Avermedia Ballista Trinity Review

[djdestiny]

I would like to of course start by saying thank you to AverMedia for supply the Trinity.

A while back, I was sent news of this speaker and the launch which was late last year. I was fairly unimpressed with it's design and honestly who would be?
The design is really tacky but if it delivered gaming wise I would appreciate it at least.

A couple things going for it is sheer power since it is rated at 78W and I'll find out later that it really might be able to put out 78w and is quite cheap.
It also has a lot of audio in/out jacks.

Let me start with the "command module"

A white back-lighted (Odd! I was expecting red or any tacky colors) power button, a source selector knob between 2 rear IO and the front Line In. A completely strange volume button that doesn't do anything else but control volume.

A treble knob and bass knob, really crucial knobs in any audio product in my opinion. Or am I the knob here? Oh and the assassin mode.

It has a front headphone jack, mic in and line in. Actually the mic just goes to your PC via another 3.5mm on the back but you know, nice touch if you are providing a headphone jack on a gaming product.

Are they putting 48W through a RCA plug? WHAT.

Now I move on to the satellites. They're the most "polarizing" part of the product design wise. I personally don't like them but people might. I mean, look at razer's products.
Subtle? Nope.
It has a 0.75" supertweeter (Very often made from a piezo), 1" tweeter and a 2.75" mids driver. I do hope they have a decent crossover inside but I won't know because I will end up breaking it if I attempt to open it. Their rating is 15wpc as listed on their webpage.
I cannot tell that because past 5w these are fairly sensitive I seem to be hearing distortion either because of driver distortion or my ears have.

 

[djdestiny]

A 6.5" subwoofer that weighs no more than a couple of kg(s). It is unbelievably light! Which is rather alarming ...

Nothing to see on the back except for a 2" (I think?) port.

Lastly the accessories or whatever I received in the box that isn't for the product.

These are rather sad cables. The black connector over there is for the subwoofer. All 48w of electricity. Through that cable. Call me skeptical but I've been a EE for long enough to know that is way too small

And what's in the command module?

A tiny little power supply which I won't expect can power more than 50w. Well, maybe I'll give it the benefit of doubt and say it will power it effortlessly.
Hiding under the heatsink is a TPA3130 and a TPA3116

Yes, the TPA3130 will power 15wpc into 2ch at 10% and the TPA3116 will power 50wpc @ 10% but it's used for one channel here and it's the best Class D amp out there behind perhaps the TK2050
It is impressive but then again not so is the build quality. The finest veneer of glue and horror, masking tape ain't exactly cutting mustard.

So ... physical specs on paper I'm done with what about physiological?

Impressions :

Where do I start?
Right. So this is a gaming product and I must set my expectations quite a bit lower than I would when I'm giving my impressions for say, a Shure KSE1500 (A fellow friend let me try his and it is just simply spectacular!)

Music :
After a lot of time spent tweaking and fine tuning the sound graph I've come to the conclusion it falls flat on it's face in music.
No matter what genre I tried, it has shrill treble with a fairly sibilant signature up top and that treble is masked by the mids which is thankfully not muddy or veiled but it had a certain uncontrolled quality to it so are the vocals which sound a bit ... hidden.
And the bass, it's thump is great but it is too boomy and takes too long to recover from a note to the other. Maybe I'm just used to a sealed sub but the bass is frankly, not good.

Sound stage is at best, compressed and separation as good as trying to separate 2 0.5kg N55 magnets.

Movies :
Wow. It's hard to imagine something that falls flat on music can do so well with movies. Voices come through clear and bass recovers well here unlike music and the sound stage plus the scene separation is something to be marked for.

Gaming :
It has to do well here or else it's a fail. Well ...

It doesn't disappoint at least. It has great positional sound but it has quite a bad noise floor. Half the time the quietest moments in my games are ruined by the noise floor.
That said, I don't play much games these days so you might have to take a pinch of salt on that as I don't have much time to play games and my time is spent enjoying music or actually, life these days. I didn't use the assassin mode as it has a really awful pop when you switch it on.

Actually at SG$165 it really isn't all that bad, if it was priced at double of that of course it's bad but hey, it's better than any logitech speaker!

But the Swans M10 is impossible to ignore in comparison as that has a (although I never heard it) chance of being quite a bit better at music than this does.
Or my reference system is too much to compare ordinary gaming speakers but that might have a point as very few speakers can earn the thumbs up in comparison.

It does lack and do badly in music I imagine it will do many people fine as audiophiles do have special talent for finding pitfalls in audio. And the inability to withstand anything with bass in them. Not me, I like a balanced soundstage with bass. A lot of the soundstage comes from bass.

 

[Swiftbladez]

Oh god it looks so... bad.

 

[mini_cow]

suddenly even creative's X7 and E-MU XM7 looks so polished

 

[liewhl]

the design look so ah beng haha...

i think it will attract dust easily.

 

[wwenze]

Hiding under the heatsink is a TPA3130 and a TPA3116

omg it's the same IC used in Creative X7!

 

[watzup_ken]

I am not sure about the design to be honest. I feel they tried to make it look like those ancient alien design, however, it actually looks very cheesy.

 

[djdestiny]

omg it's the same IC used in Creative X7!

you do know it's found on 20$ boards as well

suddenly even creative's X7 and E-MU XM7 looks so polished

That one ok la just a tad too expensive

 

[wacko]

someone must have leaked to them the GTX1080 shroud design.

 

[smallchoco]

Where can i buy this?

 

[Vulpix]

I am afraid of rubber stuff in SG. They always melt after 2 years.

 

[ragnarok95]

I am afraid of rubber stuff in SG. They always melt after 2 years.

Won't la... our car wheel also made of rubber never see them melt before

 

[wacko]

Where can i buy this?

available in SLS, saw it in one of the big shops (the design is hard to miss), can't remember which one exactly.

 

[Vulpix]

Won't la... our car wheel also made of rubber never see them melt before

Isn't that because it's always being used? Most items at home we put it at one spot and leave it be, even the rubber case in my dry cabinet also melt after 2 years.

 

[poor_poor]

available in SLS, saw it in one of the big shops (the design is hard to miss), can't remember which one exactly.

I saw it at Pctheme and someone bought it.

 

[djdestiny]

Isn't that because it's always being used? Most items at home we put it at one spot and leave it be, even the rubber case in my dry cabinet also melt after 2 years.

Moisture noms "rubber coating". If you keep the temperature constant and moisture as well that's what does the damage.

Real rubber won't melt, they will become very very hard and horrible to touch but they won't become sticky

I am afraid of rubber stuff in SG. They always melt after 2 years.

There is no rubber coating used in this speaker at all.

 

[poor_poor]

Another review - http://musicphotolife.com/2016/04/avermedia-ballista-trinity-gaming-speaker-g315/

Conclusion

The Ballista Trinity speakers are enjoyable for watching movies, listening to gaming soundtracks, when all I needed is bright treble and deep-throat bass without the muffling mids. I also like the convenience of connecting multiple input sources like smartphone or tablet, just like home hi-fi sound system.

 

[wwenze]

I saw it at Pctheme and someone bought it.

Rip .