Review of EMIA Autoformer

[Salectric]

There’s an interesting review of the EMIA Remote Autoformer in the April 2024 Stereophile. The reviewer Alex Halberstadt actually had two versions at hand, the copper and silver, and overall he seems to prefer the copper. I have the copper Slagleformer in my system but I haven’t compared it to the silver. However, I have compared Slagle’s copper and silver SUTs and I have consistently preferred the copper transformers.

 

[beaur]

I have a variety of combos of Dave and Jeffrey's work here. I have both silver and copper VC and I have a copper step-up and a silver mono step-up.

My preferences fall in the the "it depends" category. My general view is that I can have "too much" silver in my system depending on where it is located. I backed off silver cables recently and that improved my system. The silver autoformers are a winner in my system but it's not night and day.

May be greatly influenced by cartridge choice but I prefer the copper SUTs on stereo and silver on mono. That's goiing to be tested in a few weeks when I received my new cartridge that is all silver (Tedeska Torres).

If anyone is interested in checking out the autoformers I could revive the Oshler Project Box that was a leftover from DO's review. It's how I met Dave for the first time in person. I won it in a lottery from his blog and after I bought a VC we used it as a demo for people at shows that were interested in listening. The original went missing some time ago but would be easy enough to set it up again.

Beau

 

[mtemur]

I read the review in the Stereophile. The reviewer eloquently said silver one is brighter. What I learned over the years in this hobby is that when silver is done right it’s never bright. It’s perfect and never too much. It’s either your setup is wrong or the silver is not done right. There is no other possibility.

 

[beaur]

I read the review in the Stereophile. The reviewer eloquently said silver one is brighter. What I learned over the years in this hobby is that when silver is done right it’s never bright. It’s perfect and never too much. It’s either your setup is wrong or the silver is not done right. There is no other possibility.

While I agree with the idea, in principal I found it not quite to my taste. Some time back I stacked my system with as much silver as I could. Essentially I have silver autoformers, a loaner amp with silver wound transformers and silver ICs and speaker cables and silver SUT. I can't say it was bright but I can say that it just didn't hit my sweet spot. I backed off from the amp and some of the ICs and found a better balance for my tastes.

I do agree that a lot of "silver" out there is cheap jewelry silver that just doesn't sound right to my ears.

 

[Salectric]

I read the review in the Stereophile. The reviewer eloquently said silver one is brighter. What I learned over the years in this hobby is that when silver is done right it’s never bright. It’s perfect and never too much. It’s either your setup is wrong or the silver is not done right. There is no other possibility.

Words like "right" and "wrong" overstate the issue. Like everything else in a system, cables should be selected to give the proper balance, and sometimes a particular silver cable gives the best balance, and sometimes a particular copper cable does. I said "particular" cable because not all silver cables sound a certain way and not all copper cables sound a particular way. The material used is just one of the variables affecting the sound of a cable. For example, the Ocellia Silver Reference interconnect doesn't sound anything like how many audiophiles think silver sounds. The Ocellia is warm to the point of excess, and it has soft, rolled off highs. There is nothing cool, lean or bright about the Ocellia.

Back to the EMIA autoformer. I respect the views of those who have compared copper and silver versions of Slagle's SUTs or autoformers and selected the silver as better sounding. As I said earlier, I have only compared his SUTs and I found the copper versions to sound better in my system and for my tastes. The silver SUTs were a bit more detailed and certainly faster and more impressive on first listen, but in my system I preferred the more balanced sound of the copper SUTs.

 

[JohnP]

Words like "right" and "wrong" overstate the issue. Like everything else in a system, cables should be selected to give the proper balance, and sometimes a particular silver cable gives the best balance, and sometimes a particular copper cable does. I said "particular" cable because not all silver cables sound a certain way and not all copper cables sound a particular way. The material used is just one of the variables affecting the sound of a cable. For example, the Ocellia Silver Reference interconnect doesn't sound anything like how many audiophiles think silver sounds. The Ocellia is warm to the point of excess, and it has soft, rolled off highs. There is nothing cool, lean or bright about the Ocellia.

Back to the EMIA autoformer. I respect the views of those who have compared copper and silver versions of Slagle's SUTs or autoformers and selected the silver as better sounding. As I said earlier, I have only compared his SUTs and I found the copper versions to sound better in my system and for my tastes. The silver SUTs were a bit more detailed and certainly faster and more impressive on first listen, but in my system I preferred the more balanced sound of the copper SUTs.

I have compared silver and copper SUTs and autoformers from Dave. I much prefer silver. Just my two cents.
John

 

[beaur]

I have compared silver and copper SUTs and autoformers from Dave. I much prefer silver. Just my two cents.
John

What do you know, you listen to Quads! Seriously though John has probably listened to more of EMIA's pieces that just about anyone outside the company.

See you next week. Assume you going to be at the show. I will be in town Thursday.

Beau

 

[JohnP]

What do you know, you listen to Quads! Seriously though John has probably listened to more of EMIA's pieces that just about anyone outside the company.

See you next week. Assume you going to be at the show. I will be in town Thursday.

Beau

Beau,
I’ll be at the show next week. It’ll be good to see you again! Dave and Ijaz will be here as well. Should be a lot of fun!

John

 

[Marcus]

I have compared silver and copper SUTs and autoformers from Dave. I much prefer silver. Just my two cents.
John

John, please give us more than just two cents. Some context and details about copper vs silver would be helpful…

 

[JohnP]

John, please give us more than just two cents. Some context and details about copper vs silver would be helpful…

Hi Marcus,
I bought Dave’s copper autoformer about ten years ago and loved it. About four years later, Dave sent out a silver autoformer to audition. The silver version was more nuanced and delicate. The copper version sounded warm and blurred. I was worried the silver version would be edgy but it wasn’t. I listen to classical music for the most part and appreciated what the silver version did for classical music. I got more of the reverberations in a concert hall. The strings sounded closer to what I was hearing at concerts. After comparing the two, I bought the silver version. The increase in cost was worth it for me.
I tried the silver and copper SUTs about four years ago. Before auditioning them, I used the internal SUTs in my Allnic H5000 phono- pre. Both the silver and copper versions were much better than the internal SUTs. I went back and forth between the silver and copper versions. Although I thought the silver and copper versions were fairly close, I still preferred the silver because it just had a nuance with classical music that I preferred. Again, I was concerned that the silver would sound hard or edgy with brass Instruments. It wasn’t. The brass had a beautiful burnished quality.
I think part of the reason Dave’s devices sound excellent in silver is because of the quality of silver he uses. It’s 99.99 percent pure. It’s not cheap but it’s worth it for me.
Let me know if you have questions.

John