ACA Trinity - Review by Eugene Mannacio

To set things straight I want to confess to being an audio and a classical music snob.  These two go well together because classical music listeners are the most likely (IMHO) to want completely accurate reproduction of the concert hall experience.  No exaggerated flabby bass, no etched high frequencies, just completely natural sound is what we want.  For my own part this meant even the warm coloration some tube amplifiers used to provide was out of the question.

 

By now you get it and, if you are one of those people that puts 600 watt amplifiers and 15 inch woofers in your car, you probably won't be too interested in what I have to say.  But if you really love acoustic music, including Jazz, then I think you should read on.

 

An excellent natural sounding system can be very expensive.  I have one, so I know.  But not everyone can afford a system like this as much as they want to hear all the nuances of the original performance. (to the extent the recording engineer will allow)  So it's a special experience to hear reasonably priced components, in this case speakers, that are almost as good as some of the best high end speakers (and better than some that command a very high price but don't deliver the goods).  The Trinity LR is that rare unicorn that I never expected to find.  This would ordinarily be in the conclusion of a review and you would have to wade through all the recordings the reviewer listened to and how he compared them to his reference system to get to this point.  So, if that's all you wanted to know you can stop reading.  But if you'd like to know how I found these speakers, what equipment I used to drive them, how I placed and tuned them to maximum advantage then read on.

 

How I found them

 

I live in the Bay Area so, when there was an audio show in early August of 2012, it seemed like a nice weekend activity to see what was new in the audio world.  Not that I am dissatisfied with my system at home.  No, I couldn't be happier with my JM Labs Alto Utopia speakers, my McIntosh 402 amplifier,  Placette passive preamplifier, and Chord QBD76 DAC.  Many who have heard my system ask why I bother to go to concerts at all!  But, I'm also a techie and like to keep up with the "State of the Art".  Anyway I was looking for an inexpensive 2nd system.

 

I went to the show with an SACD of Saint Saens 3rd Symphony conducted by Eugene Ormandy.  The last 10 minutes of this piece include some of the most demanding material you can throw at a speaker.  Horns, Organ, and full orchestra come to an amazing crescendo.  Can the speaker reproduce the bass notes of the organ without sounding fat?  When the crescendo comes can the speakers handle it without sounding boxy?  Do the horns sound airy and not shrill?  Do the strings avoid sounding edgy and sibilant?  And all that is just for starters.   Does each instrument have the right timbre?  (We don't want the reeds sounding too nasal)  Is the speaker evenly balanced across the frequency spectrum not overemphasizing the bass and sounding heavy, or the midrange and bringing the instruments forward, or the treble and sounding too bright? 

 

Room after room was a disappointment.  There were many expensive speakers I was glad I didn't own.   Well there was one expensive speaker that satisfied all my criteria, but it was the JM Labs Alto Utopia I already own.  Then I went to the room for Angel City Audio and listened to their Trinity LR speakers.  The volume of my recording was somewhat higher than I would have used at home to hear the soft passages in the hotel room environment.   And the clarity of timbre was immediately apparent.  Then came the boisterous conclusion and everyone in the room was blown away by what these two medium sized speakers could do.   Only the lowest of the organ notes was slightly flabby.  Just amazing.

 

I had to have them and bought them the same day.  But what electronics to use?  No Japanese mass produced equipment for me, though you can find good quality at the higher price ranges.  But Parasound makes consistently good electronics with a "house sound" that strives for clarity above all.   I bought their 2125 power amp which does have tiny volume controls on the back.   Then I picked the Musical Fidelity M1 DAC.  For cables I used Nirvana SL to connect the two and bought Harmonic Technology Pro10 speaker cable to go from the Amp to the Trinity speakers.  Though I had the speakers sent to my in-laws house, (which is why I bought a 2nd system - to listen to while there) I had the electronics sent to my home to be sure I had made the right choice.  Hooked up to my Alto Utopias I knew I had.

 

Putting it all Together

 

There was a room set aside for me on the first floor of my in-laws house.  It used to be a sewing room.  All the existing furniture had to be moved out.  It needed painting.  It needed a carpet (for looks and acoustics).  The windows needed to be covered to reduce traffic noise.  The wall opposite the speakers was cinder block and needed to be covered. (I used a brownish orange bedspread.

 

Now, how to make it sound best.  I have some experience with this.   I'll summarize what I found:

 

1.   Get rid of the grilles!  They deaden the high end.

2.   The speakers are rear vented so point the rear at a corner about 2 feet away or more.

3.   If your room is set up right the speakers will then be "towed in" with the crossing point in front of the listener(s).

4.   The speakers have no place to connect to a speaker stand so get a couple of end tables and cover them with a foam mat with a rubber top like a rubber placemat.

5.   For further stability and vibration damping place 1/4 cu ft of sand inside a black pillow case and place one on top of each speaker.

6.   If the end table has a bottom shelf put another 1/4 cu. ft. of sand in pillow cases of on the bottom shelf of each table.

7.    If you are using Foobar 2000 for playback use the graphic equalizer.  My settings are 55Hz is three steps down, 77Hz and 110Hz is two steps down, 156Hz and 220Hz are 0 db, the next 4 are two steps, up the next four two steps down,  the next three are two steps down, then 14 Khz is two steps down and 20Khz is two steps up. (One step equals 1/2 the side of a slider box and two steps is a full side.) Your experience adjustments may vary according to the room.

 

Now that it is tweaked

 

What can I say?  It sounds excellent.  There is sound stage depth.  Micro-dynamics such as the hall reflections are clearly audible.  With the adjustments I made, such as adding the sand, clarity has gone from good to excellent.   The detail in the sound stage is not what I have in my home system but is fairly good.   The dispersion is good but only up to about 30 degrees.  It might be better with a rounded front though that would add to the cost.  Basically, what you have here are speakers that are as good as some speakers at three to four times the price.  The closest competition I can think of would be one of the floor standing Thiels or possibly one of Focal's floor standing units.

 

I'd give these speakers a 9.