My Sound is a high-end HiFi and home cinema solutions provider based in Starnberg, Germany. Their approach to cinema design is meticulous planning and careful selection of industry-wide best equipment, to create a live & natural sound.
We recently interviewed Wolfgang Linhard in one of My Sound's impressive showrooms.
Please tell us about this project
The intention was to build a home cinema entirely with line source speakers. I heard many cinemas with line source speakers in the front, but not with the surround speakers also in line source. I believe that line source as a surround gives you a totally « complete » sound where you are into the concert. First advantage of this solution is not losing so much power (3db less from point source speakers). Second is that we mostly build atypical cinemas, totally black and with cinema seating.
Did you have a specific goal in mind while designing the cinema?
Here, the goal was to make it more elegant, more like a room where you also sit with your friends, with your family, and you feel very comfortable. Even if you don't watch, you can just drink and then you jump to the next concert.
Our real goal is to make it sound excellent. We designed the room with diffusers, and we have also bass absorbers. We tried these diffusers in other applications of course. For example, we tried them in a stereo room for our customers and at the end, the sound was outstanding. This is why we said this could be something we can also try in our home cinemas, because it looks fantastic.
The idea was also to make the lines completely over the ceiling, because it gives a look that is in my opinion outstanding. When you enter the cinema, it feels a little bit like a tunnel to the screen. I brought many customers here already and they like it very much. Actually, we built the exact same cinema but bigger in Munich.
What makes Trinnov different from other brands ?
First of all, how Trinnov measures everything is like no other room correction system I’ve experienced. Sometimes, while measuring with the Trinnov, you can even find out there is something wrong with the speaker!
With the Trinnov, I am able to find out wether there's a problem. Other room treatment systems only measure frequency response and you will not see that there is a phase problem or something with a speaker. Second, at the end of the process, I can compare before and after, and the sound is always much, much, much better.
We also like Trinnov’s power amplifiers very much because of the sound. I think they are absolutely dynamic and they have a musicality not many home amplifiers have. The 16-channel is so flexible, we use it in many applications.
What do you like about Trinnov Optimizer ?
One important thing I must also say about the Trinnov. In the end, not every Blu-ray is perfect. But I cannot say I don't want to watch Adele in the the Royal Albert Hall, because it's excellent.
With the Trinnov, I can do things that make it really excellent. Because you have to make adaptations to the problems on the Blu-rays, on the recording. Let's say some adaptations on the center speaker, on the surrounds or whatever. I store it, I have maybe 10 different settings for concerts, and finally, I watched at the end Adele in the Royal Albert Hall, and it's perfect.
What was your experience with Trinnov’s support team ?
The service and the possibility Trinnov has are also very, very important to me. I have an example. Our most far away project was in Tokyo, in Japan. We built up our home cinema and there was a big time delay. It was with a Trinnov Altitude32, and we had problems because of the projector. Someone from Trinnov stood up at three o'clock in the night to be online on the unit. I called him and he found the problem. If that did not happen, I would have flown home from Tokyo and have to go there again two weeks after maybe, not knowing what the problem was. So the possibilities of Trinnov is amazing.
Also, I have a story from a customer in Munich. This customer bought an Altitude16. He bought an LG screen and we had real problems with the picture. Whatever I did, there was no image on the LG. So I called Trinnov to help me and they connected to the machine. They found that there's a problem with HTML DHCP. So Trinnov said, give us three days, we will fix it. After three days, they put a new software on the unit, the customer called me and said : « This is unbelievable. How have they done it? ». I said, «I have no idea, but it works now». And finally, he upgraded to the bigger version Altitude32.
Normally, other manufacturers say, « What do you use? We cannot understand. No, it cannot be. » And that's it. No help at all. Trinnov programmed a new protocol for this TV.