what is your favorite input transformer?

hi i was what's everyone's favorite.
i'm looking for something that has a frequency response from 20-25khz.
i'm not sure about th impedance.

What is your application?

versuviusx

Lundahl
http://www.lundahl.se/
The USA importer is only 3 hours North West from you.
He has boat loads of parts in stock.
Do not worry about freq response.
Worry about How they sound!
Give Kevin C a call and discuss your application.

Sowter is nice - my favorite.

My number one favorite is Lundahl for clean sound. For coloured, Carnhill is very nice. Also OEP is great if you need more colour.
Unfortunately have no experience with Jensen.

chrissugar

I've been experimenting with 2 Bauer / Richenbach 13K7's (similar to the Jensen) I just got and man they sound great, clean and nice and solid, no missing frequencies and high overload point. I can't wait to experiment with some Cinemag 75101A's I just got as well (they're supposed to sound very cool)!!

PS The website for the US Distributor of Lundahl is

http://www.kandkaudio.com/

Justin.

I've used UTC, Jensen and OEP on a variety of pre's and compressors. They're all good. But I really like the colour of the UTC 0-1 for a tube mic pre. I'm pretty much 'the-sound-is-in-the-iron' kinda guy. The 0-1 is relatively inexpensive to find on ebay. The original UA 610 mic pre used it so I'm in good company.. :wink:

byron

hey guys thanks for your response. well i'd like to learn more about transformers for making a mic pre. it would be a tube mic pre using input transformers and output transformers. i'm going for a clean sound with high gain and big head room and very low noise.

dude, feel free to disregard my advice, but you really need to listen to these things to know what will work for you. You can get everyone on this board to tell you that lundahls are the most awesome transformers and they are super clean and totally rule, all of which I agree with, and even though you want a "clean" mic pre, they may be completely the wrong transformer for you. It is possible to have a clean sounding pre while still having tons of transformer coloration, which classically speaking a lundahl isnt going to give you. Jensen makes plenty of transformers that are "clean" sounding, yet image completely differently than a lundahl. You seem hung up on specs which you should really just forget about, I have yet to get to a point where specs translate to any kind of sound that comes out of a speaker. You really need to listen to this stuff to really know. Probably not the advice you are looking for but maybe a nudge in the right direction. Start listening to boxes out there and making notes of the transformers in them. Until you sit with a circuit and plug transformers in and out you are never going to definitively know what is really happening with them.

dave

[quote author="versuviusx"]hey guys thanks for your response. well i'd like to learn more about transformers for making a mic pre. it would be a tube mic pre using input transformers and output transformers. i'm going for a clean sound with high gain and big head room and very low noise.[/quote]

I'm partial to the Jensen JT115K-E myself; very low coloration. The tradeoff is that it's not enthusiastic about input levels above -10dBu that contain a lot of low frequencies. So if you're using a really hot condenser mic, an inline pad is probably in order. Other than that one limitation I really like them.

Peace,
Paul (inline pads are in the BS Bag)

Well, I'm a product of the 80's... and my favorite transformer was Optimus Prime. But Bumblebee was pretty sweet too. Thanks Hasbro.

What type of circuit are you planning to use your x-former with? It's a pretty open query. For tube? Discrete? Autobots? Decepticons?

just my 2 cents but, i would consider a solid state circuit if you want a 'clean' or 'transparent' circuit. That said, the jensen xformer is excellent for that. As soundguy points out, auditioning as many xformer coupled circuits is best, provided you have access to them.

btw, paul stamler, i read an article some years back you wrote about 'going downtown'. It had a big impact on me and set me off on my adventure to build what I could not afford.

thanks!

byron

Hi
If I can butt in here...........I am wondering if I am doing the right thing using UTC A-20s for isolation for media, green room etc. for live stuff...............overkill?............are they any good? They sound fine to me.
cheers
Roly

Thanks for the good words, Byron.

Peace,
Paul

[quote author="pstamler"]I'm partial to the Jensen JT115K-E myself; very low coloration. The tradeoff is that it's not enthusiastic about input levels above -10dBu that contain a lot of low frequencies. So if you're using a really hot condenser mic, an inline pad is probably in order. Other than that one limitation I really like them. [/quote]

Paul,

Cinemag has a super charged 115K-E type mic input transformer the CMMI-10C. It has a large core and handles musch higher levels than the Jensen part.

Tamas