If we were to use a small mains transformer in place of a line matching transformer to drive a speaker, would it work at all?
Are there differences in laminations or core materials that set them drastically apart?
I’m not expecting audiophile results but I figure just because mains is 50-60hz, doesn’t imply that the transformer won’t perform decently at higher frequencies.
Best Answer
For music if you de-rate for the lower frequencies present in audio it should ok. Strip-wound toroidial power transformwers have good performance across most of the audio frequency range.
If this is for voice only using a 120V power transformer on a 100V audio distribution line should work fine.
strip-wound cores have only one gap in the core, and it has a very large surface area, (being the surface area of the strip itself) E-I tranformers have a much smaller gap area, so the gap is more significant. for this reason strip-wound toroidial and R-Core transformers are to be preferred.
Eddy currents are proportional to voltage, so you should be fine.
Saturation is proportional to voltage/frequency, so if you need to send 25Hz on a 100V line you'll want a 200V or higher power transformer.