Buying Plitron Transformers?

Yeah, I don't know how realistic it is to purchase from Plitron any more. 🙁

The Anteks seem quite good at a decent price and are actually available. I've used
two and they are fine (AN4018 and AS3018, in F4 and F6)

I have a future project that requires custom transformers. I've heard good
things about SumR/Primrose in Toronto so I'll probably try them.

The power supply in post #5 looks stunning. I'm guessing that's from an XS product?

Yep, from the XS Pre though. Unfortunately you can't see the transformer in the amps.
 

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I had an interesting conversation with Chris the sales manager for Torriod Corporation. A large portion of their business comes from custom transformers. Chris said they are open to supplying small quantities but it only becomes profitable for them (and more affordable for us) if the quantities are in the 5 - 10 range. Their company has an engineer on staff who is knowledgeable in audio...his name is Ming and he sent me an email offering his services. I don't know what specs make for a good transformer for audio...that's where I need your help. I'm thinking of doing a small group buy and see how it goes. They could ship directly from their facility. I have many questions, one of course is at what cost.
 
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It's good to hear about an alternate supply for quality custom transformers. One of the recommendations that I see frequently for audio power transformers is to wind them on a larger core than standard. This helps keep the magnetic field contained within the toroid, especially when the transformer is being used for Class A duty. Of course we also like to see an electrostatic shield between primary and secondary windings plus an outer magnetic shield band. These last two qualities are what make the Antek AS series transformers work well for our application.


As a footnote, I bought a few of the Plitron transformers several years ago to use in 100W Class A/B amp rebuilds. They are nice, but still overpriced for what they are. I will eventually be reusing a couple of those 625VA, 50V transformers in a custom 50W class A build.
 
You should check out the power transformers on the Toroidy website especially the audio grade ones.

I had an interesting conversation with Chris the sales manager for Torriod Corporation. A large portion of their business comes from custom transformers. Chris said they are open to supplying small quantities but it only becomes profitable for them (and more affordable for us) if the quantities are in the 5 - 10 range. Their company has an engineer on staff who is knowledgeable in audio...his name is Ming and he sent me an email offering his services. I don't know what specs make for a good transformer for audio...that's where I need your help. I'm thinking of doing a small group buy and see how it goes. They could ship directly from their facility. I have many questions, one of course is at what cost.
 
Toroidy doesn't appear to offer US primary transformers? Only 230V primaries?

They have a note down near the bottom of the page:

"Didn't find a suitable transformer ? Please write or call us.
Transformers with different parameters are available on individual request."

From my experience they answer quite fast. I'm about to order a set of tube output transformers.
 
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If you insist on a torroid then you want an electrostatic shield from primary to secondary to reduce the capacitive coupling and lower the bandwidth of the AC line noise it lets through and an external shield to reduce the radiated field. You can only get those 2 options if you get custom made toroid transformers, not off the shelf series. And you still have to deal with the torroid inrush current, either with a soft start circuit or at least a properly chosen thermistor

Or you could buy an R core and skip all that crap, but no one here seems to be listening. Seems odd for an audio oriented web site.

Torroids were popular in the 1980s, but we’ve learnt things since then. Look at Audio Research, the new Parrasound JC 1+ and JC 2 preamp, Constellation Audio Etc. There's a reason their all using R cores in thier best products.
 
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If you insist on a torroid then you want an electrostatic shield from primary to secondary to reduce the capacitive coupling and lower the bandwidth of the AC line noise it lets through and an external shield to reduce the radiated field. You can only get those 2 options if you get custom made toroid transformers, not off the shelf series. And you still have to deal with the torroid inrush current, either with a soft start circuit or at least a properly chosen thermistor

Or you could buy an R core and skip all that crap, but no one here seems to be listening. Seems odd for an audio oriented web site.

Torroids were popular in the 1980s, but we’ve learnt things since then. Look at Audio Research, the new Parrasound JC 1+ and JC 2 preamp, Constellation Audio Etc. There's a reason their all using R cores in thier best products.

Does an R-core have a lower inrush current?
 
Yes R cores have lower inrush- no thermistor or soft start required in the dac or preamp - Fuse is 2 amps for the 4 x 100 va in the preamp chassis - load is about 100 watts class A in the preamp / phono -yes 100 watts class A for a balanced jfet/fet preamp and phono. There are almost 100 TO247 fet and bipolar devices running at 45 C, most are in the power suply - Jung super regulators, then the fet shunt regulators, the output of each analog stage is Hitachi fets running at 80 ma and 24 VDC - 2 watts per device - very deep class A
 
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Yes R cores have lower inrush- no thermistor or soft start required in the dac or preamp - Fuse is 2 amps for the 4 x 100 va in the preamp chassis - load is about 100 watts class A in the preamp / phono -yes 100 watts class A for a balanced jfet/fet preamp and phono. There are almost 100 TO247 fet and bipolar devices running at 45 C, most are in the power suply - Jung super regulators, then the fet shunt regulators, the output of each analog stage is Hitachi fets running at 80 ma and 24 VDC - 2 watts per device - very deep class A

I'm interested and still haven't bought anything. Is there a reason why R cores are more likely to be used in preamps than in amps?

Unfortunately, I'm still pretty close to the adult-lego-stage of design. Can I just replace the torroid with an R-core and otherwise leave the power supply design untouched?

Thanks.