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Audio transformers are usually the factor which limit sound quality; electronic circuits with wide frequency response and low distortion are relatively simple to design.

Transformers are also used in DI boxes to convert impedance from high-impedance instruments (for example, bass guitars) to enable them to be connected to a microphone input on the mixing console.

A particularly critical component is the output transformer of an audio power amplifier. Valve circuits for quality reproduction have long been produced with no other (inter-stage) audio transformers, but an output transformer is needed to couple the relatively high impedance (up to a few hundred ohms depending upon configutation) of the output valve(s) to the low impedance of a loudspeaker. (The valves can deliver a low current at a high voltage; the speakers require high current at low voltage.) Solid-state power amplifiers may need no output transformer at all.

For good low-frequency response a relatively large iron core is required; high power handling increases the required core size. Good high-frequency response requires carefully designed and implemented windings without excessive leakage inductance or stray capacitance. All this makes for an expensive component.

Output transformerless audio power valve amplifiers are possible, but were rarely used due to other disadvantages.

Early transistor audio power amplifiers often had output transformers, but they were eliminated as designers discovered how to design amplifiers without them.