear it in order to find out what their systems are really capable of. However, in all honesty it cannot be compared to the Tripoint emperor. The Tripoint emperor is another world, that is another dimension. Compared to the Tripoint emperor the Tripoint Troy sounds (somewhat) crude. In audiophile terms the differences are: a deeper and wider soundstage, more transparency, a lower noice floor, better focussing and more dynamics/fluidity/refinement/smoothness/silkyness/resolution.

For me it is still hard to believe that my Genesis system that I thought was more or less tweaked out, can play at a completely different level. All I want to say for now: Whow!!

Many thanks for your kind words LL21 and Jazzhead.

Mike Lavigne said:

very cool Audiocrack, congrats!

keep pushing the envelope.

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Thanks Mike. Hope that one day you will be in a position to listen to one of the Tripoint devices. As mentioned before, your beautiful audio system will clearly demonstrate what these devices bring to the table.

Geardaddy said:

Bravo. Keep climbing that mountain. Would love to see pictures of your system as I am a visual creature

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Normally I never publish pictures of my system, Geardaddy. However, I recently send Miguel upon his request some pictures of my Genesis set up to give him an idea where his emperor has landed. Maybe I can send you some pictures offline?

TBG said:

Audiocrack, I well know how difficult it is to characterize the improvements of the Troy Signature and certainly the Emperor must be like gilding the lilly. I really like your last line about the Genesis sounding at a different level. I have always thought the speakers were the worst link in music reproduction, but now have heard three speakers sound greatly superior to what they had sounded with the addition of the Troy Signature.

I don't know how many of the Thor SEs you have but I have put two on my BMC M2s and one on my Koda K10 and this gave an improvement rivaling the Signature itself. I had five listeners over today and asked them whether they would like me to unplug the Signature from the wall and disconnect all the grounding wires from the components and stands. Most had heard my system with and without the Signature before. They all said there was no need to do so, as it was quite obvious. I bet you will be singing more loudly when you have all the most sensitive pieces grounded to the Emperor with Thor SEs.

Best,

Norm

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Thanks Norm. At the moment I have three Thor se's available. I expect the biggest difference by connecting my Kondo m1000 preamp to a Thor se. Because the emperor is clearly not yet settled in yet - from day to day I hear very noticeble changes in sound - I want to wait with the best for the last. And as mentioned before, furthermore I want to go step by step in order to be 100% sure that I fully understand what the emperor is actually achieving.

My Kondo Gakuoh amps are standing quite near to the emperor and therefore I need two very short length Thor se's of approximately 50cm for both of them. I already talked with Miguel about additional Thor se's but as you know he is swamped with work. However, he promised me to deliver two Thor se's for my Kondo amps next March. Hopefully all my cables as well as the emperor will be completely broken in by that time.

As I wrote elsewhere on WBF I totally agree with you that the Thor se grounding cables are absolutely fantastic and superior to the standard grounding cables that are supplied with the Troy signature. Btw, the emperor is not supplied with any standard cables because according to Miguel the emperor is so transparent and revealing that the standard cables fall short. Therefore I have not (yet) tried one of the standard cables with the emperor.

TBG said:

Audiocrack, I well know how difficult it is to characterize the improvements of the Troy Signature and certainly the Emperor must be like gilding the lilly. I really like your last line about the Genesis sounding at a different level. I have always thought the speakers were the worst link in music reproduction, but now have heard three speakers sound greatly superior to what they had sounded with the addition of the Troy Signature.

I don't know how many of the Thor SEs you have but I have put two on my BMC M2s and one on my Koda K10 and this gave an improvement rivaling the Signature itself. I had five listeners over today and asked them whether they would like me to unplug the Signature from the wall and disconnect all the grounding wires from the components and stands. Most had heard my system with and without the Signature before. They all said there was no need to do so, as it was quite obvious. I bet you will be singing more loudly when you have all the most sensitive pieces grounded to the Emperor with Thor SEs.

Best,

Norm

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Btw Norm, given your profession you indeed know much better than I do how difficult it is to translate in words what you are actually hearing and experiencing. Furthermore, I am not a native (English) speaker. Expressing myself in my national language is much easier than doing the same in English. Anyway, I hope that I was able to give all interested readers an idea what the Tripoint emperor is doing in my system: I am deeply impressed and at the same time feeling very lucky - as some members already remarked - to be able to enjoy this device.

defride said:

Audiocrack, thanks for sharing.

I was very surprised at the scale of positive impact the Thor SE had on my system, you're a fortunate fellow to move on significantly from there! Congratulations

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Thanks much Defride for your kind words. Happy to note that you are also impressed with the Thor se. Using it in combination with a Troy signature?

strapper211 said:

Hi,

I have 2 Troy signatures,one dedicated for my my Lamm ML3s with Thor Se's connected and a second Troy signature for my front end to ground my Pre-amp,Phono,Turntable and Tuner.I have 2 more Thor se's grounding the Walker MK V and the Lamm LP1 phono,the other grounding cables are Tri-point master reference.
All I can say if you have a Troy signature and are not using a least 1 Thor SE grounding cable,you are just letting the best in life just pass you bye.Tremendous technology and workmanship.

Robert

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Totally agree with your qualification "tremendous technology and workmanship". Btw, how exactly did you ground your Walker Turntable? Have not grounded my Walker table yet but I suppose also in that regard there is lot to win.