Check this out

[Ken Pachkowsky]

I never thought I would see this in these Boulder Amps. The power rails are gold plated? Guess that somewhat explains the prices.

[Zilch]

Well, gold plating's not gonna help the conductivity much.

You sure they're not SOLID gold? ;)

[That'd work, yup....]

[Ken Pachkowsky]

Well, gold plating's not gonna help the conductivity much.

You sure they're not SOLID gold? ;)

[That'd work, yup....]

Well, I think if they were solid gold the amp would have been more than the original 4800.00

[Ken Pachkowsky]

By the way, they all have huge multiple storage caps. The 500 has 4 in each amp that are 4in across and 7in long.

[Ian Mackenzie]

Ken,

Gold plating is preventative of corrosion, the bars are probably bronze.

Sure is a big sucker..nicely pit together..great in the winter.

Just keep your pussy (cat) out of harms way..they like warm spots to cuddle up on!!

[spkrman57]

The use of dissimiliar metals in a signal path sometimes can degrade the signal quality. I know this is more a problem with low level signals like from SET amps running in the milli-watt range to speakers where even the smallest amount of signal degredation will have a audible effect on the sound quality.

I realize this is in a power supply rail and the voltage/current is quite high, but would it not be more beneficial to use a solid metal of decent quality rather than one metal plated with another?


I would also think that current running through dissimiliar metals would possibly break down the bond between them if the melting point/resistance and/or other differences between them cause a different reaction (expansion/contraction).

I know these are EXTREME situations I am using here, just wondering if there is any thought process on this, or am I just having a senior moment this morning!:banghead:

Ron

[Zilch]

The contacts to the power buss bars are mechanical, it looks like.

Gold plating will keep them free of corrosion, a common practice for premium, trouble-free connections....

[mech986]

The use of dissimiliar metals in a signal path sometimes can degrade the signal quality. I know this is more a problem with low level signals like from SET amps running in the milli-watt range to speakers where even the smallest amount of signal degredation will have a audible effect on the sound quality.

I realize this is in a power supply rail and the voltage/current is quite high, but would it not be more beneficial to use a solid metal of decent quality rather than one metal plated with another?


I would also think that current running through dissimiliar metals would possibly break down the bond between them if the melting point/resistance and/or other differences between them cause a different reaction (expansion/contraction).

I know these are EXTREME situations I am using here, just wondering if there is any thought process on this, or am I just having a senior moment this morning!:banghead:

Ron

Not trying to start something but consider this:

Every wire is copper or copper tinned with tin, or copper plated with silver.

PC board traces are thin copper. Point to point wire terminals are mostly tin or tin plated copper.

Many passive componenets use steel wire, tin wire, copper wire, tin plated. Not many that I am aware of use silver or gold wire terminations. Many of these wires are welded to the elements.

Most of the solder used in commercial products and DIY is some mixture of tin/LEAD/maybe small amounts of silver so that it can be effectively melted at moderately low temps (under 500 degrees fahrenheit).

Even a compact and simple amp circuit has dozens if not hundreds of solder points. Then there's the preamps, interconnects, and speaker cables, crossovers and speakers. Think of the source components - complex single circuit boards with IC's directly soldered to the board with their tinplated IC legs. Even the IC's and transistors are made with dissimilar materials as all semiconductors are layers on layers to produce the P-N junctions. Don't get me started on all the surface mount components

I realize nothing is ideal, but if we were worrying about one or two connections or plated surfaces, well, we've maybe got a lot more to worry about. And yes, one bad connection can alter the sound if it's bad enough.

Isn't it amazing that it sounds as good as it does with all that going on?

Regards,

Bart

[Titanium Dome]

I never thought I would see this in these Boulder Amps. The power rails are gold plated? Guess that somewhat explains the prices.


It looks kul! :bouncy: