Trinnov Altitude 16 Review (AV Processor)

[welwynnick]

https://www.avsforum.com/threads/trinnov-altitude.1516103/page-1698?post_id=64180656#post-64180656 says it's PC based not ARM

Thanks for the link, but I seriously doubt that for lots of reasons.
David Meyerowitz also said at 33:18 "we don't have DACs any longer" which the spec and the rear panel show is clearly not the case.

 

[3ll3d00d]

What difference does it make whether it's x86 or arm?

 

[welwynnick]

Trinnov appear to have made the strategic decision a few years ago that their architecture would change from PC to ARM.
I think the intention is to improve processing, cost, and thermal efficiency, so their products can be faster, smaller, lighter, cheaper, cooler as well as work better.
The first fruit of this change was the Nova, more of an audio interface than a processor.
That definitely had ARM based processing, and was much slimmer than the D-Mon or ST2, and I bet it was much cheaper to make.
The Altitude, ST2 and the D-Mon clearly have a PC back plate, and the Nova does not, it just has a linear row of connectors from the (nearly) single board architecture.
The second stage appears to be the Altitude CI, which has a similar linear row of connectors like the Nova, except that it has a second row of HDMI connectors associated with the HDMI processing and audio decoding card that audio processors always need, but that the Nova did not. Like the Nova, the ALCI doesn't have a PC backplate.
I suppose it's possible that the ALCI is still PC based, but I think it's very unlikely.
It's the end result that counts, so I don't care what their solution is, but it does look like Trinnov aren't resting on their laurels, and have fully embraced their new way forwards.

 

[Andysu]

No need for any conversion, the Altitude CI supports up to 32 digital audio outputs including Dante, AES67 and AES3:
View attachment 474504
Like the recent ARM powered Nova, it's obviously not a PC based processor, either.

no analogue inputs rca x8 or even DB25 analouge input , everyone assumes kscape and uhd discs are studio masters of lossless audio , there more like lossy audio with how things are mixed for home ( near field or tampered with ) so the unit will be almost useless for laerdisc that has ( theatrical mixes ) to really show off dynamic range

just a pair of optical/coaxial totally useless for multiple pioneer laerdisc players ( theatrical dynamic range mixes ) kscape i never get that , just paying more the same for near field tampered with soundtracks , most of all you ether sold your laserdisc to actually audio/soundtrack compare

i guess the new mic is something along the lines of phantom powered , who cares as long as the mic works

 

[beatelund]

no analogue inputs rca x8 or even DB25 analouge input , everyone assumes kscape and uhd discs are studio masters of lossless audio , there more like lossy audio with how things are mixed for home ( near field or tampered with ) so the unit will be almost useless for laerdisc that has ( theatrical mixes ) to really show off dynamic range

just a pair of optical/coaxial totally useless for multiple pioneer laerdisc players ( theatrical dynamic range mixes ) kscape i never get that , just paying more the same for near field tampered with soundtracks , most of all you ether sold your laserdisc to actually audio/soundtrack compare

i guess the new mic is something along the lines of phantom powered , who cares as long as the mic works

How many people uses laserdisc??

 

[welwynnick]

no analogue inputs rca x8 or even DB25 analouge input , everyone assumes kscape and uhd discs are studio masters of lossless audio , there more like lossy audio with how things are mixed for home ( near field or tampered with ) so the unit will be almost useless for laerdisc that has ( theatrical mixes ) to really show off dynamic range
just a pair of optical/coaxial totally useless for multiple pioneer laerdisc players ( theatrical dynamic range mixes ) kscape i never get that , just paying more the same for near field tampered with soundtracks , most of all you ether sold your laserdisc to actually audio/soundtrack compare
i guess the new mic is something along the lines of phantom powered , who cares as long as the mic works

You need the Altitude 32 or the D-MON instead.

 

[Andysu]

How many people uses laserdisc??

well you don't obviously so , keep buying all those near field tampered with soundtracks which ones are tampered with which ones not tampered with ?
at least with laserdisc i know the image is a bit so what smeared , but least i'm not being bs with the theatrical mix
many still use laserdisc , how many i bought in last few months a lot , how many tampered with near field a few and they all ended up in the cat litter tray fotr fake Dolby Atmos of old outdated movies to screw people over with cash milking cow by these shameless robbing studios

 

[Andysu]

You need the Altitude 32 or the D-MON instead.

presently still connecting alt 32 up

 

[beatelund]

well you don't obviously so , keep buying all those near field tampered with soundtracks which ones are tampered with which ones not tampered with ?
at least with laserdisc i know the image is a bit so what smeared , but least i'm not being bs with the theatrical mix
many still use laserdisc , how many i bought in last few months a lot , how many tampered with near field a few and they all ended up in the cat litter tray fotr fake Dolby Atmos of old outdated movies to screw people over with cash milking cow by these shameless robbing studios

I didn't know it was a big thing any more.
Do they release new movies on Laserdisc?

And their is other procesdor to buy instead, even Trinnov make such units.
So I dont see the problem with different products for different use cases

 

[beatelund]

presently still connecting alt 32 up

View attachment 474560View attachment 474558View attachment 474559

Even better, you dont even need the CI!

 

[3ll3d00d]

I suppose it's possible that the ALCI is still PC based, but I think it's very unlikely.

Might be a reach there (ie impossible to tell), certainly it's not a simple pc case as opposed to something custom though

 

[Andysu]

this late night guy rants roasts trinnov , i've only had the altitude 32 for few days still not got it fully up and running done few basic tests delay seems to be reasonable but i do deeper tests soon and i'm still cynical about stormaudio and trinnov

 

[GXAlan]

i'm still cynical about stormaudio and trinnov

Circle of confusion still applies. When you are running Laserdiscs through your classic Dolby processors, it’s impossible to beat for that particular level of authenticity.

Nonetheless, if you are running Atmos mixes, even if they have been neutered to nearfield mixes, the Trinnov setup does give you a superb experience and you can apply some shelving filters below 20 Hz to restore the neutered bass.

I am curious how YOUR particular setup will respond to Waveforming as well. Recalling the number of speakers you have in your photos, I assume you have plenty of subs as well…

 

[murl]

No need for any conversion, the Altitude CI supports up to 32 digital audio outputs including Dante, AES67 and AES3:
View attachment 474504
Like the recent ARM powered Nova, it's obviously not a PC based processor, either.

I think this is what I am going with coupled with the amplitude 16.

 

[Andysu]

delay issue with trinnov , for a so called end game processor

 

[prerich]

this late night guy rants roasts trinnov , i've only had the altitude 32 for few days still not got it fully up and running done few basic tests delay seems to be reasonable but i do deeper tests soon and i'm still cynical about stormaudio and trinnov

Sounds like a software issue.

 

[TimoJ]

suppose it's possible that the ALCI is still PC based, but I think it's very unlikely.

Screen capture of Trinnov's video shows PC mainboard with all its backplane connectors inside the Altitude CI:

 

[Andysu]

i had a double take at the PC backplane there

from inside pics you can see it runs a commodity MSI motherboard

i am reminded of a $100k HP oscilloscope that also ran commodity {PC motherboard, a HP this time oddly enough

i need see inside before i may possibly make a minor repair/fix ?

main front panel volume dial is not working ? puzzling ?

trinnov customer service has been helpful tried , re-flashing the unit and that didn't seem to work , they never encountered this least with who assisted me , " not seen that in 4 years " ?

i had this encounter , technnics SH-100 THX repair few years ago , seller said volume dial wasn't working so i with my cats assistance managed to repair/fix i think its a similar issue , instinct

 

[welwynnick]

Screen capture of Trinnov's video shows PC mainboard with all its backplane connectors inside the Altitude CI:

Yup.

Yup. What I've heard is that the ALCI has a combination of PC, ARM and firmware processing.
So not the leap that I thought they made. Still, 32 channel AES/EBU outputs makes me happy.
A couple of video's I've seen have made the same point, that Dante is being adopted for convenience and not for sound quality.
The reason given is that the DSP output has to be down-sampled and go through an ASRC because the Dante network clocks itself, regardless of what the source is doing.

 

[Andysu]

got this information from trinnov customer service
so i need to get the unit on the table bench open it up , standby with volt meter , locate the wiring undo it and connect it back and power the unit up and see if that activates the volume dial ?
if no volume dial control undo lead and test the ends with volt meter turn the dial see if i see any adjustment resistance on the volt meter ?
if closed circuit then fault lays elsewhere in the processor
if open circuit the potentiometer needs to be simply replaced with new part which are often cheap