tschrama said:
Are the randall output trannies of Chinese make? And are they inferior?
Yes the production transformers in the RM were all Chinese (technically they were Chuang from Taiwan) - I agree with Mike I've heard rumours that the early ones got all their parts from Egnater, which would imply that the transformers in those were Heyboers - lucky you if you have one of those
Are they inferior - Yes they are to those fitted to the Egnater amps. Now I'm not flat out saying they are bad what I'm saying is they are not built as well or from as quality a set of materials as the makes I've mentioned here (Mercury, Heyboer, Magnetic components are all good from the US or Langer in Europe).
They are probably every bit as good as those fitted to modern Marshall and Fender amps - they are not as good as those fitted to Soldano (MM and DeYound for the SLO), Mesa (USA built, own design), Diezel (Langer) or USA Egnater (Heyboer).
The OP was asking for the differences and this is one of the areas that Randall tried to go cheap! Rob's got an interesting side by side of the standard one and an MM one here:
http://mtsforum.grailtone.com/viewtopic.php?t=19736&sid=2837e3443ca9af398b736d226f4265a5
Now let me be clear when I say change the transformers I do mean the PT, OT and Choke - not just the PT. Does this make the biggest difference to your sound, no it makes a difference if you play loud, if you are playing at a house friendly volume you will not hear much difference. If you turn up above 11 o'clock on the master volume you will
Now if the OP's question had been what positively changes my MTS sound, in order of most change for your money I'd go with this list:
- Guitar lessons
Modded Modules / Speakers
Better tubes
Foglifter / MDA
PT/OT/Choke
For the simple reason that, as noted by withmittens, changing the transformers is expensive!