I finally completed the Tri-Vista break in and A/B’s extensively against the MENSA before boxing the MENSA up to ship to its new owner. The comparison was a bit of a challenge, in that both products are inherently musical and I wanted to resist the urge to jump to immediate conclusions.
Having lived with the MENSA for nearly a year, I have found it one of the best bargains in digital processors. The MENSA has never failed to impress, and while I had heard a number of systems and DACS during my MENSA ownership, nothing I heard compelled me to want to change.
I’ll cut to the chase before describing the MENSA vs. Tri-Vista matchup. In summary, the Tri-Vista is simply stellar and it really changed my view of how good digital can sound under $10,000. It is the first DAC I have heard where my comparisons are not to other DACS but to the vinyl systems I have owned or experienced (my last system being a VPI Jr. turntable and Sumiko Blue Oyster cartridge playing on a Rega RB300 arm). For you vinyl owners, you know how effortless, unrestrained and open, and musically dynamic good vinyl is, and how digital seems to be a compromise. Well, I finally heard in the Tri-Vista a digital system that equals a decent $2000-$3000 vinyl system (but cannot come close to matching a true high end vinyl system).
Back to the MENSA matchup. I leave the MENSA on continuously, so it simply kept on cooking while the Tri-Vista broke in. During the first twenty hours, the DACS were generally equal, but the Tri-Vista held the edge in bass extension and detail, and immediately exceeded the MENSA in soundstage depth and height. The Tri-Vista radically changed during the next seventy five hours, reminding me of the importance of break-in before forming any hard impressions. I used a Technics DVD A10 as a transport (reviewed in SPhile some years back and well built player, weighing 20 lbs). Of note, the Technics upsamples to 24/96, so both DACS had an unfair advantage in that the digital output of the Technics had already been upsampled before being fed into each DAC (I can turn this off, but did not for the tests).
Technically, the MENSA is no match for Tri-Vista when in comes to locking in on a digital signal. The Tri-Vista locks in every time, whereas I frequently had to reset the MENSA every time I put in a new CD. I understand that the MENSA locks much better when using a CDP instead of a DVDP. The sample rate for the MENSA can be adjusted but inherently for Redbook is fixed at 24/96, whereas the Tri-Vista can upsample at either 96k or at 192k, which is where I left it during the comparison. I used the same BolderCable type 1 digital cable with both DACS; I also had the MENSA powered by the earlier BolderCable upgraded PS (not the current one with the Bybees); I used a stock power cord with the Tri-Vista, and with both DACS used the coaxial input (the Tri-Vista also accepts optical inputs).
An interesting note: I had been using since October the Bybee digital inline filter with the MENSA and it yielded positive benefits, reducing background noise and making voices and instruments stand out and quite separate from each other, more with the Bybee than without. When I tried the Bybee on the Tri-Vista, I had quite the opposite results. With the Bybee, the Tri-Vista sounded compressed and muddy, and voices and instruments collapsed. I can only surmise that the Tri-Vista, with its better shielding and choke regulated power supplies, does not pose the same electrical noise that the unshielded MENSA does.
You all know the sound of the MENSA quite well, from other tests, so I will focus on the Tri-Vista’s sound and how it differed from the MENSA. I have compared the MENSA head to head with three DACS/CDP’s, including the Shanling tubed HDCD player, finding the MENSA a much more detailed and musical unit. I used a range of music, from well recorded folk and jazz, to remastered rock, to favorite but crappy sounding mid to late 80’s CD’s.
Immediately, the Tri-Vista does a number of things amazingly well. First, it has a wide soundstage that extended outside my speakers, whereas the MENSA tended to keep things between the speakers. Second, and most noticeable, the Tri-Vista spreads out the instruments and singers on the soundstage; in comparison, the MENSA had them pushed up closer to one another. When the mix had two or more singers in the middle (think Crosby Stills Nash and Young), the MENSA made them sound like they were one large mass, whereas the Tri-Vista flushed out the space between them. Third, the Tri-Vista gave the singers and musicians about two feet of extra height in my system, making them life size in height.
Fourth, the Tri-Vista gave the singers and instruments more body. A good example is the tune “Down to the River to Pray” from the O’ Brother Where Art Though soundtrack. With the MENSA, the tune was musical and involving and the choir behind Allison Krause could be heard distinctly. However, the Tri-Vista added body and height to both Krause and the choir, and it sounded more like a larger choir spread out behind Krause, with the weight of many singers and the breath exhaling from Kraus. With the MENSA, it sounded more two-dimensional and flatter. Prior to the Tri-Vista, I had assumed the CD version was simply recorded a bit flat, since the DVD soundtrack from the movie sounded much more three dimensional and lifelike than the CD. Not so; the CD version has the dynamics and weight that a choir should have, and it took the Tri-Vista to demonstrate this.
I had also assumed that a revealing DAC could not also sound warm; that with the MENSA you traded the warmth that say, the Nixon tubed DAC might provide; whereas a warm DAC would come at the expense of low level detail that the MENSA provides. With the Tri-Vista, you get more of both: more resolution and extraction of low level detail (especially the sheen of cymbals, the decay of cow bells, differences in guitars and drum types). The sound is far from clinical and cold, it is also warm and rich and musically involving in a manner that reminded me of some of the excellent Conrad Johnson gear I have owned over the years. Cross the typical detailed sound of VTL and ARC gear with the lushness of CJ and Airtight gear and you get a sense of what I mean.
Only with the mid to late 80’s CD’s that sound horrible on most any system (the MENSA is no exception) does the Tri-Vista fail to charm. It does remove some of the digital hash and sheen, but it cannot breathe life into these flat tunes; they still sound cold and flat.
From my comments above you might expect that the Tri-Vista trumped the MENSA in every area. Well, all but one. The MENSA has a bit more bass depth than the Tri-Vista and seemed to go lower. However, the Tri-Vista had much more detail for the bass it did extract; bass strings showed more body and weight (even if the notes didn’t seem to dip as low). So I give the nod to the Tri-Vista.
So where does that leave the MENSA in my experience? The MENSA is the best “under $2000” DAC I have heard and simply a terrific bargain. The Tri-Vista is more than three times the retail price of the MENSA, and while they are offering a $400 rebate for any DAC trade in for the next two months (I sent in an unmodded DI/O), $2000 is a lot of cash. But the Tri-Vista was just simply impressive for the price; I see myself keeping the Tri-Vista for a long time, and I am simply amazed that for around $2000, I can actually afford a DAC that reminds me of the VPI vinyl systems I have owned. The only DACS I have personally heard that substantially exceed the Tri-Vista are the outrageously expensive Burmester 001 CD ($15k) and the DCS Elgar/Purcell ($34k), two products I could not afford and would not consider spending that kind of dough on.
My system: Merlin TSM-M’s on Target RS4 stands and REL Strata III, Merlins biwired with Acoustic Zen Satori Shotgun cables; VAC Avatar Special Edition (using EH EL34’s). IC’s are Acoustic Zen Silver Reference; tweaks include JR Filter, Cardas Golden Reference power cable, DIY Asylum Power Cable, Halo tube dampers, Cardas Caps.
