Wooden side panels - yea or nay

mgalusha · « **on:** 21 Dec 2003, 09:42 pm »

I'm planning on adding some maple side panels to my preamp, a Transcendent Grounded Grid. Mostly to dress it up a bit as the GG is not known for it's good looks (does sound nice tho).

Since this is a tube preamp the change in chassis resonance from the maple will likely change the sound. I know the answer is to make the change and listen but was curious if anyone has experimented with adding (or removing) wood trim panels from their gear and what the results were. In this case the chassis sides are thin stainless steel, maybe 26ga or so and the maple is 3/4" thick.

mike g

PeteG · « **Reply #1 on:** 22 Dec 2003, 05:16 am »

Any time you can add wood to audio equipment it's a plus, so I would go for it. And as far as the chassis resonance if you use sold maple I think the sound will only get better.

Al Garay · « **Reply #2 on:** 22 Dec 2003, 08:34 pm »

Mike,

NAY! You must have too much time on your hands. If you add wood panels to your pre-amp, it may make it look a bit nicer but it's really going to stand out in contrast to the rest of your equipment.

What about trying to get a black faceplate to match your Odyssey?

Happy Holidays.

Al

mgalusha · « **Reply #3 on:** 23 Dec 2003, 04:25 am »

Thanks for the input gents. I think you're right Pete in that more wood is usually a good thing. I have a nice piece of 3/4 maple begging me to do something with it.

Actually I purchased it to build a wood chassis for my Hagerman Cornet as the blue chassis really doesn't match anything else. The piece is about 6ft long, so I'll have enough to do both.

Al - I could always glue up some maple faceplates for the Odysseys.

You're right tho, I've finally got some spare time. Off work from noon tomorrow until Jan. 5. WooHoo!!

On the subject of wood... woke up about 1:00am last night wth visions of a wood platter for my TT loaded with lead shot. Who knows, maybe I'll try making one in the same vein as the Teres platters. Of course it can only be about 1/2" thick to work on my MMF-5.

Mike G.

mgalusha · « **Reply #4 on:** 25 Dec 2003, 12:40 am »

Well I carved out a set of maple side panels for the preamp. They didn't turn out as well as expected. I took careful measurements and made a drawing and still manged to drill the holes in the wrong place. Doh! I cut some plugs from the left over stock and they look OK but it would be nicer if they were unblemished. Ah well, at least it was inexpensive.

Preamp with side panels attached. Also replaced the knobs with Kilo units.

Rack with preamp in place.

Apologies for the picture quality, the camera battery was dying and I was only able to take one shot.