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Author Topic: What's wrong with transformers?  (Read 11498 times)

djwaudio

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Re: What's wrong with transformers?
« Reply #15 on: December 19, 2011, 12:47:54 PM »

A number of years ago it occurred to me that every piece of gear I really liked was electronically isolated and those I Immediately dismissed were virtually always transformer isolated.


I understand you are a fan of PF "The Wall". I remember reading a Bob Ezrin interview (probably Tape Op) where he mentions how they spent a fortune on the first transformerless multi track machine. I have an early pressing of The Wall and find it to be among the best sonics of any rock record I've heard.

In my first analog chains I had transformerless gear, and I think some good sound came from them. At some point the Massive Passive showed up and I was shocked by how much distortion the transformers added to the low-end. Then in use, I found I usually liked that sound.

Naturally, the blind use of potent processing tools, can be counter to the musical vision. All my favorite restaurants use seasonal ingredients. The ones I don't like always taste the same.
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Dana J White
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Joe_caithness

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Re: What's wrong with transformers?
« Reply #16 on: March 17, 2012, 05:24:20 AM »

Last year I entered university in the final year to bump up my academic qualifications, I am studying a BSC in Audio and Recording Technology, basically electronic and acoustic engineering for audio.


I am currently writing my dissertation on the relevance of transformers in modern studios, so when I have some conclusions I will happily share them with you and start a bit of a discussion.

I am currently at the stage of having built some transformer boxes to run some 600:600 signals through and recorded the audio back through, to start going to some friends studios to do some blind testing and questionnaires.
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Hermetech Mastering

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Re: What's wrong with transformers?
« Reply #17 on: March 17, 2012, 07:23:22 AM »

Thanks Joe, I'd be very interested to hear your conclusions! There are ten transformers in my chain, so they have to be doing something to the sound!

Are you studying full time, part time or by distance learning? I've also been considering a distance learning masters in Creative Music Technology.

Joe_caithness

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Re: What's wrong with transformers?
« Reply #18 on: March 17, 2012, 11:21:29 AM »

I commute two days a week.. it's a pain in the arse!
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Hermetech Mastering

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Re: What's wrong with transformers?
« Reply #19 on: March 17, 2012, 01:06:17 PM »

Yeah, I'm from the UK originally, but now living in Milan. I'd need a course in English, which only leaves distance learning really, but audio specific distance learning Masters seem few and far between! AM thinking about going with this one from the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama:

http://www.rwcmd.ac.uk/courses/mmus_creative_music_technology.aspx

Good luck!

Viitalahde

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Re: What's wrong with transformers?
« Reply #20 on: July 01, 2012, 12:45:47 PM »

Right now I have quite a few transformers in the chain, and apart from one of them I am unable to find them sounding bad.

I have tried it with every source material, doing A/B comparisons level matched and blind to make sure I'm not fooling myself. What is the weirdest thing is that I put my Knif Pure Mu (Lundahl I/O) in front my NTP 179-120 (Jensen input and Triad output) temporarily, just to have some sort of level control before the fixed-threshold NTP compressor, and it just works wonderfully.

There's a Sowter step-down transformer at the input of my custom passive EQ, and that is the only place I'm considering trying out a solid-state input. It doesn't sound bad, but it just doesn't work with everything like the rest of the chain does.
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Jaakko Viitalähde
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