I was at Antek ordering a torroid transformer. And at check out time they popped up a new product line. Apparently they are making torroid DC chokes now as well as their power units. (yeah). The last time I was at Antek early this year I didnt see anything in chokes.
Now I thought torroids and DC didnt get along? Is there a secret sauce to winding a torroid for DC choke use? These are priced pretty competitively.
Do you think one of these would work as a choke input configuration as well? Or is that just pushing it too far?
Tube Amp Parts - Filter Chokes - AnTek Products Corp
Now if they would start making OPT's! Plitron doesn't seem to cater to DIY the way they used to nor sell torroid OPT's. There is Torroidy in Poland and another company in Holland I think that make torroid OPT's. So a company in the USA making torroid OPTs would be cool considering they are heavy to ship.
Now I thought torroids and DC didnt get along? Is there a secret sauce to winding a torroid for DC choke use? These are priced pretty competitively.
Do you think one of these would work as a choke input configuration as well? Or is that just pushing it too far?
Tube Amp Parts - Filter Chokes - AnTek Products Corp
Now if they would start making OPT's! Plitron doesn't seem to cater to DIY the way they used to nor sell torroid OPT's. There is Torroidy in Poland and another company in Holland I think that make torroid OPT's. So a company in the USA making torroid OPTs would be cool considering they are heavy to ship.
Plitron (UK) and Amplimo (The Netherlands) used to sell the range of toroid OPT's designed by Menno Van der Veen (The Netherlands). Amplimo still sells toroid OPT's, but not so many types as they used to: Toroidal Transformer Amplimo - toroidal-transformer.com
Menno van der Veen started to sell toroid OPT's on his own internetsite. My guess is that something changed in the buisiness relationship between Menno and Plitron/Amplimo. Menno's toroids can be found here: Welcome to Ir. Bureau Vanderveen
Menno van der Veen started to sell toroid OPT's on his own internetsite. My guess is that something changed in the buisiness relationship between Menno and Plitron/Amplimo. Menno's toroids can be found here: Welcome to Ir. Bureau Vanderveen
Last edited:
The frequency response plots on Antek's site are very unimpressive, showing -9dB down at 20K. I'd be very interested to learn more about how they actually perform- I don't want to believe it's that poor. If anyone is willing to buy one and take some measurements, I'm sure we'd all be very interested to see.
Theres that, but on the left end of the graph the bass response is pretty impressive. But then again no mention of how hard it's being driven to get that graph. All items are PP though so Antek hasn't even ventured into gapping. Still it's nice to see a mfg bothering at all in tubes. Many here post using power torroids as OPT with a lot of guessing and compromising.
Antek shipping costs are extremely reasonable in the USA (unlike Edcor) so it would be cool if someone tested one of these who has all the gear to do so.
Last edited:
Antek made OPT's a few years ago, including some for SE applications. A few people here tried them and were not impressed with the results.
There are so many people using their power toroids for OPT's, including myself, that searching for the purpose built Antek OPT's is rather futile.
My patience ran out before I found anything, but I seem to remember someone actually returning them for a refund.
There are so many people using their power toroids for OPT's, including myself, that searching for the purpose built Antek OPT's is rather futile.
My patience ran out before I found anything, but I seem to remember someone actually returning them for a refund.
Wouldn’t the filter CHOKES need to be gapped in order not to saturate at several hundred mA current levels?
Can anybody comment on the possibility of one of these torroid chokes used in the choke-input position?
A torroid seems like a much easier object to pot yourself than an EI choke, no nooks and crannies, its a smooth round object. That is if it can serve in this position and potting would make any difference. Also, in theory, wouldn't magnetic coupling with other nearby components be better with a torroid choke over an EI? Leaving more wiggle room in how a given chassis can be laid out?
I'm building the "Franks 6SN7 Pre Amp" right now, that tiny little Antek 12H 80ma choke looks pretty good for the chassis I want to make.
A torroid seems like a much easier object to pot yourself than an EI choke, no nooks and crannies, its a smooth round object. That is if it can serve in this position and potting would make any difference. Also, in theory, wouldn't magnetic coupling with other nearby components be better with a torroid choke over an EI? Leaving more wiggle room in how a given chassis can be laid out?
I'm building the "Franks 6SN7 Pre Amp" right now, that tiny little Antek 12H 80ma choke looks pretty good for the chassis I want to make.
Last edited:
Windcrest, did you try one of the Anteks as an input choke?
I'm looking at the same thing but thinking of paralleling two 12H150 to get 6H300mA.
I'm looking at the same thing but thinking of paralleling two 12H150 to get 6H300mA.
Magnetics Inc used to make toroid cores with a magnesium oxide coating on one or both sides of the magnetic strip, before winding up, so as to make a distributed gap. All of that strip length gap is effectively in parallel though, so would be difficult to make a significant gap for DC that way. Maybe could wind the magnetic strip with a plastic sheet bonded to it. Only other way is to cut a gap and insert a spacer.
I'm using one of their chokes for the B+2 in my 845 amp. (I wrote to be sure it would handle the voltage and found it would be more than enough). I've also used one of the little ones in a 5687 WOT pre-amp. I've had really, really good experiences with Antek's power transformers and chokes in both tube and SS applications. Always very affordable, shipped fast, and worked exactly as I expected.
Paul
Paul