Trinity DAC

[CKKeung]

Has anyone heard the new Trinity amps? They are apparently all the rage in Asia...."best amps in the world...."

Hi Geardaddy,

I listened to it twice. Awesome! No direct comparison to other poweramps during the auditions so it's a personal guess only.

However several audiophiles in HK had brought it to various shootouts with other flagship-grade poweramps and claimed that the Trinity poweramp always won.
You may read their comments in the Audioexotics.com forum.
Maybe a bit exaggerating, I guess. haha

 

[audioblazer]

Trinity amp is very good . Sounded refine. Trinity always won ? Sometimes we must take such feedbacks with a pinch of salt . Something like 50 watter over 4 ohm into high efficiency speaker will be excellent . However into big dynamic speakers , maybe a monoblock would be more compatible . Stereo driving such speakers ? Many other amp will probably perform better unless it's a small room

 

[CKKeung]

Trinity amp is very good . Sounded refine. Trinity always won ? Sometimes we must take such feedbacks with a pinch of salt . Something like 50 watter over 4 ohm into high efficiency speaker will be excellent . However into big dynamic speakers , maybe a monoblock would be more compatible . Stereo driving such speakers ? Many other amp will probably perform better unless it's a small room

Agree.
Trinity poweramp was not driving power-hungry loudspeakers during the two auditions of mine.
That's why I said "…they claimed...in the forum...".
I am eager to witness it pairing with more power-hungry speakers too.

 

[audioblazer]

U have read the review , it's accurate & polite. Looking forward to listen to what the Monoblock can do

 

[Elberoth]

The Trinity Supreme is not your regular 25WPC power amp.

It acts as a perfect power source delivering 40Vpp, which means that it can double the power with halving the impedance.

It delivers 25W into 8Ohm, 50W into 4 Ohm and 100W into 2 Ohm. It is very different to your 'typical' 25WPC amp, which will probably deliver something like 25W/40W/20W. So at 2Ohms the Trinity amp will be like 5-times more powerful than such an amp and will have no problems with driving even the most demanding speakers (impedance and phase curve wise).

It is somehow similar to Accuphase Class-A amps. I have the E-550 integrated at home, which is rated 30W into 8 Ohm, 60 W into 4 Ohm and 120 W into 2 Ohm (so very close to Trinity Supreme) and I have no problems with driving my Magico S5, which are only 87dB, to earsplitting levels.

 

[audioblazer]

Measurements are indeed impressive . However the test is in listening & I have the opportunity to listen to it in my room 17'10" x 28ft with side wall 7'10" , peaking at 12.5" along its length driving a reasonably efficient Focal Stella with efficiency of 94db . Superb tonality . Sounded very much like a solid state Ongaku . I m sure it will sound much better with the monoblock & I hope to have the opportunity to listen to it . In a small room , I m confident it's probably 1 of the best amp in the market

 

[audioblazer]

Measurements are indeed impressive . However the test is in listening & I have the opportunity to listen to it in my room 17'10" x 28ft with side wall 7'10" , peaking at 12.5" along its length driving a reasonably efficient Focal Stella with efficiency of 94db . Superb tonality . Sounded very much like a solid state Ongaku . I m sure it will sound much better with the monoblock . In a small room , I have no doubt it's probably 1 of the best amp in town

 

[LL21]

Measurements are indeed impressive . However the test is in listening & I have the opportunity to listen to it in my room 17'10" x 28ft with side wall 7'10" , peaking at 12.5" along its length driving a reasonably efficient Focal Stella with efficiency of 94db . Superb tonality . Sounded very much like a solid state Ongaku . I m sure it will sound much better with the monoblock . In a small room , I have no doubt it's probably 1 of the best amp in town

How did it compare with your Vitus Masterpiece? I am most curious.

 

[Elberoth]

Indeed, the measurements Dietmar posted are very impressive. The THD alone is half of that of Soulution 701 ...

To me however, it is even more impressive how it is (over)built. The power supply is triple regulated and uses 64 (!) voltage regulators only for the output transistors. There are 170 output transistor pairs (170 npn and 170pnp = 340 output transistors !) per amplifier. The gain stage has a noise redings lower than the Trinity phonostage (which uses some 70dB of gain !) - we are talking about -160dB range here.

The whole thing runs in a pure Class A.

The enclosure is milled from 64kg (141 pounds) block of aluminium.

To me, this is like a modern day Mark Levinson ML-2. Certainly, the most expensive, and the most overengineered 25W on the market right now. This is the current state of the art.

 

[Elberoth]

BTW - the amp can be run in stereo, or mono mode. A pair of monos has 4x the power - 100W/200W/400W into 8/4/2 Ohms.

 

[audioblazer]

http://www.monoandstereo.com/2015/03/the-trinity-stereo-amp-and-vitus.html#more

 

[LL21]

From what i have heard from one other who has heard the Trinity, i get the sense this is quite a discerning review.

 

[CKKeung]

http://www.monoandstereo.com/2015/03/the-trinity-stereo-amp-and-vitus.html#more

David against Goliath... This refers to not only the sizes but also the prices.
Please note that the msrp of MP-S201 is € 90k.
The Trinity Poweramp price is less than 1/2 of it so a more fair comparison should be a pair of Trinity monoblocks vs a MP-S201.

Anyway, info from friends who contacted the shootout witnesses is that this shootout had no obvious winner.

 

[audioblazer]

Trinity Retail for Euro 55k . Hmmm. No obvious winner ?
The reason we conducted the shoot out is that we were mightily curious with all the hypes . I personally think that audioexotics is a boutique audio store with the best sounding show room. I dare said that it's probably the best demo of high end equipment I have ever had the pleasure of listening. With the assertion that Trinity Stereo can whack any monoblock in a room below 600 sq ft & all the superb measurements , it's sometime we must listen to . With my room size 500 sq ft , it would be a perfect fit for demonstrating the prowess of Trinity . We listened for 20-30min & enjoyed the shoot out & concluded that its a very good amp with some limitations
Anyway the important thing is that U believe . That's all that matter . Enjoy the hobby . After all we are not the owner or designer of any particular brand & as such no need to take side but to just trust our ears & admit to the truth

 

[CKKeung]

Trinity Retail for Euro 55k . Hmmm. No obvious winner ?

An important suppl info : The net price of Trinity poweramp is way lower than the list price ah. haha

 

[audioblazer]

Not so compared to other products. Selling like a control item. Good for biz. Looking forward to the loudspeaker which I m quite sure will be ultra expensive . In Asia , cheap things don't sell that well

 

[Elberoth]

A good news for Aurender users: Aurender finally solved the software issue that appeared last year after a software update and it works again with the Trinity DAC without problems.

They have also introduced a DSD to PCM resampling feature (selectable between 88kHz and 176kHz as output format) which will allow to DAC to play the DSD files without the need for offline resampling.

 

[Murat]

Hi everybody!
I'm in progress of reading this thread (half way passed ), but can't wait to post my impressions about Trinity DAC!
This is trully amazing device!
I had some expirience with different DACs and post a little during my way here:
http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?vdone&1246568559&read&keyw&zztrinity
Some years ago I was lucky to audition GTE Audio DAC in my system.
At that time I had full Scarlatti stack and Lavry Gold and my system was typical Gryphon-Tidal high end.
It was obvious for me at that time, that this DAC is something special.
I remember that soundstage was more 3D, I would say, and I value the quality of soundstage very much.
Some time ago I started to search for this DAC to audition it again in my completely new system.
It is now Tubes->Horns. Tubes are kind of Ongaku but more powerful and even better measurements...horns are kind of LivingVoice Olympian Vox, but not as perfect...still have a way to improve.
So, for this system, which is far more resolving than typical HighEnd I decided to find GTE Audio DAC.
And found out that it is now Trinity DAC and finally I'm happy to post my impressions.
First, I compared with my current Lavry Gold DAC (it is quite respectfull DAC which I preferred to dCS Scarlatti full stack) and I found out exactly the same benefits which I knew already from my previous expirience with GTE - much better soundstage.
All instruments become more solid and localized much more precisely in soundstage.
So, only this benefit was enough for me to justify the price, but something really unexpectable happened next.
I knew from this thread that USB interface sounds better that SPDIF, but I didn't count it much, because I had another expirience with my Scarlatti stack. USB was worst. And I've spent a lot of time investigating computer audio.
I've "invented" Adnaco fiber optics interface to isolate PC from audio card.
Couple of years ago it was a revolution in HighEnd when I said that this computer sounds better that Scarlatti transport!
This "invention" was implemented by many audiophiles in Russia where I post a lot to our community.
But it all was with RME professional card to get SPDIF out. USB was much more inferior to it.
Now I understand why...in Scarlatti system this USB was then anyway converted to SPDIF by separate device in Scarlatti stack.
Trinity is another story.
What I've heard from USB input connecting my notebook completely changed my mind!
CD rip sounds like HighRes in contrast with SPDIF which sounds like very low bitrate MP3!!!
Through USB Trinity superior to anything I ever heard with such a huge margin, that I would say that now I know what is HighEnd and all other systems was kind of all-in-one boom boxes. The step is such dramatic!!!
So, what I want to say: when you have a chance to audition Trinity DAC in your system, you'll buy it for sure!
This is not kind of personal preferences, the benefits are so obvious that there is no way not to confirm it.
And there is technical solutions and measurements behind it.
May be the DAC is the only device where measurements directly corresponds to audible quality.
So, I even suggest to order it without even audition...never did it before

 

[Elberoth]

Murat,

Welcome at WBF ! I've following your audio journey over at AudiogoN forum for many years.

You are the trird Scarlatti user that went to the dark side. Audiocrack also found the Trinity DAC to better has Scarlatti stack (and his was sitting on megabuck, active isolation tables). On my route from Scarlatti, I have briefly used MSB DAC IV Signature and MSB DAC IV Diamond Plus. I also had that goosebumps moment the first time I switched it on - so know exactly how you feel !

Please make sure you try the TotalDAC D1 USB Cable. In my system, this cable made a big difference with the Trinity. And it is not expensive @ 340 euro.

Please also make sure that the Trinity DAC is not connected (unfiltered) to the same AC line as the rest of your system. I have found out, that the SMPS of the Trinity DAC can adversly effect other components in your system, limiting it's potential.

Congrats on your new buy !

 

[Murat]

Thank you, Adam. I'll follow up your suggestions and order TotalDAC D1 USB cable and experiment with connecting Trinity to PurePower2000 regenerator or another AC line.
BTW, with your MSB journey, have you had a chance to audition or compare Trinity with MSB Select ?
I've missed the opportunity to compare my Trinity DAC with MSB Select V last week.
I still don't know what real benefits Select has in compare with Diamond...for me it looks like more marketing than engineering.
What do you know or think about it?