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Trinnov Altitude 16 Review (AV Processor)

Andysu said:
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

View attachment 475270
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does VNC or app Volume adj work?
 
Fidji said:
does VNC or app Volume adj work?
Click to expand...
if by that you mean does the remote control volume , yes that works , pc laptop volume yes also works ( expect the main vol on the front of the processor )
 
How many of you who own an altitude hires a calibrator vs DIY?
 
Chrispy said:
Why buy gear you can't setup on your own?
Click to expand...

This is bit of a misunderstanding about Trinnov - it is the exact opposite. Running Trinnov Wizard while staying with default settings is as easy as setting your Denon/Marantz. Results will be also very similar. I had my unit delivered couple of days earlier and had dealer arranged for Friday - and I could set it up, calibrate via Wizard in one evening. You get less babysitting compared to Denon, but everything is well explained in the manual.
Actually, you can setup everything on your own, much more than any other processor [incl. Storm with its DIRAC implementation].On top you get trinnov customer support, that can connect to your device and fix/assist with any issue you may encounter.

Your knowledge and level of effort you want to spend will be the ultimate limit. When considering “I’ll do it by myself” vs “I’ll hire somebody to do it for me”. think of some festive meal for your family - you can prepare it all by yourself or you can hire top chef to do it for you. In most of the cases chef will get better results with the same ingredients. You might have much more fun cooking it yourself - so it depends.

murl said:
How many of you who own an altitude hires a calibrator vs DIY?
Click to expand...

Done both - started as DIY, then had sessions done by calibrator [I was part of WF Beta, so it needed to be installed by certified partner], now I do all the adjustments myself [learned some tricks from calibrator, and generally educated myself]. Once you grasp overall signal flow and play with settings for some time to understand what you prefer it is easy. Being good with REW is necessary condition.

If I could do anything differently while setting up my HT - I would get proper advice on acoustics much earlier and would spend much more money on Center and Surrounds already in first iteration. And of course, I would accept, that there is nothing like “too many and too big subs” ;-)
 
Bugal1998 said:
DIY here. Still learning but enjoying the process.
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DIY. I'd assume that most readers of this forum will at least try DIY. Note that hiring a calibrator right now would be a bit of a waste of money, since the next firmware release (with the GUI and decoder updates, as is going to be released with the Altitude CI) will require a new calibration.
 
Last edited:
I do both. There are just some technicalities that it just takes too long to learn. Like using the “active speaker” setup to mimic a miniDSP and treat 4 subs as just one. Also requires using REW to preadjust/locate the subs. After closely watching the calibrator I did learn new tricks but oh my, the depth of his experience was vastly greater than mine. And I am OK with that.
 
murl said:
How many of you who own an altitude hires a calibrator vs DIY?
Click to expand...
I started with DIY Trinnov Optimizer calibrations and had impressive results as compared to prior Audyssey calibrations on Denon and Marantz.

As others mentioned, simply following the guide and doing your own calibration is straight forward similar to Audyssey and gives fantastic results.

I had Denon and Marantz equipment and I spent far more time reading on the forums how to optimize Audyssey and also learned and used the app. Additionally, I kept trying different Audyssey calibrations over the years and I never really got what I thought would be the best out of my equipment. It was tweak, tweak, tweak for me. It never got me close to what I was able to do with the Trinnov trying a couple of calibrations on my own which I think did a fantastic job and far better than I was able to ever get with Audyssey.

After a couple of years of what I already considered audio bliss, I was able to have a calibrator calibrate my system which in my opinion brought it to the best system I have ever heard.

I thought the professional calibration was much more than a minor improvement and that’s considering I already thought my own DIY Trinnov calibration was substantially better than Audyssey so it was a huge step up and well worth it to me.

One of the things I picked up from the professional calibrator was that he did pre-equalization prior to doing the calibration with the Trinnov. If I remember correctly the calibrator said that process allows the optimizer to really do its best job and could be done prior to a DIY calibration.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I believe buying the Trinnov has actually saved me a lot of money over the years as I was upgrading my AVRs and pre-pros every couple of years to a to a new mid-tier or higher tier model from the Denon / Marantz family.

I recommend that others in a similar situation and the financial means to strongly consider picking up a used Trinnov. There are typically many used Trinnov Altitude 16s in the $12,000 to $13,000 range including the microphone as people upgrade their systems or leave the hobby.

I know it's out of reach for most people but it can also be a wise thing if you were on the upgrade train like I once was where I would have spent far more with my two year upgrade cycle.

Trinnov has now been around for 20 years. It would have been a huge stretch at the time but had I bought a Trinnov somewhere between 10 and 15 years ago I would have comparatively spent $20,000 to $30,000 on my 2 year upgrade cycle with AVRs and pre-pros and spent 100s of hours reading forums, recalibrating and tweaking vs. reaching end game much sooner with the Trinnov. I no longer ever have to tweak and just simply enjoy my system which I really think is the end goal for most people.
 
All you need is a good ear and a good understanding of curves and distortion in the graphs, even REW can provide that for systems. It's not as complicated as one thinks, Go listen to different systems various quality to build you understand of careful listening and try to match your system to that level with the budget you have, that's it.
 
hwest said:
All you need is a good ear and a good understanding of curves and distortion in the graphs, even REW can provide that for systems. It's not as complicated as one thinks, Go listen to different systems various quality to build you understand of careful listening and try to match your system to that level with the budget you have, that's it.
Click to expand...
A very naive statement when comparing what trinnov’s deep ability to modify every aspect of a speaker’s output to best fit with a room.
 
zorax2 said:
I started with DIY Trinnov Optimizer calibrations and had impressive results as compared to prior Audyssey calibrations on Denon and Marantz.

As others mentioned, simply following the guide and doing your own calibration is straight forward similar to Audyssey and gives fantastic results.

I had Denon and Marantz equipment and I spent far more time reading on the forums how to optimize Audyssey and also learned and used the app. Additionally, I kept trying different Audyssey calibrations over the years and I never really got what I thought would be the best out of my equipment. It was tweak, tweak, tweak for me. It never got me close to what I was able to do with the Trinnov trying a couple of calibrations on my own which I think did a fantastic job and far better than I was able to ever get with Audyssey.

After a couple of years of what I already considered audio bliss, I was able to have a calibrator calibrate my system which in my opinion brought it to the best system I have ever heard.

I thought the professional calibration was much more than a minor improvement and that’s considering I already thought my own DIY Trinnov calibration was substantially better than Audyssey so it was a huge step up and well worth it to me.

One of the things I picked up from the professional calibrator was that he did pre-equalization prior to doing the calibration with the Trinnov. If I remember correctly the calibrator said that process allows the optimizer to really do its best job and could be done prior to a DIY calibration.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I believe buying the Trinnov has actually saved me a lot of money over the years as I was upgrading my AVRs and pre-pros every couple of years to a to a new mid-tier or higher tier model from the Denon / Marantz family.

I recommend that others in a similar situation and the financial means to strongly consider picking up a used Trinnov. There are typically many used Trinnov Altitude 16s in the $12,000 to $13,000 range including the microphone as people upgrade their systems or leave the hobby.

I know it's out of reach for most people but it can also be a wise thing if you were on the upgrade train like I once was where I would have spent far more with my two year upgrade cycle.

Trinnov has now been around for 20 years. It would have been a huge stretch at the time but had I bought a Trinnov somewhere between 10 and 15 years ago I would have comparatively spent $20,000 to $30,000 on my 2 year upgrade cycle with AVRs and pre-pros and spent 100s of hours reading forums, recalibrating and tweaking vs. reaching end game much sooner with the Trinnov. I no longer ever have to tweak and just simply enjoy my system which I really think is the end goal for most people.
Click to expand...

I have an Altitude CI coming in the next couple of months. I have experimented with REW in the past. The dealer I bought it from is a calibrator and is helping me with the rest of the system. The plan is to have him calibrate when the system is complete. He said he uses SMAART to optimize everything before running the optimizer and tweaking from there. I am interested in learning about measurements and calibration. Was hoping Amirm would finish up the third post on using REW.
 
Golfx said:
A very naive statement when comparing what trinnov’s deep ability to modify every aspect of a speaker’s output to best fit with a room.
Click to expand...
I have tested Trinnov's, both Altitude 32 and 16 so I don't speak from having no experience with these units, of course they are complex and allows for many hours/days of fine tuning to your liking. I spent weeks tweaking and each time the sound improved, there is no better system with their tuning mic and setup. Not to say I haven't spent days tuning my Anthem AVM 90 and got similar results but can't match the Trinnov. Getting into a Trinnov means a lot more when pairing the amplification and setup so I do understand and the paired Trinnov AMP seems to sound the absolute best when paired with those units.
 
For those of you who use an amplitude amplifier vs a non-Trinnov amplifier do you think the price premium is worth it vs a buckeye or another similar multichannel amp?
 
Buckeye 8ch ncore502 is $2500. Trinnov 8ch ncore1200 is like $10k.

You won't hear a difference - not with two clean amps. The trinnov is heavier and may have additional features or protections but they won't improve sound.
 
That was my thought. Seems like the integration may be easier with the amplitude.
 
murl said:
That was my thought. Seems like the integration may be easier with the amplitude.
Click to expand...
But if you have adjustable gain on the amp the match would be so close if not the same.
 
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