Winders?

[Blair]

Hi Guys,

Besides, Edcor (great value for the $$), and Gery at Transcendar (supposedly fantastic without boutique pricing), who else winds transformers?

Does anyone know who wound the late Mr. Hayes transformers here? Any other reasonable (not Electraprint or Sowter) wonders stateside?

Thanks!

Blair

[Shannon Parks]

Hi Guys,

Besides, Edcor (great value for the $$), and Gery at Transcendar (supposedly fantastic without boutique pricing), who else winds transformers?

Does anyone know who wound the late Mr. Hayes transformers here? Any other reasonable (not Electraprint or Sowter) wonders stateside?

Thanks!

Blair

Eric used Transcendars.

Shannon

[Ty_Bower]

...who else winds transformers?

Any other reasonable (not Electraprint or Sowter) winders stateside?

Mike LaFevre (LaFever? I've seen it both ways) from Magnequest is US based, and actually not too far from me. I've often wondered if he had a storefront, or would otherwise entertain a visit. Some of his stuff is very pricey, but he does sell a few pieces for a sensible fee. I've not used his "Robin Hood" series, but I know others have and spoken well of them.

Heyboer is probably worth a look, though I know little about them.

I know you said stateside, but I've also been fond of this Wiki page. There's quite a few suppliers on it, from all over the globe.

http://www.diyaudio.com/wiki/TransformerSuppliers

[Blair]

Thanks guys!

Very comprehensive list Ty!

So, in short, what's the deal with the price variation on output iron?

I'm still looking for "the set" for my PPP EL34 amps.

I am still a bit apprehensive about using the 100W Edcors because the pair of EL34s can possibly make a bit more power. Seems like pushing it to me.

The Hammond 1650T: more expensive, but specs only 30hz-30k, however at full power. Then I have seen posts about Hammond having quality issues sometimes.

Transcendar: more expensive yet at $400/pr, but spec'd much better with claims by Gery that they will do this at full power. This price was a quote for 120W at my specified impedance, etc.

Bob L. At tubes4hifi is willing to sell me a pair of his output iron if I buy the PT and OPTs together so as to not stagger his inventory. Very understandable. He has some graphs that show his 125W OPTs at 155-165W without clipping or saturation. These are claimed to be near the same freq response as the Transcendar. The price is much better than Transcendar at the cost if having to buy his PT also which is an offset that makes me lean towards the Transcendar.

The rest are out of their minds and I'm not sure what golden monkeys are spinning their machines, but seriously?! $2K for a pair of transformers is just out of my league.

What would you go with?

Edcor: ~$200/pr (100W)

Hammond: ~$320/pr (120W)

Transcendar: ~$400/pr (120W)

Bob L: ~ $600/pr (claims 175W before saturation) plus, this cost includes the 410-410 450mA PT/pr

The only reason I want to get this one right is that I will be machining these amps out of aluminum and there is no way to fix these once I get started.

Thanks!

Blair

[TerrySmith]

Don't let the price of Edcor transformers fool you, they are top notch quality! The reason the price is low is you buy directly from the factory, no middleman. Edcor's seem to be a lot larger in size than say a Hammond counterpart.

[Geek]

Don't let the price of Edcor transformers fool you, they are top notch quality!

Agreed.

I won't use anything but for myself and they're standard on my commercial builds.

The owners, Brian, Larry, Lucy and Phyllis Weston are *very* nice people and easy to deal with.

Cheers!

[Blair]

I agree guys. I've used nothing but Edcors in the past besides one stupid high powered build.

I suppose, as you have suggested Gregg, the Edcors will support a quad of EL34s easily at full power. I really wish they would go a little higher than 100W.

Blair

[Geek]

The 100W rating is continuous RMS, or CCS (Continuous Commercial Service) rating. The ICAS (Intermittent Commercial and Amateur Service) of rating will be much higher.

If you have doubts, feel free to shoot them an email, ATTN: Brian Weston.

I think you have no worries here

Cheers!

[tomlang]

Blair what kind of machining are you doing out of aluminum? Is it simply cutting holes in a new chassis or taking a billet piece of aluminum and making a very complex chassis, sort of a 2.5D or 3D chassis?

The reason I ask is I am going to machine (out of plywood with my CNC machine), a "chassis". Think of taking a 3/4" plywood piece as a wood billet and cutting all the socket holes, mounting holes, etc and hogging out big areas underneath with nearly 5/8" of depth for wiring. I'd leave "islands" of full thickness plywood under my transformers and heavy stuff for support. Certainly another hollow ring of plywood could be machined and glued to the bottom for extra depth. In my case I think I can get away with all of this since the whole shebang will be going in a full metal enclosure with cage on top for shielding.

Why I am I so long winded? If you are getting an expensive chassis CNC machined I can quite possibly cut you a plywood "mule" to verify fitup, etc.

For giggles, what are the Latino power transformers rated?

[Blair]

Hi Tom,

Similar concept only I'm doing it with billets that are 1" thick 6061. Here is the stack with a routed edge on the top one. Then I plan to make 3/4" aluminum walls for the sides.

Bob claims 125W, but says they are good for 175w before saturation. 2200ohm, 43% SG tap. The info is on tubes4hifi.



Blair

[tomlang]

So it is billet, cool. Will there be ALOT of aluminum removed from underneath or are you leaving this part full thickness? Similar to what I want to do in plywood except I will have to leave islands under transformers and heavy stuff for support since plywood is not as strong as aluminum. I'll machine down to .2 inches thick or so where there are tube sockets.

The ratings on the Power trans if you know it...just curious.

It looks like you are doing it by hand, i.e not a CNC mill? My offer still stands, I can gin up a toolpath quickly for the machine from a measured drawing, especially the top holes, from a piece of scrap plywood and send it to you if that would be helpful.

[Blair]

Hi Tom,

I wil certainly consider it regarding the template. Yep, I am doing it with a router and carbide, but might fork up on the parts where I am milling it down a bit.

His PT is 415-0-415 at 450 mA

Here is the link. It is the tranny combo for his 125 monos: http://www.tubes4hifi.com/bob.htm

Thanks!

Blair

[rmyauck]

I inquired recently about Transcendar's 18lb. 200W beasts in which you specify the primary, and Gery replied with $600 pr. I bet they would be winners, as they would be loafing @120W. Can be had with or without UL .

I would think you could even spec. them at 5K primary for great low distortion 120W sonics. The 5K would be handy also if you wanted to run just 2 KT-88's or even KT-120's later on. The reason I think the sonics would be great with a higher primary like 5K for the 4 Output tubes in PP is that owners of Heathkit's W5M attribute it's great sonics to the 9-11K primary of the Output Trans. besides the fact they are Peerless Trans.



You can pay a lot more for the C-cores like the Hashimotos which are well regarded from what I've read. Just under $1,300 a pr. & they only go to 100W tough.

Maybe Lundahl is another to look at which are C-cores also. They say sonics are great with C-cores and the trans can be a lot smaller & so lighter. The Lundahls are all C- core and they have a LL1679 which has multiple input output taps & UL. If you use the 2.6K primary you can use use it up to 188W, the 4.5K primary up to 105W, and lastly the 9.7K up to 36W.
The price isn't to bad at around $250-260 ea from the US dist.

The only C- Core winder in the US is Dave Slagle of Intact Audio & his OPT's are $450-550 ea in SE or PP and you spec. them.

I would also think the UL is a good one to get on whatever trans. you pick if it is optional.

Who wanted $2K a pair?




Good luck with that monster & hope that helps!

Randy

[Blair]

Hi,

2K was a over zealous joke, but $1,300 is not unlikely to be found out there.

The Lundahls look nice! They are ugly as sin, but the price isn't too bad.

The Edcors are just too cost effective to go elsewhere at this point. I was in hopes of using a six pack of EL34s per channel for 150-160W, but Bob's PT is a bit high on the voltage side for the 34s, and I don't want the hassle is reselling the PTs at a loss.

The Transcendars are awesome from a specs perspective, but $600 plus shipping nonetheless....

No free lunches right;)

Blair

[rmyauck]

You can buy covers for the Lundahls from the distributor. Making your own out of various scrap materials could be another option. I saw some nice ways of doing it a while back.

Some people put them under chassis if deep enough.

I thought EL34's could take the same plate voltages as KT-88's & as long as you lower the bias to get a safe dissipation level you would be okay. The Eico HF-60 used a 400-0-400 as did I believe the Dynaco Mark II.

I think the higher rated wattage output trans. will sound better for what you are doing.

Your right about the no free lunches, but diy sure makes a big honking tube amp affordable!

I sure like your Aluminum billets! Great way to go visually and structurally! Like an exotic engine!

Randy