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In Reply to: I'd bet it does! posted by bartc on December 18, 2006 at 05:55:33:
Thanx for the advice. I thought steel clamping plates and screws are in actual contact with the wire. Therefore they should have more direct influence into the audio signal.It's too bad that outlets are so difficult to disassemble. I almost dismantled one just trying to remove the screws.
BTW, does the magnet trick apply to IG outlets as well? Does the size of magnet make much difference?
Follow Ups:
Al's answered your questions, and you can take his advice to the bank!As to the cover plate thing, I've experimented and would concur with Al. We did some common experiments. But I do like some ceramic plates and the cast aluminum outdoor plates for mechanical damping with carbon fiber over them on the outside and UL rated foam type products for mech damping on the inside.
Thanx again Bart. Not sure where I can find those plates you've mentioned. Too bad there aren't pictures to look at. I guess I'll concentrate my efforts on outlet tweaks for now.
I found the carbon fiber blanks on ebay. Can't seem to find them now, but they're an odd item. If you look up carbon fiber you get a gazillion hits so that doesn't work well. It's a hunt or you can just buy carbon fiber cloth and resin it into whatever shape or as a cover to the cover of your choice.As to the cast aluminum, they're at every hardware store as the outdoor type box cover. And ceramic covers are considered a decorative cover, but widely available too.
Bart, I've located some local sources that do stock carbon fiber cloth sheets. They are not cheap, though. The lowest are around $15 per 25cm X 25cm. Not sure about the thickness, ranging from .05mm to whatever. I'm thinking about using a nylon cover with a precut outlet-shaped piece of carbon fiber cloth fitting underneath.BTW, I saw some plastic covers that look like nylon covers. Are they equally good or I must make sure they're made of nylon?
CF is expensive! No doubt. I bought a batch at auction on ebay, or otherwise it would have been considerably costlier and TAP wasn't able to get it in stock at that time due to the worldwide shortage.I got the 1/2" thick aircraft blanks on ebay as well, but don't see the seller there anymore and he hasn't answered further queries. Not at all sure you need this, it's probably overkill.
I used the CF cloth in two overlapping layers (Moray James suggested this for better coverage) behind a nylon plate. Didn't use the plastic cover plates (they're about the same $1.50 apiece) because of advice here, but cannot vouch for any scientifically demonstrable difference. They are probably different as dielectrics, one being PVC and the other nylon.
For quick duty (and I've never changed it out of laziness) I just enveloped the CF layers in 3M clear packaging tape and taped that securely to the back of the plate.
CF in my case didn't cut very easily or neatly. Hope that you find a way to solve this. I suspect that if you use the proper resin to cure the CF cloth to your plate, then Dremel out the holes you need, it might work better, but I haven't actually tried that approach.
You can attach the CF to the front or the back of the cover, but it MUST be between the last metal source (box, plate cover, outlet metal) and your plugs in any case.
You will want to make sure that the CF is not exposed to potential shorting, as I"m told it can carry electricity. So if it ends up being exposed, then you'd better cover that part with electrician's tape. I did and this works, though it isn't neat looking.
than I thought. No wonder Oyaide charged $200 for their CF/Aluminum plate. Makes me curious what CF really does for outlets to sound good. Maybe it minimizes the RF interference better than any other materials? Since it works for the outlet covers, I would assume it might do as well for the metal covers on audio equipments such as amps and digital sources.
CF cloth is made to be embedded in resin, so that's what it's designed for. If you try to use it "dry", you have to have good scissors to cut it well. If you use it embedded in resin, then you need tools that will cut that kind of plastic PLUS the rather cut resistant fibers as well. The CF blanks were maybe 10+ layers at least and embedded in hard resin, so they were a real bitch to work with and needed extra hardened tools to do it.But you can do the project you want reasonably easily IF you just use good scissors and work with the material before resination, I suppose. Don't worry, it's not a project you will screw up unalterably in any case.
I don't doubt that Oyaide deserves what it can get for their R&D and special machining of low volume pieces. However, I don't have that kind of money to spend, and I can DIY, so I get double the enjoyment for 10% or less of the price. But that's my story, not necessarily yours...
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