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Sophia Electric Magik Box


Curious_George

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Wow two 1:2 line transformers cost $3,000 if you claim they are magik apparently.

 

99% of the time your preamplifier is attenuating your sources before going into the amplifier. Well technically they attenuate, then add gain to the attenuated signal which only adds distortion and noise so there are technically only negative attributes for a preamplifier in a modern sense. I suppose it's a necessary evil if you want EQ or other functions of a preamplifier. I know I can hear the arguments already  that their system sounds like rubbish without their preamplifier and that's fine I am not saying they sound bad, that's a subjective matter.

 

For anyone wanting a volume control and source selection for line level equipment one really only needs a buffered attenuation circuit. Any form of attenuation from a simple voltage divider (potentiometer) to exotic methods like using optocouplers or autoformers etc.. with added input/output buffers which are unity gain active circuits, they don't provide any amplitude gain but act as impedance converters with current gain to drive cable capacitance and any other tough load.

 

But here Sophia Electric in their infinite wisdom feel adding more gain before attenuating it the answer? Really? I don't care they claim how wide the bandwidth is, it's still going to be less than a high quality active circuit. They don't have a spec sheet for it so we don't know the actual performance but I'll wager it's rolling off the extreme upper frequency range of high performance audio gear, especially ones that are flat up past 100kHz smoothing out some harshness present possibly. People really like the sound of transformers but let's not go crazy and say they have zero distortion and infinite bandwidth, that's just plain lies.

 

At first I thought it was another unity gain tube buffer stage to give your system some "tube warmth". I guess they just wanted some "transformer warmth". If it makes such a drastic sound difference it's doing something to the signal, and it can only add distortion and limit bandwidth, not subtract distortion and increase bandwidth like negative feedback does. Negative feedback is an amazing tool and audiophiles hate it, yet they love adding distortion and choking bandwidth.

 

Oh and the sales literature was just plain painful to read through.

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Some guys would rather spend thousands on harmonic distortion generators, phase shifters, band pass attenuators AKA transformers!

Same guys that eschew tone controls because all of their recordings are perfect and they love listening to the bad engineering.

Same guys have perfect loudspeakers in acoustically perfect rooms so no is EQ required. 

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I'm not tooting their horn but input transformers have legitimate uses. Eliminating ground loops, canceling Common Impedance Coupling and galvanic isolation to name a few. Like many things in electronic circuit design the proper component for job comes into play.

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3 hours ago, babadono said:

I'm not tooting their horn but input transformers have legitimate uses. Eliminating ground loops, canceling Common Impedance Coupling and galvanic isolation to name a few. Like many things in electronic circuit design the proper component for job comes into play.

Bingo!

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Transformers are like negative feedback… misunderstood most of the time. 
 

A good transformer has limitations just like any other electronic component and if used within it’s limitations, they work and sound great. 
 

Negative feedback is great too, but it has to be used wisely, kind of like common sense, which is severely lacking in today’s society.

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19 hours ago, babadono said:

I'm not tooting their horn but input transformers have legitimate uses. Eliminating ground loops, canceling Common Impedance Coupling and galvanic isolation to name a few. Like many things in electronic circuit design the proper component for job comes into play.

 Absolutely agree… 🙂

 

Just make sure your using high quality transformers such as Jensen…

 

miketn

 

 

 

 

FD8C955E-16C0-42D0-8BCF-48D68DDBBFDE.jpeg

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On 3/16/2022 at 1:08 AM, HiFi Heaven said:

Some guys would rather spend thousands on harmonic distortion generators, phase shifters, band pass attenuators AKA transformers!

Good transformers have been used and still are used in high end pro applications for the quality of the signal that goes though them. They aren't cheap, though.

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I am building two amps for people right now and both might end up with input transformers per my suggestion for them. It first started with just having an elegant way of having two inputs, balanced and single ended with an input transformer but I also told them they are great for eliminating any possible future ground loops no matter how small.

 

I personally have them in my own amplifier for that exact reason, I just want a way to isolate the devices and transformers are great for this. I am not knocking the fact Sophia is using transformers, I am only poking fun at their sales literature and the price. You really don't need to spend $3,000 for nice line transformers, you should be able to make that magik box for maximum $1,000 and that would buy you some damn fine transformers. I typically get Jensen and they work great, sound great, and are only around $80 each. Well Shaky already bought them but westcoast drums i don't think has made his mind up yet to pull the trigger on them. I think if he reads this thread he may end up getting them because they really do have fantastic benefits and if you are getting a bargain on a custom amp another $160 isn't really much for something you'll get a great benefit from and have for a very long time and enjoy it even more through that time.

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