We went to Gothenburg to interview our Sweden-based partner Johan Olofson. Johan started to work in Hi-fi in his twenties. His passion quickly made him escalate further to bigger systems, eventually in home installations, and led to the creation of BioSpecialisten in 2005.
Johan's passion goes way beyond sound. His home theater projects take all senses into account and aim at creating a true atmosphere inside the room.
This mind-blowing Star Wars-themed home theater features a 30+ channels Procella system, and Trinnov amplification/processing. Apart from the exceptional sound and features offered by the Optimizer, Johan mentions the dedication of the Trinnov team and the overall mindset of the company, a precious asset in his opinion.
Please introduce yourself
My name is Johan Olofson, and I work with designing and building dedicated home theaters. I actually started when I was young. I was very interested in Hi-Fi, and at 25 I opened my first store.
After that, I just escalated to home cinema from stereo. From that, I started another showroom and it just kept escalating.
I actually work with the whole room, the whole environment, taking all senses into account. It could be the smell of the popcorn, the picture quality, great sound, but also the overall feeling in the room. That's why I like the extreme themed environment.
What sets Trinnov apart from other brands ?
I have to say it's very versatile, you can do literally everything with it. The sound is really awesome, with an airy and detailed sound stage. And I love that it feels like a very open area. The combination with the preamp and the power amp, you can really feel that they are built for each other. They are so fast if you compare to other combinations. You can hear it, you can feel it. And of course, the Optimizer and all the features that you have on it, it's incredible. I mean, you can do literally anything you want to do with it. What can I say? It's a good product.
Please tell us about this project
The room is actually a room in a room. I built a room outside the regular bigger room. I wanted a larger room but unfortunately, I couldn't do it bigger. It's 5 meters long, 4 meters wide and 3 meters high.
Everything is built like a floating constellation. The whole thing is built on sand, that's also why you can see the metal grid here. It's because it's going to breathe with the sand and absorb the first resonance. The walls are very thick, but it's a combination of acoustic materials and also diffusers.
I started with Altitude16 at first, because back then it was enough channels and you had released the +4 extra channels. I mean, the value for that is great. Also, you did it for free!
I sold that one and upgraded to the Altitude32 with 24 channels. But now it's time to upgrade it again because I need more so it's going to be 32 channels. Right now, I'm out of channels. To be honest, I have two front high speakers that are not optimized.
How would you describe the sound in this room yourself ?
Well, I went with a little bit more headroom, just because I would like high pressure. I like it when you can feel it, it's more physical. That's my sound but everything is personal, of course. It's a three number Procella combination so what can I say? I love it. I never go for anything else.
What was your experience with the Trinnov team ?
Nicolas has been really great to work with. He's really knowledgeable and you can do so much with Trinnov. It's incredible. So you need some good people to help you out, to get a little extra out of it. It's the service and the knowledge.
Also you can feel that it's personal. It's another feeling to it, in a market where a lot of people only think about money and the corporate part of it. It feels more like a flat company, more enthusiastic. And I like that, you can feel it almost in the product as well. All the updates are for free, I think it's high dedication, and I love that.