I’ve been waiting for this review for a while as I had also offered to send a Trinnov Altitude 16 to Amir a few months ago as well. I love the science aspect of the reviews and it was interesting to see how the Altitude measures.
What I can say is, numbers be damned, the Trinnov Altitude 16 took my room’s acoustics to a whole new level. I’m not talking marginally either (as I had expected) but substantially better sound quality that was immediately very obvious and not just new purchase bias. My prior processors were a Denon X4300, Marantz 7703 and Marantz 8802 with and without the Audyssey app.
I found the Trinnov optimizer relatively easy to use. There is a tremendous depth to it in terms of the ability to do whatever you want. As good as I have it now with the Altitude 16, I believe that a pro could get even a little more acoustic bliss out of it.
I’m running a 7.2.4 setup with Kef Reference 205, 203, 201 and 202c speakers, PSA TV42 subs and Crowson Tactile Transducers in an acoustically treated room. Every single time I sit in my theater, I am amazed at how incredible everything sounds. Everything is just so much more accurate, dynamic, precise, etc.
As Amir mentioned, the Trinnov support team is world class. I’ll bet you could get help from them on any question within 20 minutes, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. They are incredibly knowledgeable and helpful and want each owner to get the most out of their “machine” (must be a French thing).
I’d been strongly considering the Marantz 8805, the Monolith HTP-1, the JBL SDP-55 and am so incredibly thankful I got off the never ending upgrade cycle by virtue of purchasing the Trinnov. I genuinely believe it is an end-game processor as they continue to make improvements that are free to existing owners and they stand behind their products. In the long run, I’ll probably end up better off financially as compared to upgrading to the latest and greatest new pre-pro every 3 to 5 years with the satisfaction of having enjoyed my Altitude in the interim and the belief that, with continual free upgrades, my Altitude will always be the latest and greatest without another big expenditure.
Trinnov has a new 5 year warranty extension program where they will refresh / upgrade your Trinnov to new specs at a very reasonable price. They will also offer new HDMI replacement cards (once everything is ironed out with the new standard) at reasonable “cover their cost” type pricing rather than “boutique” type pricing. I’m not aware of any other AV company that does something similar.
In general, my understanding is that Altitudes are sold at MSRP through integrators as part of a package that may or may not include acoustic calibration. That being said, if you’re considering purchasing an Altitude vs. any other moderately priced product, contact some dealers as you may become very intrigued if you’re willing and able to do your own calibration and buy a calibration microphone. It will still be a LOT of money but you may be pleasantly surprised.
So back to the science aspect, I’ll offer somewhat of an analogy using speaker reviews. For any given “X” number of speakers, I would hands down take the Altitude 16 with Revel F208s vs. a Marantz 8805 or anything else with F228Be or F328Be speakers if I wanted the best bang for the buck sound quality. Regardless of what you have for speakers, I believe the Altitude 16 will wring out every last bit of performance from your speakers and never leave any doubt about that.