Easy free tweak -- dealing with RFI/EMI -- try it and see?


With some Ciamara credit available I thought I'd try the Stillpoints ERS paper on the insides of my fuse box and Torus wall transformer to see if it helped improve things in my system. Treating fuse cabinets is a fairly well known application of this product which is designed to absorb stray RF and other electronic nasties

Well here I was tweaking away and I thought, golly the system sounds really clean and open and I haven't put the paper in yet -- I assume it will be even better with it!

Imagine my surprise to discover I'd been listening to the system with the fuse box/panelboard cover open! Turns out one of the best things to do with EMI and RFI may not be to enclose it in a metal box in the first place 🤓

And actually with it closed, with or without the ERS paper it sounded much more closed in, with a loss of low level detail

Same went for the door on my Torus transformer -- from now on I'll leave it open for serious listening -- there is a bit more audible transformer hum but as it's in another room this is no big deal

Anyway this is a dead easy free tweak so give it a try -- you may like the results
128x128folkfreak

Showing 4 responses by folkfreak

Sorry Randy maybe I missed it - my EE degree was thirty years ago 😕 why would opening the door help?
I think you are missing the point @randy-11 While an enclosure may form a Faraday cage the EMI/RFI is enclosed and reflected back into the power lines and down into the rest of your system which is the problem so what we actually want is to let it get away without polluting the power to the system
@geoffkait I'll accept that the door is magnetizable so that's a plausible factor ... anyway love to hear what experience others have one way or another
Re @randy-11 and @geoffkait I've found good results from seriously addressing RF pickup in my digital chain by capping all the unused inputs. There are a boatload of BNC connections on a DCS stack so this ends up being expensive but the cumulative effect is noticeable. Also as Geoff suggests closing of all unused power outlets is also worthwhile. 

Anyway spent end another hour this morning experimenting with the doors of my panelbox and isolation transformer open or closed. Still prefer them open 😀