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Tripoint Troy: Can one live without a kidney?

To PT, I am one hell of a mysterious man. To me, he is certainly one hell of an crazy audiophile in the extreme segment. When I walked into the room, the Alpha One dominates the whole scene.

The room is physically imbalance. I didn't expect much despite Puyi's repeated hype on this system. Everyone knows I am no lover of the horny route. That means I went there with a strong bias. My target is the troy, not the performance of his system anyway.

I listened for an hour, which is a record, as I can't stay in one place for too long. I have confess, other than the soundstage constrainted by the physical imbalance, this system could well be one of the best that I auditioned ever. I couldn't feel the glass vibrations, the mid-horn was not as dominating as those I famliar. The bass is there, fast, detailed but a little bit tight probably the ext crossovers are too new.

On piano recording, I feel very few would able to come close to what I heard this morning. You just need to go there to experience. PT demoed the Troy by disconnecting one ground wire from the power supply of the DV phono . The gound noises immediately came back. He moved on to disconnect the ground wire from the amp, the Tron syren, the turntable. And........ Well..... he's damn right - that is kind of noise that I found in my own system. You just don't know they are there all the time until something like the Troy cleans it up without taking the dynamic away. There is a huge organic flow attached to the music on all recordings that I know well. Other than jazz which lacks the finishing touch on attack, this is one hell of a system to die for.

The Da Vinci system is really something unique, even though I am a firm believer in Tidal's school of thought. The Tron syren is a great preamp. It capitalizes musical notes with coherence at the right rhythm - I rank it higher than Wavac's PR-T1. The secret german amp, I don't really care as this system really plays music.

With the Tripoint Troy in the system, there is a great sense of listening to "unamplified music" - the kind of unplug and new found liveliness attached on the musical scrip is simply too dramatic for an arrogant ass like me to ignore.

This system betters mine for certainty because the noise floor is freakingly low. I can imagine why people like DSo and Puyi commented they could not really listen to their own system after this system with the Troy. I feel the same too. This is surely another groundbreaking product after the FMR. No one can live without a kidney - the Troy is one hell of a kidney.

There is really no need to waste time to test it; just close the damn eyes and take one home.

PT, thanks for the arragement. I don't talk too much, hope you don't write me strange. I express myself better in writing.

Ray
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Comments

  • Dso, do you wanna share your findings?
  • Ray,

    After reading your review, I rushed to the doctor to certify that I have a well functioning kidney and is ready to sell one of them for the Troy.

    Based on your experience today, would you say EM contamination is a bigger evil than mechanical vibration. In terms of bang for the buck, given that all systems are prone to EM noises and as yet there is no effective product to deal with this issue, this beast is a must have.

    As for mechanically induced noise, there are plenty of solutions to address those to various degree and the shock factor is not as fatal.
  • Put it this way, when Type A noises are removed, Type B noises will become more apparent. PT has no SRA for his german amplifier. In my recollection, the biggest shock factor I had ever in the past 5 years were:

    1. Sunray
    2. Preos
    3. SRA Ohio XL+2
    4. FMR
    5. TROY

    In terms of priority in your case, I will certain go for TROY first. But for most of us here, the mechanical part problems were not gone. There are many solutions, just like speakers, and we both choose Tidal because it does a good job. In the mechanical vibration area, we choose SRA because it does the job the best - not because of the shock factor.
  • All noises are evil. In my opinion, the biggest evil is room noises. For mechanical noises and EMI noises, I would put a " = " sign. It is very easy to do an experiment. You go to listen PT's system with all the weapons equipped. Everything connected to the TROY. Then just asked me to put the power supply on the floor instead of sitting on the SRA. If you can still accept the degrading sound quality, then mechanical vibration is a lesser evil to you. But to me, I just have to fuck all those noises away.
  • Oh.... Ray,,,,, why the "F" word? Were you too excited?
  • Because I am listening to all these fucking noises from the Sunray now!
  • It's very funny to see Ray is using the F word. I trust there was a typo in one fo your messages. I trust what you meant is that our mechanical vibration problems are "long" gone instead of "not" gone.

    It seems you are real bothered by the ground noises now which were apparent before. I told you many times that the Cessaro Alpha One is not just another horn.

    I am thankful of your unbiased opinion always. If it's good, that it's good. If not, that it's not even you are some sort or hard core Tidal disciple.

    Piano is one hell of an instrument to reproduce well. Most couldn't get the tempo right due to phase shift. When you can the tempo right, the timbre may become bright if the decaying tail cannot balance with the leading edge. It is also the most vulnerable to room noises. I just can't imagine how can one play piano well with glasses at the back.

    But Ray, there is a plama TV in the center of the Cessaro in a very small area. There is no diffusor there. You got to tell me how good is the piano reproduction there.

  • How do you compare the Sunray with the Cessaro Alpha One? I'm sure your view on this will sparkle lots of controversial discussions here.

  • Raymond, can you elaborate more why the Wavac PR-T1 is not as good as the Tron syren?
  • The tron syren is clearly better than PR-T1. That's an easy call. Let's take an example, for those who are familiar with the voice of Maria Callas and what made him different from others is her capability to deliver so much even in a short lyrical line. The Tron syren revealed her lyrical articulation in a detail way with no less of dynamic and energy. The PR-T1 may have more energy and macro-dynamic but micro details are not as abundant as the Tron. Likewise, the Tron's ability to reproduce piano from a tube preamp perspective is just amazing. Mind you that last Friday's was my first encounter with Tron. In hi fi terms, I feel the Tron strike a better balance between macro dynamic and micro dynamic, whereas the Wavac has undue emphasis on the former. (I have the PR-T1 too, excellent for Wagnerian/Mahler symphonic scores).

    Before I share my opinions, please please take my words only casually because it was only a short encounter of 1 hour with the Cessaro Alpha One and I know the Sunray much much more. There is a bias. Am I cleared? Ok, here you go.

    Unlike all horn including Acapella, I find the Alpha One has the most pristine mid-range, the big wooden horn is uncolored and undominating. From this perspective, I was impressed despite my long held bias. But I do have a strong feeling ringing in my mind pointing to the superb resolution of the mid-range and the super tweeter. That is good and bad at the same time. The bass is a tad slower than the mid-range, that's clearly audible - integration thus is not perfect. But that is an observation, not an criticsm because the Alpha One is a compromise design clearly explained by the manufacturer. The quality of bass reproduction, even if I discounted the speed issue, is nowhere close to the Sunray, even there are a solid backwall behind at AE's location. I do mean it.

    The Sunray neither carries the ultra high resolution of the mid-range nor the dynamic nature of horn design, but it gives me one seamless picture from to top to bottom. I do not consciously feel the mid-range is better than treble nor the bass is better or what. Just one seamless musical picture.

    You need the completin of Beta Horn to compare with the Sunray, not the Alpha even with the external crossover.

    Please take this as an biased opinion. I don't wanna sparkle any controversial here.
  • And that's why the Horning Algame deserve a place at the speaker hall of honor. It is not as hi-rez as the Horn, not as dynamic but just a seamless picture from top to bottom always - is this your experience too, brother Charles? What have you been doing lately?
  • The Cessaro Alpha One is no doubt a good speaker. To satisfy my ultimate demand, I do hope to see the completion of the low frequency with the speed issue gone. Then, I can imagine that we are really talking about "LIVE" perfomances.

    The life-like dynamic reproduction of piano heard last Friday is something that I can't find at home despite better integration of the Sunray. And the Tripoint Troy is a major major contributor to the overall performance.
  • Can you cite another example on Tron syren versus Wavac PR-T1? I feel there are tremendous details from the Wavac PR-T1 already.
  • My comments don't mean to trigger any gear wars. Any wavac suite is excellent.

    Just go and grab a Tripoint Troy - that put your system immediately at a much higher league. I still can't forget the sound of unamplified piano last Friday.
  • Ray, your Tidal mate surrendered to the Tripoint Troy last night too, maybe after 5 minutes. The rest of the time was merely a logical confirmation of a musical decision by unlocking 1 and then 2 ground wires. In all cases, the ground wire had to be reconnected almost immediately.

    Alecy expressed his musical mind much better than me. Let's wait for him to share more
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