|
Tweakers' Asylum Tweaks for systems, rooms and Do It Yourself (DIY) help. FAQ. |
|
|
|
Tweakers' Asylum Tweaks for systems, rooms and Do It Yourself (DIY) help. FAQ. |
|
In Reply to: DIY outlet box posted by John Swenson on June 3, 2007 at 19:57:08:
John, I'm going to do the same thing. Here are some excerpts from Alan Maher (audionutge) and Al Sekela (on topic of carbon fiber) from various responses to others. Alan and Al please chime in to confirm or revise!
Q. For starters what to make the box out of?
A. "Either one is fine (referring to wood or aluminum). If you decide to use wood I highly suggest a shielding product inside the enclosure. TI Shield grounded to earth would make a nice improvement in the filters performance. I use this technique in a lot of my power conditioner designs. TI Shield can be purchased at Michael Percy Audio."
Q. Carbon Fiber?
A. Excerpt from Al Sekela: "You can get carbon fiber cheap from Soller Composites. You can fix it to the outer face of the aluminum plate with epoxy. Just be sure to keep the conductive fibers out of the outlet slots."... "the major purpose of the carbon is to absorb the energy of standing waves on the power cords. I don't know if there will be much benefit to putting the carbon on the inside. Making the plate too thick will create a mechanical problem for fitting wide plugs.
Epoxy will be an insulator when it cures, and allow the radio waves to pass through to the carbon. Safety is important, so be sure there are no loose fibers of carbon when the plate is ready to install."
Q. How should the outlets be attached to the box?
A. Mounting outlets to enclosure. "I would have recommended a .015" thickness of EAR C-1002 to be secured to the metal cover to isolate the ringing frequency between the cover and outlet straps. Then I would have used brass hardware to secure the outlet."
Q. Which outlets to get? A. Oyaide and Furutech are expensive but recommended often.
Wiring. "Next, lets take a look at the wiring. I don't care what kind of wire you use...that's not important...but what is important is the outlets resonate character. You should place 5 wires per outlet...this is called star wiring...2 hot, 2 neutral, and 1 ground. On the rear of the outlet you will see 4 wire terminals per side (hot and neutral). Place one wire into the bottom terminal and 1 wire into the top terminal per side...this is for input wiring only....now take 1 wire and place it into the 2nd and 3rd terminal per side...this is the outgoing wiring. Why you may ask??? Because the copper wire alters the resonate frequency of the wire clamp inside the outlet. This neat little trick will reduce 50% of your harmonic ringing at the outlet. I like to use dual runs of Cardas 11.5ga for this application and the Cardas 9.5ga for the earth ground."
Q. Is there any advantage to vibration damping the box?
A. I have shock mounted transformers per Alan's suggestion on a layer of Microsorb and EAR C-1002 on top of the microsorb and underneath the transformer. Both in 1/4". Percy sells both. I'm sure this would be good for a choke too. However, I've read that others have mounted the choke to the top of the enclosure similar to a tube amp.
Q. Power inlet, should I use an IEC input jack and use an IEC power cord or make a captive cord eliminating one "plug/jack interface? If I use a captive cord whats a good wire to use for this?
A. "Use at least 18ga x 3 power cord (12ga x 3 is better). Keep the power cord as short as possible...less than 3 feet." Alan has used XLO Reference Type 2 10A power cord (bulk purchase from Michael Percy Audio) for at least one project but is quick to say that one should use what you've found to work synergistically with your system.
This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors:
Follow Ups
- Some ideas - RioTubes 08:26:32 06/04/07 (4)
- Thanks for a good summary. Allow me to add a couple of points. - Al Sekela 10:35:15 06/04/07 (3)
- Carbon fiber question - John Swenson 13:02:50 06/04/07 (2)
- Star wiring. - Al Sekela 10:20:19 06/05/07 (0)
- RE: Carbon fiber question - bartc 17:05:34 06/04/07 (0)
Top of Page ]
[ Contact Us ]
[ Support/Wish List ]
[ Copyright © 2025, Audio Asylum, all rights reserved ]
