OT Review from TubOTA Taki Yahoo- What does this mean??

[SilverFox]

"Hello Kit Builders and Cloners". I was over on AES the other day looking at OT's and came across this review for the following Hammond OT. I've reprinted the review and here's the link in case anyone is interested.

What's all this transfer curves stuff about anyway, I thought it was all about impedance matching and is this "Amp Guru" just blowing?, (sucking?) smoke? Should I pack my bags and start out on a journey in search of hysteresis nurvauna at resonant frequency? More tubes, more good? 240 Watts from a 120 Watt OT? Ohmmmmm.

https://www.tubesandmore.com/products/P-T1650TA

Product Reviews
5
5.00 out of 5 based on 1 reviews
5

This has been the MOST unique and versatile OT for 80-120 watts EVER! 16 ohms on the 4 ohm tap and I have 85 watts from 1 pair of Telefunken EL156s. Take 3 of these and use 6 EL156s and I have 240 watts into a PS300 Fender type set up. Take this and run an octet of 6973s into it and you have 96 watts of Led Zeppelin I and II sound. I realize the majority of amp builders are cut and paste, paint by numbers, kit builders, cloners, and copy experts, but some days copying a 50 year old flawed amp, just gets old and boring. These are for the person who can read a transfer curve chart, know how to use it and how to design around it. They are not for the usual kit builders and "I need a schematic to start from, or I am lost," people. Trust me, when you show an amp with 8 EL84s or 8 6973s, people take notice, compared to another one of 10s of 1000s of 5E3 clones. When you have two, or four giant EL156s, people will stop and ask, "What is that?", "How many watts?", "Can I hear it?" "How many dollars?", "When can I have one?", "What type of payment do you accept?". Fortunately, I have found another supplier. These are awesome transformers! The primary is so perfect for out of the box unique designs, they are an essential item. Thankfully, they are made in Canada. My supplier from Asia could not get their products in with that dispute at Long Beach Harbor. I am back to using these again.

silverfox.

[jazbo8]

"I realize the majority of amp builders are cut and paste, paint by numbers, kit builders, cloners, and copy experts, but some days copying a 50 year old flawed amp, just gets old and boring. These are for the person who can read a transfer curve chart, know how to use it and how to design around it."

The first part of his comment is largely true, but not sure what're "flawed" in the old amps... In any case, those flaws whatever they may be, have been turned into the iconic tones that we associate with classic rock, heavy metal, etc.

And there is nothing particularly hard about reading or designing with a transfer curve, but it does not really come into play in the output stage, since we are usually aiming for the maximum power transfer and not really trying to minimizing/maximizing the distortion. The transfer curve, or Ip to Eg characteristic, is much more relavent when designing preamp stages, so it is not clear why the reviewer brought it up when discussing an output transformer.

[Leo_Gnardo]

quoting yakayak yahoo: Thankfully, they are made in Canada. My supplier from Asia could not get their products in with that dispute at Long Beach Harbor. I am back to using these again.

So . . . Hammond sounds better than his far east knockoffs? Wake me up when there's a surprise.

Typical TGP style write. Plus "everything I do is fantastic ! ! ! ! ! !"

[rp]

FYI, on a slight tangent, the Hammond 1650R (not the easy wire RA version) is an econo cult fave on the DIYA forum - econo compared to Tamuras, Peerless, Magnaquest, Audio Note and all thatstuff. Not all the Hammonds, but that one supposedly excels, for hifi anyway. You can Google it if you care.

[Firestorm]

I use a lot of Hammond's, especially multitap SE ('cause what else is there?)

They make a LOT of stuff, so the trick is finding what you really need.