What's up with OEP?

GroupDIY Audio Forum

Help Support GroupDIY Audio Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
EmRR said:
Isn't the Billington stuff known in guitar amps, historically?

A quick glance at their web site shows a pro-audio bent, which surprised me. I always thought of them as focusing on hi-fi based on what I'd seen on ebay (MC transformers).
 
Ohh no, this probably means they won't make much custom stuff anymore, if at all. Makes me wonder what will prices be and if selling will be direct as before. It is so much better when manufacturer looks at schematic to find best product for application.
 
My3gger said:
Ohh no, this probably means they won't make much custom stuff anymore, if at all. Makes me wonder what will prices be and if selling will be direct as before. It is so much better when manufacturer looks at schematic to find best product for application.

I see what you mean on the custom stuff, but prices for more current or standard transformers might be lower, Sowter is expensive like Jensen, while Carnhil transformers are not pricier...

Well but maybe all stays the same, it depends on what the involvement is.

Midas is a top manufacturer of Live sound consoles, when it was taken by Behringer prices of Midas stuff went down, fortunately that didn’t seem to impact Midas products quality.
 
My3gger said:
Ohh no, this probably means they won't make much custom stuff anymore, if at all. Makes me wonder what will prices be and if selling will be direct as before. It is so much better when manufacturer looks at schematic to find best product for application.

The takeover has certainly impacted Sowter shipping (perfect storm, I suppose, along with the advent of the man-pangolin-bat bug). 20 weeks and waiting for my xfmr.
 
Squeaky said:
The takeover has certainly impacted Sowter shipping (perfect storm, I suppose, along with the advent of the man-pangolin-bat bug). 20 weeks and waiting for my xfmr.

Sorry to hear that, hope it gets sorted soon
 
Whoops said:
I see what you mean on the custom stuff, but prices for more current or standard transformers might be lower, Sowter is expensive like Jensen, while Carnhil transformers are not pricier...

Well but maybe all stays the same, it depends on what the involvement is.

Midas is a top manufacturer of Live sound consoles, when it was taken by Behringer prices of Midas stuff went down, fortunately that didn’t seem to impact Midas products quality.

Cinemag is also winding small quantities of custom products beside others, so Sowter has competition in this regard. Carnhill is probably cheaper because they don't make many models, as far as i know their outputs don't have Ni content which drives prices up.
Smaller companies are interesting too, we have big list of them.

Beside Sotwer people are reporting Cinemag is also delaying shipping for months, could be because of Covid related problems.

 
I think the situation is messed up by Covid more than anything else. The Carnhill group takeover of Sowter happened nearly a year ago and Brian is still acting as a consultant. I spoke to him back end of last year about a custom inductor which they were still happy to make in quantities of 2. OEP is similar. It got taken over earlier but it still functions much as before. I have had great support from them in designing special transformers for the Mark 3 tube mixer.  Before Christmas I also spoke to Dave at Cinemag about the same inductor. He gave a better price but lead time was much the same as Sowter. I paid for them in December and have contacted him twice since about it but not had a reply.

It will not be until Covid is really gone that any true differences will emerge.

Cheers

Ian
 
I contacted Cinemag several times in the past and even then the lead times were long, and most of the transformers even the standard ones they didnt have stock of them so they were manufacturing to order.

Although Cinemag is more affordable than Sowter,Jensen or Lundahl , great quality though
 

Latest posts

Back
Top