Custom Audio Transformer Manufacturer
Altran manufactures custom audio transformers built to meet the exact requirements of professional audio applications. We produce each unit at our CSA, UL, and CE-certified facility in Crystal Lake, Illinois. Our engineering team works closely with clients from initial prototype development through full-scale production to deliver designs that match their electrical and mechanical requirements.
Fully Customized Medical Transformers
Fully Custom Audio Transformers
We specialize in designing and building custom audio transformers tailored to specific voltage, current, and environmental requirements. Our designs focus on efficiency, safety, and long-term reliability.
At Altran, we support a wide range of core geometries and winding configurations, including:
- EI Laminations
- UI Laminations
- Toroidal Cores
- Split Bobbin Designs
- Custom Multi-Tap Secondary Windings
These options allow us to optimize each design for the specific technical demands of your application. Each transformer is designed to meet regulatory and application-specific needs. All audio transformer solutions are custom-built to your exact requirements.
Customers We Serve
Altran serves a wide range of customers in the professional and boutique audio industry.
- Pro Audio & Studio Equipment: Microphone Pre-amps, DI boxes, EQs, Compressors, Mixers, and more
- Boutique Audio: Microphone Pre-amps, DI boxes, EQs, Compressors, Mixers, and more
- Broadcast & Communication: Line Level Signal Isolation, Impedance Matching, balanced signal
- Test & Measurement Equipment: Noise Isolation, Impedance Matching
Custom-Only Solutions
All power transformer solutions are custom-built. We do not currently offer standard, off-the-shelf, or MIL-SPEC models. Each design is developed in close collaboration with our clients to meet performance, dimensional, and compliance specifications.
Made In U.S.A. Custom Audio Transformers
Every custom audio transformer is wound, potted, and tested in our Crystal Lake, Illinois, facility. Our domestic manufacturing process keeps engineering, purchasing, and quality teams under one roof to tighten feedback loops and protect intellectual property. The result is a repeatable build that meets both client specs and industry safety standards.
Our skilled technicians handle each coil from first turn to final encapsulation, using calibrated instruments to document electrical parameters at multiple stages. Finished units undergo environmental stress checks that mirror the rigors of studio racks and touring rigs. Shipment is scheduled only after each transformer clears these internal protocols to ensure consistent performance in critical audio chains.
Winding Techniques for Audio Applications
Bifilar winding places two conductors side-by-side to achieve tight coupling, thereby reducing leakage inductance and extending high-frequency response in line-level transformers. Interleaving primary and secondary layers allows the insertion of electrostatic shields that shunt common-mode interference to ground, a feature valued in DI boxes and broadcast isolation units. Split-bobbin construction increases creepage distance and lowers inter-winding capacitance, minimizing phase shift at the top of the audio band.
Toroidal cores call for an evenly distributed winding pattern that suppresses mechanical hum and keeps flux symmetrical, which helps reduce even-order harmonics. Multi-tap secondaries let one transformer cover several impedance ratios, simplifying inventory in mixing-console output stages. Each pattern can be measured to confirm that inductance tolerance and crosstalk remain within limits critical for transparent audio reproduction.
Core Material Selection & Audio Performance
Silicon-steel laminations are thin sheets of steel alloyed with a few percent silicon and stacked to form the transformer core. Their high saturation flux density means the core can sustain stronger magnetic fields before the onset of saturation, maintaining linear operation at low frequencies. Low-frequency linearity is the ability of the transformer to reproduce bass signals without introducing harmonic distortion or level compression. Cost-effective production and good magnetic performance make this material the default choice for most line-level and power audio transformers.
Nickel-iron alloys, often sold under names such as mu-metal or permalloy, exhibit higher initial permeability and lower coercivity than silicon steel. These properties extend the usable bandwidth toward the upper end of the audio spectrum and reduce harmonic distortion, which is why the alloys are favored in microphone pre-amplifier input transformers. Ferrite cores, formed from compressed iron-oxide powders, can be gapped to prevent saturation and are suitable for low-level, wide-band applications where size and weight must be minimized.
The final sonic signature is revealed through total harmonic-distortion spectra and phase-coherence measurements. Material selection therefore balances bandwidth, insertion loss, and physical envelope against the electrical demands of the circuit. Every custom design is sweep-tested from 20 Hz to 20 kHz to confirm that core losses and audible magnetostriction remain below the thresholds defined for professional studio use.
Altran Custom Audio Transformers
With over four decades of experience in transformer design and development, we bring deep engineering knowledge and practical manufacturing expertise to every project. Our custom solutions are built to endure and perform. Click below to learn more and get a quote.