Sutherland DUO - Manual (Page 4)

DUO Dodges Dielectric Distress
Anytime two conductors are at a different voltage potential, there is an electric field
generated between them. The dielectric (the insulation between conductors) within
that field becomes involved in charge storage. If not carefully considered, that extra
charge storage can time smear details of a musical signal. Circuit board material is
a dielectric. With normal double-sided construction, there are copper conductors on
each side of the board. Unintentionally, a new capacitor is introduced into the circuit,
formed by top surface copper, bottom surface copper and the circuit board dielectric
sandwiched between the two. It is NOT the quality of capacitor we want to have in a
high-end signal path. Some manufactures make the situation even worse by going to
multi-layer boards in the analog audio sections. Instead of two layers of copper, there
are four or more layers of copper. Even worse than that, the dielectric between layers
is much thinner and the undesired capacitive effect is inversely proportional to thick-
ness. At best, some manufactures make small, incremental improvements by using
exotic board material.
The Duos addresses the issue of circuit board dielectric by doubling the thickness of
an FR4 fiberglass circuit board. Just that one choice reduces electric field strength
by one-half. Additionally, the area of copper interacting with board dielectric is also
reduced in critical regions. Signal lines are kept narrow. Power lines are extremely
wide. Such choices get us refined performance. Good solid advantages based up the
application of good solid physics.