EMI/Abbey Road Transformers

[sine_wave]

I'm a bit confused.... Many times I've heard two names regarding trafos used in EMI/Abbey Road/TG equipment; Gardners and TDS. Can someone fill me in on what or who TDS is? Never heard of them.

Regarding Gardners.... Many know that Avon Magnetics bought the out some time ago. I recently took a look at some old Gardners catalogs. There were some interesting trafos listed in their "mu line". Spec-wise, it looks like Gardners mu7530 would be a logical choice for a lot of the gear built by the above mentioned parties. That's of course assuming that Gardners ever had anything to do with the stuff made by EMI.

Can somebody offer up some empirical information on what kind of trafos are in the original TG consoles? Or even what kind are used in the REDD.47 line amplifier? This seems to be such an elusive topic. We know just about everything there is to know about the famed input & output transformers on the 1272. It would be great to get some concrete info on this.

 

[sintech]

Hey John, Here's some quotes from Gearsluts by Brian Gibson (ex-Abbey RD Tech)


'BTW, Sowter (for whom I have high regard) did not make transformers for the REDD, or any other EMI console. All the audio transformers were manufactured "In house" by EMI. The only exception to this was some of the transformers in the TG Mastering consoles, which were made by Gardners.

Best regards,
Brian Gibson.

TG Mixers'

"I should have been more specific in saying that, in my experience of REDD, TG and a couple of broadcast (BRED) desks, they all contained transformers manufactured in house by EMI. These are mostly identified by a part number prefixed by the letters "TDS" although the very early ones have REDD part numbers. Some of the TG mastering desks had transformers manufactured by Gardners, and these carry both a TDS and a Gardners part number. I have had replicas of these made by the company that took over Gardners (Greenwood electronics) by supplying them with a sample for analysis. It's quite possible that EMI closed their in house transformenr department and then sub-contracted the work outside. The mastering desks I'm talking about date from around 1974-75.

I'm fully aware of Sowters range of replacement transformers for a whole range of vintage audio gear. They have also made excellent replicas of some TG transformers for me, but just because they make replacements doesn't mean they also made the originals.

My mistake on the V72. You are correct in sayng the gain is 34dB, but the EMI REDD17 & REDD37 used the V72'S' version, which was 40dB gain, the same as the nominal setting on the REDD47. There is EMI documentation detailing how to change a V72 to a V72S.

I vaguely recall the name "Electrosonics" but I'm afraid I have no idea of their relationship with EMI.

Regards,
BG."

 

[warpie]

'm fully aware of Sowters range of replacement transformers for a whole range of vintage audio gear. They have also made excellent replicas of some TG transformers for me, but just because they make replacements doesn't mean they also made the originals.

Sowter replicates TG transformers? I'm probably missing something? Do you know which Sowter models he's talking about?

thanks
michael

 

[ArnauTS]

'm fully aware of Sowters range of replacement transformers for a whole range of vintage audio gear. They have also made excellent replicas of some TG transformers for me, but just because they make replacements doesn't mean they also made the originals.

Sowter replicates TG transformers? I'm probably missing something? Do you know which Sowter models he's talking about?

thanks
michael

They make the redd47 replica input and outputhttp://www.sowter.co.uk/cgi-bin/sh000001.pl?REFPAGE=http%3a%2f%2fwww.sowter.co.uk%2facatalog%2fSOWTER_TRANSFORMERS_INPUT_TRANSFORMERS_11.html&WD=redd47&PN=SOWTER_TRANSFORMERS_PRO_VINTAGE_TRANSFORMERS_5.html%23a148#a148

 

[warpie]

They make the redd47 replica input and outputhttp://www.sowter.co.uk/cgi-bin/sh000001.pl?REFPAGE=http%3a%2f%2fwww.sowter.co.uk%2facatalog%2fSOWTER_TRANSFORMERS_INPUT_TRANSFORMERS_11.html&WD=redd47&PN=SOWTER_TRANSFORMERS_PRO_VINTAGE_TRANSFORMERS_5.html%23a148#a148

Ah I see. Unfortunately, they don't make any replica of the line TXs.

 

[maxwall]

Very good topic here for those tying to pin down a source for original spec TG transformers
unfortunately , I do not have any specific info to share on these. Maybe Sowter will have
unpublished info that some can use to order the "TDS" iron. A offering would be nice too.

 

[sine_wave]

Thanks for the replies guys. Does anyone have any specifics on the Gardners units? They are mu type, right? Are they octal?

 

[CJ]

the orange pumpkin, that is a gardner?

but found in neve, not redd 47,

talk to ollie about redd 47 iron , he might have something,

we did the s and non s 72 iron, disk wound input and ei output, remember?

 

[shabtek]

CJ?

 

[CJ]

sorry, been smoking weed and rock climbing.

if you guys would ask more xfmr questions,

oh, we took apart everything so no questions,