It is fairly typical in hardware world to not disclose model/brands of components as a way to protect design. Often finding the right part takes considerable work and companies try to hide their identity going as far as erasing the numbers of components, burying them in glue, etc.
Thanks, Amir.
I went to the EA site and found what I was looking for. I must have asked wrong...
Some will claim that inserting yet another component in the signal chain is a negative thing, but in this case they are dead wrong. The transformers used in the Final Drive pair are simply the best on the planet. These use the Finemet core and winding technology from Japan. These are some of the most expensive signal transformers available which have been customized specifically for this application. The wiring inside the Final Drive uses cotton-insulated continuous-cast silver from Japan. Only the best ELMA and C&K switches with the optimum contact plating are used for the selectors. Neutrik XLR and Vampirewire solid-copper direct-gold plated RCAs are used. Only the very best and the sound quality improvement reflects this.
But The sentence in bold is exactly what I would have thought. This is, essentially, a switcher inserted in the signal chain, and not a simple one. Conventional wisdom would say at its best it can only be audibly neutral, with a transformer in there it's very likely to be additive, regardless of the quality of materials. The previous section offers some explanation (sorry for jumping around):
The benefits of #7 should be obvious. The ground-loop created by a stereo amp or monoblocks and the DAC or preamp driving them has to be the most problematic in most systems. If it does not create hum, there is a lot of RF pickup of the big loop antennas of the ground-loops
This must be over my head. I would think there would be simpler ways to break a ground loop, without introducing additional transformers to the system, and that if the breaking of that loop eliminated enough RF pickup to audibly drop the noise floor, that would be easily measurable and demonstrable, that such measurement would have been an often-repeated, essential part of this product's development, and that the best of those results would be the center of the case for the product's efficacy. Yet there are no measurements or relevant specs on EA's site.
http://www.empiricalaudio.com/products/final-drive
Tim
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