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Transformer on Speakers

#1
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12/11/07 at 2:10am
  • Joined: December 2007
  • Post Count: 2
Ok so I just purchased some ceiling speakers for the lounge room the other day, when they arrived at my door I noticed they had transformers.


Ok so my question is... this transformer makes the sound so so soft that its just not cool. Now when I put the speaker wire on the original speaker terminals it is so much louder. Is it safe to remove the transformer? I am usually in the car stereo systems and install them as a job, but no car speaker or sub or tweeter has ever had one attached. I thought these transformers were suppose to increase sound. So what should I do. They can be easily removed... is it safe to do so?

Cheers from your new member, MICKEY

P.s I did attach a pic but because of spam reason I need to post another 9 posts. HMM
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#2
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12/11/07 at 4:07am
  • Joined: May 1999
  • Post Count: 1,366

Re: Transformer on Speakers

The transformer is to connect the speaker to a (typically) 70vAC audio distribution system. These come from special amplifiers, typically for commercial audio such as restaurants, shopping malls, and building-wide PA systems, because it's much easier to run long chains of speakers.

On yours, there's probably a small knob, screw-switch, or something where it may be marked 1-watt, 2-watt, 4-watt, and 8-watt (or some similar progression.)

In a 70v system, you take your amplifier, (say, 200-watt 70v amp) and daisy-chain speakers to it. The knob sets the "level" of the individual speaker. And you keep adding speakers until the sum-total of all the speakers at their settings gets close to 200w (the amplifier.)

This is a whole lot easier than trying to figure out all the inductance and impeadance of trying to load a bunch of 8-ohm speakers into a typical 8-ohm power-amp.

Downstream the transformer, there's not much difference, and what you're doing shouldn't be a problem.

The big problem most people have with 70v type systems (and I keep using "type" is that there are others that use 60-v, 110-v, and 25-volt,) is that they don't "do" low frequency. The closer you get to a DC signal (that is, lower frequency) the more it saturates the transformer, and the transformer doesn't work. Also, the carrier frequency is right in the middle - 50 or 60Hz, depending on your power-line standards - so you also tend to need to have a pretty serious notch filter there. At work, we work on the assumption that we start just chopping everything below 80Hz, but I've heard that there are more modern takes that do a much better job at being able to do low(er) frequency signals.

Leo
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#3
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12/11/07 at 5:20am
  • Joined: August 2000
  • Location: Southaven, MS
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Re: Transformer on Speakers

Yes, it is safe to remove the transformer but the sound quality from a PA type speaker will not be that good. Parts Express has a few different lines sold under the Dayton name. I use the C (contractor) series as surrounds in my living room 5.1 system. I would also recommend them for background music as well. Anything that needs more quality, you should look at the one of the other series they sell.

-Robert
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#4
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12/12/07 at 5:07am
  • Joined: December 2007
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Re: Transformer on Speakers

Thanks for your answers everyone. Leo your answer was very intelligent lol... kinda lost me though... not to sure about everything you said. So what you guys are saying is... if I remove these transformers... the sound may NOT be as good. No knob near the transformers. The transformer makes three terminals... a COM (neutral) 70 V and 100 V. The 100V does not work.
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#5
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12/16/07 at 1:43pm
  • Joined: May 1999
  • Post Count: 1,366

Re: Transformer on Speakers

The transformer isn't really affecting the sound-quality of the speakers. It's that 70v (and 100v and 25v and other large-venue PA systems) just generally don't sound very good. Think about the background music and paging system in a shopping mall.

Since yours are missing a local volume control, then they'd all run at the same "level."

Leo
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