The chassis of our equipment is typically all we interact with. It's what we see, touch, and feel. Other than holding the circuit boards and input and output connectors in place, it might not seem important sonically.
If only that were true. We could save a bunch of money placing it in a nice cheap enclosure.
Turns out the chassis is a critical component in sound quality. When engineering is ready for me to audition a new design I typically receive it without a chassis. Often, what I get is a circuit board on a piece of plywood. Over the years, I have become comfortable with this implementation knowing that whatever it is I hear will always be better than how it sounds on the wooden board once it is properly surrounded by a well designed chassis.
Most modern electronics benefit from a well engineered chassis—but building such an enclosure is an art in itself. At PS we go to great lengths with our metal boxes, dragging them and their circuit board contents off to the EMI lab where sensitive test gear measures radiation both inside and out up into the gHz.
The next time you reach out to turn a knob, press a button, insert or remove an interconnect, give a nod of thanks to the all-important chassis. It's working hard for you.
