I don't know if the Par-Metal chassis are the cheapest, but they're worth every penny. I recently bought a standard 1RU chassis from them and was impressed by its quality.
The cheapest ones I've found are the Bud enclosures from Digi-key. You have to remember to include the lid when you order them (and price them). They're just a bit less, but they are not of the same quality or construction, though. I've used the Bud boxes for most of my DIY stuff since I was ordering from them for the Panasonic caps anyways.
The cheapest i've found were from partsexpress.com. They carry an all steel Middle Atlantic EC-2 chassis for 41.95. But, the par-metal ones seem to be the better quality.
keep your eyes open at pawn shops, i just pickerd up several unit for 50 or less (canadian) and they all have at least 4 xlr in/outs. if you figure just those xlrs are worth 5 buvks a pop, that takes 20 bucks right off the top of the 50 i paid, not to mention he multitude of other parts inside. Then it's just a matter of buying a blnk faceplate for 6-7 dollars and you're set.
That´s true. It´s always the same question in every wtb-thread.
@ tony dB
The cheapest chassis I found in europe are from Benkler Elektronik in Germany
phone: +49 6321 30088
At the moment they are not online because the had to shut down their web site for some reason. They told me the will be online in a few days:
www.robeshop.de
cheers
Jens