Any other SS amps with output transformers out there except Hellborg?

[Bassmec]

Vortexion built very high quality all purpose PA mixer amps mostly used in town halls and university lecture theatre's.
They had transformer balanced microphone input transformers and output transformers for 4 or 8 ohms, 100v line and hearing aid loop.
Vortexion wound their own transformers to a very, very hi standard and the 30-50 ohm ribbon mic types are still very sought after as a passive gain stage by the moving coil cartridge gramophone hi fi nuts.X

 

[JimmyM]

What's the best output transformer for metal?

Big black ones.

 

[Coolhandjjl]

With pointy chromed bolts holding acid-etched bell housings on, and leather insulated wires.

 

[Bflat]

Input and output transformers and proper shielding for SS amps are great protection against EMP pulses for paranoid bass players!!!!

 

[agedhorse]

Input and output transformers and proper shielding for SS amps are great protection against EMP pulses for paranoid bass players!!!!

So are tin foil hats...

 

[Bflat]

I prefer mu metal hats much more effective

 

[chadds]

Input and output transformers and proper shielding for SS amps are great protection against EMP pulses for paranoid bass players!!!!

When everything in the world stops working we can hear the bass solo.

 

[seamonkey]

Yes of course it's perfectly possible with an EQ but might I suggest something like a Urei 546 EQ as they had the same iron core audio transformers as the sonically world famous 1176ln compressor.
Other than that there is always the Neve 1073 EQ section with those marvellous sounding marinair transformers.
What you have yet to work out is that a better quality of sound has very little to do with superior electrical performance.
Ergo Lower distortion is not a big seller in over drive and fuzz pedals.X

The Neve design choice to use a transformer is not for distortion. Impedance matching, isolation maybe.

And actually I don't recall any fuzz boxes exploiting transformers to get some magic distortion out.

If there was any magic in transformers, one could take several and chain them together

Put as many in a row as you'd want until you have enough multiplied magic for your desires.
If it was on the output stage of an amplifier you could even move the global feedback to a transformer downstream.
There is no magic, it is simple degradation, losses to heat, losses to bandwidth.

 

[Mr. Foxen]

Again with the implying losses are bad. People love passive eqs that are lossy.

 

[seamonkey]

Again with the implying losses are bad. People love passive eqs that are lossy.

I doubt anybody designs a transformer in the circuit as an EQ.
That kind of EQ is applied on purpose by the musician. Every amp in the store with it's knobs in the middle has a colored sound that some people just love. The ones with active EQ can usually be dialed in flat, but that's not what most people want. On the other side, just lossy EQ isn't what everybody would want.

 

[beans-on-toast]

Many EQ's have inductors in the circuit for control of mid frequencies.

Some studio gear makes the signal sound better even when in bypass mode. The signal is still passing through the transformers, subjecting it to their non linear nature. So in that respect, transformers are indeed used to sweeten the sound.

Some DI's are just a transformer with connectors. They affect the signal and have sonic signatures that people like.