[sac8d4]

I'm looking to dampen the inside of my Brickwall surge protector with either one of these 2 products. Anyone have first hand experience comparing these 2 products with each other? Verastarr's copper shield is not only suppose to reject emi/rf but will also dampen the chasis, whereas the Stillpoint's ERS cloth main intention is to reject emi/rf. Any info is much appreciated



Sorry, Kyrill typo, its spelled out verastarr, atm they have some nice pricing over on audiogon

[TheChairGuy]

I've found the ERS Clothe to be mostly ineffective - in general, it degrades performance.  I've tried it several times...small bits, large wads, analog and 'digital' power supplies, etc. Perhaps I need further time with it to find a good use for it, but my experiments with it have been failures (but, again, that just could be me  )

Some measure of general EM/RF shielding can be economically done with plain jane copper foiling (and or tape) - no need for pricey VeraStarr product - they are likely just re-packaging something generally available out there.  It can be found in some hardware stores, some hobby shops, and online regularly. 

Further, add a layer of thick aluminum foil (Reynolds, found at any supermarket) to it and you have made a pretty effective barrier for much of the frequency spectrum.

One step better than this is a product called TI Shield: http://www.cladit.com/examples/emi-rfi-shielding.html

I've gotten mine at Micheal Percy Audio...I think a 12 x 12" sheet was $29.99 (I made a 12" round sub-platter for my direct drive turntable with it recently - very effective stuff)

And, for what it's worth, I owned the 2AUD15 Brickwall (still have one for my computer gear).....like almost all the other 'conditioners' tried thus far it made the music edgy and unnatural. Shielding might help, but don't expect it to be a panacea for it's ills 

Regards,, John

[sac8d4]

Chairguy, that is a very interesting product, thanks for the link.

[satfrat]

TI-Shield can also be purchased from http://www.percyaudio.com/Catalog.pdf . Here's the writeup from that website:

TI SHIELD: Unique composite shielding material from Texas Instruments for blocking EMI & RFI interference. Conventional
shielding materials excel either in electrical conductivity or magnetic permeability, but not both. Steel is not conductive enough
to be effective at blocking high frequencies, while copper and aluminum are not effective at absorbing low frequency EMI. No
single material met both of these requirements until TI developed this copper/alloy 49/copper composite material. TI Shield is
effective from below 10Hz up to 10GHz and is currently available only in .014" thickness. Counterpoint utilized similar technology
in construction of their chassis' and found significant audible benefits were to be derived from surrounding audio circuitry
with materials that shield against both EMI & RFI. Unlike Mu-Metal, this material may be cut and bent into convenient shapes
without requiring annealing to restore its shielding properties. 12" x 12"/$29.95, 12" x 24"/$58.50

Cheers,
Robin

[jb]

I'm looking to dampen the inside of my Brickwall surge protector with either one of these 2 products. Anyone have first hand experience comparing these 2 products with each other? Verastarr's copper shield is not only suppose to reject emi/rf but will also dampen the chasis, whereas the Stillpoint's ERS cloth main intention is to reject emi/rf. Any info is much appreciated

What are you trying to accomplish and what to you expect to gain from adding Verrastar or ERS? The Brick Wall is a surge suppressor. It doesn’t produce any audible noise, the circuitry doesn’t create EMI/RFI, and the enclosing steel box makes it unlikely to radiate EMI. Besides, any damping or lining you add does nothing to block the EMI/RFI super highways which are the power lines going into and out of the box.

Just for the record, I have several Brickwalls, although they are NOT used for audio, and they are stone silent at all frequencies I can detect. I also have a sheet of the Verrastar stuff: It’s a joke. Verrastar sent it to me gratis after they screwed up an order I placed with them. What ever it’s supposed to do can be done better with inexpensive building material from Home Depot.