Would going to a non-ferrous chassis help? I know some components have been built with copper or Al (adding other problems, natch...)
Would going to a non-ferrous chassis help? I know some components have been built with copper or Al (adding other problems, natch...)
Yes - I think so. I've got a prototype preamp that has almost no metal in the chassis. But then RFI and EMI will cause problems.
I don't really understand the point of the thread or the commentary. Tape, vinyl etc. ALWAYS has noise and distortion, far in excess of what an objectivist digi-phile would ever accept as base line.
There are also a lot of antiquarians who would regard "noise reduction" as being tantamount to "music reduction" in an analog system.
Now the conversation over the last couple of pages has been fascinating to see -- demonstrating that a lot of audio people realise that at a certain point of upgrading their systems that the key to greater success is being fussier about the subtle aspects of the setup, rather than worrying about macro changes. Which is where it can also become a nightmare!I think one problem in ID'ing these distortions/noise is that what might be perceived as say a frequency response anamoly is really distortion. See the work of Jung and Marsh and Curl
Or everytime eliminate one type of noise and distortion, another one rears its ugly head. Audio engineering is full of these examples
I am in fact a bit confused by the whole thing.
IMHO I think most are. I have posted about my own path to mitigate noise and distortion without much feedback. In fact I'm surprised that we have 8 pages on the subject. FWIW
Roger,
As you and I have pointed out and mentioned in your thread and elsewhere the affects of part replacement for upgrades, the usage of ferrite filters, certain other physical tweaks, etc. can reduce noise, interference etc. and allow more information to come through.
Rich
Interesting aside: Once upon a time in a galaxy far, far -*- oops, sorry it was this galaxy! Anyway, while checking out a customer's system I noticed a lot of rumble from the TT and suggested he use the rumble filter. That particular filter was down 3 dB at about 15 Hz, falling rapidly after that. After switching it on, I immediately felt like the system sounded much better without all that LF "hash" and the measured THD/IMD decreased significantly as the amp and speakers were no longer trying to amplify the noise. It felt and sounded like a low-grade headache that had just gone away. As I was basking in the change and preparing to accept the accolades from the customer over the much cleaner sound, he said "what happened to all my bass?"
i have experimented with moving the A10 U8's around under both the dart pre and dart amp, both of which are quite heavy.
Do you folks worry that placement of a footer, tweak, etc., under a piece of gear will leave an impression, i.e., dimple or worse, in the chassis?
Yes - I think so. I've got a prototype preamp that has almost no metal in the chassis. But then RFI and EMI will cause problems.
You could use copper, or copper screen, as a shield.