Trinnov 8m 8 Channel Amplifier Review

[Billy Budapest]

Not just goods but personal services too - attorneys, doctors, trainers, etc. serving the wealthy can never offer a price that's suspiciously "fair" as clients wanting the best use price as a heuristic for quality: twice the price for an attorney must mean twice as good right? Anything less is clearly an ambulance chaser

Right—the high price is an intrinsic part of what the Veblen goods consumers are paying for; in other words, the high price isn’t just an indicator of quality, but rather, paying the high price is the very reason why the purchaser bought the goods. The high price not only affirms the purchaser’s desire for the highest quality but also communicates to others that the purchaser has obtained the highest quality and/or has the money to afford such a purchase.

Anyway, an explanation of Veblen goods is off topic. But it does explain why the Trinnov-branded amp is twice the price of the ATI-branded amp.

And I still think the DB-25 connector is cool.

 

[Fidji]

Not just goods but personal services too - attorneys, doctors, trainers, etc. serving the wealthy can never offer a price that's suspiciously "fair" as clients wanting the best use price as a heuristic for quality: twice the price for an attorney must mean twice as good right? Anything less is clearly an ambulance chaser

Yep, this effect is one of the reasons, why I am able to afford Trinnov in the first place ;-) .

 

[Bulldogger]

Good specs, especially for multichannel amp.

 

[Billy Budapest]

Badge engineering!

Yes, but if you are going to go with a base platform, you might as well shoot for the stars and hire ATI.

 

[Descartes]

This is a review and detailed measurements of the Trinnov Amplitude 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 NC500 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 NC500 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.

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Great review, too bad it is not sold direct it would be half price!

Monoprice cost less than a third of this amplifier but it does have the name Trinnov on it!

 

[DonH56]

This review made it into Trinnov's August newsletter! Way to go @amirm !

 

[Descartes]

The only problem is when it breaks down and you have to send it for repairs!

 

[DonH56]

The only problem is when it breaks down and you have to send it for repairs!

They are pretty good about self- and dealer-repairs. But yah, if they need it, it's a 2-week trip there and back (so they say). My dealer says they are very quick to repair, though he has only sent in one, I think.

 

[Descartes]

Monoprice any day!

 

[Sal1950]

They are pretty good about self- and dealer-repairs. But yah, if they need it, it's a 2-week trip there and back (so they say). My dealer says they are very quick to repair, though he has only sent in one, I think.

So that's sayin its 2 weeks round trip?
I don't see that as being much different than warranty repair most anywhere else?
If my Denon should let the smoke out I'd be happily surprised at a door to door repair in 2 weeks.

 

[MacCali]

So that's sayin its 2 weeks round trip?
I don't see that as being much different than warranty repair most anywhere else?
If my Denon should let the smoke out I'd be happily surprised at a door to door repair in 2 weeks.

Depends on location I think plus shipping, I had my Marantz hdmi board fail; I mention this because that might be way easier to replace vs other repairs. Drove to the authorized repair center and had it back on the 7th day, but it was ready 6 days in.

 

[Sal1950]

Drove to the authorized repair center and had it back on the 7th day, but it was ready 6 days in.

Good deal when the repair station is within a drive-able distance.
Add in the shipping time both ways and that could easily add up to 2 weeks.