| rock777 wrote on Tue, 12 December 2006 21:28 |
Fletcher, I didn't change the output transformers in the Neves. I wired these to my consoles direct outs and other preamps I have been building. I really didn't know what to expect. I plugged in a mic to test out the preamps/eq's the low end was huge and clean. It seemed like it cleaned up the phase shift, I noticed that the transformer didn't distort until +24db to 26db like the Carnhills are known to do. I also noticed the 12khz sounded very close to my Neves. I was talking to Steven Smith at Altran and he was telling me that Wade from Chandler was the guy who helped them engineer these. There were some original Marinair transformers used to study the type of copper used in the original windings and the quality of steel used in the laminations. If you get a chance wire some of these output transformers up and let me know what you think. They definitely have that N sound to my ears. You should probably try to wire these up to your pm 2000's direct outputs. I think you will be shocked at what you will hear. And I'd bet Steven at Altran would be more than willing to send you a sample to try.
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Hi Rock
This appears to be the same thread you started on GearSlutz.
In the interests of accuracy and eliminating any more urban myths, I must contest the statement you made above.
As in your other thread, you completely ignore the THD (total harmonic distortion) issue. I can assure you that any Neve style transformer, including the Carnhills supplied to cloners for aeons, can handle +26dBu across the audio band without significant THD issues and the difference between the original Marinairs and the samples that Carnhill supplied to Neve for their reissue 1073/1084 was the difference in THD between the Marinair and Carnhill at 20Hz and above +26dBu.
I believe the Marinairs were in the region of 4% and the Carnhills up around 10%. Note that there was significant distortion with both so the "no distortion" does not carry any weight in the truth department. You also need to state the load impedance on the transformer at this level.
I know that Altran are supplying transformers to several cloners and I wish them all the best. It's just that posts that gloss over or exaggerate performance issues make me grind my teeth at times!
In the real world, do these performance issues really matter? I'm doubtful and put it in the snake oil category. You'll never use those levels/frequencies and need a variety of transformers... the Carnhill, the Marinair, and the "other LO1166 manufacturer" (there's no point trying to contact them, by the way)... to make a judgement.
I'm sure most owners of clones are perfectly happy with their 10% thd at 20Hz @ +28dBu!
PS On the topic of slapping a transformer on your console outputs, as I explained in the Gearslutz thread, there's a little more to this than just fitting them and telling us how grand and low distortion they sound... the circuit may even be distorting but in a nice sort of way that you are linking to the overused
N word.
For instance, without knowing the circuit details of the PM2000's output stage and any current limiting protection it may incorporate, there may be issues with it driving the relatively low impedance and highly reactive primary of the transformer. If the output stage has resistive short circuit protection, the transformer may not be happy being sourced from the higher impedance.
The transformer may work better with a shunt resistor across the primary but then this will increase the load on the amplifier output. Then there's the matter of the frequency compensation on the secondary to cope with the load (resistive and reactive) you put on the winding... the effects of which are reflected back to the primary.
Bottom line is that you can't be totally sure that both output stage and transformer are completely happy and working well without a little investigation with some seriously expensive test equipment... like the techs at Neve would have done before they were satisfied.
I'm sure that the Altran transformer has given your console some extra artifacts to the sound that it didn't have before. I'm also sure you like the sound it makes as you are going out of your way to tell everyone!
I would just be very careful of associating the sound you are getting with the
N word and blending it with a Carnhills are crap, Altran are great, quazi advertisement.
