I wanted to share some notes and thoughts on the Tripoint Sig NG before my SGM Extreme arrives later this week.
First a few notes on my system. I am only a headphone user and do not own any speakers. My current go-to headphones are the Hifiman Susvara ($6K). My goal has always been to keep my system as simple as possible, using the shortest signal path and shortest cables necessary with the least number of boxes. I have tried the other way and the slew of interconnects, power cables, DC cables, etc has always led to RFI/EMI penetrating my system at some point and in the end producing listening fatigue. Since cables/interconnects act as RFI/EMI antennas, that was the first step in reducing the “clutter”.
Currently, my system consists of 4 boxes, two power cables, one USB cable and the headphone cable. My power cables of choice are the High Fidelity Cables Professional line. The USB cable is the Sabalon Audio 2020 model, and the headphone cable is the DHC Prion 4.
I read somewhere that after you figure out the main pieces like dac/amp/speaker, the 3 most important things are:
- Quality Power
- Grounding
- Vibration
I had quality power handled by the StromTank and HFC Pro PCs. Vibration was the last thing I was going to tackle. When it came to grounding, I wanted the best solution and then to be done. I had been eyeing the Tripoint Troy Signature for some time and was doing as much research as I could before I took the plunge, since the plunge consisted of buying the unit unheard. I am totally in the camp that you never know how good something is until you have had it in YOUR system for a few weeks. Quick A/B tests are not the right way to judge the true value/performance of something. You need time with many tracks, different times of the day, different moods, etc.
I had reached out to Miguel a few times and the first phone call or two went a little over my head as grounding was something totally new to me but I wanted to understand the basic concepts so I kept pushing the tin can down the road.
Miguel is a great guy to deal with. So helpful and most importantly, truly passionate about his product and hifi in general. It truly takes that insane amount of passion to put to market something like the Tripoint products. Every step of the way, both Miguel and Fernando from cruzeFirst Audio have been a pleasure to deal with.
Miguel mentioned his new product the Signature NG, made from an all metal body (vs wood from the older designs) and having zero cross talk between the grounding posts. This Signature NG ($23k) was very much in line with my current budge as the Elite NG ($75K) was out of reach at the moment. Miguel mentioned that I would be the first person in the US with a Signature NG as all previous ones were shipped directly to Hong Kong. He also mentioned that I am the first customer ever to use a Tripoint in a headphone system.
When the unit finally arrived, I was happy to see it came packed in a wooden crate especially since the FedEx deliver guy pushed it up a flight of stairs end over end.
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This had me more nervous than I would like to mention since a few months before, UPS did the same thing with my StromTank and broke it before it even made it inside my house. I had to wait another 5 months before a new one was produced and shipped from Germany. The Stromtank was shipped in a cardboard box.
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Here is a pic of my new StromTank box that arrived a week ago. Luckily there was no damage. Five figure products, you would think they would use better packaging.
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Anyways, the NG did not have a scratch on it. Thanks to an even better packaging inside the wooden crate.
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I got some help to get the 75+ pound metal box out of the crate and snapped some pics of the ground posts and feet. This thing is built like a tank but looks like fine jewelry. Super impressive in person.
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The smudges are my finger prints from the cold Chicago weather.
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These are the upgraded footers from the Elite NG.
Miguel advised I put the NG on the wood floor vs the glass shelf on my rack. I needed to move some more things around so I set it up right in front of my rack, and hooked up the upgraded Signature Silver SE cables to the ground post on the Stromtank using a spade connector and then to the DCS Bartok using RCA connector to SPDIF. The 3rd ground post was another Sig Silver Se cable that went into the wall outlet.
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Then I let everything play for about 120 hours straight before doing any critical listening.
I am not very good at describing in an articulate fashion the improvements in sound I was hearing, so I will just post my notes from my listening sessions. Note that everything listed below is going from no grounding solution to using the NG to ground the StromTank and the DCS Bartok (my dac and headphone amp combo). The Innuos Statement was not hooked up to the NG. No other changes were made in my system.
- Timing is crazy good
- You get so involved in the music so easily, no matter the track
- Instruments much tighter
- Still hear all the recording imperfections, but they no longer are painful, this is huge, I can listen to so many more tracks that I couldn’t before
- Speed, but with the right amount of decay
- Never heard guitar plucks like this before, so real
- Instruments are literally “bouncing” around the soundstage, pretty amazing
- Everything sounds weightier, with more impact
- Tons more detail, low level detail much easier to hear, I find this makes music much more engaging
- Instruments are much more separated, it no longer sounds like a wall of music
- Way more holographic, instruments are above/below, in front/back, etc
- Insane amount of depth to the soundstage
- Sounds linger longer – this is something that I have never heard from any other upgrade
- Voices are unbelievable. You hear everything. Actually heard a singer grit their teeth when they sang a verse. Never heard that before and I have heard that track a thousand times
- This is pretty impressive - small details in the background are very clear and now you can hear that they have a beat and are in sync with the main beat. Its on a whole new level now, not just whether you can hear it or not, now its about whether you can hear the rhythm of the details that you could barely hear before.
It actually took me a few days for my brain to burn-in and really wrap my head around all the improvements I was hearing and there are just so many improvements. This thing is a game changer. I am more than impressed with what the NG has done to my system.
It is all these improvements combined with the most fatigue free presentation I have ever heard that makes the Tripoint the be-all/end-all for me when it comes to grounding.
As other owners have stated before, there is this removal of digital sheen that no other product or upgrade I have tried has been able to produce. But what really seals the deal for the Tripoint is not just the removal of the digital sheen, but all the other improvements that come with it and the totally enveloping nature of the Tripoint that makes music actually sound like music. So hard to describe, but once you hear it, there is no going back. For the last few years, all my purchases have been based on one factor, the engagement level it brings to my system, and so far, the Tripoint has had this more than any other upgrade I have done.
I might be coming off as a fan boy, but so be it, a fan boy I am now. How many of these improvements would I be able to hear with a different grounding solution like the Entreq, since I had no grounding solution at all, I have no idea, and frankly I don’t really care at this point.
Also, to mention, I have no connection with Tripoint/Miguel or cruzeFIRST Audio/Fernando. I paid for this with my own money at full price and was given no discounts for writing this. I am solely writing this to let anyone else know, who might be on the fence, that the Tripoint products are the real deal. I purchased this based on what I read from other owners, so I am just trying to pay it forward.
I plan to provide another update after my Innuos Statement is swapped for a SGM Extreme by the end of this week. I will initially play the SGM without hooking up the NG to it for about a week, so then when I do hook up the NG, I can see what further improvements it will bring to have the entire system grounded to the NG.
Lastly, few more pics of the my system/rack with the NG in its resting place.
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