[John Chapman]

Hello!

Topic split from the Rocky mountain Thread - it was morphing into a Slagleformer Thread and deserved a home of it's own!

Thansk!

John



Hello!

Just another note about the show - Dave Slagle will be there and he just e-mailed the pics of the 'Slagleformer MAN' - the new manual slagleformer module. He will be quite literally the slagleformer man at the show.

I did the board design last week and he ordered them shipped direct to his shop to get'em ready in time for the show.  They look really good if I do say so! I got excited and started bouncing around in my chair - and I never do that.

It'll give 36 steps with manual only switching in a low cost kit or pre-built module. Well - low cost for a nickel core autoformer anyway...... No fiddly wiring of all the taps to switches. After the show we'll get production pcb's and get'em on the website.

I think Dave is roaming but if you spot him ask to see these new modules. He'll have them running and be plunking them into some systems at the show I am sure.


Thansk!

John

[dave slagle]

sorry to break protocol

Indeed I will be there with a few of the modules.  The boards  showed up about 10 hours ago and I confirmed function of the first pair so I needed to listen.  I went for my traditional form follows function given the time at hand approach and boxed a pair up in my typical utilitarian "see the guts" manner. 


I put them into the system against the proto bent slagleformers (2dB units) and the sound was on par.  I then compared them to the hard wired Prototypes and again no "smack you in the face" differences were heard. 

This gave me the confidence to wire up a few more pair and bring them along and I will have them in hand.  If you are reading this and will be at the show, you obviously are family so feel free to give me a ring to meet up. (cell) 212-477-0375   I'll be there Friday and Saturday and can let you see one in person.  If you are interested in the full remote version, I can also take you to the room where they are and get you the functional demo of John's slick remote interface for an inductive volume control.

Since I need to get up in a few hours, I'll simply leave you with the pic that got john all giddy

dave

[mingles]

Very cool! It's amazing how small and compact it is.
What does the second selector control? The source?
Just to be clear... are they stepped in 2 dB increments?

[dave slagle]

The attenuator uses a two switch approach.  The left switch has 3.75 dB increments and the right switch has a 1.25dB boost and cut.    The end result nets you 1.25 dB steps which are small enough to give a quite effective balance control.  The maximum attenuation is -41.25dB.  John's remote autoformer units have a seamless 60dB range +7 to -53dB in 1dB steps.

The goal of the unit is to provide the sonics of the autoformer in a package that wires up identically to a pot. 

John hit the circuit board out of the park with its clever simplicity. 

dave

[mingles]

Any idea what the cost will be??

[John Chapman]

Hello!

Not entirely sure yet on the cost - Dave is going to price it out. From what I gather of pricing Dave mentioned  it'll be well worth it given all the wiring that will be saved.  It will also open up Autoformer projects to folks who were a bit unsure about  hardwiring the whole project - these modules hook up just like a pot with only 3 wires per channel.

Thansk!

John

[dave slagle]

Hey Mingles (and others),

The first 5 pair were very well received at RMAF and quickly found new homes and I am suddenly out of boards.  I would like to get some more feedback before we go for a large run of boards so I am going to do a run of 20.  These will still be on the pre-production (no silk screening) boards pictured and will come assembled and tested.  The price for this initial run will be $350 a pair and will be sold through me at this point.  I'll pick up shipping within the US, add $15 for Canada and $25 worldwide (USPS EMS with tracking).

I'll gladly answer any questions about the units here and can be reached by PM to discuss purchase.

dave

[dave slagle]

I should also add that they will come stacked 6X6 for approximately 100hy's of inductance and the design allows for easy adjustability of the gap to increase or decrease the inductance as desired.

dave

[Brown]

Dave looks great. Could the unit be used as a attenuator for a active linestage ? Maybe getting the best of both worlds.

[John Chapman]

Hello!

Lots of guys use Dave's attenuators in an active stage - seems to work very well. If the gain stage has low gain (maybe +6db or less) then you can shoose to put the Autoformers before or after the gain/buffer stage in the circuit. If it has higher gain the Autoformers would simply replace the pot in the circuit.

Dave may have furthur notes on this if he's still tuned in to this channel.

Thanks!

John

[Brown]

thanks for the quick response John.  Looks like they are in my future plans.

[dave slagle]

Dave looks great. Could the unit be used as a attenuator for a active linestage ? Maybe getting the best of both worlds.

Absolutely.

as john mentioned, you have the option of placing at the input or the output.  I would be sure to limit the AC signal at the input of the autoformer to about 15V or so and this limit will dictate where it is best used.

What are you thinking about for the design of the active?

dave

[Brown]

Hey Dave. First off good luck, this looks like a winner. Now my thought was to install a pair into the output of the active Pre. Before that I would like to try just as a passive device. I love the clarity of the transformer based passives but still miss the glory of the tubes, meaning substance, body and weight.

[dave slagle]

Hey,

At some point you need to think outside the (equipment) box.  The autoformer modules and  john's bent units are simple 3 terminal devices just like any other pot or discrete resistive device.  If you want the juicy sound of tubes, the attenuator (be it resistive, inductive or whatever) is not the place to look.  Just because they typically reside in their own enclosure  (and are easy to swap) doesn't imply that passives (of any sort) follow any different rules than their counterparts buried within an active, integrated or whatever.

dave