Seventh Circle Audio

I'm now putting 8 channels into my CH01 (2 of each flavor), and I've found that each of the 8, plus the divider/shield, fit VERY tight between the bottom of the chassis and the upper overhang in the back. so much that I'm scraping paint off the chassis while sliding the cards in, with the image of me snapping a PCB in half in the back of my head. just wondering if this is normal, or something to be worried about.

also, the mu metal shield is cut to a length such that it too has to fit under the back overhang, making a tight fit for the divider even tighter. any tips for getting this in there unscathed?

thanks
a

I've put two chassis' full of cards together now. The first chassis (bought 20 months ago) was very tight; I had to file down the bottom front edge and the top rear edge of the cards to get them into the chassis without bending, and the front panel wouldn't go on without some torquing of the chassis. However, the second chassis (bought early this year) was fine; all of the cards dropped right in. Either my luck changed or the sheet metal fab house improved the tolerances.

Tight is OK, bending isn't. When all else fails, a fine flat file is your friend (that was alliterative!)

dkatz-

thanks for the tip. I actually got my chassis at almost the EXACT same time--jan 05 I think, so we must have gotten two from the same funky bunch. a little careful sanding did the trick.

for whatever it's worth, turns out the C84's didn't need any trimming to drop in after all.

I am having the same problems. I have some pres that fit excellent in the chassis while other have an extremely tight fit. Looks like the PCB fabricater can't make the same board twice. I am also cracking the solder joints on fine adjustment pots while installing the front cover and end up with several pres that do not work properly after the assy is put together. Then I have to un-install everything, fix the damage to go through the whole process again. I will never build another one of these assy's again.


A good idea would be to put card guides in the chaissis to support the alignment of the PCBs.

There is absolutely no reason to stress the pots so badly that the solder joints break. In fact, if the solder joints are breaking I'd suspect they're cold. We've assembled hundreds of these modules and have never experienced such problems. If you have a module that simply won't snap into place without bending, you may have a chassis with a bit too much powder coating on the inside. If that's the case, simply file a bit of the board on the bottom front corner.