SAC Supermalloy TVC VS Promethius TVC

A mate of mine has spent a fair bit of time building and trying out various passives.
This culminated in a home built S I L K Supermalloy Transformer Attenuator TVC. See
http://home-and-garden.webshots.com/photo/2158030820071997495ceaMAr
&
http://home-and-garden.webshots.com/photo/2743124630071997495lBPZvK

This he built with two vol switches as he wanted to have a balance control.

We ran this up against my Promethius TVC today (the lower one in 1st pic).

Both sound very TVC - full range, clear and neutral.
Much more relaxed than the active preamps we have tried.

We agreed the Silk one had a different presentation - Neither better nor worse - just different. Both do effortless extended bass the Silk one was more forward in the bass.

I had been considering putting in some Silk transformers but TBH the Promethius has a balance I am used to / like - it suits my system.

He had also built the following along the road to TVC's...
A film resistor switched passive - bit better than a 50k vol pot 'handbrake', but not a lot.
A discrete resistor switched - better than the film he says - we tried this one today against the TVC's - sounded muddy and unclear in comparison. you cuold clearly hear how it allowed certain mids through and clouded the rest.

Interesting tests.
If you have not tried a TVC, give one a go.

 

Thanks for posting this. I have been curious about the SILK transformers for a while- although it's only an "academic" interest now as I am happy with my current TVC.

I too find TVCs sound "better" than stepped ladder attenuators (with good switches and rersisitors) and agree that there are some small differences between different TVCs.

It's interesting what you say about bass with the SILK. When I was selling my Promitheus ref 3, one member who tried it rejected it because he felt it had too much bass (for his system).

 

"When I was selling my Promitheus ref 3, one member who tried it rejected it because he felt it had too much bass (for his system).!"

I guess that this will be very system dependant.
I don't find I need more bass in my system either. My ProAc D25's dig pretty deep in a very controlled way and are just right for my size of room.

I was surprised at how little difference there was been the two TVC's in what I would describe as good overall sound. Balance and preference.

 

Can't comment on the Prometheus as i've not heard one, however I recently took delivery of a Django TVC which uses the SAC Supermalloy trannies.

Still very new, with maybe about 30hrs on it, and I understand TVC's in general need 150+hrs to fully 'burn in' (I'd be interested in anyone elses experience's of burn in time for their TVC's) but so far I've been mightyly impressed both by the build quality of the unit itself and the sound which marries with others' experiences of TVC's - very detailed, terrific timbre, ruthlessly revealing of other components in the system and recording quality. It suits my system which currently includes a big KT88 push pull amp. Only just enough system output though as the power amp is pretty low sensitivity.

 

very interesting comparison mate

I was thinking about trying silk's as well ,as they looks to be really good finished devices and really fair priced )greg

 

many time gone ,mate
so I believe that you r django is a full burn now .
could you share any further observation with us ,please

greg

 

i don't think there's much between silk and S&B copper. i tried both extensively, they are kinda different but in reality there's much less between them than between a TVC and any active. silk is a bit smoother but these are just nuances - i wouldn't change S&B for silk definitely, but than i've changed it for a LDR (lightspeed). that's altogether another story.