Hell no. Solid State clipping doesn't sound bad. LOL! All pedals are solid state. Roland JC-100 is one of the best sounding amp ever and it's all solid state.
Holy transformer, this was an awesome interview. Her method of describing the functions of these components is brilliant. Thanks so much for this interview!
WOW! many people never get an opportunity to even meet such an iconic and legendary person in their lifetime, and for you to get a one on one interview with her was absolutely epic! So excited that you got this opportunity.
Gosh, this was such a joy to watch. Ms Manley is clearly so knowledgeable, passionate, and seasoned in her field, but comes across as super humble and approachable about it - explaining things in laymans terms with stories that connect things beautifully. I could listen to her talk about audio electronics all day.
I could listen to her talk about transformers and tubes all day! You can tell when someone has a passion for what they do. Even if you don't understand all the theory, listening to them talk about it and how it works is just fascinating!
I watched so many videos on transformers and could never figure out what was going on with the laminations and eddy current until this video. Brilliant explainer, and no animations required. I love how she illustrates that emperical data isnt always sufficient. The data said it should be better but it wasnt to our ears. I think its because we have the best ADC , our brains! as good as our machines are they dont have billioins of years of evolution listening to analog signals and we can still hear things our machines really cant pick up.
It's more the opposite! Human ears and brains are TERRIBLY non-linear! So distorted sound can sound "better" to us, more satisfying, even on an emotional level, than pure accurate sound. We evolved with what we had available, repurposing nerve cells basically. The system was built to detect lions or avalanches or whatever, using ears for music is just a pleasurable side-effect! It's why bass can go from feeling guuuud to actually frightening! I think a lot of music, a lot of tunes, follows the pitch-patterns of conversation, and that's where a lot of emotion can come from. Even just instrumentals have a feeling to them. Composers do it partly intuitively, but you can learn a lot of theory we've discovered too.
So impressed ! Love these more technical interviews,such an impressive person, it’s obvious she’s so comfortable with her understanding, explaining in such a clear manner. Good on you Kyle just letting her talk a great interview ! More like this please !
This is excellent, thank you. There's so much more I need to learn about transformers! Having lost the treasured vintage tube amp I carefully carried between moves over my career, I decided to design and build my own. I secured a few sets new Russian tubes and began brushing up on my electronics fundamentals, reading old Navy research reports on tube amplifier circuits, etc... I've developed a number of ideas, many I think are original. But truly, the heart of a good amp is it's power transformers. They must have a broad & flat frequency response, and the core must be able to accommodate the operating flux without saturating. It is the (musical) instrument within the amp.
Fascinating, I just recently started working for a high end audio company that in fact also winds their own transformers in house. For the same reason, quality control. We are also located in California. Since I have not witnessed how they are made, I was curious about the construction. The whole E I plates shown in this video was very enlightening in that respect. Such a clean work environment, perhaps I should put in an application at Manley!
That is a great lecture on different amp topologies and transformers! This is way beyond the basics, and about perception for a large part! That’s what matters in the end👍👍👍
EveAnna, that was amazing! It is so nice to see that this level of craftsmanship still exists. I have a much better sense now of why your equipment is so very good.
This video is awesome. I finally understood the inner workings of transformers! Thank you so much! I also agree with the comment that suggests that she needs her own show!
I think it’s awesome that they are able to maintain the same quality in everything for 30 years . I have come from other production environments myself and that’s nearly impossible
So busts the myth that transformers are not appropriate for modem audio design. Those people never worked with well designed transformers. Nice explanations and work EveAnna Manley. Another great video.
She's not wrong about transformers but I think I could explain it better. Tubes work on high voltages, but quite low currents. Like if you had a high-value resistor, 100K ohms say, if you put a high voltage over it, you'd only get a low current. Because of Ohm's Law. Tubes are the same, the electrons are streamed off a hot element into a vacuum, so need a high voltage to give them a kick and get them going. So tubes work with high voltages, but their high resistance to electron flow means only a small current flows. Power is volts x amps, so there's still high overall power because the volts are high even though the amps are low. Back in the day, tube radios would use high-impedance speakers to match the valves. Instead of 8 ohms it'd be 64 ohms or higher. So the speaker would drive from high voltage and low amps, still giving enough power. Transistors are the opposite. Much more conductive than tubes, so they work on lower voltages and pass more amps. So they're suited to driving lower-impedance speakers, the typical 8 ohms. Nowadays expensive speakers are all 8 ohms, as are cheap ones. So to connect a high-voltage low-amp tube, to a low-voltage high-amp 8 ohm speaker, you need a transformer. Which transforms current and voltage into different ratios, according to the ratio of windings of the transformer's two coils. So a tube can drive a speaker that was really made for transistor gear. Some tube amps have worked this way for decades, built for low-impedance speakers. Some have been transformerless for high-impedance speakers, but they died out pretty early, mostly. I'm sure you could still get them if you asked but you shouldn't ask the price! Then the issue she was talking about is that transformers themselves have characteristics that vary with frequency. "Impedance" is like resistance, except it's measured at a particular frequency, a component's effective resistance can vary with frequency, so impedance is a more complex thing. The magnetic fields in transformers can be slow to break down, or slow to rise, it takes time to magnetise and de-magnetise the iron. So they pass some frequencies better than others. Balancing that out in your particular transformer design is an art and that's where messing with the Henries came in.
You don’t need high voltage to get electrons going. In fact in tubes voltage is used to push electrons back into the hot cathode. Here you need a high voltage like -5V on the grid to really close the gate. So if you want voltage amplification, output should be 20 V or more. Tubes can drive unlimited voltage. Just increase the space between grid and anode. Though klystrons are known to disintegrate when the HV finds a way…
@@ArneChristianRosenfeldt "voltage is used to push electrons back into the hot cathode" you're talking about the grid? A typical tube uses an anode voltage between 90V and 200V. That's a high voltage and is used, together with the heat, to "boil off" electrons from the cathode. That's what I'm talking about. Transistor amps run on lower voltage, maybe 15V to 30V, typical, and pass much more current.
@@greenaum but how would the electrons know about the 200 V on the anode? Extreme examples are the pentode and the CRT with 3 metal pieces between cathode and anode. Faraday screen is almost perfect. Sadly, free electrons rely on this archaic boiling off method. I mean, you could use an EUV laser instead, but only really large tubes pay for this.
This lady is wise, worth listening. . She knows what she is talking about and talks about it in way keeping my attention . She talks about empirical measurements the way I share with her. The thing is that with empiric measurements we get the type of information which we can only see and judge with eyes means without hearing ., But our ears have different demands and synthetize sounds from range of frequencies. Ears have small sensitivity to 20 Hz while we falsely think it should 100% be fully preserved We faulty validate them equal just because in laboratory tests is proven that we can hear them (with almost 40 dB damping) . We can hear 20Hz but not in complex sound - in instruments it is almost always masked by higher harmonics. Other ranges are more valuated by our hearing sense . Those seen with eyes in measurements we faulty validate equal. . My experience also shows that in good balanced system there is hardly possible to hear the slope and it's speed below say 35 Hz. It requires pure sinus which in instruments is seldom found All bass sounds are mixed from not lowest only but from wider band of low frequencies. In such situation higher frequencies above 35 Hz decide how loud and significantly we perceive lows. So it is not justified to go for expensive heavy bulky trnsformers when apparently we easy can compensate slop with loudness type compensation ( if we persist) . I tried many years to achieve significant level of lowest frequencies and when I at last succeded I decided it isn't worthy because of troubles with room resonances. On othetr hand behaviour of speaker is deeply depending on secondary winding of transformer or solid output, feedback and enclosure of speaker - it can turn to meaningless perfection of transformer in listening instruments and voices at range less than 30 Hz while at more than 30 Hz decide other matters.
I wish there are more lessons to take from this Talented woman, I think she explains in a language that can be understanded by the non technical people interested in learn the basics of electronics, amps, tubes, transformers, etc. I wish to know, from her, the importance of a high power Hi End Audio Amplifier in the quality of sound. I think I know something about this, but I wish to learn from Eve Anna, and know her view in this subject.
Howdy, As you know I am biased (pardon the pun!) towards vacuum tube amplifiers and I proved this to myself the other day whilst listening to streaming music on my cheap powered speakers in my TV room and the bottom end was breaking up with all the energy of the music compressed-to-death into an offensive resonance. In fact I texted the mastering engineer asking him if somebody should be arrested for abuse of an audio limiter, but alas, I moved to my office desk where I have a 30 year old Manley Stereo GY50 100W amplifier driving some ATC SCM7's and that noticeable broken crunchy bass was not present. So yeah, I just had the importance of High Voltage = High Headroom = High Fidelity handed to me on a plate once again. Always learning, even after 35 years of having the privilege of being surrounded by vacuum tube products. Cheers, EveAnna
I used to use a lot of Dynaco equipment back in the day. Now I understand why the output transformers were so massive. And glancing on eBay, I really wish I’d kept them!
I am a proud owner of a Manley Stingray. Love that company and hope to be able to visit them one day. Living in Europe and that doesn't make it that easy. But I have great respect for Manley's company.
You kids! My formal education in Electronics came when transistors were first becoming viable alternatives. It was taught back then that tubes are inherently linear devices DC to light and transistors were switches that could be forced into operating linearly in a limited range. Transistors had limited power and very restricted bandwidth back then. Still today when it comes to high power and frequency response both needed, tubes are used. e.g. the magnetron in microwave ovens. But transformers are bandwidth limiting devices with phase shifts. Some tube amp manufacturers use autoformers rather than transformers for the output. And autoformer is in line rather than two seperate windings which allows the DC to pass through to some extent. The first image about 0:56 in is just a sinewave. It is NOT how a tube would linearly compress the top of that waveform.
An distinct difference of tubes vs transistors is that tubes are continuously on via heater filaments and fixed voltages on its elements , transistors are not so much , they essentially turn on when a signal reaches them. F.e.t.s corrected that somewhat.
When people ask me about the function of a transformer, I explain it like a car transmission. It takes a signal of High RPM and low torque (high voltage and low current) and transforms it to drive the wheels (speakers) to lower RPM (voltage) and higher torque (current).
i think a better way to compare how soft different nonlinearities are, whether physical devices or algorithms, is the ratio of linear behavior to its maximum headroom, rather than what that headroom is. the reason tape saturation sounds better than digital hard clipping isn't because it has a larger headroom, but because less of that range is near linear, it has some knee, some smooth transition from near linear to near flat. but that assumes a bounded output, which isn't necessarily the case in an algorithm. one could consider that the limit, maximal softness, infinite knee, and arcsinh does sound quite nice and soft, probably my favorite simple nonlinearity. while pure hard clipping has 0 knee, the other end of the spectrum, and can sound quite bad.
What she forgot to say (and probably meant to) is that transformers work by changing an electrical signal into a magnetic field and then back again. Voltage-in -> Magnetic field -> Voltage out. Because the middle step is entirely magnetic, the different windings remain entirely electrically isolated. Audio transformer quality is everything. Whilst it's quite easy to make (or purchase) a Pretty Good Transformer, making a Truly Excellent One takes a ton of money, effort and design. Impedance is simply a ratio of voltage and current. Valves (tubes) run on high voltages with miniscule currents. Speakers need a lot of current at much lower voltages.
Yeah, interesting that the current does not lead to a magnetic field because both coils just compensate this. The mismatch creates a field. In concerts they have these phased arrays. Just connect the speakers in series!
I want a bloom control - ideally as a baby analogue dial at the base of each of the sliders on the graphic equaliser....would it just fatten the selection out into the adjacent channel when set on 9+ ?
WOW!!! Very impressive!!! Thank you so much Eveanna you are a very impressive person and I thoroughly enjoyed this video. Based on this video alone if I could afford Manley products I would buy them!!
I've read that vacuum tubes are almost not available anymore. Are we down to 1 or 2 manufacturers in places like Russia that are questionable so far as supply chain reliability?
Interesting! Most "normal" tranformers are either made for mains power at 50-60 Hz (which also uses those laminated iron cores) or very high frequency (for use in switch mode power supplies) - usually at or above the upper limit of the audiable range (20 kHz). Those uses ferrite cores. Some may also run at 400 Hz, as that's used for example in the electrical system in air planes (I'm not sure about what core material used there) But now think about making just one transformer that works all the way from below mains frequency (at least down to 20 Hz for good audio) up to the lower end used by switch mode power supplies - without running the core into saturation at the lowest frequencies and still not getting problem with a lot of leak inductance that act like an unwanted low pass filter, cutting out all the high frequencies from the speaker - that is indeed a real challange. But I guss this is the only way to do it without adding a transistor power circuit after the tube circuit (to get enough current capability to drive the speakers). That would defeat the purpose of a tube amplifier I guess (because then you will still get the overdrive characteristics of the transistors and not the tubes). The tubes are probably too high impedance to form an output stage that can drive standard 4 or 8 Ω speakers directly.
Huge speaker with long voice coil, a strong magnet, and very thin wire should be made for those tubes. Transistors are cheap. No need to overdrive them. Class D amplifier. Put the transistors close to the coil to avoid parasitic capacity.
@@ArneChristianRosenfeldt Yes - a speaker with a custom made high impedance voice coil, would indeed do the trick. It's just like motors - they can be made for either low voltage, high current (low impedance - thick wire and few turns on the windings) or high voltage, low current (high impedance - thin wire and many turns on the windings). The tubes give out a high voltage, but low current signal - so a suitable speaker would have high impedance (that has a voice coil with thin wire and many turns on it) But the common standard for speakers are usually 8 or 4 ohms - so the idea with the transformer is probably to be able to drive a standard speakers by "converting" the high voltage low current signal into a low voltage high current. I think the whole idea with tubes, is their special characteristic when overdriven - which fits some music. It's also a subjective thing - some may like that special distortion characteristic more than others. It's hard to get that same sound using transistors. To reproduce the waveform as accurate as possible and get THD to lowest possible level, transistors are probably just as good, if not better (given that they are not overdriven) - and they are also more efficient in general (for example, there is no filament that need to be kept hot and wastes energy). Especially when used in class D configuration (which is basically a PWM-based inverter, rather than a linear amplifier), they are way more efficient. So, for most us, transistors are the best choice - but for some applications, the tubes may be preferred.
@@Speeder84XL someone replied that speakers have been high impedance in the past. Also there are electro static speakers. Great that there is a standard, but other industries manage a handful of standards easily. HDMI displayPort. SPDFIF RCA windows mac. CD DAT light bulbs
@@ArneChristianRosenfeldt Yes, that makes sense. But using a high impedance speaker with most ordinary amplifiers gives the opposite problem. The output from the speaker will be very weak, as the signal have too low voltage (so not much of the available power from the amplifier can be used). That's why there is a common standard for speakers - which the amplifiers are then built for. Just like the standard for common mains devices is agreed to be 50 Hz AC (sinewave) at 230-240 V RMS here in Europe (or 120 V at 60 Hz in US) or the electrical system in cars being 12 VDC. It would be a hassle if the manufacturers built devices and car parts for a whole load of different voltages and frequencies. The standard for speakers in turn is set to be convenient with transistor based amplifiers and probably with safety in mind. To reach high power levels thru a high impedance load, the voltage needs to be so high it become a shock hazard with open speaker and amplifier terminals. Eletrostatic speakers are interesting though - since those can't be made low impedance. Maybe there a tube amplifier could drive them directly. To be driven by a standard transistor based amplifier they need a transformer that do the opposite - take in the low voltage high current signal and steps it up to high voltage low current.
The simplest way to describe how a transformer works is that any voltage applied to the primary coil can only transfer to the secondary coil as the primary magnetic field collapses. Thus, Dc voltage can not transfer until that field collapses. AC voltages, by definition, are constantly transitioning,and the transfer function occurs
As I understand audiophiles and good audio it goes like: Bad amplifiers, better amplifiers and perfect reproducing amplifiers. But there are levels beyond that but they are not perfect reproducing anymore. So at those levels we have actually worse reproducing amplifiers but in a way that listeners like better. So now we are in the territory of taste and emotions because of memories or how one individual experience the sound. So when we have enough good amplifiers it is just up to individual taste and how you experience the sound in your system and your environment. So dont go hunting the perfect sound, find what you like best.
wow. is this the designer of manley hifi? . i see they fetch high prices. never heard, or see here. I wonder if she would let me use a preamp design. nice interview. ❤
@@AudioUniversity Maybe that's a reason to not use it. I would rather take some fans and stuff in the background than poor audio quality. I didn't particularly noticed the high pitch squeel, but taught "bad compression on this one" (mainly data compression, not dynamic compression - even if it has both) - RUclips isn't that bad nowadays so it has to be the original file (and thaught it was a little annoying as other videos I have seen on this channel have quite good audio quality). But this examplains it all, as noise reduction usually degrade the sound in a way that sound very similar to bad data compression, like for example MP3 file with low bit rate. When it filters out wide spectrum/high frequency background noise it also affect for example "S-sounds" when speaking. Otherwise - very interesting video
That's all well and good. If only good tube equipment weren't so boutique priced. I used to have KT88s and JBLs. Now it's a Samsung cellphone. Ah technology. Less... it's the new more.
The ( only ) correct way to make a balanced output .........not the commercial ones , the illusion for the customers as seen to often by audiophile hyped marketing !
Antenna coax also uses transformers in this way. How else would you do this? Okay, antenna’s probably have no problem to block DC. But then again, DC will heat up a transformer.. ah I get it. It is for the pull-up . Transistors would push pull and not use this.
Fantastic interview Well done Horrible title I'm maybe a little more techy than whoever shows this title But you may as well say resistors versus capacitors Horrible title Great interview She is a badass
No disrespect meant, but this is a more nonsense than I’ve heard in one place in many a year. Tubes and transistors operate in completely different voltage / current ranges. Tubes don’t have ‘more linearity’ because they operate with more volts. That is simply ridiculous. Linearity can be measured and the result is a relative, not a fixed number. She’s definitely “making up the numbers” as she says.
They use tubes because they SELL WELL! All the characteristics of tubes could be designed into solid state amps if so desired. But the whole game is to sell stuff to people who will pay for it!
We use vacuum tubes because we always have, and because they sound superior, and we love working with vacuum tube technology. TUBES RULE! I like your name, "Glass Slinger" sounds like you sell vacuum tubes also! 🙂
If you think so then how will you correct solid amplifier to have less than 1 Ohm output resistance for DC? It is very positive for damping, Having output capacity type solid amplifier presents to speaker infinity of Ohms at DC. Of course it has simmilar impact also on very low frequencies in both That is one of reasons why solid can so easy charm listeners with falsely increased very low band and it is hardly controlled resonance
@@Mikexception Apply more Global Negative Feedback around a vacuum tube amplifier and it can also present less than 1 Ohm output impedance... remembering that is only one factor of many one juggles to make a good sounding amplifier design. It is all a balance. But correct, the output of a conventional tube amplifier will not be virtual earth nearly Zero Z as is possible with solid-state designs.
In nature there's no such thing as a pure tone.......without harmonics sounds do not have a sound signature ....that's also what makes all voices different.( wood ( even different species), metal, wind, animal sounds , human activity and even vulcanoic erruptions ).... We and everything else that generates ounds or music are all distorted by definition or by what that means.
uhhh.....SHE needs her own show! Wow! What a powerhouse! Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for watching!
Hell no. Solid State clipping doesn't sound bad. LOL! All pedals are solid state. Roland JC-100 is one of the best sounding amp ever and it's all solid state.
Holy transformer, this was an awesome interview. Her method of describing the functions of these components is brilliant. Thanks so much for this interview!
Thanks for watching, Mark!
WOW! many people never get an opportunity to even meet such an iconic and legendary person in their lifetime, and for you to get a one on one interview with her was absolutely epic! So excited that you got this opportunity.
EveAnna is an incredibly knowledgeable person - very fortunate to have met her! Thanks for sharing the experience, Kelvin!
"A beautiful mind" is not restricted to mathematics!!!!! There are many kinds of genius.
Gosh, this was such a joy to watch. Ms Manley is clearly so knowledgeable, passionate, and seasoned in her field, but comes across as super humble and approachable about it - explaining things in laymans terms with stories that connect things beautifully. I could listen to her talk about audio electronics all day.
Back in the day when we had dynamic range. Love it.
I could listen to her talk about transformers and tubes all day! You can tell when someone has a passion for what they do. Even if you don't understand all the theory, listening to them talk about it and how it works is just fascinating!
Very interesting. Ms Manley not only knows her field but she presents in an easily to understand manner.
I watched so many videos on transformers and could never figure out what was going on with the laminations and eddy current until this video. Brilliant explainer, and no animations required. I love how she illustrates that emperical data isnt always sufficient. The data said it should be better but it wasnt to our ears. I think its because we have the best ADC , our brains! as good as our machines are they dont have billioins of years of evolution listening to analog signals and we can still hear things our machines really cant pick up.
It's more the opposite! Human ears and brains are TERRIBLY non-linear! So distorted sound can sound "better" to us, more satisfying, even on an emotional level, than pure accurate sound. We evolved with what we had available, repurposing nerve cells basically. The system was built to detect lions or avalanches or whatever, using ears for music is just a pleasurable side-effect! It's why bass can go from feeling guuuud to actually frightening!
I think a lot of music, a lot of tunes, follows the pitch-patterns of conversation, and that's where a lot of emotion can come from. Even just instrumentals have a feeling to them. Composers do it partly intuitively, but you can learn a lot of theory we've discovered too.
So impressed ! Love these more technical interviews,such an impressive person, it’s obvious she’s so comfortable with her understanding, explaining in such a clear manner.
Good on you Kyle just letting her talk a great interview !
More like this please !
Perfect pro audio lesson for very curious non-experts. Congradulations. Love your channel and thanks very much to Manley.👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
Glad you enjoyed it!
This is excellent, thank you. There's so much more I need to learn about transformers!
Having lost the treasured vintage tube amp I carefully carried between moves over my career, I decided to design and build my own. I secured a few sets new Russian tubes and began brushing up on my electronics fundamentals, reading old Navy research reports on tube amplifier circuits, etc...
I've developed a number of ideas, many I think are original. But truly, the heart of a good amp is it's power transformers. They must have a broad & flat frequency response, and the core must be able to accommodate the operating flux without saturating. It is the (musical) instrument within the amp.
EveAnna is a real treasure-chest of knowledge. Thank you for this interview!
Love Tubes, always, love her wide knowledge, really knows her stuff.
Agreed!
Somehow I really appreciate how you two communicate. I just lay chilling in a warm bath and really enjoying this video. Thank you both!
Fascinating, I just recently started working for a high end audio company that in fact also winds their own transformers in house. For the same reason, quality control. We are also located in California. Since I have not witnessed how they are made, I was curious about the construction. The whole E I plates shown in this video was very enlightening in that respect. Such a clean work environment, perhaps I should put in an application at Manley!
Explaining difficult concepts so simply is a gift only the smartest can do. You killed it Eveanna. Enjoyed this talk immensely.
So great to see the backstage of the magic show!
That is a great lecture on different amp topologies and transformers! This is way beyond the basics, and about perception for a large part! That’s what matters in the end👍👍👍
EveAnna, that was amazing! It is so nice to see that this level of craftsmanship still exists. I have a much better sense now of why your equipment is so very good.
loved it. It is so easy to know when you are watching a real professionals!
Highly knowledgeable people are fascinating - Thanks for this cool technical interview.
God bless you Anna for the plugins and hardware!
What a genius in her field EveAnna is.What a great looking build facility that is shown here.
I really enjoyed listening to her explanations.
Glad you enjoyed it!
This video is awesome. I finally understood the inner workings of transformers! Thank you so much! I also agree with the comment that suggests that she needs her own show!
She just seems so cool. I really want a Manley product now!
I think it’s awesome that they are able to maintain the same quality in everything for 30 years . I have come from other production environments myself and that’s nearly impossible
Very good explanations. Always found transformers and the affects of hysteresis fascinating.
So busts the myth that transformers are not appropriate for modem audio design. Those people never worked with well designed transformers. Nice explanations and work EveAnna Manley. Another great video.
Knowledge and experience of that nice Lady is astonishing. Superb interview!
She's not wrong about transformers but I think I could explain it better. Tubes work on high voltages, but quite low currents. Like if you had a high-value resistor, 100K ohms say, if you put a high voltage over it, you'd only get a low current. Because of Ohm's Law. Tubes are the same, the electrons are streamed off a hot element into a vacuum, so need a high voltage to give them a kick and get them going.
So tubes work with high voltages, but their high resistance to electron flow means only a small current flows. Power is volts x amps, so there's still high overall power because the volts are high even though the amps are low.
Back in the day, tube radios would use high-impedance speakers to match the valves. Instead of 8 ohms it'd be 64 ohms or higher. So the speaker would drive from high voltage and low amps, still giving enough power.
Transistors are the opposite. Much more conductive than tubes, so they work on lower voltages and pass more amps. So they're suited to driving lower-impedance speakers, the typical 8 ohms. Nowadays expensive speakers are all 8 ohms, as are cheap ones. So to connect a high-voltage low-amp tube, to a low-voltage high-amp 8 ohm speaker, you need a transformer. Which transforms current and voltage into different ratios, according to the ratio of windings of the transformer's two coils. So a tube can drive a speaker that was really made for transistor gear.
Some tube amps have worked this way for decades, built for low-impedance speakers. Some have been transformerless for high-impedance speakers, but they died out pretty early, mostly. I'm sure you could still get them if you asked but you shouldn't ask the price!
Then the issue she was talking about is that transformers themselves have characteristics that vary with frequency. "Impedance" is like resistance, except it's measured at a particular frequency, a component's effective resistance can vary with frequency, so impedance is a more complex thing. The magnetic fields in transformers can be slow to break down, or slow to rise, it takes time to magnetise and de-magnetise the iron. So they pass some frequencies better than others. Balancing that out in your particular transformer design is an art and that's where messing with the Henries came in.
You don’t need high voltage to get electrons going. In fact in tubes voltage is used to push electrons back into the hot cathode. Here you need a high voltage like -5V on the grid to really close the gate. So if you want voltage amplification, output should be 20 V or more. Tubes can drive unlimited voltage. Just increase the space between grid and anode.
Though klystrons are known to disintegrate when the HV finds a way…
@@ArneChristianRosenfeldt "voltage is used to push electrons back into the hot cathode" you're talking about the grid? A typical tube uses an anode voltage between 90V and 200V. That's a high voltage and is used, together with the heat, to "boil off" electrons from the cathode. That's what I'm talking about. Transistor amps run on lower voltage, maybe 15V to 30V, typical, and pass much more current.
@@greenaum but how would the electrons know about the 200 V on the anode? Extreme examples are the pentode and the CRT with 3 metal pieces between cathode and anode. Faraday screen is almost perfect.
Sadly, free electrons rely on this archaic boiling off method. I mean, you could use an EUV laser instead, but only really large tubes pay for this.
@@ArneChristianRosenfeldt Because electric charge is a force. You're going a bit esoteric and weird here, a bit past the basics.
Great interview with Eveanna, thanks!
Thanks for watching!
This lady is wise, worth listening. . She knows what she is talking about and talks about it in way keeping my attention . She talks about empirical measurements the way I share with her. The thing is that with empiric measurements we get the type of information which we can only see and judge with eyes means without hearing ., But our ears have different demands and synthetize sounds from range of frequencies. Ears have small sensitivity to 20 Hz while we falsely think it should 100% be fully preserved We faulty validate them equal just because in laboratory tests is proven that we can hear them (with almost 40 dB damping) . We can hear 20Hz but not in complex sound - in instruments it is almost always masked by higher harmonics. Other ranges are more valuated by our hearing sense . Those seen with eyes in measurements we faulty validate equal. .
My experience also shows that in good balanced system there is hardly possible to hear the slope and it's speed below say 35 Hz. It requires pure sinus which in instruments is seldom found All bass sounds are mixed from not lowest only but from wider band of low frequencies. In such situation higher frequencies above 35 Hz decide how loud and significantly we perceive lows. So it is not justified to go for expensive heavy bulky trnsformers when apparently we easy can compensate slop with loudness type compensation ( if we persist) .
I tried many years to achieve significant level of lowest frequencies and when I at last succeded I decided it isn't worthy because of troubles with room resonances. On othetr hand behaviour of speaker is deeply depending on secondary winding of transformer or solid output, feedback and enclosure of speaker - it can turn to meaningless perfection of transformer in listening instruments and voices at range less than 30 Hz while at more than 30 Hz decide other matters.
I wish there are more lessons to take from this Talented woman, I think she explains in a language that can be understanded by the non technical people interested in learn the basics of electronics, amps, tubes, transformers, etc. I wish to know, from her, the importance of a high power Hi End Audio Amplifier in the quality of sound. I think I know something about this, but I wish to learn from Eve Anna, and know her view in this subject.
Howdy, As you know I am biased (pardon the pun!) towards vacuum tube amplifiers and I proved this to myself the other day whilst listening to streaming music on my cheap powered speakers in my TV room and the bottom end was breaking up with all the energy of the music compressed-to-death into an offensive resonance. In fact I texted the mastering engineer asking him if somebody should be arrested for abuse of an audio limiter, but alas, I moved to my office desk where I have a 30 year old Manley Stereo GY50 100W amplifier driving some ATC SCM7's and that noticeable broken crunchy bass was not present. So yeah, I just had the importance of High Voltage = High Headroom = High Fidelity handed to me on a plate once again. Always learning, even after 35 years of having the privilege of being surrounded by vacuum tube products. Cheers, EveAnna
Good stuff! So much info displayed with the actual material.
More of that wisdom and history EveAnna!
I used to use a lot of Dynaco equipment back in the day. Now I understand why the output transformers were so massive. And glancing on eBay, I really wish I’d kept them!
This is a GREAT interview! Thanks!
Glad you enjoyed it!
Very educational. We need more of her!
She did not appear to have any proper mathematical understanding of impedance.
I am a proud owner of a Manley Stingray. Love that company and hope to be able to visit them one day. Living in Europe and that doesn't make it that easy. But I have great respect for Manley's company.
Awesome collaboration!!! Tons of wonderful info here!
Thanks so much!
Excellent video. Please do more of these videos. Keep up the great work.
It was immensely enjoyable watching this...thanks...
Glad you liked it! Thank you!
This is fantastic. More of these, please!
Such a good interview!
What a nice video and company to know of.
That, my friend, is an excellent vid.
Thank you!
What an excellent interview, thanks.
Great interview.. she sure knows her stuff.. how did you score a Manley interview.. Ace!
Omg, what a great collab!
Thanks!
I love this stuff with audio more than any other part. I had the pleasure of doing some work for Purple Audio, and it's just really fascinating.
You kids! My formal education in Electronics came when transistors were first becoming viable alternatives. It was taught back then that tubes are inherently linear devices DC to light and transistors were switches that could be forced into operating linearly in a limited range. Transistors had limited power and very restricted bandwidth back then. Still today when it comes to high power and frequency response both needed, tubes are used. e.g. the magnetron in microwave ovens. But transformers are bandwidth limiting devices with phase shifts.
Some tube amp manufacturers use autoformers rather than transformers for the output. And autoformer is in line rather than two seperate windings which allows the DC to pass through to some extent.
The first image about 0:56 in is just a sinewave. It is NOT how a tube would linearly compress the top of that waveform.
Awesome interview, probably my favorite topic too:)
An distinct difference of tubes vs transistors is that tubes are continuously on via heater filaments and fixed voltages on its elements , transistors are not so much , they essentially turn on when a signal reaches them. F.e.t.s corrected that somewhat.
When people ask me about the function of a transformer, I explain it like a car transmission.
It takes a signal of High RPM and low torque (high voltage and low current) and transforms it to drive the wheels (speakers) to lower RPM (voltage) and higher torque (current).
i think a better way to compare how soft different nonlinearities are, whether physical devices or algorithms, is the ratio of linear behavior to its maximum headroom, rather than what that headroom is. the reason tape saturation sounds better than digital hard clipping isn't because it has a larger headroom, but because less of that range is near linear, it has some knee, some smooth transition from near linear to near flat. but that assumes a bounded output, which isn't necessarily the case in an algorithm. one could consider that the limit, maximal softness, infinite knee, and arcsinh does sound quite nice and soft, probably my favorite simple nonlinearity. while pure hard clipping has 0 knee, the other end of the spectrum, and can sound quite bad.
This is a masterclass! Thanks!
Awesome interview!
What she forgot to say (and probably meant to) is that transformers work by changing an electrical signal into a magnetic field and then back again. Voltage-in -> Magnetic field -> Voltage out. Because the middle step is entirely magnetic, the different windings remain entirely electrically isolated. Audio transformer quality is everything. Whilst it's quite easy to make (or purchase) a Pretty Good Transformer, making a Truly Excellent One takes a ton of money, effort and design. Impedance is simply a ratio of voltage and current. Valves (tubes) run on high voltages with miniscule currents. Speakers need a lot of current at much lower voltages.
Yeah, interesting that the current does not lead to a magnetic field because both coils just compensate this. The mismatch creates a field.
In concerts they have these phased arrays. Just connect the speakers in series!
wonderful interview..!!!
I want a bloom control - ideally as a baby analogue dial at the base of each of the sliders on the graphic equaliser....would it just fatten the selection out into the adjacent channel when set on 9+ ?
Man, does she know her stuff. Once again, your ears and brain are the final test of what's good.
I could listen to this stuff for hourrrzzzzzzzz
Totally rocked that! Thanks 😊
Thanks!
WOW!!!
Very impressive!!!
Thank you so much Eveanna you are a very impressive person and I thoroughly enjoyed this video.
Based on this video alone if I could afford Manley products I would buy them!!
Thanks for watching, Jon!
If you had a hybrid transformer between an EI and a toroidal transformer, would it be an EIEIO transformer?
When you shop for tube audio amps make sure that output transformer is at least fist size and you will have great sound.
awesome show... thank you.
Thanks for watching!
Awesome! Wealth of knowledge here!
I've read that vacuum tubes are almost not available anymore. Are we down to 1 or 2 manufacturers in places like Russia that are questionable so far as supply chain reliability?
Interesting!
Most "normal" tranformers are either made for mains power at 50-60 Hz (which also uses those laminated iron cores) or very high frequency (for use in switch mode power supplies) - usually at or above the upper limit of the audiable range (20 kHz). Those uses ferrite cores. Some may also run at 400 Hz, as that's used for example in the electrical system in air planes (I'm not sure about what core material used there)
But now think about making just one transformer that works all the way from below mains frequency (at least down to 20 Hz for good audio) up to the lower end used by switch mode power supplies - without running the core into saturation at the lowest frequencies and still not getting problem with a lot of leak inductance that act like an unwanted low pass filter, cutting out all the high frequencies from the speaker
- that is indeed a real challange.
But I guss this is the only way to do it without adding a transistor power circuit after the tube circuit (to get enough current capability to drive the speakers). That would defeat the purpose of a tube amplifier I guess (because then you will still get the overdrive characteristics of the transistors and not the tubes). The tubes are probably too high impedance to form an output stage that can drive standard 4 or 8 Ω speakers directly.
Huge speaker with long voice coil, a strong magnet, and very thin wire should be made for those tubes.
Transistors are cheap. No need to overdrive them. Class D amplifier. Put the transistors close to the coil to avoid parasitic capacity.
@@ArneChristianRosenfeldt Yes - a speaker with a custom made high impedance voice coil, would indeed do the trick. It's just like motors - they can be made for either low voltage, high current (low impedance - thick wire and few turns on the windings) or high voltage, low current (high impedance - thin wire and many turns on the windings). The tubes give out a high voltage, but low current signal - so a suitable speaker would have high impedance (that has a voice coil with thin wire and many turns on it)
But the common standard for speakers are usually 8 or 4 ohms - so the idea with the transformer is probably to be able to drive a standard speakers by "converting" the high voltage low current signal into a low voltage high current.
I think the whole idea with tubes, is their special characteristic when overdriven - which fits some music. It's also a subjective thing - some may like that special distortion characteristic more than others.
It's hard to get that same sound using transistors.
To reproduce the waveform as accurate as possible and get THD to lowest possible level, transistors are probably just as good, if not better (given that they are not overdriven) - and they are also more efficient in general (for example, there is no filament that need to be kept hot and wastes energy). Especially when used in class D configuration (which is basically a PWM-based inverter, rather than a linear amplifier), they are way more efficient. So, for most us, transistors are the best choice
- but for some applications, the tubes may be preferred.
@@Speeder84XL someone replied that speakers have been high impedance in the past. Also there are electro static speakers. Great that there is a standard, but other industries manage a handful of standards easily. HDMI displayPort. SPDFIF RCA windows mac. CD DAT light bulbs
@@ArneChristianRosenfeldt Yes, that makes sense.
But using a high impedance speaker with most ordinary amplifiers gives the opposite problem. The output from the speaker will be very weak, as the signal have too low voltage (so not much of the available power from the amplifier can be used).
That's why there is a common standard for speakers - which the amplifiers are then built for.
Just like the standard for common mains devices is agreed to be 50 Hz AC (sinewave) at 230-240 V RMS here in Europe (or 120 V at 60 Hz in US) or the electrical system in cars being 12 VDC. It would be a hassle if the manufacturers built devices and car parts for a whole load of different voltages and frequencies.
The standard for speakers in turn is set to be convenient with transistor based amplifiers and probably with safety in mind. To reach high power levels thru a high impedance load, the voltage needs to be so high it become a shock hazard with open speaker and amplifier terminals.
Eletrostatic speakers are interesting though - since those can't be made low impedance. Maybe there a tube amplifier could drive them directly. To be driven by a standard transistor based amplifier they need a transformer that do the opposite
- take in the low voltage high current signal and steps it up to high voltage low current.
Need more tours
🙏
The simplest way to describe how a transformer works is that any voltage applied to the primary coil can only transfer to the secondary coil as the primary magnetic field collapses. Thus, Dc voltage can not transfer until that field collapses. AC voltages, by definition, are constantly transitioning,and the transfer function occurs
When does DC collapse?
As I understand audiophiles and good audio it goes like: Bad amplifiers, better amplifiers and perfect reproducing amplifiers. But there are levels beyond that but they are not perfect reproducing anymore. So at those levels we have actually worse reproducing amplifiers but in a way that listeners like better. So now we are in the territory of taste and emotions because of memories or how one individual experience the sound.
So when we have enough good amplifiers it is just up to individual taste and how you experience the sound in your system and your environment.
So dont go hunting the perfect sound, find what you like best.
AWESOME
You only need trust in your supple lines if you can not test your incoming shipment on site. And yes some audio gear manufactures can do that.
This lady is seriously bad ass
wow. is this the designer of manley hifi? . i see they fetch high prices. never heard, or see here. I wonder if she would let me use a preamp design. nice interview. ❤
Thanks
Hats off to Michael Faraday for discovering inductive coupling and hysteresis.
I love this!
I am building my own tube amps, it´s a real art to create good sound
Theres a really high pitch squeel in this video, quiet but noticeable!
It’s amazing what noise reduction can do to audio recorded on a factory floor!
@@AudioUniversity Maybe that's a reason to not use it. I would rather take some fans and stuff in the background than poor audio quality. I didn't particularly noticed the high pitch squeel, but taught "bad compression on this one" (mainly data compression, not dynamic compression - even if it has both) - RUclips isn't that bad nowadays so it has to be the original file (and thaught it was a little annoying as other videos I have seen on this channel have quite good audio quality).
But this examplains it all, as noise reduction usually degrade the sound in a way that sound very similar to bad data compression, like for example MP3 file with low bit rate. When it filters out wide spectrum/high frequency background noise it also affect for example "S-sounds" when speaking. Otherwise - very interesting video
Do they sell the transformers on their own?
Yea that output transformer is a electrical flywheel that smoothes out the audio.
Solid state does not sound horrible.
»transistor land« not the place where one wants to be😅the VoxBox my dream piece of equipment plus a pair of Neumann M147 or Brauner VM1.
That's all well and good. If only good tube equipment weren't so boutique priced.
I used to have KT88s and JBLs. Now it's a Samsung cellphone. Ah technology.
Less... it's the new more.
nice interview, she's a good teacher. we need more women in tech education =)
The ( only ) correct way to make a balanced output .........not the commercial ones , the illusion for the customers as seen to often by audiophile hyped marketing !
Antenna coax also uses transformers in this way. How else would you do this? Okay, antenna’s probably have no problem to block DC. But then again, DC will heat up a transformer.. ah I get it. It is for the pull-up . Transistors would push pull and not use this.
Opti-Mus Prime was a big FET Transformer
Fantastic interview
Well done
Horrible title
I'm maybe a little more techy than whoever shows this title
But you may as well say resistors versus capacitors
Horrible title
Great interview
She is a badass
I wish she was my mother... Or sister... Or both... I love her...
we need a Wayne's World 3 and she needs to be the Audio Tech for them!
Having control over supply chain is important. Just ask Boeing.
Is this Melissa Carpers sister?
No disrespect meant, but this is a more nonsense than I’ve heard in one place in many a year. Tubes and transistors operate in completely different voltage / current ranges. Tubes don’t have ‘more linearity’ because they operate with more volts. That is simply ridiculous. Linearity can be measured and the result is a relative, not a fixed number. She’s definitely “making up the numbers” as she says.
They use tubes because they SELL WELL! All the characteristics of tubes could be designed into solid state amps if so desired. But the whole game is to sell stuff to people who will pay for it!
We use vacuum tubes because we always have, and because they sound superior, and we love working with vacuum tube technology. TUBES RULE! I like your name, "Glass Slinger" sounds like you sell vacuum tubes also! 🙂
If you think so then how will you correct solid amplifier to have less than 1 Ohm output resistance for DC? It is very positive for damping, Having output capacity type solid amplifier presents to speaker infinity of Ohms at DC. Of course it has simmilar impact also on very low frequencies in both That is one of reasons why solid can so easy charm listeners with falsely increased very low band and it is hardly controlled resonance
@@Mikexception How many amplifiers still use a coupling capacitor in the speaker line? Very few that I'm aware of.
@@johnstone7697All amplifiers without symmetrical to neutral voltage must have. It is most popular.
@@Mikexception Apply more Global Negative Feedback around a vacuum tube amplifier and it can also present less than 1 Ohm output impedance... remembering that is only one factor of many one juggles to make a good sounding amplifier design. It is all a balance. But correct, the output of a conventional tube amplifier will not be virtual earth nearly Zero Z as is possible with solid-state designs.
I wouldn’t mine to live there.
In nature there's no such thing as a pure tone.......without harmonics sounds do not have a sound signature ....that's also what makes all voices different.( wood ( even different species), metal, wind, animal sounds , human activity and even vulcanoic erruptions )....
We and everything else that generates ounds or music are all distorted by definition or by what that means.