At last year’s CEDIA Expo, Trinnov stole the show with a cost-no-object home theater system based on their WaveForming technology. With 43 speakers (including 24 subwoofers) and a price tag well into seven figures, this type of system would only be plausible for those with the highest budgets. While the WaveForming system was extremely impressive, the price tag made it unattainable for most people. The company did suggest that WaveForming could eventually be used on more affordable systems, and even demonstrated it on a 5-subwoofer system at that same show.
At the Munich High-end show, the company will be making good on that promise, partnering with high-end speaker maker Perlisten to demonstrate how a slightly more affordable Waveforming system can be deployed. By combining WaveForming with specific room treatments or room designs, it’s possible to simplify the speaker layouts, leading to the ability to deploy lower cost systems with fewer speakers, reduced material, equipment and labor costs.
What is WaveForming, Anyway?
One of the trickiest parts of a home theater installation is getting the bass right. While midrange and high frequencies are fairly focused and directional, bass frequencies are omnidirectional and can interact with the walls and ceilings to create something called “room modes” or “standing waves.” When a bass frequency bounces off a wall or a ceiling and back onto itself, this can create areas in the room where specific bass frequencies are magnified or diminished. This leads to an uneven bass response in different parts of the room. Room treatments can be effective at trapping, taming and controlling bass frequencies (to an extent), but this complicates the installation. Another approach to bass management is to control bass frequencies electronically through time delay, EQ and phase adjustments. But this, on its own, is also somewhat limited.
Trinnov’s WaveForming combines the software approach with the use of multiple subwoofers placed in both the front and the rear of the room. Simply put, WaveForming uses an array of subwoofers along the front wall to transmit the bass and a complementary array of subwoofers on the rear wall to cancel out or “absorb” the bass. Trinnov’s custom WaveForming software adjusts the signals sent to each subwoofer in order to effectively shape the bass response so that it sounds the same anywhere in the room, no matter where the listener is sitting. The net effect is that the listener only hears that initial bass signal when it is transmitted and doesn’t hear the effects of that bass wave bouncing all over the room wreaking havoc on the low bass. Those reflections have effectively been eliminated by the rear subwoofers in conjunction with the WaveForming software.
One of the limitations of a full Waveforming “planar” system is that the subwoofers need to be raised from the floor in order to properly eliminate standing waves in both the vertical and horizontal planes: wall to wall reflections, and ceiling to floor reflections. This can lead to much higher installation costs as it requires custom wall fabrication, lots of subwoofers and precise subwoofer placement. But Trinnov says that the Waveforming technology can also work with fewer traditional floor-mounted subwoofers and realize similar results in specific room layouts. As long as the ceiling has been treated with bass-absorbing materials or the ceiling is high enough that the reflecting waves dissipate before causing much or any low frequency interference, then floor mounted subwoofers are acceptable. This variation, called “cylindrical” WaveForming, will be on display at the Munich High-End show.
Speaker company Perlisten will host a by-appointment-only Trinnov WaveForming system demo at the show in Atrium 3.1, room C112. Perlisten will show off an impressive 11.8.6 channel system comprised of the company’s THX Certified Dominus surround speakers as well as eight of the company’s D15S 15-inch active subwoofers. Perlisten will use Trinnov’s Altitude32 pre/pro with WaveForming technology, and Trinnov Amplitude16 and Amplitude8 amplifiers to drive all speakers. Four subs will be placed on the floor along the front wall and four on the floor along the rear wall. While still a high-end system, this variation cuts the number of speakers roughly in half and requires a third as many subwoofers as the system shown at CEDIA Expo.
“We are thrilled Perlisten chose to collaborate with us on one of the world’s biggest audiophile stages,” said Trinnov CEO Arnaud Laborie. “Our newest WaveForming approach highlights the flexibility and adaptability of Trinnov technologies and will create new opportunities for a wider audience to experience how much better their home theater setups can sound using our unique and unparalleled approach to room optimization.”
Perlisten Chief Sales Officer, Lars Johansen adds, “We partnered with Trinnov because we knew WaveForming would be the best option to showcase the incredible power of our new, THX-Certified Dominus home theater system. This partnership will set a new industry benchmark for performance and redefine the home cinema experience for audiophiles, custom integrators, and their clients.”
At the show, Perlisten will also showcase their S7t Limited Edition tower speaker in an active demo with a Dan D’Agostino system, their new single driver “R Series” subwoofers, available with drivers from 8-inch to a massive 18 inches and their new D series in-wall/on-wall subwoofers.
For something closer to real world home theater budgets (but without WaveForming), speaker company Monitor Audio will use Trinnov’s Altitude16 pre/pro and an Amplitude16 amplifier to power their speakers in a 7.2.4 demonstration in Hall 3, M307. And for those two channel stereo purists, speaker maker Potar will utilize Trinnov’s Altitude32 pre/pro and Amplitude16 amp for their high-end 2-channel demonstrations. The company’s brand new flagship active 3-way speaker, Radipotar, will be featured in Hall 3, R07.
You can find out more about Trinnov’s cylidrical Waveforming technology as well as demos to be seen/heard at the Munich High-End show on their blog post.
Stop back by eCoustics during and after the show for our first-hand impressions of these and other exhibits at High-End Munich 2024.
High-end Munich will take place May 9–12, 2024 at MOC München Exhibit Hall in Munich, Germany. The show will be open to the public on Saturday and Sunday, May 11 and 12 at a cost of €10 for either day.
Related Reading:
CEDIA Expo’s Sickest Demo Includes 43 Speakers, 9,000 Lumens and Over 125,000 Watts of Power
Trinnov Brings Perfect Home Theater Bass for All One Step Closer with Simple WaveForming Tool
