I am considering replacing my Classe SSP800 preamp with a Trinov Altitude which can not decode Hi REZ signals over 96bit (?) so am curious if i do the decoding in my Bartok and send the signal to the Trinov will it effect the sound quality?
Thanks
Mike Henrie
The Trinov Altitude is a multi channel ( <32) processor basically intended for movies i.e. its processing software is significantly movie orientated e.g. Dolby Atmos , dts etc.
Your Bartok is a 2 channel processor. If it does the processing instead of the Trinov it will be limited to 2 channels and what it will send to the Trinov will be analogue. The specification for the Trinov analogue section is not clear from their specifications . However it is not likely to be a simple analogue pass through as I suspect that any analogue input will be digitised by the Trinov. Why ? Because a major feature of the Trinov is room/speaker correction using dsp. There are also strong hints in the user manual that volume control is also in the digital domain.
Given what the Trinov is and does then I would say that there is probably no point at all in using a Bartok in conjunction with it. Anything that Bartok sends to it after conversion will subsequently be reconverted to digital by the Trinov software and you therefore will only hear the result of the Trinov’s processing and lose the benefits of dCS processing. So replay of your music sources directly via the Trinov using its plethora of inputs would seem to be more appropriate. As you note though, music source replay seems limited to 24/96 PCM.
If you do wish to go down this route then I am sure that a Bartok will fetch a good used price.
I can confirm that Trinov does a/d on analog inputs.
For stereo, the Trinnov Amethyst might be a better solution, which combines preamp, active crossovers, DAC and room correction. The Altitude is the ‘home-cinema version’ of the Amethyst.
All tech specs can be found on their homepage (trinnov.com). The user manual is also available for download.
The microphone for making room measurements is optional.
Trinnov has most likely the best room analyzing and correction (software) on the market.
What I do not like is, that Trinnov use built in fans, which are audible. IMHO a no go.
Unfortunately dCS Vivaldi Upsampler, dCS Rossini and dCS Bartok do not provide an insert for an external processor between network function and upsampling.
As Trinov re-digitises the analogue output from Bartok, then processes it and subsequently acts as the DAC that sends the analogue signal to the amplifier I cannot understand why one would spend many thousands on a Bartok which is then effectively contributing little to the resulting sound. Bartok is acting only as a streamer in this scenario and there are far cheaper alternatives if only this single function is required.
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