Seriously, save your money and get a pair of Lundhal 1684. Probably double your budget but these really sound very good. No point wasting money on cheap transformers and then upgrading later.
Cheers,
David
+1
My vote goes also for the LL1684, it sounds very good.
I have it connected to my es9018 like in this schematic.
Andrea had it compared to other output stages.
Hi nvduybom,
I'm expecting delivery today of this little heretical super cheap trafo:
VTX-101-006 - VIGORTRONIX - TRANSFORMER, AUDIO, 1+1:1+1 | Farnell United Kingdom
30 euro for a pair including VAT and shipping. Nice, not?!
I'll try it tonight and report back here
I'm expecting delivery today of this little heretical super cheap trafo:
VTX-101-006 - VIGORTRONIX - TRANSFORMER, AUDIO, 1+1:1+1 | Farnell United Kingdom
30 euro for a pair including VAT and shipping. Nice, not?!
I'll try it tonight and report back here
Please bear in mind that the quality of the transformer is a big deal. You may want to look for some old microphone transformers. The 1:10 UTC HA100x(pricey) I am using sound marvelous as compared to the IVY or Legato 3. Wired as per J Rasmussen (thanks for the push btw!) using 2x 5 ohms into my Bent Audio TVC. Plenty of gain with simply superb (low end especially) inner detail while retaining body and dynamics. Note that the lower input impedance will give you a lower freq bass response than spec'd. If it were me, I'd wire yours as 1:4 with 2x 10 ohm. I am curious to hear your results.
Hi nvduybom,
I'm expecting delivery today of this little heretical super cheap trafo:
VTX-101-006 - VIGORTRONIX - TRANSFORMER, AUDIO, 1+1:1+1 | Farnell United Kingdom
30 euro for a pair including VAT and shipping. Nice, not?!
I'll try it tonight and report back here
1:4 would be the primary in parallel, and the secondary in series for 6db of voltage gain. The dac chip has plenty of power. Adjust the I/V resistors until you have the right amount of gain. Even in this moderate "voltage mode", it is quite nice. The money spent for active circuitry can be put into good transformers. Good old ones appreciate too btw, they are sought for MC phono step up, and can be interchangeable.
Been happily listening to my BII for over a year now. I'm using the Feastrex transformers. Audio Nirvana no regrets. Very minimal design. My own design tube output buffer and outboard separate digital and anaol power supply.
JD
JD
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I am using the Buffalo IIISE dac with step-up transformers and forced current output into a simple tube output stage - and the sound is indeed excellent. I want to thank Joe Rasmussen for sharing his brilliant schematic with the diy-community and Mars2 for the inspiration.
A little tip on transformers for those on a tight budget: Raphaelite Sinovt PM30 7K Permalloy Step Up Transformer for MC Phono Pair | eBay
(I'm using them and they sound really nice)
Regards,
Vidar
A little tip on transformers for those on a tight budget: Raphaelite Sinovt PM30 7K Permalloy Step Up Transformer for MC Phono Pair | eBay
(I'm using them and they sound really nice)
Regards,
Vidar
Hi Vidar
The link didn't work for me. But I did Google it and somebody sells them on ebay:
Raphaelite Sinovt PM30 7K Permalloy Step Up Transformer for MC Phono Pair | eBay
How adventurous do you feel?
Do you have access to a scope and a disk or files (if you play back files) with 1KHz sine wave and 20KHz sine wave?
I can post some files which you can use - or burn onto a disk, but you will need a scope - or a very flat to 20KHz True RMS AC Meter would also do.
What I am about to ask you to do has been disputed by a number of people, but only because they are only armchair critics saying "how can that make any difference" and yet many have now heard it - and one even dubbed it the 'Rasmussen Effect' and then it got really heated, so much that I had to ask the Moderator to step in.
So what am I talking about. Well, this has also been tried by somebody I asked to do it, in Malaysia, to a Buffalo DAC, also with transformers. So you won't be the first to do it to a transformer/Sabre combination - but hopefully you will like it just as much.
Play 1KHz sine wave and note the level on the scope. Now play the 20KHz sine wave and chances are that it will be level or slightly down relative to 1KHz.
This is where it gets interesting - add a single film capacitor across the output of the Sabre DAC. Adjust this cap - or use a combination of parallel caps, to bring the response down 0.85 (85%) at 20KHz relative to the ariginal level you established at 1KHz. Follow?
The response should be down between -1.3dB to -1.5dB at 20KHz.
In fact 0.85 should give you -1.4dB.
Those who have heard the effect have described as "not even subtle" and also as "very obvious" - but I would like to hear from you and your choice of words to describe it.
What I will say is this, it may sound like we are slowing down things - limiting rise time means it has to be slower, but in fact, other have noted the exact opposite. The sound will in fact be faster and may I say, and no more, also cleaner.
It has been blind tested.
So are you game?
Cheers, Joe
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The Vanderveen MC-10 step up transformer also looks like a good choice and is not very expensive (72€).
First of all - sorry for the "missing link". Yes I'm indeed game but I'm afraid I don't have any scope and I'm still learning how to use all the functions of my Fluke 287. Maybe it works so please post files. I'm travelling at the moment so I have to come back to you on this experiment. But anyways I need some general guidelines to the capacitor size, brand and such.
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