Thirteen wrote:Lately I have been replacing transformers in several synthesizers, it's actually getting quite difficult now to find mains transformers to run analog synths, I guess there is less and less gear running -15...0...+15 volts, all the new digital stuff is going low power. I used to be able to go to dick smith or Jaycar and find 36V centre tapped transformers, but not any more. I don't like using 15...0...15 AC transformers, I like to have a couple of extra volts to keep the regulators happy.
It occurred to me tonight that it is quite likely that some of the reason that analog synths usually sound so good is probably much like old preamps and compressors, because there is such huge headroom internally, the power rails have 30 Volts to generate all the internal doings, rather than just 5 Volts. Then again maybe I am imagining things and should get off the computer and go to bed.
I think you're right - if the buss bar of a mixer determines the quality of the sound, headroom and so on, then surely a heavier duty power rail and and more stable current draw must add to the overall
sound of a synth, the waveforms generated in mains being evened out or more precise or something.
I recently did a course on disk storage technology and learnt that the length and quality of your SCSI cables does a lot for the efficiency of data storage and movement.
SCSI is such a finely tuned protocol that having a cable that is the wrong length or poorly insulated can lead to many problems including data loss, and in fact
if you bend a cable into a 30 degrees loop it can actually cause the passage of current to fail and cause "reflections" ie the waveform generated by the current going down the cable
is such that it mismatches the bend in the loop and serious amounts of energy are lost - using a cable of exactly the right length improves the waveform just like any standing wave
in a room or on a beach and so it goes with electricity too.
So I think you're probably right - even though my electronics knowledge is minimal. But the physics will add up. I am sure there is a way to calculate all this
stuff. I still don't go along with all the guff about "magic power cords" because once it hits the transformer, everything changes, but I do think that speaker
cables cut to a certain length and setup a certain way probably does do something to the sound.
I think there is something going on at a quantum level that none of us quite understand yet and the choices made by designers in the past has been
based on what's worked and what doesn't - all these low power digital devices are quite new and not fully realised, unlike 100 years of electronics
that has gone on before! Now am I the one who needs their brain examined?!
rachel