Tamura’s iron is not new kid on the block. They have been here for a quite long time. Even Westerner also admits the quality of Tamura (well, we can see some contenders from West side but hardly to beat Japanese Iron). I’m interested to try some of Tamura’s Choke. I’ve used the A-4004, which currently a top of the line Choke from Tamura (actually, Tamura doesn’t have Choke line-up as much as Hashimoto or Tango) and quite satisfy with its performace. But I was tempted to try their other two Choke line-up: The Amorphous and The Vintage series.

Amorphous currently available in 2 variants. I take the A-4006 which capable to deliver 200mA on 10H or 400mA on 2.5H. Should be enough for most of your Single Ended or Push Pull application. For the Vintage series (this is the name that I use to call, not official from Tamura), I take the A-395 which will hold 120mA on 10H.

All those three Chokes are similar in size and weight. ‘Similar’ doesn’t mean 100% exactly same, right? 😉

This is the Vintage type A-395. The construction is very solid. The different is you will not receive ‘Tamradio badge for this model. Well, if you happened to be a serious DIY, I think you can recognize this Tamura from distance.

Classic appearance of this A-395. Gray color on the outer chassis reminds me with the vintage military equipment like Hickok TV-7 Tube Tester. You can only see ‘TAM’ here. Remember, no ‘Tamradio’ badge!

A-4006 Amorphous Series. Tamura gives shiny silver identity for their Amorphous line-up. Not just the Choke, the Output Transformer with Amorphous core will share similar color identity. Surprisingly, this Amorphous Choke is slightly cheaper than the Tamura ‘standard’ Choke, A-4004.

This is the most popular Tamura Choke, I believe. A-4004 has been selected by many DIY in the world, as this ‘little heavy baby’ is ‘easier to handle’ than the Amorphous version. You will understand what do I mean after you try them yourself.

This is the ‘Tamradio badge’ which only given for A-4004 or A-4006 series (and their variants).

The outer skin comparison for those three Chokes. It looks like the Amorphous is taller – in small margin. Overall construction is similar and also the weight. But the Vintage series A-395 seems has no ground pin.

Can they work together? I’m working on it to make them sing in harmony… 🙂