Deco Audio Products ISOLATOR Standard

The ISOLATOR is a passive device that produces a balanced mains output through the use of a high quality custom made isolation transformer.

We have never been a fan of mains filters or conditioners, the compromise is that while they may remove some noise they have the awful habit of throwing the baby out with the bathwater, compressing dynamics, destroying timing and overly smoothing (smothering) the sound.

The ISOLATOR uses the balanced principle, this takes the 'single ended' mains waveform and converts it to a balanced signal where half the voltage is on the live connection and half is on the neutral.

The benefits of doing this are several fold. There's noise reduction caused by the intended  bandwidth limitation of the transformer, there's natural DC blocking along with noise cancellation due to the balanced principle.

Sonically the benefits that are most commonly noted are greater dynamics, more potent low frequencies, improved resolution along with accurate timing. 

The benefits of using an isolation transformer are not just reducing noise that gets into an item connected to it, but also helps reduce the noise that item generates getting back onto the mains. This is why we use a single smaller transformer per item rather than one very large transformer for a whole system.

We have sized the transformer so it should be suitable for the majority of hi-fi equipment, it can be used with almost any item that has a power consumption of less that 300VA. Most manufacturers state the power consumption on the rear panel or instruction manual, if in doubt please contact us. In theory 300VA should be sufficient for almost all sources, pre amplifiers and even some lower powered amplifiers (we always run a Standard Single 300 one with an Audion single ended 300B and EL34 valve amplifier, for example). 

Our unique protection circuit monitors if there is excessive current drawn in either the live or neutral circuit and should a fault condition occur it will shut down the output completely. There is also a thermal trip, which can be reset on the rear panel.

Two versions, single and double are available. The single has one transformer and will power one item, the double has two and is intended to power two items.

Using multiple single ones will yield slightly better results than using the doubles, as two transformers sharing one mains cable reduces some of the benefits of star wiring from the mains block, however it is more cost effective and space efficient. 

ISOLATOR Standard Single 300: 1 x 300VA transformer (to power one item)

ISOLATOR Standard Double 300: 2 x 300VA transformer (to power one item)

Please note it is important to ascertain the power consumption of an item before connecting it to any isolation transformer. This is normally documented in the manual, on the rear panel or on the manufacturers website. If in doubt please contact us before use. An amplifiers power consumption is not the same as the power output and not necessarily directly related.