Re: Isolation transformers
Posted: July 1st, 2018, 7:54 am
The screw holding the ground lugs had actually broken off.
The plug was a strange (to me) version where one of the flat blades is at right angles to the other.
After replacing it with a new plug, I turned the unit on. Immediately there was a bit of mechanical hum which went away after a few seconds. Since then the unit has stayed plugged in and has remained quiet.
It became obvious that the sound is different using the transformer and so far I think it is better. There is more background detail, less glare and a deeper sound-stage. I read the Stereophile review and remembered that I had a CD of the Rolling Stones album that Art Dudley mentioned. I have it digitized on my server so started it up. I remembered it as a crappy sounding CD at best, but now it sounded relatively impressive. Electric guitars sounded more real.
Other familiar pieces sounded different and improved as well.
I still haven't done the experiment where I remove the unit so just think of this as a preliminary comment but so far I think it was $40 well spent.
ray
The plug was a strange (to me) version where one of the flat blades is at right angles to the other.
After replacing it with a new plug, I turned the unit on. Immediately there was a bit of mechanical hum which went away after a few seconds. Since then the unit has stayed plugged in and has remained quiet.
It became obvious that the sound is different using the transformer and so far I think it is better. There is more background detail, less glare and a deeper sound-stage. I read the Stereophile review and remembered that I had a CD of the Rolling Stones album that Art Dudley mentioned. I have it digitized on my server so started it up. I remembered it as a crappy sounding CD at best, but now it sounded relatively impressive. Electric guitars sounded more real.
Other familiar pieces sounded different and improved as well.
I still haven't done the experiment where I remove the unit so just think of this as a preliminary comment but so far I think it was $40 well spent.
ray