Hi Erik
Yes na sayers indeed, they can measure the inside diameter of a rats dorsal tube but when it comes to conveying emotion and drama they are left with the ruler flat frequency plots which sound as dead as they look. Give me scale, give me drama, give me music as close to live as possible and keep your lab coats for making cheese and wine to enjoy it with, oh yes and don't forget those select few we call good friends, nothing like sharing the love with chosen ones.
Hey Vita
I love it when you wax lyrical about this stuff
WRT flat freq response and measurements, I think Peter Q may well have been wearing his lab coat when he designed those puppies Erik bought!
There's a lot of engineering and theory in transformer design, even AN silver's - read this:
http://www.audionote.co.uk/articles/art_transformer_design.shtml I know this too well, I used to work at a transformer company called Alkay Transformers. Yes, these are often used in the KillerDAC. The company was started by a clever
German man, Lothar Keidel. He taught me lots about transformer design and at one stage, after I had left, wanted me to come back and manage the company (which I
declined).
A bit of transformer background:
All the early 'golden era' recordings, that have these attributes you describe, were recorded through transformers. This is how recording gear was made back then and most
of it was what they referred to as a 600 ohm system.
The engineers were acutely aware of the quality of their electronics and transformers for 1 reason: What went in, didn't come out the other end the same.
They strove to minimize this given that the signal often passed through many transformers. This was in the early days of audio engineering - before they were used as
-intentional- coloration devices. You could say they were used as -unintentional- coloration devices.
As such all of the original manufacturers such as Western Electric, UTC, etc, used engineering principles and measurements to quantify the performance of their traffos.
Today we have dozens hi end and pro audio transformer manufacturers, including super esoteric such as AN. They range from very accurate / VG measured performance
to pretty colored. On the transparent end would be Jensen, followed by say Cinemag, Lundahl, then we move to Sowter etc etc. There are some other interesting additions such as Stephens & Billington (transformer vol control) and even Costas Metaxas has done some good work on them.
Jensen's don't change the signal much at all. When it comes to "emotion" or "drama" (I call it "vibe") they don't add much. Sometimes this is a good thing, often it's not - it
depends. For digital a bit of transformer vibe can be good. For analog too much may be not so. If my memory serves me, Brian (plasmaguy) was using a Jensen for his MC step up, and I believe he had tried quite a few. In that case sounds like transparent was the ticket.
For signal coupling I quite like Cinemag, very transparent, but with a bit of vibe and it's all good. As a comparison, I have tried a few Lundahls and they are in a similar
territory transparency wise but the character is not as nice.
WRT traffos and DAC's I tried a few as I-V converters years ago and they definitely ad an analog type warmth to the sound which was nice but I ended up taking them out.
To me they took away more than they added, without the transformer there was just more there.
WRT "ruler flat frequency response" you mention, most all signal traffos measure very flat, especially low impedance stuff used for DAC I-V's. There's bugger all in it.
It's more the distortion profile and the winding coupling that adds the character you are after. Ref audionote link above.
I have a Sabre DAC here running into a Lundahl, I think in this case the traffo is a good thing, given the sound of the Sabre. I'll eventually toss the Lundahl and go for something else. I do tend to make some initial choices based on data sheets. If you know how to interpret them they can shorten the 'to try list' and in the long run can save
money.
There's a lot of transformers out there and I cant afford to try them all. But if you've got the bucks, (and the time) try whatever you can and see what fits.
Z