Layout... All the cans and all the worms

SillyOctpuss

SillyOctpuss

Well-known member
When I was driving home today I was pondering something and thought I'd specifically ask @Robert. However, I'd very much like the opinion of anyone else with experience in designing pcbs.

So just how important is layout?

I keep reading interviews or watching videos where designers say they breadboarded/designed a circuit but they needed to do a lot of different layouts to get it to sound the same.

So my very very limited knowledge would think well if it's all laid out from the same schematic and connected up the same way then it's the same isn't it? Is it?

So can anyone with knowledge help me out on this. Just how important is layout? If I have a schematic and ask 10 different pcb vendors to design a pcb then I'll have 10 different layouts. Will they sound different if populated with the same parts or exactly the same?
 
It depends on the circuit.

If you're mixing audio signals with things like high gain amplifiers, high impedance inputs, digital signals, or anything involving high current then it can be quite critical.

Factors like parasitic oscillation / capacitance can affect the sound (or make a particular layout completely unusable) but you're more concerned with noise than anything else.

10 properly laid out PCBs won't sound any different from each other but it's possible for a poorly laid out circuit to oscillate at a frequency outside of the audible range and effect the audible spectrum.
 
Far beyond what our meager needs are (in terms of bandwidth, etc.) but a number of years ago I worked on a prototype for a Sony Game controller (just the physical housing) and had several long talks with the EEs about the problems they were having with their CBs. It ends up that as you get faster and faster processors, the traces need to have wider arced bends in them, rather than any corners. At some point, the electron flow gets hindered by too sharp a change in direction…
 
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