Copper chassis vs ali or steel

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Michael L
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#1 Copper chassis vs ali or steel

Post by Michael L »

I found a comment from Simon (SJS)
https://www.hifiwigwam.com/forum/topic/ ... equipment/

(copper)....when used the amp in question sounds markedly better than the same amp built in a chassis of either aluminium or steel. I do not know if this is due to conductivity, EMI screening or vibration damping, or all 3 plus other factors, but it does do the trick.

I wondered if anyone on here had made comparisons and if so, what their observations were.
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Paul Barker
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#2 Re: Copper chassis vs ali or steel

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There was a thing going around all along about this, I recall one bloke especially made a big thing of plain veri board yes thank you for you’re findings.
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Paul Barker
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#3 Re: Copper chassis vs ali or steel

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enough to use wood for structure veriboar to valve bases mounted in, bottom plate veriboard. Line sides. All cross connected. Your ground is the top sheet, attach your various grounds anywhere to you’re veriboards.The guy promoted top board mainly for this wide grounding system as a main focus of his argument.
"Two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I am not yet completely sure about the universe." – Albert Einstein
Michael L
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#4 Re: Copper chassis vs ali or steel

Post by Michael L »

Could I gain anything from lining the inside of a steel cased preamp with copper sheet?
Ant
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#5 Re: Copper chassis vs ali or steel

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Probably not, copper provides better shielding than steel, but the steel is still magnetic. Steel provides better shielding than aluminium, but is still magnetic. The benefit of using the copper with steel would probably be minimal
I suppose the best way to go about it would be to use aluminum with copper tape or sheet like Marantz did with things like the cd17, no magnetic properties to the case and better shielding than steel using the copper as a secondary screening material
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Nick
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#6 Re: Copper chassis vs ali or steel

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MuMetal sheet between and insulated from outer and inner copper sheet would be a good way of making it very expensive.
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#7 Re: Copper chassis vs ali or steel

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But on the grounds that using a breadboard often sounds best, in many cases Acrylic may be good.
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pre65
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#8 Re: Copper chassis vs ali or steel

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Nick wrote: Mon May 25, 2020 2:54 pm But on the grounds that using a breadboard often sounds best, in many cases Acrylic may be good.
Like NVA ?
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Nick
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#9 Re: Copper chassis vs ali or steel

Post by Nick »

Yep and others. Though as always I would not like to say one thing is good for everything. The idea of having a MC phono stage in an non shielded case would worry me. Just because it may sound better on a breadboard, doesn't mean that its always the best solution. Reality tends to be complex.
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Paul Barker
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#10 Re: Copper chassis vs ali or steel

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Nick wrote: Mon May 25, 2020 5:22 pmReality tends to be complex.
Yep and everything else is way more complexed to the ones who know enough to know that! Not many of those around in my game, huge amount of ignorance people winging it every day.
"Two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I am not yet completely sure about the universe." – Albert Einstein
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