Are the standards of Trinity and AB the same?

I know that for diploma levels both boards have a similar reptoire.

Supposedly, yes.

But I think that on violin, TCL aural is much easier (for grade 8 at least) and scales are somewhat more difficult. TCL are more flexible than AB about what you can and can't do, for example with TCL if you play a piece from memory you don't have to do viva voce... But that's only at Grade 8 violin. Otherwise, I don't know!

For piano, you have less scales to learn for trinity. I had about 5 for my Grade 5 and that was it! The A pieces were longer, but I don't know if they were more difficult or not and as cecilia says, if you memorise one, you don't have to do a viva voce. Viva voce's only worth 5 marks, so it doesn't matter either way.
But then some of the grade 6 piano pieces for past trinity exams, are set as grade 5 ones AB somewhere? And perhaps the other way round? My teacher was telling me, but I wans't really listening

A lot of my friends changed from AB to Trinity after grade 5 because they don't require the grade 5 theory pass. So it's seen as being easier just because of that I think!

i'm going to do piano performer's certificate (trinity).... then i'll either do a diploma with trinity or ABRSM

trinity grade 8 aurals arent easier, they're more logical if you understand theory, ie figuring out the modulation at the end of a short phrase. also i think people are disillusioned that trinity is easier because its out of 100 rather than 150, so for every 3 marks you'd lose with an ABRSM grade, you'd lose only 2 with trinity.

ive only ever done trinity on piano, grade 6+ for horn (the pieces were better and i used to be an awful sight singer), but ABRSM for theory (post grade 5!) and organ. organ's annoying, but i did grade 8 horn a year ago, so doing grade 8 organ aural on a different board is going to be interesting........ but ive started going to a choir to improve my singing. (my organ teacher wont let me take trinity exams ).

oh, im doing the abrsm diploma on horn tho. the pieces even out in difficulty by post grade 8 standard.

I'm not an expert on this (and what I have observed is probably a result of this being the ABRSM's forum!) but it seems that Trinity would probably be considered easier because the ABRSM are the de-facto standard and people change to Trinity to avoid certain aspects of the AB exams,i.e. they're a second choice to get out of something (grade 5 theory, different aurals...). However I'm sure that there are some things on the Trinity syllabus that some people find harder. This is also the impression I've got from speaking to people (but again most of these people have done AB exams!).

For the diplomas remember that the standard of the repertoire can't really be a perfect judgement of standard: there may could be a large difference in the standard to which the pieces have to be played.

Whatever you do choose the qualification that you want from the board you want and work for that, don't just go for the easiest: you'll be far more satisfied when you get the one that you want, even if you have to work harder for it.