Trinity DAC

[CKKeung]

This weekend I placed my Trinity dac on a Halcyonics micro 40 unit. Experiences so far are more or less the similar as when I placed my Dcs Scarlatti 4 box player on another Halcyonic device many moons ago: lower noise floor, (perceived?) better dynamics probably due to lowering the noise floor, better bass, more depth in the soundstage and the feeling that you can look more easily into it (that is you can differentiate more clearly the separate instruments, including the 'dying' tones of instruments that are not being played anymore) and a more organic sound.

Hi Audiocrack,
Congratulation!

I wonder how close the less expensive Minus K can be with the fabulous Halcyonics micro 40. Do you have any experience on Minus K?
http://positive-feedback.com/Issue71/minus_k.htm
Thanks!

Cheers,
CK

 

[Priaptor]

This weekend I placed my Trinity dac on a Halcyonics micro 40 unit. Experiences so far are more or less the similar as when I placed my Dcs Scarlatti 4 box player on another Halcyonic device many moons ago: lower noise floor, (perceived?) better dynamics probably due to lowering the noise floor, better bass, more depth in the soundstage and the feeling that you can look more easily into it (that is you can differentiate more clearly the separate instruments, including the 'dying' tones of instruments that are not being played anymore) and a more organic sound.

For those who can't afford these expensive isolation devices, there are a couple of alternatives:

Minus K technology:
http://www.minusk.com/content/produ...-isolation-platforms-benchtops-isolators.html

and much cheaper still and gives significant isolation, Townshend:

http://www.townshendaudio.com/hi-fi...inema-equipment-vibration-isolation-platform/
http://www.townshendaudio.com/hi-fi...t-vibration-isolation/seismic-isolation-pods/

I am now using the Townshend stuff for just about everything. Barry Diamant from Soundkeeper turned me on to the Townshend just before I went for the Minus K. Needless to say, I am very happy and saved tons of $$. Their stand is not the nicest looking but does a great job. The platform has worked wonders for my amps and I am going to get some "pods" for my computer.

I am not saying it is "better" or in the same league as the Halcyonics, but will work wonders in a similar way for a fraction of the $$ for most of your other equipment.

 

[Audiocrack]

Hi Audiocrack,
Congratulation!

I wonder how close the less expensive Minus K can be with the fabulous Halcyonics micro 40. Do you have any experience on Minus K?
http://positive-feedback.com/Issue71/minus_k.htm
Thanks!

Cheers,
CK

Hello CK Keung,

Thanks for your reply. I am sorry to report that I have never heard a Minus K in my or any other system so I have no idea how it compares to the Halcyonics devices. I am very fond of the latter but I have never heard the apparently somewhat similar Herzan active isolation devices. Expensive as well but probably also very good. I refer to the separate thread on the Herzan/Table Stable "active" isolation

 

[Priaptor]

Hi Audiocrack,
Congratulation!

I wonder how close the less expensive Minus K can be with the fabulous Halcyonics micro 40. Do you have any experience on Minus K?
http://positive-feedback.com/Issue71/minus_k.htm
Thanks!

Cheers,
CK

CK,

Very funny. We were both posting at the same time and referring to the Minus K at the same time.

If you know Barry, I would recommend you reaching out to him and his feelings regarding these products. First, Barry is an amazingly talented person who really believes in isolation devices and not "decoupling" devices which in many cases are just "coupling" devices. I think you would get some good advice from him. I was going to invest heavily, I mean heavily until I spoke to him. Again, nothing against the Halcyonics and if I were going to be using a turntable my choice would have been different, BUT ............

I am very happy with the plain jane Townshend stuff. It might not look really cool as you can see on their website BUT it works.

 

[CKKeung]

Symposium boards

CK,
Very funny. We were both posting at the same time and referring to the Minus K at the same time.

If you know Barry, I would recommend you reaching out to him and his feelings regarding these products. First, Barry is an amazingly talented person who really believes in isolation devices and not "decoupling" devices which in many cases are just "coupling" devices. I think you would get some good advice from him. I was going to invest heavily, I mean heavily until I spoke to him. Again, nothing against the Halcyonics and if I were going to be using a turntable my choice would have been different, BUT ............

I am very happy with the plain jane Townshend stuff. It might not look really cool as you can see on their website BUT it works.

Hi Audiocrack & Priaptor,

Many tanks for your replies & suggestions!

In fact I have been using Symposium boards with some of my gears. They are not expensive but I am itchy and want to know more about the better isolation devices such as Minus K and Halcyonics.

Bellow is the photo showing my CAS desktop in a Silverstone chassis placed on a Symposium Iso Segue boards which is said to be particularly good for components with internal moving parts such as CD transport mechanisms or CD-ROM.
Of course the Townshend boards look much better.

 

[wisnon]

For those who can't afford these expensive isolation devices, there are a couple of alternatives:

Minus K technology:
http://www.minusk.com/content/produ...-isolation-platforms-benchtops-isolators.html

and much cheaper still and gives significant isolation, Townshend:

http://www.townshendaudio.com/hi-fi...inema-equipment-vibration-isolation-platform/
http://www.townshendaudio.com/hi-fi...t-vibration-isolation/seismic-isolation-pods/

I am now using the Townshend stuff for just about everything. Barry Diamant from Soundkeeper turned me on to the Townshend just before I went for the Minus K. Needless to say, I am very happy and saved tons of $$. Their stand is not the nicest looking but does a great job. The platform has worked wonders for my amps and I am going to get some "pods" for my computer.

I am not saying it is "better" or in the same league as the Halcyonics, but will work wonders in a similar way for a fraction of the $$ for most of your other equipment.

Priaptor,

What does a typical Townsend platform go for? Comparable to Starsound Sistrum?

 

[Priaptor]

They are relatively cheap.

The sizes they list are "standard" but for example, a custom made platform for my REF250s were 1300 a piece, whereas the standard ones are closer to 800.

I also purchased their stand, without the glass insert was 3K. The glass or acrylic (what used to be used with Stillpoints) will run you 1200 or 300 respectively. I went with a tinted glass an not the acrylic. I should explain about the stand. If you live in America, they don't ship with the shelves and the recommend you get locally. I used Dulles (http://www.dullesglassandmirror.com/store/) who were great and delivered quickly and in no time. The stand is simple to put together and WORKS!

Alternatively you can just buy the pods to put under each component and the pods vary according to the weight they need to support, something I would recommend if you already have a rack and just want the cheapest manner possible for isolation.

Lastly, if you have a prebuilt cabinet, they make "corner" supports that can isolate a whole non-audiophile cabinet and give you much of the benefit of their other products.

Max from Townshend actually does measure isolation of his products as you will see on his white papers and they compare pretty favorably to stuff costing 20x the price. You wouldn't use it for an electron microscope BUT for our needs it is pretty good.

 

[wisnon]

Thank you.

What do the Pods run for, approximately (for example a yellow pod)?

Edit, no need to answer, as I just realized they are a UK company and I could call them.

 

[Priaptor]

Thank you.

What do the Pods run for, approximately (for example a yellow pod)?

Edit, no need to answer, as I just realized they are a UK company and I could call them.

Yeah, that would be best. I went through the distributor here in the USA. Like I said, Barry Diamant doesn't just recommend anything. He is very very cautious about what he recommends and is one of the most knowledgeable as he has tremendous experience in with studio work including Led Zeppelin, etc.

For me the biggest improvement came when applied to my tube amps. These products, especially for the $$ deserve serious attention.

 

[Elberoth]

Did anyone of the Triniry owners try to install the Trinity USB driver on Windows Server 2012 ?

The system is said to be very similar to Win 8 and many (most ?) drivers install without problems, if not straight away then in Win 7 or 8 compatibility mode, but somehow the Trinity drivers don't. Or at least I do not know how to install them.

 

[jsn]

Did anyone of the Triniry owners try to install the Trinity USB driver on Windows Server 2012 ?

The system is said to be very similar to Win 8 and many (most ?) drivers install without problems, if not straight away then in Win 7 or 8 compatibility mode, but somehow the Trinity drivers don't. Or at least I do not know how to install them.

.
Hi Adam,
I am using the windows 2012 r2 with Trinity DAC.
Please download the latest driver :
http://www.trinity-ed.de/typo/fileadmin/Trinity_USB_driver_1.61a.zip

It is necessary to disable the driver signature signature as in the following steps:
To disable the signature requirement for the current boot process:
1. Restart the computer and during startup, press F8.
This will bring you to the Advanced Boot Options
2. Move the cursor to the 'Disable Driver Signature Enforcement', press Enter to
select Disable Driver Signature Enforcement.
3. Boot into Windows
4. Install the downloaded latest driver
.
Thank you.
Jsn

 

[Elberoth]

Jsn - thanks, worked like a charm !

 

[Audiocrack]

A long time friend, actually the guy that started and fuelled my interest for high end many, many moons ago with his beautiful Beveridge electrostatic loudspeakers, visited me today in order to listen to the Trinity dac and Trinity cd-drive. We listened intensively to a few samples of Channel Classics in red book, in 24/96 and in 24/192 sample rate (a free CC download can be found on the website of Channel Classics including a dsd sample (which I cannot play in dsd on the Trinity dac); now and then these downloads are being renewed so check this website out I would say). First of all, we started with only red book recordings and my friend was very impressed with the red book sound of the Trinity combo. We listened not only to CC red book samples but to several red book recordings. After this we compared the various CC samples and lastly we listened to quite a number of high res files. The conclusion of my (audio) buddy was very clear: good red book sounds really impressive, but good high res recordings, in particular the 24/192 files, are even more impressive sounding: more refined, more transparent, larger/deeper soundstage. better dynamics. And, but this I have said before and therefore will come as no surprise, the Trinity combo is awfully good.

 

[Audiocrack]

Has anyone of the Trinity dac owners experimented with different (quality) usb cables? I am using a very simple usb cable and never experimented myself because the sound of the Trinity combo is already so impressive.

Adam, do you think that - given the built (galvanized) quality of the Trinity combo, any gain can be realized by using a higher quality usb cable?

 

[wisnon]

Try the TotalDac USB cable for €350. I see people raving over it!

 

[Matrix]

I have limited experience trying different USB cables on the Trinity.

I had the Audiquest Diamond and now have the above mentioned TotalDac USB/Filter cable.
To my ears and system the Totaldac cable sounds better.
It seams more open with more resolution. After hearing the Totaldac the Diamond appears to me like having a slight veil, a darker sound.
It also seems faster with music transients.

Hope this helps.

 

[Audiocrack]

I have limited experience trying different USB cables on the Trinity.

I had the Audiquest Diamond and now have the above mentioned TotalDac USB/Filter cable.
To my ears and system the Totaldac cable sounds better.
It seams more open with more resolution. After hearing the Totaldac the Diamond appears to me like having a slight veil, a darker sound.
It also seems faster with music transients.

Hope this helps.

Thanks much Matrix. Do I understand you correctly that you tried the Totaldac cable with the Trinity dac and that you heard indeed differences using various usb cables with the Trinity dac?

 

[Audiocrack]

Try the TotalDac USB cable for €350. I see people raving over it!

Thanks Wisnon. Matrix seems to like the Totaldac cable as well. I am just wondering - given the special features of the Trinity dac - if it makes sense to try various usb cables with this dac.

 

[Matrix]

Yes, I heard differences in my system using the Trinity with the Totaldac cable compared to other USB cables.
The Diamond I used before seemed darker sounding, with less resolution and also a little bit slower on transients.

AFAIK, the d1 USB cable also acts as a USB filter removing any electrical noise/interference.

With the Totaldac cable used in your system you may reach different conclusions but for the price I think it's really worth trying.

Here it is:

 

[microstrip]

Had anyone of the Trinity dac owners experimented with different (quality) usb cables? I am using a very simple usb cable and never experimented myself because the sound of the Trinity combo is already so impressive.

Adam, do you think that - given the built (galvanized) quality of the Trinity combo, any gain can be realized by using a higher quality usb cable?

Audiocrack,

If you accept that the Trinity PC/CD player makes any difference you must be prepared to accept that the USB cable also makes a difference. BTW, do you think that a physical CD played through the player sounds better or worst than the ripped CD in your Trinity combo?