Anyone using step up transformers in the studio?

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permanent hearing damage
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Anyone using step up transformers in the studio?

Post by permanent hearing damage » Thu May 24, 2018 6:18 am

Have to get one for a big sub I just bought and am concerned about possibly introducing noise - is this a warranted concern?

GeorgeToledo
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Re: Anyone using step up transformers in the studio?

Post by GeorgeToledo » Thu May 24, 2018 8:24 pm

The results will depend on the specific gear involved.

Generally speaking, a decent transformer can give you several dB of hum/RF rejection, while reducing output by only a dB or two. You also tend to gain the ability to drive longer cable runs with less resulting signal loss or tonal shift.

At the same time, a transformer might roll off extremes in the frequency range, and saturate/distort in certain ways that reduce overall dynamic range.

I have a few active DI and various line amps that *do not* have an input transformer, and for some of those, if you put a step up transformer in front you will get similar performance to the “mic preamp” versions of the designs. It can be worth having some around.

I don’t tend to patch them in for scenarios where it isn’t technically correct, as just a random thing to do, though that may be cool. If you want to do that though, to get some sort of transformer saturation, there are also various 1:1 transformers out there.

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