[Brian Cheney]

Jim Bongiorno called yesterday.  "Brian!!", he rasped.  "I want to sell Trinaural Processors with a VMPS center channel at a ridiculously low price!!! You'd better figure out something quick!!!"

So, until further notice, TRIPS are $1200, or $1650 with a 626R (spiral), shipping included.  FOB San Pablo.  Online and dealers orders taken.
Dealers: contact me for special pricing.

Does this help nudge any fencesitters?  That's 30% off!!

If you want a different center channel (RM 1a, RM 2, RM 40) special pricing applies for the single, center channel speaker purchased together with a TRIP.

[Rob Babcock]

Sorry for my ignorance, Big B, but does TRIPS=TRInaural ProceSsor?  Or is that a speaker?  

Thanks, and sorry if this is a dumb question.

[warnerwh]

Rob: There was never such a thing as a dumb question til you came up with that one! Just kidding. The TRIPS is the Trinaural processor.

[pjchappy]

I'm a fence-sitter, ONLY because I am jobless. . .as soon as I get my first job as a lawyer, I will be on a speaker and amp shopping spree. . .you will love me, Big B. . .

I've already spent my extra student loan money on audio. . .just wait until I get REAL money  

p

[Rob Babcock]

That was my guess, but I didn't think that price was possible for the TriP & a 626R!   Damn!  Hope those prices hold for awhile...

[ekovalsky]

How much for a TriP and single RM/X package  

[MaxCast]

Damn, that's a hell of a deal.  Three 626's would fit nicely in my system.  So who has $3500 for me?

[Xi-Trum]

Ok, someone, please educate me.  

If I understand it correctly, this is how one uses the TRIPS, right?

- stereo preamp -> TRIPS -> 3 Amps -> 3 speakers

Preferrably, the 3 speakers are identical.  So are the amps, right?

Now, what are the requirements for the speakers?  Do they have to be full-range?  Would 3 626r be ok (bottom end augmented by a sub)?  How abobut a 626r center and a pair of rm40?

Just wondering.

[MaxCast]

It has been mentioned that the Tri has a sub out.  I figured it was selectable for all three channels.  

[Brian Cheney]

Trinaul Processor=TRIP.

Go to the www.ampzilla2000 website and click on Trinaural Processor.

There is a Sub out with level control and 80Hz characteristic built in.

[Sedona Sky Sound]

To expand on what Brian just said, three 626Rs plus a sub should work extrememly well in TriP set-up. For the sub, the default setting of the TriP is that the sub output is active but all three speakers still run full range. By turning the sub adjustment knob, you are engaging the high-pass filter equally on all three front speakers. As far as I know, there is no way to selectively apply the high-pass filter to just one speakers (something I don't think you would want to do anyway).

The TriP has a separate adjustment knob that allows you to balance the output of the front speaker with that of the center (for cases when your L/R are different than your center or if you happen to be using a different amp with the center that has a different gain). It is better to use the same type of amp with all three front speakers but not 100% mandatory. I have experimented using a Classe' DR-10 with my center speaker and Ampzillas for my L/R and it worked reasonably OK. As long as all the instruments are stationary you won't likely notice but for panning music you will hear the sound change somewhat (not to mention the fact that the Ampzilla is much clearer than the Classe'). For amps that are closer in performance and sound than my Ampzillas and Clesse' you should be reasonably fine.        

Julian
www.sedonaskysound.com

[James Romeyn]

Brian
You will tell me now the slope of the 80Hz XO...what is the slope?  Tell me the slope now, damit!  Pass me the sodium pentathol...wake up & tell me the slope...

[Housteau]

I was doing some reading up on the suggested TriP set-up:

http://www.ampzilla2000.com/trinaural_manual.html

and have a question or two.  The ideal set-up is built around a sphere shown with the listener in a square room smack in the middle.  I have seen similar drawings from Telarc site for SACD MC as well:

http://www.telarc.com/surround/sacd.asp?mscssid=6R9T8V245HSR2P270G05AFURQEAJ25F3#loudspeaker

While I can see that the symetry and spacial cues may be ideal in such a space, the bass resonse could possibly be at it's worst with the listener sitting in a null within a near worst case bad accoustic environment (a square room).  Am I missing something here?

My guess for a more ideal space would be to have a rectangular room with that same sphere place up against the front wall as it is now shown, but with more space added towards the rear between the back of that sphere and the rear wall.  That would move the listener out of the center.

Dave

[Sedona Sky Sound]

I am the first to admit the Trinaural manual is a little confusing (actually, make that WAY confusing). Based upon my conversations with James, I actually don't think he intended for someone to sit exactly in the bass null of the room. I think this topic came up a few months back but have no clue as to which thread. The only way you could reasonably get all speakers on the arc is if you had a really big room so that the main listening position remained about 1/3 of the way out into the room (meaning the rear speakers are roughly 10+ feet from the back wall).  

The most important thing is that all three front speakers are on the arc. The TriP only uses 3 speakers so the rear ones in the picture really don't mean much. One of the things I think he was trying to say in the manual (but just did not come out clearly) is that a large center speaker can be placed in the back of the room, opposite the TV or screen (and thus your HT surround speakers are now your left/right main speakers for the TriP system). When you want to listen to music, you just rotate your chair/couch so that you are pointed to the back of your room. Somewhat impractical for most people but may work for someone with a very large symetric room.

The other thing I thought he said was that even if the Left/Right signal was coming from behind you, the Trinaural would still make them seem like they were in front of you. I tried this and it did not work at all. I assume that I just mis-understood what he said.

My suggestion is to just worry about placement of the front three speakers and let the digital delay in your Home Theater Processor deal with the placement of the rear speakers (which are not used by the TriP).    

Julian
www.sedonaskysound.com

[Housteau]

Thanks Julian.  It was a bit confusing reading, to say the least.  From what I have read and noticed from this forum and elsewhere, is that most often ideal set-ups do not occure.  But even  so, when just trying to remain close to that ideal, excellent results can still be had.  

In your drawing from your original evaluation, the speakers are placed against the long wall with the listener close to the rear wall.  This set-up concentrates on the front half of the sphere.  How do you feel about having the listening position so close to that rear wall?  I'll have to admit that my room is similar and my position is also smewhat close to that wall and I suffer no ill effects.  To me, it would seem that using the long wall would be ideal for a triP set-up.  This would allow wider speaker placement and the listener could maintain a decent distance from the speakers.  Personally, I prefer to be about 9' from each in stereo.

An option I was thinking of was a ratio similar to 1 : 1.6 : 2.3.  With this the full sphere could be had within the room with speakers placed against the short wall.  The listener would then be about 1/3 of the way from that wall leaving plenty of space behind that sphere.  The TriP set-up is different in that the front speaker is placed very close to that front wall.  With ordinary stereo there is usually several feet behind those front speakers which then places the listener 2/3's of the way back from that front wall instead.

The downside is that the listener would be seated much closer to the speakers than I think is ideal.  However, one could use these dimensions and the short wall for placement on an arc larger than the room would support.  In other words, if the full circle was drawn, it would extend outside of the wall boundries.  If I am not mistaken, it appears that way in some of your photos and the ones from the CES.  The speakers do look very close together there.


Dave

[Sedona Sky Sound]

There should be no problem having the "arc" extend beyond the side walls. As long as the Left/Right speaker remain symetric within the room (i.e., don't place the Left speaker against the left wall and have the Right one 10 feet from the right wall), you can reasonably forget about the "walls" as they are drawn in the different diagrams.

There are many different schools of thought in redards to best listening position. Dunlavy was a big proponent of using the long wall and I agree with most of his findings. You either want the listening position to be directly against the back wall (nulifies backwall reflections but may make bass too strong) or about 1/3 the way out into the room (less bass and the timing of the rear wall reflections is heard more as an echo than a "smearing effect"). What you don't want to do is set the seating position 2-4 feet from a reflective back wall since your ears mix up the direct signal from the speakers and the reflected back wall signal that arrives a very short time later which creates a "smearing effect".  

Julian
www.sedonaskysound.com