[Patrick Turner]

On Feb 3, 5:49*am, Big Bad Bob BigBadBob-at-mrp3-
wrote:
On 01/28/11 00:53, Patrick Turner so witilly quipped:

snip for brevity,
The vast majority of users are technically illiterate, through no
fault of their own.

Understandably, or else they might attempt to build their OWN amps
instead (from a kit or scratch).

Most ppl who buy any ARC gear are fairly wealthy.

They usually have no time for DIY.

But after having sold just a few of the transformers I have for sale I
can safely say that manufacturers need never fear loss of sales to
DIYers.
For every 5 who begin to make a hi-fi amp system with tubes and who
buy the transformers, maybe only 1 has got anything at all working
after 5 years.

They cannot be blamed for buying ARC and other major "reputable"
brand
names of audio gear while thinking they can use it without special
mains arrangements to get reliability if the mains voltage is 13.7%
above the labelled input mains voltage on the unit they buy, ie,
252Vrms instead of the labelled 220Vrms.

I still think that a switching power supply would cost LESS than a power
transformer, _AND_ address the wild fluctuation of supply voltages. *You
know, like computer power supplies. *They're usually very tolerant, or
at least up to a point. *And you could use a single power supply design
for US and AU and UK and everywhere else on the planet. *My
manufacturing experience tells me that a 'fits all' component reduces
cost even further by NOT requiring multiple versions of the equipment
(and the component parts) to be ordered, stocked in inventory, and
separately built.

Halcro managed to make SMPS for their 200W solid state class AB mosfet
monoblocs.

Many professional SS amp makers have embraced SMPS.

But making a SMPS capable of +450V at 1amp dc + seems rather too
difficult, and since a tube amp still needs an OPT, weight is high,
and so makers think they may as well include a PT which is the same
weight as the OPT.
May as well get hung for stealing a sheep as for a lamb.


ARC and many other makers in the US and in China etc fail this golden
rule dismally.

They're being cheap in their power supply design (i.e. no taps on the
transformer). *That seems a bit strange for something that's "high end"..

I heard some designers at ARC are young turkeys.......I see the
inconsistency in their design trends.

Patrick Turner.