Looks like Europe is doing well for sources but the US is not! Cottage industries are not common here in the US like they are in the UK. It’s a shame the few that have closed did not pass down the art of winding and the equipment to do it on. I pray that the tools and machinery was not destroyed!
I wish there were more open designs like the way people write software. Like here are the specs and materials used along with documentation of the construction process. Then some measurements on the finished product.
The issue with open hardware is the cost, you need to build something, and it requires investment, and, in the case of tube amps, often a significant one. Software just requires an old computer and internet access, thats it.
Having said that, there are peopke here who share schematics, instructions etc, like for example @Tubelab_com, @kodabmx and plenty of others. But we do not have a Richard Stallman equivalent.
+1 on NP Acoustics in Hanoi. He made me a pair of OPTs for an EL34 PP amp, and they're fantastic. He'll customize the taps for you, nice guy. He's using Hitachi amorphous C cores for everything. I looked all over before I decided to go with him, and for what he's offering I'd have had to pay at least 50% more, even with Silk, Lundahl, etc. not to even mention the Japanese.
It doesn't cost anything for someone to make good documentation of their process so others can replicate it. I'd love to wind my own transformers but getting started is the hardest part. If someone had a start to finish tutorial for a typical 300b output that would be amazing. I don't need pages of calculations and theory, just how you build the thing.
My favorite is Musecoils, Alexander from Bulgaria. Truly bespoke and state-of-the-art. Heirloom quality.
https://musecoils.com/?bot_test=1
https://musecoils.com/?bot_test=1
There are a plenty made by Patrick Turner, with excellent theory notebook. Copy of now defunct site can be found here.
https://www.vacuum-tube.eu/www.turneraudio.com.au/index.html
It takes al lot of time, incl. quite expensive and time consuming prototyping. Transformer cores are not commodity, sourcing same (as original author) core size and material may be problematic on another side of the globe. Moreover, what is done with CNC coil winding machine (like I do) is difficult to replicate by hand, especially for inexperienced winder.
I have seen the site but this:
https://musecoils.com/products/accessories/
I can't understand
Walter
Bas Vlaartronics https://www.vlaartronic.nl/pg-27150-7-70325/pagina/home.html looks very good, what about the prices?
Winding transformers is not the same as making a cake, but then & again if I publish a recipe for a cake, 10 people will all get different results. The same holds true with building valve amplifiers, there are so many variables. Like any skill it takes years of doing, gaining experience, making mistakes & finding our own ways of solving a problem. Same as digging a hole, I spent years digging holes and shoveling muck about, it might take me 10 minutes to dig a 1ft x 1ft x 1ft hole in difficult ground,some young lad would struggle and take hours.
Any transformer is very simple, it's just a load of wire wrapped round a core of some sort, dead easy, till you try and wind one, same as any skill; sorry, you have to put in the hours and graft.
Any transformer is very simple, it's just a load of wire wrapped round a core of some sort, dead easy, till you try and wind one, same as any skill; sorry, you have to put in the hours and graft.
It isn't that hard to understand. Even he himself says right in the 1st line that it's snake oil.
Btw, I just had some look at his other products and I suspect that his transformers also might be not too far from snake oil. Who needs wooden covers on them? What's their impact on a transformer's performance? Isn't it rather about bling-bling?
Best regards!
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From Italy
https://shop.piemme-elektra.it/
They seem to have Dynaco ST-70 transformers. Anyone with experience of them ? As european and within EU it is easier and cheaper to obtain.
https://shop.piemme-elektra.it/
They seem to have Dynaco ST-70 transformers. Anyone with experience of them ? As european and within EU it is easier and cheaper to obtain.
Output transformers are around 175-300 euro for a pair depending on the iron. Bought power transformers for 85 a piece.
This is my website. It is still new and I haven't worked on its contents since a long time, due to the finding that customers usually request unique prototype products and it will take me some further time to figure out the best website layout.
However I feel comfortable to say that I'm selling expensive snake oil products, due to my work being based entirely on subjective listening. I find the deed of claiming this openly an honest approach, instead of inventing some fake pseudo-scientific claims and explanations.
In the future I will develop and add further snake oil products, such as cables and power distributors.