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Re: transformers

Dear Pooge
Any technical decision involves a trade-off. It is very important to start with a clear goal, list one's priorities and then make a decision with full awareness of the trade-offs involved.

I believe that if one starts with a "clean" analog or digital source, a transformer's galvanic isolation is not required to remove digital or RFI noise. That's the main design trade-off when comparing autoformers to transformers.
The advantages of an autoformer IMHO are outstanding "air", superior soundstaging and dynamics, less distortion and much less saturation in the bass than a regular transformer.
Disadvantage: you cannot buy a $500 CD player and expect hi-end sound from an autoformer based preamp. It is simply a straight wire with attenuation, it will not hide the digititis.
Fix the source, do not band-aid the system if your goal is high-end sound.

Advantages of a transformer: bandwidth usually limited to 60-80 KhZ, which removes digital HF nasties; will block any DC component from the source's output signal (but may saturate if the DC level is high).
Disadvantages: it performs two conversions: electrical signal to magnetic field in the primary, then converts the magnetic field back to electrical signal in the secondary; bass saturation (read Bent Audio's paper on their site); lack of ultimate air and soundstaging IMO, lack of transient "speed".
In summary and IMHO, both approaches are valid, it all depends on your sound preferences and priorities.

BTW, which autoformer have you or your friends compared to Bent or Sowther ?
Most commercial autoformers are wound on M5 steel cores, while Bent, Sowther and Tone Audio use high-nickel content cores (in our case, 80% nickel, not 50%) and 99.999% pure copper wire. That's an entirely different ballgame as compared to M5 steel and plain magnet wire.
All the best
Carlos


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  • Re: transformers - Carlos 07/31/0417:09:26 07/31/04 (0)


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