One more time: autoformers?

Thanks Zd... and Clio.... I own a power amp with output transformers. I also read the Paul Speltz white paper as well as the Atmasphere white paper on Voltage Paradigm and Power Paradigm amps. I get his basic point about impedance matching and the benefits of increasing the level of impedance the amp "sees."

My concern is that I do not have the full picture. If autoformers are so great, why don't amp manufacturers just slap that on the back of their amps for all the perceived benefits.

I would appreciate hearing from our "EE" type members about the benefits and downsides of using autoformers. One thought is that if a speaker's impedance curve is a rollcoaster with some pretty tough dips and hills . . ., sure, the autoformer presumably can lift the entire plot up 2X, 3X and so forth. What happens, for example, if the impedance hills touch 20ohms or 30 ohms?? Can any amp (SS or tube) push power into a 40 ohm (2 x 20 ohms) or 60 ohm (2 x 30 ohms) impedance??

Thanks again .

Well, as far as I know, OTLs are the only amp design that increases power into higher impedance. Though many amps may struggle when impedance dips too low (not sure if autoformers help this or not).

Amps certainly can push power into 40 or 60 ohms. These are not unusual impedance values for headphones (and some headphones have much higher impedance values). But a SS amp and a tube amp with transformer and speaker taps for 4,8,16 ohms would be putting out considerably less power into these impedences.

That's about as much as I can help here (if this could be called help).

+1 on reading Speltz's webpage.

Thanks Roscoe. There's a number of "EE" type members who I hope chime in too.

No +1 point for reading the Atmasphere white paper too??

The Atma-Sphere amp I own will put out more power into higher impedances up to a certain point, which I believe is 32 ohms. After that point the power will drop. So you really need to know the impedance peaks of the speaker and where they occur as opposed to the nominal impedance.

Music Reference amps are designed for light loading. For example, the RM-10 I own will exhibit lower distortion and provide other benefits if you use the 4 ohm tap on an 8 ohm nominal speaker. The trade off is about 10 watts of power. I am not certain that this applies to all amplifier designs.

BTW - Some McIntosh solid state amps used autoformers and among the McIntosh crowd these amps are quite desirable.

Thanks again Clio. I recall reading somewhere that certain Atmasphere amps had a 32 ohm ceiling. I tried the 4 ohm tap. The music su*cks. Went back to the 8 ohm tap.

Btw, been using my sub-woofer a bit more aggressively than before, i.e., raised the gain a little and raised the cut-off frequency to about 80 Hz. Going by ear, I think the sound stage opened up quite a bit. I don't know why. Maybe my finished basement is a giant bass (or is it base? - LOL) trap.