2010 – Present
In early 2011, we embarked on a project to produce high quality reproductions of the original STA15 and STA25 amplifiers.
The most important piece of the puzzle was obtaining the transformer specifications for the well renowned output transformers, as well as the specifications for the required mains transformers and chokes. Unbelievably, the specifications for virtually all Radford transformers ever produced still existed, in their original hand written form. Even the more obscure output transformers such as ones for the STA12, and even the virtually unheard of STA7 were still in existence. All of the Woodside transformers designed by John Widgery were also part of this very large collection. These included the transformers in the Renaissance series of amplifiers and his later work sold under the Woodside name.
Mike Davis took over Woodside from John Widgery in the late 90s. John Widgery had passed them onto him, and he had kept them all.
After hearing about our project, he very kindly passed these specifications onto us. These are likely the only copies in existence. They were key to the project.
After contacting a transformer manufacturer highly recommended by John Widgery, brand new Radford transformer sets were specified for both the STA15 and STA25.
The new transformers are superior to the originals in certain respects. They are machine wound to modern safety and insulation standards. Superior termination is provided by tags embedded in the plastic bobbin, which are much stronger than the original tags, which were glued to the outer insulation of the winding. They had a tendency to fall off.
We have been able to recreate these famous high quality transformers exactly according to the specifications written by Arthur Radford himself.