I am designing a HiFi and home theater system, and I plan to use the Cascade as my primary HiFi source. I need to estimate the cable lengths required based on the placement, while keeping them as short as possible.
The rack has four shelves, each with a height of 215 mm. The preamp Trinnov Altitude32 is placed on the top shelf, and the three lower shelves will hold the Digital Director, Cascade, and Powerbase respectively. According to MSB’s official placement guidelines, if arranged in the suggested vertical order, the Cascade would be in the middle (see figure), which means it cannot be connected to the Trinnov with a 0.5 m XLR cable.
Would it be acceptable to swap the positions of the Cascade and the Digital Director? What are the lengths of the interconnect cables provided by MSB between the Digital Director, Cascade, and Powerbase?
I also use my Cascade and Trinnov to make a combined Stereo/Surround system. I have a 2m XLR going from the Trinnov to the XLR input on the Cascade and there are no sound or other issues. So you if you switch to a 1m XLR I think you will be fine.
Also my surround includes 4 B and W subs, sort of dual subs actually because each has two 10 inch drivers. I don’t use the subs for stereo, only surround. Having 4 subs makes it easier to compensate for standing wave issues you always run into with subs.
Atmos has an LFE (low frequency effects )channel, which has a bandwidth of 20 to 200 Hz, which is in practice is the frequency range of thunder and roar in other surround encodings. The way I have my Trinnov setup everything from every channel that is below 200 Hz goes to the subs. So none of my surround speakers (which only go down the 45Hz anyhow) and even my Magico M6s don’t get anything below 200 hz. It works great for action movies and the overall surround is great too.
I’ve found the configuration of the Trinnov to be quite complicated. I does have a sort of auto-config, but manual configuration works better. If you want to get the most out of your Trinnov, you should consider getting a Trinnov specialist to come in to do the configuration. My dealer up front, before I bought the Trinnov told me I would need a specialist to get the most out of the Trinnov, and he was right.
Trinnov is outstanding for surround. Whenever I have guests over for a movie they all comment how blown away they are by the surround system.
Could you please help me measure the length of the connecting cables between the Digital Director, Cascade, and Powerbase? Thank you very much!
I know that there no difference in sound between 0.5 m XLR cable and 2 m, but there is a price difference — the higher‑end the cable, the bigger price difference. That’s why I asked this question, I hope to use the shortest possible length (to save money haha).
The only connections required between the chassis’ is the Summit power cable from the Power base to the Analog converter and the Cascade Link between the Director and the Converter.
The Summit power cable is roughly 32 inches from end to end, but the cable is rather stiff so it is recommended to always keep them directly above/below each other on a rack to keep tension low on this connection.
The Supplied Cascade Link cable is 2 meters in length and is very flexible so it shouldn’t be an issue to move the Cascade Director.
In alternative setups, some customers even remove the Director completely from the rack in favor of having it in an alternate location or closer to certain sources. In this case, the Cascade Link Fiber cable is a simple generic fiber cable that you can buy in lengths up to 1km with no signal loss or degradation and is very affordable. We have a guide about this connection here on our website if you would like more information.
I would recommend moving the Trinnov to the bottom of the rack, or if visibility of its display is required, to the second shelf, placing in-between the director and analog converter.
Thank you very much for your guidance. Moving the Trinnov to the second shelf is a brilliant idea — it will shorten not only the cable runs for the MSB but also those for the BD player and other components. You have been so helpful and inspiring — thank you so much!
