TRILOGY
Trilogy 906
The Ear 01 March 2020 Full Review
I left hi-fi retail in 2015 and moved to Devon, bringing with me the best system that our limited budget would allow, and made a few purchases on the advice of respected industry friends to ensure that I could continue to enjoy my record collection for as long as possible. Included in the equipment which followed us here was a Trilogy 907 phono stage, a very handsome two box device with all the delicate audio parts in one very elegant small box, finished in a lovely gloss black, with a power supply in a second box. I kept that at the heart of my system until last year, when I sold it on. It had an excellent sound and was very configurable to match almost any cartridge via a set of dip switches on the underside. My only reason for changing it was that I had reviewed a rival unit for The Ear and just felt that it had a very slight sonic edge and was also more versatile as far as easy configurability was concerned. The other reason was that bane of the life of everyone who has this hobby/obsession (delete as appropriate) - I just fancied a change.
Fast forward to January 2020 and an incoming message from a friend who runs Tan-gerine Audio, saying he had just taken on a dealership for the Trilogy 906 because he rates it so highly, and would I like to review one for The Ear? Tangerine Audio’s main line of business has been the manufacture of after-market parts for the venerable Linn Sondek LP12, their top plate, armboard, sub-chassis and cross-brace are key components of my own LP12, and are held in very high regard by many other owners of LP12 decks. If the Trilogy 906 has the Tangerine Audio folk excited, then I really should take notice.
The Trilogy 906 has been around for a while now, so this is not a review of a hot new ‘must-have’ gizmo, but rather another chance to look at a device which has slowly but surely built a fine reputation since its launch. British audio engineer Nic Poulson founded Trilogy back in in 1990 and has dedicated the last three decades to building a roster of audio products which reflect his own belief in performance, reliability, pride of ownership and value for money. He also has a fine eye for elegant design and the 906 phono stage is a small but attractive single box. A single red LED on the front glows, but not too brightly thank heavens, to show that the unit has power, but other than that discretion is the key word. On the back panel, things are equally low key. A pair of gold plated RCA inputs and an earthing post sit beside a matching pair of RCA sockets for the output. The onboard linear power supply is supplied current through a standard IEC socket. Using the same settings for my Gold Note Machiavelli Red cartridge as I use on my regular phono stage, I adjusted the switches on the underside, and connected it to my Yamaha A-S3000. The owner’s manual that comes with the 906 is a model of clarity, so set up should present no difficulty to even the less technical new owner. In any case, your dealer should help you with this straightforward procedure.