D,
Only your big toe , back or wallet would get hurt from too much transformer, ohh yeah, the undersized output stage might let out the magic smoke ..
Of course, one could question the sanity of using a 1 kVA transformer for a nominally 2x25W/8 Ohms amp.
Wayne, there's big, there's bigger and there's insanely big. To be sure, I am certainly not happy when I see a nominally 2x100/200W into 8/4 Ohms amp using a 500 VA transformer, if it were mine I'd use exactly twice that as a starting point, but I'd be thinking about 600 or 800 VA transformer, and probably end up buying two 1 kVA toroids. I'd find a way to fit them into a case of still managable size, if I put my mind to it.
Stawman, I'm not arguing in favour of an overheated/saturated trafo.
PS Audio path is certainly a way of selling more equipment, getting audiophiles to part with more readies, not really an engineering solution in the Henry Ford tradition....
<edit> On further reflection I can't for the life of me see how PS's regenerator is any kind of solution at all for common-mode mains noise. Please feel free to point out what I'm missing... Sure, it'll clean up differential mode mains noise but that's not really relevant to trafo interwinding capacitance.
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Supposedly you can get medical grade toroids with sectional windings but I never could get a vendor to actually make one for me. Getting them to add a shield requires perseverance. This is probably the biggest benefit of the "R" core transformer. The Signal flat packs get close in their power range, but they tend to buzz.
My first post here hehe
I am a physicist so from my point of view almost everything is measurable. Also I seem to be rather deaf. I admit it unlike most audiophiles.
Question is whether industry has any reason to invest in all the advanced equipment necessary to perform them. Bearing in mind that majority of consumers are incompetent to appreciate the engineering efforts it will always be better to invest in marketing and presentation. At the end of the day it is the salesman's job to convince you that the experience you will get with some exotic 10 000$ system is beter than say a 1000$ system which in my case is not always true.
Most of the time I don't understand this obsession with amplifiers, cables, sources and so on...Fidelity of your system will always be down to the worst part, which always is the loudspeakers. The technological progress in the field of electronics made good amplifiers and sources affordable, properly designed DIY Gainclone (100$) is always better in terms of distortion than a 10 000$ "high-end" loudspeakers. I doubt any price range will change that because the mechanism of reproduction is essentially the same. Coupling between a diaphragm and air will always be bad, will always generate the majority of distortion no matter the "unobtainium" used for the diaphragm.
Next significant factor is the room acoustics which is often overlooked. You need to be very obsessed with audio to do some monstrosity of your living room and even if you do it will never sound right because you need some of those diffractions and echoes in order to perceive sound as natural.
Sorry if my ramble bored you.
heheI am a physicist so from my point of view almost everything is measurable. Also I seem to be rather deaf. I admit it unlike most audiophiles.
Question is whether industry has any reason to invest in all the advanced equipment necessary to perform them. Bearing in mind that majority of consumers are incompetent to appreciate the engineering efforts it will always be better to invest in marketing and presentation. At the end of the day it is the salesman's job to convince you that the experience you will get with some exotic 10 000$ system is beter than say a 1000$ system which in my case is not always true.
Most of the time I don't understand this obsession with amplifiers, cables, sources and so on...Fidelity of your system will always be down to the worst part, which always is the loudspeakers. The technological progress in the field of electronics made good amplifiers and sources affordable, properly designed DIY Gainclone (100$) is always better in terms of distortion than a 10 000$ "high-end" loudspeakers. I doubt any price range will change that because the mechanism of reproduction is essentially the same. Coupling between a diaphragm and air will always be bad, will always generate the majority of distortion no matter the "unobtainium" used for the diaphragm.
Next significant factor is the room acoustics which is often overlooked. You need to be very obsessed with audio to do some monstrosity of your living room and even if you do it will never sound right because you need some of those diffractions and echoes in order to perceive sound as natural.
Sorry if my ramble bored you.
Sendust was just a whim of the exotic . Mumetal is expensive now . I will check out the Amorphous metal as it's typical use might make it sane in price . One quote I got to a device we make to leap from $12 to $400 . We are hoping $20 . Thanks for the advice . As you can see when a guy from a very famous transformer company is stumped we are not going to find it easily . I will keep you posted over my Indian source . Might be useless for audio . I think they call it alloy 76 which I think is something to do with nickle content .
Abraxalito, Wayne
This may surprise you - it sure surpresed the hell out of me.
Years ago, I was asked to bring along a mains filter to a session with a man who had an all Krell system, the speakers were Nightingale's biggest at the time.
Initally, I was severly let down by the sound. It was not bad, but it all sounded like a damn powerful Technics amp, WAY below what I'd expect.
Adding the mains filter made an incredible difference. I had heard it improve sound before, but never ever as much, or as profoundly, as then. The system tarted to sound like a true High End system, the soundstage exploded in your face, and it had everything - depth, width, heigth, location, I mean everything.
The amp was the 250W model from the FPB series, made in the late 90ies.
I've had opposite experiences as well. My filter, connected to a Jadis system will kill it dead, so much so that I refuse to sell it to Jadis owners.
On transformers. Assuming quality work toroidal, a rule of thumb would be to have it sized so that under full load on conditions it has as many VA as the number of watts you expect from the amp worst case, times say 1.1-1.2 for reserve.
In my case, I expect 400W/2 Ohm peaks (purely for heat reasons), so my per side trafo would need to be 400y1.2= 480 VA. Adding a bit more for impulse power peaks, I would need either 600 or 800 VA trafos.
This may surprise you - it sure surpresed the hell out of me.
Years ago, I was asked to bring along a mains filter to a session with a man who had an all Krell system, the speakers were Nightingale's biggest at the time.
Initally, I was severly let down by the sound. It was not bad, but it all sounded like a damn powerful Technics amp, WAY below what I'd expect.
Adding the mains filter made an incredible difference. I had heard it improve sound before, but never ever as much, or as profoundly, as then. The system tarted to sound like a true High End system, the soundstage exploded in your face, and it had everything - depth, width, heigth, location, I mean everything.
The amp was the 250W model from the FPB series, made in the late 90ies.
I've had opposite experiences as well. My filter, connected to a Jadis system will kill it dead, so much so that I refuse to sell it to Jadis owners.
On transformers. Assuming quality work toroidal, a rule of thumb would be to have it sized so that under full load on conditions it has as many VA as the number of watts you expect from the amp worst case, times say 1.1-1.2 for reserve.
In my case, I expect 400W/2 Ohm peaks (purely for heat reasons), so my per side trafo would need to be 400y1.2= 480 VA. Adding a bit more for impulse power peaks, I would need either 600 or 800 VA trafos.
My first post here
I am a physicist so from my point of view almost everything is measurable. Also I seem to be rather deaf. I admit it unlike most audiophiles.
Question is whether industry has any reason to invest in all the advanced equipment necessary to perform them. Bearing in mind that majority of consumers are incompetent to appreciate the engineering efforts it will always be better to invest in marketing and presentation. At the end of the day it is the salesman's job to convince you that the experience you will get with some exotic 10 000$ system is beter than say a 1000$ system which in my case is not always true.
Most of the time I don't understand this obsession with amplifiers, cables, sources and so on...Fidelity of your system will always be down to the worst part, which always is the loudspeakers. The technological progress in the field of electronics made good amplifiers and sources affordable, properly designed DIY Gainclone (100$) is always better in terms of distortion than a 10 000$ "high-end" loudspeakers. I doubt any price range will change that because the mechanism of reproduction is essentially the same. Coupling between a diaphragm and air will always be bad, will always generate the majority of distortion no matter the "unobtainium" used for the diaphragm.
Next significant factor is the room acoustics which is often overlooked. You need to be very obsessed with audio to do some monstrosity of your living room and even if you do it will never sound right because you need some of those diffractions and echoes in order to perceive sound as natural.
Sorry if my ramble bored you.
Hi Krashimir . You are very very welcome to this group . For my sins I work with the high end . I absolutely hate it . I told a friend recently the only way to become a millionaire in this business is to make things at very low price . Unfortunately we have lost the confidence of ordinary people so need the high end .
As best as I understand it what you see in the ear is about 10% of how it works . There is a crude analogue part ( THD 30% ) . Similar to digital part of tiny hairs firing . Then a servo signal with a 2 MHz bandwidth somehow working in the ear . If a fast signal is interrupted this signal shows up . If you like the correction of a fly by wire aircraft . Thus the seemingly crude mechanism is rather good . I provided the measuring rig to the Radcliffe Hospital Oxford to do this testing . They in return taught me a few things . The ear is a 200 Hz device . It is about - 100 db down at 50 Hz . The body hears the low notes with strain gauge type devices . Some found in the lymphatic areas .
This might explain why the ear is as good as it is . It is doing reality checks . It knows what it is doing and extracts a difference signal . This might explain these strange observations . Two types of amplifier in the crudest sense sound good . Ones of near zero distortion and those with up to 1% THD where the harmonics falling exactly as the ear would distort it . Anything else however interesting seems wrong to ears that hear with musical interest . Zero has to be at least - 80dB . The old Quad 303 is not only - 80 dB it also has the ear distortion type curve . Were it not for it's limited current it would be rather nice .
In philosophy there is no such thing as a fact . They even have mathematicians who say 7% changes yearly . I have no clue what that means and will be told off by physicists until the day I die . My favourite calls himself DF 96 . He reformed my ideas on feedback and distortion by maths . His vision better than any book I read .
Scientist was a term coined by Samuel Taylor Coleridge to his friend Humphrey Davy boss of Michael Faraday . He also wrote the tale of the Ancient Mariner . Faraday was an Artist by profession coming under it's science wing . Education in the round made for the scientist of old .
No one who learns a language is unable to become addicted to good sound . Good sound is rare even with live music . 90% of what I hear as high end is like a lady with enhancement . I hate it because just to sound like real music is all I ask . I went to a Beethoven concert that was in a period building . I was the best hi fi I ever heard and so unlike high end . It got into my soul and I cried buckets . It sounded mostly like pristine 78's with 10 kHz . It was a drug how good it was . I took that sound home to search for in my work .
My distortion example might unravel a bit when looking at speaker and source distortion . By simple curve addition like when we were 12 at school it all looks to work with all example . Speakers generally fit these curves . Musical distortion is another matter . Hi fi is to not add too many contradictory errors .
Yesterday I tried to get a discussion going about high slew rates to cure crossover distortion shown by transients ( complete conjecture with very little evidence ) . The conflict is people say we need a high slew rates . Music doesn't need it . So why are we doing it ? In high-end it seems to be the usual snake oil . Personally I think it is genuine . We look to have the Earth at the centre of the Solar System the way the present story is told .
As a dyslexic you will find much of this not quite right , forgive . I never really wrote anything until age 50 .
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