Radial Engineering ISO Twin (Jensen transformers) technical measurements

Discussion in 'Portable and Other Gear Measurements' started by atomicbob, Oct 30, 2018.

  1. Armaegis

    Armaegis Friend

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    For those who have never run live sound... yes in theory all the gear should be matched properly, all sources of noise should be tracked down and minimized, all your cables are laid where they need to be... but in practice you're going live in 20 minutes because the drummer didn't show up on time, someone plugged/unplugged something because they think they know better, and now you've got some buzz or feedback or weird blippity thing and you're running around slapping in DI boxes to fix who knows what and where the hell is my flashlight and gaff tape?
     
  2. atomicbob

    atomicbob dScope Yoda

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    And that is on a good day. Some SR days are tragic.
     
  3. Armaegis

    Armaegis Friend

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    I once set up sound for a hippie yoga studio. They managed to set the speakers on fire. Twice.
     
  4. drgumbybrain

    drgumbybrain Science Nut

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    The problem was in the speaker or the hippies? Just wondering...:bird:
     
    Last edited: Nov 5, 2018
  5. Armaegis

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    Original intent: set up the space for general use, but also capable of hosting a small band
    original equipment: Mackie 12ch mixer, powered Mackie monitors
    result: blew the woofer on one speaker, blew the amp board on the other, all within 3 months.

    Second try: Yorkville passive speakers and a QSC power amp
    As they were helping me bring the equipment up:
    hippie: oh my god why is this so heavy?
    me: that's the amp, it's supposed to be heavy
    hippie: but why is it heavier than the speakers?
    me: because the amp has all the circuitry to power the speakers
    hippie: I don't understand...
    me: these speakers need power...
    hippie: you mean I can't just plug my ipod into them?
    me:... what? no, you plug your ipod into the mixer, which goes to the amp, which goes to the speakers
    hippie: what's the mix up?
    me: the mixer, the thing with all the knobs
    hippie: oh that, I don't know why we have that
    me: that's to... ok nevermind, you just plug your ipod into that thing
    hippie: I can't go into the speakers?
    me: no, it has to be the mixer
    hippie: but it's so complicated!
    me: well... that's what you have to deal with if you want to set up for a band
    hippie: why would a band need all that
    me: it's... to make everyone all loud at the same time

    At that point the conversation falls apart and I've given up

    result 2: speakers get lit up within two months... oh and they left the mixer under a leaking pipe so that's gone too


    Third try: another set of cheap yorkvilles that I found online and a 4ch Behringer mixer, bought out of my own pocket. All unnecessary inputs taped over, all knobs taped over, written instructions and signs that say "only touch this knob".

    Result 3:
    - they manage set these ones on fire too, which is impressive considering they have a fuse built-in

    How did they do it?
    - mixer input was muted, but they figure out if you plugged the ipod into the tape-out and crank every single knob, enough garble goes through
    - instead of red/black per speaker, one speaker was connected to red/red on the amp

    So basically they were running a massively boosted and likely clipped and almost DC signal, maxed out, bridging through the amp or something like that, until it cooked the crossover (the drivers seem to be intact)

    I gave up after that.
     
  6. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    Riva Fesitval / Arena for yoga studios. Works with iPhone. Pro-audio gear and the USS Enterprise we're never meant to be commandeered by hippies.
     
  7. Armaegis

    Armaegis Friend

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    Something like that would have been my first choice, except the studio was a bit too large for that plus their original concept of the space was to be multipurpose and potentially host live music. That obviously just turned into a disaster and I should have kept it simple and rented when needed.

    This was a few years ago though. Nowadays they make PA cabinets with bluetooth built in.
     
  8. Cspirou

    Cspirou They call me Sparky

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    Hot yoga
     
  9. GoodEnoughGear

    GoodEnoughGear Evil Dr. Shultz‎

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    There's another Radial product, the LX3 which is a 3 way balanced line splitter (one passthrough, two isolated). This one stuck in my mind when I was considering using Freya as a pre to powered monitors which have 10K ohm input impedance and it seemed that Freya's 600 ohm JFET balanced OI might be a little less than ideal. OI for the LX3 is 112 ohm, which would be a nice drop. Plus you get to split off to a headamp as well. There is a LX2, but only one of the outputs is isolated fwiw.
     
  10. drgumbybrain

    drgumbybrain Science Nut

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    @atomicbob
    Sorry about the noob question, but I’m here to learn. If you have these 2 boxes, in which situation you would prefer to use one or the other?
    1. Radial J+4

    https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https://www.ebay.com/ulk/itm/232145685064

    2. Jensen iso rx2

    rx2https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https://www.ebay.com/ulk/itm/361709524031


    They are similar but, the radial has a power suply and amplification (would this be a problem?)
    And the other is passive and has Jensen transformers
     
  11. atomicbob

    atomicbob dScope Yoda

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    Radial and Jensen (which is owned by Radial) offer problem solver products. The question to ask yourself is what problem are you attempting to solve?

    Here are some application guides from the respective vendors:
    http://www.radialeng.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/j4-smart-sheet.pdf
    https://www.cs1.net/learn/jensen_transformers_application_guide.htm

    For level and isolation issues I tend to favor passive over active solutions.
     
  12. toddrhodes

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    I think I'm going to try the 2XR passive solution. Seems to be a 1:1 transformer and if it makes no difference or actually seems to harm anything, I can send it back, which I can't really do if I try to DIY something. Planned usage is from Yggdrasil 2A balanced to SE preamp.
     
  13. Taverius

    Taverius Smells like sausages

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    Is the twin-iso fine with being stuck to one of the outputs of an SA2X-O, with an appropriately short, say, GAC-1 cable?
     

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