TRIGON EXCELLENCE – Integrated Amplifier Review
UNDER THE SIGN OF QUIET SUPREMACY
INTRODUCTION
There are houses in the high-end world that must prove their right to exist anew every year with a firework display of model changes, special editions and loud promises. And there are the few for whom this proof was waived long ago, because their name has itself become the statement. TRIGON Elektronik, based in Fuldabrück since September 1996, undoubtedly belongs to the second category. Three decades of German precision manufacturing, in which a single guiding principle has never changed – to develop and produce high-quality audio components in-house – have turned a company into an institution whose understatement has itself long since become a statement.
With the EXCELLENCE, TRIGON now enters the discipline in which a manufacturer’s true ambition is revealed most mercilessly: the top-class integrated amplifier. A list price of 13,900 euros is not an amount one invests casually. It is the ticket of admission to a segment traditionally ruled by multi-part pre-/power-amplifier combinations entangled in cabling – a terrain on which a single chassis must justify itself not through modesty, but through the sovereignty with which it replaces an entire amplifier architecture.
Anyone approaching the EXCELLENCE therefore does so not with the curiosity of the casual listener, but with the sharpened expectation of one who knows what is at stake in this price bracket. No compromise may take place here, no half-hearted gesture towards mass appeal. The EXCELLENCE must prove that it carries a complete reference chain within itself, without the listener ever getting the faint feeling that something is being withheld. Whether this claim is met is the subject of the following lines – from the first touch of the solid chassis to the last, absorbed minute of intent listening.
TECHNICAL DATA
Category: Integrated amplifier
Inputs: 2× XLR (balanced), 2× RCA (unbalanced), 4× S/PDIF (2× coaxial, 2× optical), 1× USB
Input impedance: 47 kΩ
Input sensitivity: 1 V RMS (analogue)
Output power: 2 × 200 W into 8 Ω / 2 × 330 W into 4 Ω
Damping factor: > 100 (relative to 8 Ω, 1 kHz)
Distortion (THD+N): < 0.02 %
Outputs: 1× loudspeaker, 1× headphone (6.3 mm), balanced preamp output
Frequency response: 2 Hz – 200 kHz (–3 dB)
Signal-to-noise ratio: –92 dBA (relative to 1 W / 4 Ω)
Standby power consumption: < 1 watt
Weight: 26.1 kg
Dimensions (W × H × D): 440 × 179 × 425 mm
Warranty: 3 years
Manufactured in: Germany (Fuldabrück, Hesse)
Price (RRP): €13,900
BUILD QUALITY & DESIGN
There is a moment, shortly after one has lifted the EXCELLENCE from its packaging, in which the relationship between listener and device is already decided – and this moment has to do with 26.1 kilograms. Not a kilogram too many, not one too few: every gram of this mass is explained by an output stage design that takes no account of ease of transport, but solely of sonic substance. Whoever lifts the EXCELLENCE onto their rack is not lifting a piece of furniture, but a declaration of conviction.
And yet this declaration refuses any loudness in the design sense. While other houses in this price class clamour for attention with sculptural fronts, ostentatiously exposed cooling fins or staged material contrasts, TRIGON chooses the opposite, far more demanding path: a design language so clear and timeless that it will look as natural in twenty years as it does today. The front panel is available in silver or black – yet the rotary controls, that central element of every tactile encounter with the device, remain in silver regardless of this choice. It is a small, almost inconspicuous decision, and precisely therein lies its greatness: it reveals a brand that does not follow the zeitgeist but cultivates its own coherent aesthetic, one that needs no justification.
The build quality itself operates at the level one expects of a device in this class, and in places exceeds that expectation. The joints between front panel and chassis are worked with a care that permits no gap that could trouble the eye. Anyone who takes the rotary controls between their fingers feels at once: no ordinary potentiometer has been fitted here, but a control that finds its way through the scale with a fine detent, with that discreet, almost inaudible soft click one otherwise associates more with mechanical precision instruments than with consumer electronics. Both central rotary controls can moreover be pressed – a gesture to which the EXCELLENCE responds as though it had been waiting for precisely that, and which turns navigation through menu and functions into an almost intuitive act, in which the hand thinks ahead before the mind has made the next selection.
The volume control is encircled by an LED ring that makes the current volume visible and whose brightness can be dosed so finely in the menu that in a darkened listening room it is never perceived as intrusive light, but as a discreet, almost atmospheric complement to the music. The seven-inch display, which can be set to switch off automatically, fits into the same restrained visual language, as do the buttons for Mono, Menu and Speaker, whose individual illumination can change colour and be dimmed in brightness. Nowhere on this device does anything seem retrofitted, added on, or like a digital concession to an analogue chassis philosophy. Everything comes together as a unit that radiates calm without seeming sluggish, and precision without appearing cold.
In the end, what remains is the impression of a device that draws no line of compromise in material and workmanship without ever pushing itself to the fore. The EXCELLENCE looks the way it sounds: sovereign, understated, and equipped with that quiet certainty that needs no more proof because it explains itself in every touch.
FEATURES & OPERATION
Anyone who views the EXCELLENCE from behind understands at once that nobody here was interested in half-hearted compromises. Two balanced XLR inputs and two unbalanced RCA inputs stand ready for the analogue world, with an input impedance of 47 kΩ and an input sensitivity of 1 volt RMS that welcomes practically any high-quality source without matching problems. The digital side is just as generous: two coaxial and two optical S/PDIF inputs as well as a USB port for direct computer connection open almost every conceivable digital signal path to the EXCELLENCE, from streaming transport to notebook with a local library.
On the output side, the listener finds a classic loudspeaker output for impedances from 2 ohms, a headphone socket on the front for 6.3 mm jack plugs from 32 ohms impedance, and a balanced preamp output that operates either in PRE mode – volume-controlled, for active loudspeakers or external power amplifiers, for instance – or in REC mode, in which the signal is tapped unchanged ahead of the volume control. A 10-volt remote socket allows further power amplifiers or active subwoofers to be switched together, and anyone wishing to route their signal through an external equaliser or processor will find in a dedicated send/return pair, activated via the Split function, precisely the tool intended for it.
The range of functions TRIGON has packed into the EXCELLENCE’s menu structure shows a meticulousness rarely encountered to this extent. Seven different DAC filter characteristics – from fast to slow roll-off, from linear- to minimum-phase filters and even a brick-wall filter – allow a tonal fine-tuning of the digital converter that one would expect rather in a professional studio environment than in a living-room amplifier. Inputs can be named individually, levels matched per source, the start-up volume limited, and the display background chosen from eight motifs.
This abundance of options would be worth little if it could not be accessed as effortlessly as it is deep – and it is precisely here that the true art of the operating concept shows. The rotary controls, which can also be pressed, are executed with a fine detent and turn navigation through menu and functions into a process of almost tactile elegance: a turn, a press, a confirmation – never more than the moment demands. This ease of operation is complemented by the optional Director Premium system remote control. A well-considered protection concept against radio-frequency interference, overtemperature, DC offset and overload rounds off the picture just as a three-year manufacturer’s warranty and an operating manual, written in German and English with palpable care, do – details which in sum prove that nobody here skimped on documentation just because it seldom stands in the spotlight.
IN PRACTICE: SETUP & LISTENING ROOM
The EXCELLENCE was tested in the VINYL-CHECK listening room, set up to the specifications of EBU Tech 3276 and thus a place where sonic truths cannot hide behind acoustic coincidences. Three loudspeaker concepts served as transducers, and they demanded two fundamentally different roles of the EXCELLENCE: with the DEUTSCH Acoustics Schallwand “Aktiv” the integrated amplifier acted exclusively as a pure preamplifier, since this design has an active crossover and separate power amplifiers. With the passively operated Atlantis Lab AT 38 PRO and the Canton Reference Alpha 1, by contrast, the EXCELLENCE had to prove its full output-stage power. This deliberately heterogeneous constellation not only subjected the device to widely differing impedance curves and efficiencies, but also tested whether its sonic signature convinces equally when it acts as a full amplifier or as a pure signal source for an active system.
Digitally, the amplifier was driven by an Electrocompaniet player supplying high-resolution sources via ROON. On the analogue side, a Dr. Feickert Analogue Virgo SE turntable with the Dr. Feickert Analogue Straight-12 tonearm and a Dynavector DV XV 1S cartridge formed the heart of the chain; the cartridge’s fine signal was raised to line level by the Dr. Feickert Analogue Vero before it reached the EXCELLENCE. A turntable–tonearm–cartridge–phono-stage combination of a resolving power that forgives no weakness in the downstream electronics, should one exist.
This combination of an acoustically calibrated room, two operating modes of the EXCELLENCE – as integrated amplifier and as pure preamplifier –, three fundamentally different loudspeaker concepts and an analogue as well as a digital source of reference standard created the conditions under which the true class of a device first shows itself: not in the laboratory, but in the lived, demanding listening reality of an audience that is satisfied with nothing less.
SOUND QUALITY
There are amplifiers that force themselves upon you at once, that in the first seconds court sympathy with emphatic warmth or demonstrative bass pressure, like a host who laughs too loudly in order to feign composure. The EXCELLENCE does none of this. It does not enter the listening room, it rather dissolves in it – and it is precisely in this disappearing that its greatest art lies. Whoever listens to it for the first time instinctively looks for a signature, a colouration, a hallmark – and finds none. What remains is the music itself, unobstructed, as though no amplifier had ever stood between source and loudspeaker.
This tonal neutrality is no coincidence, but the result of an amplifier design that refuses to take sides. Across the entire spectrum – from the lower midrange to the finest highs – the tonal colour remains of a constancy that knows neither the velvety embellishment of some valve designs nor the clinical coldness of some purely transistor-based ones. Changing between the DEUTSCH Acoustics Schallwand, the more compact Atlantis Lab AT 38 PRO and the Canton Reference Alpha 1, this tonal character remains astonishingly stable across all three very different load profiles – proof of a power supply and output-stage architecture that cannot be thrown off balance by changing impedance curves.
Directness is the second great theme that runs through every listening session like a red thread. The EXCELLENCE responds to every impulse with an immediacy that knows no delay, no hesitation, no rounding-off. The strike of a piano key, the sudden plucking of a double-bass string, the abrupt entry of a drum kit out of nothing – all of it happens with a consistency one may hope for in this price class, but rarely finds in such purity. This directness stands in closest kinship with the amplifier’s dynamic capability, which shows both in the large and in the small. An abrupt transition from chamber-music pianissimo to orchestral tutti is mastered without any audible compression, without the tonal basic character shifting in the slightest – a sovereignty that, given 200 and 330 watts into 8 and 4 ohms respectively, may come as little surprise, but which in actual listening nevertheless impresses, because these enormous reserves never impose themselves, but simply hold themselves ready for the moment in which one needs them.
Also in the fine-dynamic domain – that area of quiet, barely perceptible volume fluctuations within a musical phrase – the EXCELLENCE remains present with an attentiveness that turns a technically correct reproduction into an emotionally moving one. The slow swelling of a sustained string chord, the minimal differences in touch of a pianist who plays with dynamics as with a language of their own – the EXCELLENCE traces all of it, with a calm in the noise floor owed to the excellent signal-to-noise ratio of –92 dBA.
The cleanliness of this reproduction reveals itself particularly impressively in a direct comparison between the analogue and digital signal paths. Via the Dr. Feickert Virgo SE with the Dynavector DV XV 1S, the EXCELLENCE carries the finest structure of the groove into the room with a composure that never tips into harshness – a merit not least of the low distortion figures of under 0.02 per cent THD+N, which make themselves felt as complete freedom from interference in the background of every recording. Via digital playback through Electrocompaniet and ROON the same impression is confirmed: the integrated converter, whose seven filter characteristics can be adjusted to personal taste, remains free of the digital harshness or blurring that betrays many another integrated amplifier in this price class.
This cleanliness goes hand in hand with a resolution and detail rendering that does justice to the price class in every respect. The faintest incidental noises of a recording, the slow decay of a cymbal, the room reverberation behind a solo voice – the EXCELLENCE reproduces all of it with a fine resolution that never dissects analytically, but always remains in the service of the musical statement. It is that rare kind of richness of detail that does not impose itself, but reveals itself only to patient, concentrated listening – the true distinguishing feature between short-lived, superficial impressiveness and genuine long-term listenability.
Spatially, the EXCELLENCE draws a sound image of remarkable stability and depth staging. Instruments and voices receive a clearly contoured, three-dimensional place within the stage, without that stage being artificially inflated or unnaturally widened. This precise imaging is retained even when many sound sources are active at once – proof of a channel separation and an amplifier architecture that swallows no voice in the overall picture, but grants each its own unmistakable place.
In the bass region, finally, the EXCELLENCE demonstrates the control one may expect of an amplifier with a damping factor greater than 100, and exceeds this expectation with an effortlessness that impresses. Low-frequency impulses are not only generated effortlessly but also captured again just as effortlessly – no ringing, no smearing, but a bass that offers contour and depth in rare unity. Across all three loudspeakers tested, from the most compact to the largest design, this bass control remains remarkably constant, which can be attributed to the generously dimensioned output stage with eight power transistors per channel.
In the end, what remains is an overall impression that can hardly be captured in a single sentence without doing it an injustice: the EXCELLENCE makes music neutrally without ever seeming cool; precisely without ever sounding sterile; directly without ever being intrusive. It is an amplifier that holds itself back to give the music precedence – and it is precisely this gesture of selflessness that one may expect from a device in this price class, but only rarely experiences with such consistency.
PLACE IN THE MARKET
At a list price of 13,900 euros, the EXCELLENCE moves in a price segment that has for decades been dominated by separate pre-/power-amplifier combinations – architectures that demand additional rack space, further connecting cables and, as a rule, a second or third power supply. The EXCELLENCE meets this environment with a self-assured counter-proposal: it unites preamplification and output power in a single, self-contained chassis, without this renunciation of modularity ever being felt as a sonic compromise.
For audiophile buyers who in this price region are in any case considering a multi-part pre-/power-amplifier architecture, the EXCELLENCE poses a fundamental question: whether the additional complexity of a separate solution still promises any audible added value when a single, more compact device provides the same sonic sovereignty and the same power reserves. This consideration concerns not only the purchase price but also the long-term, practical dimensions of a system – fewer cables, fewer potential sources of error, less space occupied. The EXCELLENCE thus positions itself not as a compromise solution for those who cannot afford a separate combination, but as a conscious, equal alternative for those who simply no longer need one.
ASSESSMENT
Drawing a summary verdict, it falls out for the EXCELLENCE with a clarity that has become rare. In build quality and design there is nothing that would make the critical observer pause – on the contrary: choice of materials, manufacturing precision and a restrained, timeless design language come together into a coherent whole that never has to assert its high quality, because it discloses itself in every touch, every turn, every finely detented “click”. In the controls and their haptics, too, no wish remains open – every knob, every button conveys that mechanical confidence one may expect of a device in this price class and which is fulfilled here without any reservation.
Just as convincing is the EXCELLENCE in features and operation. The abundance of analogue and digital connection options leaves hardly a wish unfulfilled, the range of functions extends from individually adjustable DAC filters to a well-considered colour customisation, and operating comfort benefits both from the intuitive menu navigation on the device and from the optional remote control. Scope of delivery and documentation, including a manual written in German and English with palpable care and a three-year warranty, likewise underline the thoroughly professional overall impression.
The real capital of the EXCELLENCE, however, as with any serious amplifier, lies in its sound quality. Dynamics and resolution move at a level that leaves nothing to be desired, the spatial imaging convinces through stability and depth staging, the tonal balance through its incorruptible neutrality, and the bass control through a contour that masters even the most demanding loudspeaker loads with sovereignty. The overall impression the EXCELLENCE leaves across all test scenarios is that of an amplifier that delivers across the board what its name promises – without even the shadow of a shortfall showing anywhere.
CONCLUSION & PURCHASE RECOMMENDATION
The TRIGON EXCELLENCE is not an integrated amplifier for an unprepared entry into the audiophile world, and it does not claim to be one. It addresses those listeners who own or wish to build an established, high-quality chain without exposing themselves to the added complexity of a multi-part pre-/power-amplifier solution – and who are prepared to pay the corresponding price for this rare combination of compactness and sonic sovereignty.
Whoever hears the EXCELLENCE quickly understands why it makes many a pre-/power-amplifier combination superfluous: its power reserves of 200 and 330 watts into 8 and 4 ohms respectively drive the vast majority of loudspeakers on the market with ease, including those with a demanding impedance curve or low efficiency. At the same time, across the entire power bandwidth the amplifier retains that tonal neutrality and directness that make it a reliable, fatigue-free companion even for the longest, most absorbed evenings of listening.
For all who are looking for a single, self-contained amplifier that makes no sonic compromises compared with a separate solution, while reducing footprint, cabling effort and potential sources of error, the EXCELLENCE is an unreserved recommendation. It is a device for music lovers who know exactly what they want and who no longer feel like settling for compromises merely because a single chassis supposedly cannot deliver enough.
The TRIGON EXCELLENCE proves the opposite – with a sovereignty that never imposes itself but is always there, in the one moment in which one truly needs it.
