Quote:
Originally Posted by Cuki79
Agree with Jon,
Here is a picture of an AER alpha:
When you see a big transformer like that (the big donuts on the back left), you know it is a traditional power supply and not a SMPS.
Those will not accommodate Modified Sine Wave (MSW) inverters.
Note that old power supply design are more expansive than SMPS... There is no reason why the AER compact 60 would not have one. (Why would AER save money on the compact 60 and use costly stuff on the alpha?)
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The circular transformer is called a "toroidal" transformer, based on the doughnut shape known as the toroid. It is the most expensive power transformer used audio gear because of the complexity of the winds. It has strengths and weaknesses. The greatest strength is that it produces a fairly weak physical magnetic field, making it induce less noise into the surrounding circuits and allowing a smaller circuit package. As electronic packages become smaller and lighter this becomes more and more important. However, the weakness of the torroidal transformer is that it can't handle DC offset in the incoming AC well at all. When it is presented DC offset, the toroidal transformer saturates and begins putting out tons of noise.
The more modern EI transformer can handle DC offset but adds size and weight and has to be carefully designed for the application and carefully mounted to have as small a magnetic footprint as a toroidal one. It is a good competitor, but not completely superior to the toroidal one.
So you see, there are competing design issues that require a commitment one way or another.
Bob