Trinnov 8m 8 Channel Amplifier Review

[pseudoid]

God I miss real power amplifiers.

This amp has a specific function in life:

The amplifier is naturally designed to pair with its companion Trinnov Altitude 16 or 13 AV processors.

I gave it a "Happy Panther" and I am a bit confused about

...We have a bit of power supply noise which we don't normally see with switching supplies...

No matter how trivial (re: Topping LA90); could there possibly be something amiss internally?

 

[Sokel]

No matter how trivial (e.g. Topping LA90); could there possibly be something amiss internally?

LA90 is the opposite of it,class AB amp - switching PSU.
This one is class D amp - linear PSU.

(nothing of the above matters of course in terms of performance)

 

[Music1969]

How can 2 tones test give worse distortion free range than 32 tones

 

[RandomEar]

How can 2 tones test give worse distortion free range than 32 tones

Higher bandwidth (likely 50 vs 22 kHz, but may be slightly different).

 

[375HP2482]

How can 2 tones test give worse distortion free range than 32 tones

With 19/20 kHz two-tone test, all the power is concentrated in two frequencies where the amplifier's linearity is worst.

 

[mdsimon2]

How can 2 tones test give worse distortion free range than 32 tones

Both the multitone and 19+20 are at 5 watts which means that the tones in the 19+20 are at higher level than tones in the multitone and therefore more stressful.

Michael

 

[Fidji]

This is a review and detailed measurements of the Trinnov Altitude 8m Class D 8 channel power amplifier. It is on kind loan from a member and costs US $9,500.
View attachment 298641
Please pardon the stock picture. The thing weighs 66 pounds due to use of linear power supplies. It killed my back getting it into the lab and I had nothing left to lift it again into my lightbox. The amplifier is naturally designed to pair with its companion Trinnov Altitude 16 or 13 AV processors. This is facilitated through the DB25 connection and gain level of 19 dB:
View attachment 298642
The amplifier is based on Hypex NC1200 class D amplifier modules. The sum of those will exceed the US 15 amp circuit so it is good to see the AC socket allowing for 20 amp connectivity (the cable I had mated to 15 amp plug). In use, there was just a bit of rise in temperature allowing the unit to easily fit in a rack with no worry about cooling. Protection circuit was quite robust and would only shut down when driven beyond spec.

Trinnov 8m Amplifier Measurements
I limited my testing to the channel pairs of 7 and 8. There is not enough AC juice to go many more amps than this anyway. Here is our dashboard:

View attachment 298643

We have a bit of power supply noise which we don't normally see with switching supplies. Fortunately their level is quite low at near -130 dB, allowing SINAD to be set base don broadband noise to a very nice number:
View attachment 298644

It lands in the middle of top 20 amplifiers ever tested:
View attachment 298645
This is due to very low noise implementation -- something the company advertises:
View attachment 298646

Frequency response is flat and load independent:
View attachment 298647

Crosstalk is excellent although for fully independent channels, I would expect to see even better results:
View attachment 298648

The very low distortion at 5 watts is showcased in both 19+20 kHz and 32-tone intermodulation tests:
View attachment 298649

View attachment 298650

Our 4 ohm sweep shows the typical rise in distortion in this class of Hypex amplifiers:
View attachment 298651
But note that even with that performance is above average.
View attachment 298652

One benefit of linear power supply is that it has the potential to deliver more peak power and we see that here:
View attachment 298653
We are talking 1.1 kilowatts out just a pair of channels!

Our transfer function shows rising distortion at higher frequencies above a few watts:
View attachment 298654

Using my reactive loadbox, I stress tested the amplifier at 4 and 8 ohm and it passed with no effort at all:
View attachment 298655

It is not rated at 2 ohm but I tried it there anyway. It ran the first combo and produced about 33 volt but then went into protection requiring power cycle.

The amplifier is pretty quiet on power on and off, passing my 1 millivolt threshold:
View attachment 298656

Finally, no warm up is required:
View attachment 298657

Conclusions
The Trinnov 8m uses the trusted and performant Hypex NC1200 modules. Mated to linear power supply, the produce nice peak power which you need in home theater applications. The linear power supply adds considerable weight to the unit and no doubt, cost. It provides a level of differentiation.

Company makes a good point that in high-channel home theaters of today, you don't want a dozen or more speakers producing hiss all together. Emphasis on low noise is apparent in how the amplifier nicely lands in our top 20 amplifiers at 5 watts (which is noise dominated in all cases).

Yes, the price is high but remember these are sold through dealer channels so plenty of room needs to be in there. You could get your NC-1200 amplifiers from other sources but they won't have the DB25 connector which helps a lot with wire management. And you may not get such nice noise performance.

Overall, I am going to recommend the Trinnov Altitude 8m. My only wish is that I didn't have to carry the darn thing!
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As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.

Appreciate any donations using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/

Maybe this has been addressed already - Amplitude 8m (m being important here) is using NC500 modules. and has EU price of 7.500 excl VAT. Big brother Amplitude8 priced at 12k is using NC1200 modules. Key in performance for both being gain matching with Altitude, that packs up to 6V.

I use Purifi based amps 7040 for L&R and 400 for bed channels, all set for 20.5db (mid gain) also excellent results, slighltly lower price.

It would be still interesting to see Altitude 32 measurement with new DAC board and LPS vs older version of Alt 16, that was measured some time ago. Trinnov claims - measures better, not audible.

 

[phoenixdogfan]

No question the performance is excellent. But I'm left with the thought someone could get some variation of eight channels of Purifi Eigentact amplification from Buckeye or VTV or Appolon in Europe, for a little more from $4k, and the objectively measured performance would be even better. So no, not a golfing panther, but still merits a happy panther.

 

[amirm]

Maybe this has been addressed already - Amplitude 8m (m being important here) is using NC500 modules. and has EU price of 7.500 excl VAT. Big brother Amplitude8 priced at 12k is using NC1200 modules. Key in performance for both being gain matching with Altitude, that packs up to 6V.

It is a confusing mess out there as far as what model is what. All I can tell you is that the amplifier matches the pictures of 8m where they show an image of an amplifier. That amplifier is NC1200: https://www.trinnov.com/en/products/amplitude8m/

You can actually read the fine print on bottom left where it says NC1200.

 

[carlosmante]

Maybe they should hire someone who can spell....

View attachment 298720

he can spell but in Spanish.....he was hangry and thinking about tacos......https://dle.rae.es/distorsi%C3%B3n

 

[Fidji]

It is a confusing mess out there as far as what model is what. All I can tell you is that the amplifier matches the pictures of 8m where they show an image of an amplifier. That amplifier is NC1200: https://www.trinnov.com/en/products/amplitude8m/


You can actually read the fine print on bottom left where it says NC1200.

I was thinking about buying it, actually, last year. I just could not work out channel count to work for me. 8CH is weird number for HT - it does not match with most common setups (even in multiples). I can think only about 11.x.8 with 3 extra amps powering LCR. Obviously too weak to drive subs. I like more 3 and 4 Ch amps, you can combine them much better together.


This is official price list screenshot.

 

[Billy Budapest]

I just looked up the price for the ATI AT528NC—it’s $4800. Keeping in mind that the AT528NC is essentially the same amp as the Amplitude 8m minus the DB25 connector, then the “Trinnov tax” is $4700. So the Trinnov name and a DB25 connector is costing you an almost $5000 premium. Whoah!

 

[restorer-john]

You can actually read the fine print on bottom left where it says NC1200.

And the (c)2011. Hard to believe it is 12 year old design now. Time flies.

 

[MacCali]

Great review! Thanks Amir. Looks like a great amp. Just wondering if it's 2x better than the ATI AT528NC that you also reviewed. The Trinnov looks to emphasize being quieter at lower watts so maybe for higher sensitivity speakers or critical listening it's objectively better. But seeing these numbers compared to the ATI amp, I'm actually more impressed with the ATI. My subjective opinion of course as I know of several more lower priced Hypex-based amps but few have the reputation of ATI or their great 7 year warranty.

With home theater amplification that is strictly for multi channel to my understanding and I’m sure they’re will be disagreement that realistically all that matters is mediocre objective numbers and solid power for SPL.

When it comes to stereo I am the total opposite and over obsessive with upper echelon performance.

Also as I stated earlier in this thread me coming to this conclusion is what I got from Floyd Toole’s research.

Also I mentioned earlier you got to have a money tree if anything more than the floor channels to have quality amp, so all you really need is 7 channels of quality amplification

I’m not sure how much the ATI costs but you can probably get very nice performance from the NAD m28 as pointed by another member for half the price of this,

 

[MacCali]

I just looked up the price for the ATI AT528NC—it’s $4800. Keeping in mind that the AT528NC is essentially the same amp as the Amplitude 8m minus the DB25 connector, then the “Trinnov tax” is $4000, give or take. So the Trinnov name and a DB25 connector is costing you a $4000 premium.

Thanks for doing the research.

 

[Billy Budapest]

Thanks for doing the research.

No problem. I found a picture of the ATI internals and they are pretty dang close to what they OEM’ed for Trinnov. Top is the ATI, bottom is the Trinnov.

 

[DavidMcRoy]

No problem. I found a picture of the ATI internals and they are pretty dang close to what they OEM’ed for Trinnov. Top is the ATI, bottom is the Trinnov.

View attachment 298917View attachment 298918

Badge engineering!

 

[Billy Budapest]

I voted “fine” because although the performance is “great,” the value proposition is not very high, especially considering you can get almost the exact same amp made by the exact same OEM for almost half the price.

 

[Sokel]

No problem. I found a picture of the ATI internals and they are pretty dang close to what they OEM’ed for Trinnov. Top is the ATI, bottom is the Trinnov.

View attachment 298917View attachment 298918

Back side is almost the same too only it also has RCA!
(but not the DB25)

 

[sarumbear]

Just wondering if it's 2x better than the ATI AT528NC that you also reviewed.

Where do you see it reviewed in ASR?