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Which gear needs to be plugged into isolation transformer?

Hey ive been thinking about deliver clean power to my rig as it approaches completion. The use of isolation transformers seems to make sense since the rig will be in a regular house, without any modifications to the existing electric service. My questions are:

Attenuators with transformer preamps, a good idea ?

Hi gang,

You know I own a few Focusrite ISA preamps. I'm considering buying a few attenuators to allow me to drive the transformer a bit harder and try to pull out a bit more mojo.
I currently record tracks with a peak range between -18db to -10db (on the preamp and on the DAW).

dbx 386 Power Transformer

Hi there! I have a dbx 386 dual channel tube preamp. It was out of service for some time and when I recently put it back in the rack only a couple of LEDs turn on. On inspection it seems that the larger of the two transformers supplying power to the PCB has transformed into a Gandalf No-Pass Filter ("None shall pass!"), i.e. voltage in to the transformer is good, voltage out is 0.