posted
Discrete surface mount components and boards vs. through-hole components and boards.. I have a personal preference, but it seems like one is getting hyped as having "better performance."
Discuss?
ShadowStar
------------------ Still looking for that CHEAP Thunderdome :D
Got Ears? Get Oz!
You can't build a reputation for what you're GOING to do.. But you can build one for TALKING about it!
-Eclipse-Rockford Fosgate-Oz Audio-Precision Power Inc.-AudioControl-Stinger-Tsunami-Clifford
It's all about knowledge, love and respect.
Posts: 2578 | From: Somewhere In the Northeast | Registered: May 1999
| IP: Logged |
posted
shadow, here are what I know of the trade offs of surface mount vs through hole.
through hole - cheaper PCB's, high power, easy to work with when making changes on prototypes.
Surface mount- Cheaper parts, smaller boards(=less noise, better tolerances), can have upto (I think), 10 layers of traces on a single board, an absoulute must for frequencies above 1Ghz. Once the wavelengths are smaller then the lengths of the traces, the length of the traces are very important.
Ive only done designs with 4 layers, two for taces, On for pos voltages, and a ground plane. The ground plane is great for reducing noise. If your desining for a home project, use through hole. If your desinging for industry, use surface mount.
------------------ 2-DD 9512's 2-2000X's (for now) 8.0ft^3 box in a civic trunk One big ass port ?????dB's
It's not the size of your woofer, It's the size of the waves your woofer makes!
Posts: 1259 | From: Fullerton. CA ,USA | Registered: Oct 1999
| IP: Logged |
posted
I'm no tech (prefer to play on the OUTSIDE of the heatsink ) but from what I have gathered it seems that DSM offers smaller boards, cheaper parts with tighter tolerances (or it not being as costly to maintain tolerances) and faster production.
Thru-hole: don't need a $1 million dollar DSM robot assembler and they are easier to modify/repair.
------------------ Blow your mind - PORT your box!
posted
i think i am right by saying that both mtx and xtant just converted to dsm this year. i can see on the production side of things that dsm would be alot better for the manufacturer. much faster to produce. but as of right now as a listener i really have no preference. as an installer i see no advantage either. as a business owner i return far less dsm for repairs (so far). as a technician i really have no preference. and as the typical consumer the dsm cosmetically looks alot better by far.
posted
I don't think one really has an advantage as far as performance, although I have seen a manufacturer claim that DSM parts are 0% tolerance. I have also seen people claim that surface mount parts are not suitable for audio. There is the argument that the inductance of the leads will cause unwanted problems in a through hole design, but the lead length is so short I don't see this being valid. If you built two amps, one DSM and one through hole with identically spec'd components I don't think you could even measure a difference, let alone hear one. The parts available may be a differnece when you think about temperature coefficients, tolerances, values. But I don't think that you can get DSM capacitors in the desired types like poly and mylar, types that are better for use in audio frequency circuits.
posted
I use all surface mount at work and the tolerances are better than through hole. As far as caps go, they have all types, but the most often used are the tantalums. They’re small and have better characteristics than most or all of the other types. The signal to noise ratio can be improved significantly due to a smaller boards (shorter traces) and the way surface mount traces are layed out. When a through hole board is designed, you can have traces on both sides of the board. That means you can have two layers. In surface mount, there are companies that are doing 10 layers I think. 6-8 layers are very common. The multiple layers allows you to make an entire layer ground (a ground plane), and entire layer(s) +/- voltages and keep certain traces away from each other. For instance, you can keep all the higher voltage and noisy lines that come in from outside the board on the top layer, and all the noise sensitive lines in an inner layer on the other side of a ground plane. This will keep all the noise from electrically and magnetically coupling to the sensitive traces.
------------------ 2-DD 9512's 2-2000X's (for now) 8.0ft^3 box in a civic trunk One big ass port ?????dB's
It's not the size of your woofer, It's the size of the waves your woofer makes!
Posts: 1259 | From: Fullerton. CA ,USA | Registered: Oct 1999
| IP: Logged |
Printer-friendly view of this topic