[Carlman]

Hugh, would you consider making a sticky for sources for amplifier cases?  Perhaps if the sources were local to the country... so maybe Jens could post a Denmark source, you could post an Australian source, etc.  

I used Par-Metal in New York (the most often suggested to me) a couple of times and have been very dissapointed with the service... and to a degree the product.... they're ok but nothing special.... very utilitarian and poorly finished.

So, maybe some sources for 'cool' cases with some style.... or very high quality... and what sizes are best... etc.

Just a thought for people buying your kits...

[JoshK]

I've used Par-metals, and they are OK, nothing special.   I also noticed in another thread that Lansing Enclosures was recommended.  I believe Dan Banquer using them for his amps.

[gonefishin]

Thanks for the suggestion about Lansing Enclosures Josh.  I've also used par-metal enclosures before.  While the enclosures are ok (and workable) the service was a horrid experience.  In the end I ended up buying two enclosures just to speed things along.  It had taken me 3 months to receive the original enclosure I wanted.  

   It's a bit of a shame, but poor service seems to more common every day.  Makes no difference when, where or why.  This is what makes dealing with places like Aspen Amplifiers, Bent Audio and IRD a real treat to be a part of.

  I'd not only be interested in places to buy enclosures...but also hardware for enclosures (such as feet and such).  Audiophile stuff is fine...but I'd rather save a few bucks while buying a similar machined piece of metal, wood or plastic than have an "audiophile" name on it.  No offense to those who like to spend more money

   take care,
  dan

[Grumpy_Git]

Maybe this could be something added to the website rather than AC as we dont want the entire first page of the forum to become a sticky mess....

Other than that I love the idea. My 55 is soooo poorly finished I'm embarassed to show it, I'll be buying another when funds allow and hope to make it an N+. And would love to be able to have it on show rather than keep it hidden.

Nick.

[JoshK]

If you guys want to still try Par-metals, I recommend their ebay auctions:

listings

I have always bought off of ebay from them, and thus knew exactly what I was getting.  Things I've ordered this way came promptly as described.

[Carlman]

That's probably the best way to buy from Par, if it's already made and ready to ship.  The prices are good, too!

It took a month to get a quote and every promise he made was broken.... sometimes within the same day.  Highly not-recommended for anything custom.

[mgalusha]

When I tried to buy a case from Par I never received a response.

[gonefishin]

my (bad) experience was actually off of ebay.  Everything ended up fine in the end...it's just took a darn long time to get the correct case that I originally ordered off ebay.  Scratch that...to get a case that was workable.  It still didn't end up being the advertised dimensions.

  It does seem that most people are satisfied with his service.  Which does appear to be fairly fast...most of the time

[bluesky]

Hi guys

Dan and I are getting some cases made up through a local engineering works, to me here in Brisbane, Australia.  They rang me today to say they were doing the work soon and I will post a picture when I get them  (if they are any good of course).  

They will be polished stainless steel 2mm plate and will be a face plate and a folded base/rear panel.  It would be easy to also have the sides and top done but I intend to make these out of wood, just my taste on that one.

Bluesky

[SamL]

Hi guys

They will be polished stainless steel 2mm plate and will be a face plate and a folded base/rear panel.  It would be easy to also have the sides and top done but I intend to make these out of wood, just my taste on that one.

Bluesky

Are you getting the shop to predrilled the holes for you? 2mm SS is not easy to work with. Mine is 1.5mm and it is the max I can handle. The case plus cover is almost 1KG.

BTW, anyone know the tools to use to make a 3mm (1/8in) or 4mm screw tread on cases?

Have fun,
Sam

[SamL]

BTW, anyone know the tools to use to make a 3mm (1/8in) or 4mm screw tread on cases?

Google found it.

http://www.nmri.go.jp/eng/khirata/metalwork/basic/bolt/index_e.html

Sam

[Propstuff]

Tapping a thread into sheet metal is a problem.
For an M3 or M4 tread the pitch, is 0.7mm. Therefore, in 1.5-2.0 mm sheetmetal there will only be a maximum of 2 of the screw's threads engaged in the metal.
Ok for the lid of a case, but not for holding any sort of load.
The convention is that there should be at least the same length of thread engaged as the diameter of the thread.

For this reason, things called nut-serts (inserts) or various equivalents are used in sheet metal to provide a female thread in sheet metal.
You will find them at specialist engineers fasteners supplies.

cheers,
N.

[kyrill]

For the best of the best I would choose for wooden cases (not too thick, preferably less than one inch) well damped ( tar, bitumen, a layer of self made silicone, anything damping) BUT also well shielded for RFI and EMI
To shield this use very low mass shielding, so musical signal energies almost have no effect. For instance metal paint or metallic plastic foil. Remember Electrical domains are influenced by  moving metals and that is what metal cases are when you are playing music. The darkeness of silent, which let you hear the many many nuances of the light of music is attacked by the absence of pure silence. Many years ago in top (expensive) higend tube gear Harry Pearson of "the Absolute Sound"  ( magazine) experienced that amps sounded more open without their metallic enclosure but occasionally picked up local stations!
Very nice shielding in varying ways:
 see http://www.Hollandshielding.com

Trust wooden cases if you want the best out of yr AKSA system and very easy to make

[andyr]

For the best of the best I would choose for wooden cases (not too thick, preferably less than one inch) well damped ( tar, bitumen, a layer of self made silicone, anything damping) BUT also well shielded for RFI and EMI
To shield this use very low mass shielding, so musical signal energies almost have no effect. For instance metal paint or metallic plastic foil. Remember Electrical domains are influenced by  moving metals and that is what metal cases are when you are playing music.  ...

Hi, Kyrill,

I did read that HP comment a long time ago but relegated it to the overflowing cupboard where all sorts of other peculiar ideas reside.  EG. did you ever come across an eccentric Englishman by the name of Peter Bent?  I seem to remember he was writing about hi-fi in the 80s and he was always talking about ways to eliminate static, or EMI, or put the "life force" into the music ... etc..

Two of his "recommendations" which I am afraid I have never tried, although they stick in my mind are as follows:

*  for each one of your fuses, use a violet/purple fibre-tipped marker pen to place a mark on each end (this is assuming your fuses are held in a PCB-mounted holder and are pushed from the top, sideways.  If the fuse is held in a spring-loaded chassis-mount fuse holder which connects to each end, put the mark on the side of each end-cap).

*  if you have any batteries located near your cartridge, make sure you wrap some sticky-tape around the circumference, at one end.

Go figure!!

Why I mention this is that your recommendation to use a wooden case which is maybe one inch thick and well damped with tar or bitumen etc. to me smacks, somewhat, of "Peter Bentism".

But I'm open to enlightenment which is why I'd be interested in a more detailed explanation of why you recommend wooden cases.  Perhaps you could answer the following Qs:

1.  Why wood up to 1" thick?  I wood    have thought if you are trying to have as non-resonant an enclosure as possible, then thin wood - maybe only 1/4" thick - would be better?

2.  If damping wood is a good idea then why wouldn't a metal case with the same tar/bitumen damping material applied, be just as good?

3.  What are these "musical signal energies" that you mention?  Are you saying the music signal flowing along the PCB tracks and the component leads - ie. the electrons - have an affect on the metal case (because electrons flow in metal but don't in wood)?

Or are you talking about the external sound waves originating from the speakers which hit the amplifier case?

4.  What about shielding the inside of the wooden cases with aluminium kitchen foil?

Regards,

Andy

[kyrill]

Hi, Kyrill,

I did read that HP comment a long time ago but relegated it to the overflowing cupboard where all sorts of other peculiar ideas reside.
I respected, still do, HP very highly because of his very critical nature. He was, still is, in the end only interested on how it sounds.Close to impossible, the way HP is that he would follow a "snake's oil"trend
 EG. did you ever come across an eccentric Englishman by the name of Peter Bent? I seem to remember he was writing about hi-fi in the 80s and he was always talking about ways to eliminate static, or EMI, or put the "life force" into the music ... etc..

Two of his "recommendations" which I am afraid I have never tried, although they stick in my mind are as follows:

* for each one of your fuses, use a violet/purple fibre-tipped marker pen to place a mark on each end (this is assuming your fuses are held in a PCB-mounted holder and are pushed from the top, sideways. If the fuse is held in a spring-loaded chassis-mount fuse holder which connects to each end, put the mark on the side of each end-cap).

* if you have any batteries located near your cartridge, make sure you wrap some sticky-tape around the circumference, at one end.

Go figure!!

Why I mention this is that your recommendation to use a wooden case which is maybe one inch thick and well damped with tar or bitumen etc. to me smacks, somewhat, of "Peter Bentism".

But I'm open to enlightenment which is why I'd be interested in a more detailed explanation of why you recommend wooden cases. Perhaps you could answer the following Qs:

1. Why wood up to 1" thick? I wood have thought if you are trying to have as non-resonant an enclosure as possible, then thin wood - maybe only 1/4" thick - would be better?

2. If damping wood is a good idea then why wouldn't a metal case with the same tar/bitumen damping material applied, be just as good?

3. What are these "musical signal energies" that you mention? Are you saying the music signal flowing along the PCB tracks and the component leads - ie. the electrons - have an affect on the metal case (because electrons flow in metal but don't in wood)?

Or are you talking about the external sound waves originating from the speakers which hit the amplifier case?

4. What about shielding the inside of the wooden cases with aluminium kitchen foil?

Regards,

Andy

[andyr]

Kyrill,

Why don't U answer my Qs??

Regards,

Andy

[kyrill]

Hi, Andy,

I did read that HP comment a long time ago but relegated it to the overflowing cupboard where all sorts of other peculiar ideas reside.
I respected, still do, HP very highly because of his very critical nature. He was, still is, in the end only interested on how it sounds.Close to impossible, the way HP is that he would follow a "snake's oil"trend
 EG. did you ever come across an eccentric Englishman by the name of Peter Bent? I seem to remember he was writing about hi-fi in the 80s and he was always talking about ways to eliminate static, or EMI, or put the "life force" into the music ... etc..
Yes, I did and I did not had enough faith in him obvously, to repeat the findings you mention. They did not make sense to me.

Two of his "recommendations" which I am afraid I have never tried, although they stick in my mind are as follows:

* for each one of your fuses, use a violet/purple fibre-tipped marker pen to place a mark on each end (this is assuming your fuses are held in a PCB-mounted holder and are pushed from the top, sideways. If the fuse is held in a spring-loaded chassis-mount fuse holder which connects to each end, put the mark on the side of each end-cap).

* if you have any batteries located near your cartridge, make sure you wrap some sticky-tape around the circumference, at one end.

Go figure!!

Why I mention this is that your recommendation to use a wooden case which is maybe one inch thick and well damped with tar or bitumen etc. to me smacks, somewhat, of "Peter Bentism".
Be careful, he still may be right. But maybe he is not, in both examples above it does not seem rational, doen't it? nhjmmm ( that is the neighbour's cat spinning and walking over my keyboard

But I'm open to enlightenment which is why I'd be interested in a more detailed explanation of why you recommend wooden cases. Perhaps you could answer the following Qs:

1. Why wood up to 1" thick? I wood have thought if you are trying to have as non-resonant an enclosure as possible, then thin wood - maybe only 1/4" thick - would be better?
Did I say 1"inch? I must have forgotten that an inch is 2,25 centimeters. For a small case this maybe too thick, but..the ideal enclosure is NO enclosure. Their design is decoupled from and are not part of the amp's schematic. So why are they?
To shield, that is a very good and in transparent systems a MUST. That is the benefit. For the rest they have (again only in highend transparent systems) 2 very nasty disadvantages and wooden cases only one.
and yes you are right and no you are not right in making the wood as thin as possible because there are two "resonances with opposing needs
*a) vibrations.Then, the thinner is better as the vibrations stop earlier, there is less mass and so less energy can be absorbed by the mass . An official technical term in English exists for "the time a vibration needs to completely halt.
*b) with a certain thinness of the enclosure wall  it starts to resonate by itself as a whole, with a maximum in the middle of the plane. it becomes a sound instument like  a guitar. This also happens with thin metal plates.

So if you make wood too thick unless very dense and thick, it has a negative effect not so much because they vibrate too (but less) but because it is out of sync with the music itself. This is an uglier kind of "grunge" than grunge which is perceptably in sync with the music. And no I do not believe sitting away 13 to 14 feet from my amp, my ear will acctually make me hear the sound emanating from the amp's enclosure, like I can hear from badly designed speaker enclosures You hear it amplified by the pre- (much more) and poweramp (rest will follow, I am taking a shower now:)

Ok,
Another reason for not too thin wood is the mass of the amp. It needs structural support. Especially since my wondering what kind of sound do transformers have, i made the choice to abandon the toroïds and go back to the "ei" (?) trafo's Well two of those ( i have them in the house) for Aksa 55  together weight over 10 kilo's add up the heatsink and you have a very heavy amp.
So to make a choice between resonances and vibrations and you still can carry your amp if you have too, make it not too thick (unless very thick and dense as possible, so it almost does not react, like enclosures from stone), and make it not too thin  
Then you damp it as much as possible because these wooden vibrations/resonances reach the amp's pcb, trafo's and heatsink. So they start to move and that is BAD. They are all metallic like and embedded in multiple chaotic but very real presence of all kinds of electrical and (sub) local magnetical fields. And you know what happens if you move any kind of metal in an electical or magnetical field. The effects will find their way amplified in the music. These are: less focus, less warmth, less space and less tube (life) like as if the current coming from the wall has more grunge. Also for DACS this is bad. As digital systems need a precise clock as possible, which is somehow based, somewhere in the system on a crystal oscillator. In fact a very fast moving (bouncing) crystal. Mechanical resonances will influence this bouncing only in a disturbing way. It is not a bad idea to mechanically isolate the crystal from its surroundings or damp it.
2. If damping wood is a good idea then why wouldn't a metal case with the same tar/bitumen damping material applied, be just as good?
Good question. Wood by itself does not generate a magnetic or electical field. It only effects the amp indirectly by sharing its vibrations with the physical structures of the amp. A metal case does this too but adds on top of this its own influences on the electrical and magnetical fields.
3. What are these "musical signal energies" that you mention? Are you saying the music signal flowing along the PCB tracks and the component leads - ie. the electrons - have an affect on the metal case (because electrons flow in metal but don't in wood)?
Yes as explained above. In the domain of electrical physics the influence of dry wood (not wet) and cotton for instance is neglible, Maximum field coupling happens with metals
Or are you talking about the external sound waves originating from the speakers which hit the amplifier case?
 And coupled with a " shaky"floor..
I hope to explained these too indirectly influence the innard working of the (pre)amp
4. What about shielding the inside of the wooden cases with aluminium kitchen foil?
The less mass the shielding has, the better. I don't know how good this foil is, and don't under estimate how difficult it is to realise good thorough shielding
Regards,

Andy

[andyr]

Thanks, Kyrill,

Lots to think about there.

BTW, you said  you respected HP very highly because of his very critical nature and there is no way he would follow a "snake oil" trend.

I entirely agree with you except for one point ... I believe HP suffers from/exhibits a condition which I shall call "price-tag snobbery".  So he is not above sin!!

You and I know how beautiful an N+ AKSA sounds ... and I think Mal Fear posted that he knew someone who replaced a $7K amp (Aragon?) with an AKSA.

Now HP would certainly review a $7K amp but he would never bother to "waste" his time reviewing a $1K AKSA because he would consider there is no way a crapola kit amp could sound as good as a respected hi-end commercial amp!  Especially one from that crazy little country inhabited by kangaroos and koala bears!  

The symbiotic/parasitic relationship which exists between the hifi manufacturers and the hifi press is the cause of this.

Regards,

Andy

[Malcolm Fear]

Hi Andy
I have a friend (Vic) who replaced an Audio Research with an AKSA.

[Rocket]

Hi,

I bought my case from Hugh but i ended up replacing the front panel and top.  I went to a laser cutting company and they did this for me, i then took the 2 pieces to a powder coating company and they painted them black for me.  The amp looks pretty reasonable in my opinion but i would really like to put it in to a chassis it deserves.

Talking about amps i compared my aksa 100 (nirvana) to a bel canto evo amp and thought the bc had a little wider and deeper soundstage and the top end was a bit more refined when compared to my aksa.

I'm really looking forward to upgrading my amp to nirvana plus.

Btw i went to my usual hangout at War Audio and one of the guys told me i should just invest my money on a new amp (bel canto), which he said i would never have to upgrade (yeah right).  The amp was $5500au which is about half the price of a decent car   .

regards

rocket

Btw the aksa beats hands down my n.e.w. dc-66 battery amp which cost $6500au originally.