Trinnov 8m 8 Channel Amplifier Review

[voodooless]

Even the big brother (plain Amplitude8) which is 2 Ohm rated (that one is not) doesn't reach the numbers.
PSU limited probably.

Why would you compromise on that at this price point

 

[Sokel]

Why would you compromise on that at this price point

I suppose low gain is at play too.
Thing is that practically it needs it's own electrical grid as it needs 20A sockets (double for the big brother),etc.

Exceeding that would be an absolute overkill.

 

[restorer-john]

Seems like it's made by ATI:

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

 

[PeteL]

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

View attachment 298720

Sure, but now let's have fun and read up some french documentation of American manufacturers... That's if they care to produce them.

 

[abdo123]

Better not, it probably doesn't have the appropriate IP rating

Anyway, should this thing not give a bit more power? 700W in R2 and 1200W in R2 according to datasheet. And this thing goes into protection with 2R? Why?

it's probably limited by the power supply. can you imagine 1200*8 by a linear powersupply? that's enough to heat an entire building lmao.

 

[IamJF]

Better not, it probably doesn't have the appropriate IP rating

Anyway, should this thing not give a bit more power? 700W in R2 and 1200W in R2 according to datasheet. And this thing goes into protection with 2R? Why?

It's rated 300W at 4R. The amp module could do more but they decided to stay at that power level. And exceed it for 2 channel operation - so seems pretty good for me?

 

[voodooless]

it's probably limited by the power supply. can you imagine 1200*8 by a linear powersupply? that's enough to heat an entire building lmao.

Then why choose NC1200? The lower-power Hypex modules would do fine as well.

 

[xaxxon]

Great to see premium priced equipment actually deliver excellent measured performance across the board.

Many wouldn't even call $10k for 2 channels a premium price. "anything over wholesale of the parts" is not what I consider premium.

 

[MacCali]

I added the page link where I copied the image and it seems both versions are the same, just different layouts.

It says 95 lbs for that unit. It must be the beast. For sure Amir can’t pick that up and also even to drop ship that would easily be 500+ back to sender

 

[MacCali]

Ok,I think I found out what's happening.
There are two version of Amplitude8.
The one Amir tested which is the "m" version (which Trinnov says it's the cost effective version) and the plain Amplitude8 which is the big brother.
The one you found is the big one.

I knew it

Edit and costs 25k

 

[restorer-john]

it's probably limited by the power supply. can you imagine 1200*8 by a linear powersupply? that's enough to heat an entire building lmao.

It went into protection at 2R at any load angle, with just 2 of 8 channels driven...

God I miss real power amplifiers.

This thing is US $10k.

 

[jhaider]

3 channels of such power for the front trio is understandable, but all that power for surround channels?? Overkill...

Depends on the size of the room, sensitivity of the loudspeakers, and preferred SPL. As long as noise is in check there’s no issue with more power.

I wish DB25 snakes were more common in home audio. Makes things much cleaner looking than a rat’s nest of thin cables.

Overall this amp seems like what one should expect for the price. It costs a lot but has big clean power. The only critique I can think of is the continued use of dumbass single-pole binding posts. They could have fully modernized the I/O connectors and saved some money in the BOM in the process by using Speakon.

 

[abdo123]

It went into protection at 2R in any load angle, with just 2 of 8 channels driven...

God I miss real power amplifiers.

This thing is US $10k.

the modules are more than capable of 2Ohm, in fact the 1200 watts rating of the name is at 2ohm, 700W at 4 ohm and 400W at 8ohm. I see we're getting more or less half of these numbers so it's just the supply choice.

 

[calugg]

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/

Great review and thank you. Now, your donations should go for all of your physical therapy co-pays. Just a suggestion.

 

[restorer-john]

the modules are more than capable of 2Ohm, in fact the 1200 watts rating of the name is at 2ohm, 700W at 4 ohm and 400W at 8ohm. I see we're getting more or less half of these numbers so it's just the supply choice.

Who cares what the 'modules' can do? The assembled product is what counts.

 

[sarumbear]

Well, even if it's soldered to PCB in America, components are definitely made elsewhere. So where exactly is that borderline, assembling PCB equals "made in" but asslebling unit with pre-assembled PCBs/plate amp units is not?

Ask FTC. They coined the term and the certification.

 

[respice finem]

Considering that a budget 3 channel NC1200 in a nice case starts from 3.890 euros the 1/3 price for 8 channels is a little optimistic.

Very optimistic - but, if, hypothetically, the modules were also from T., one day...

 

[dfuller]

Nice to see db25s. When you have a ton of cables going place to place, I'll take whatever minor crosstalk hit you get from it in favor of not having a total rat's nest of cables.

 

[Billy Budapest]

Very good performance, build quality looks great, but the price!

 

[voodooless]

Who cares what the 'modules' can do? The assembled product is what counts.

Indeed. The module itself should even be stable at even 1R... Why would they make the thing go into protection at 2R? That doesn't make sense.

I don't see any benefit of using NC1200 instead of NC500 for this application.