Surface mount components for analogue audio... Yes or no???

[Pilbromatic]

Hi.
I'm just wondering what people's thoughts are on using surface mount components for analogue preamps. Mounting them isn't an issue in this case, and because of the physically smaller footprint I'd prefer to use them (lots to pack in to the case!!!).

I'd like to go all out with surface mount - Op-amps, resistors, capacitors, etc.

What's people's thoughts on this? I don't want any loss in quality of output or componentry by using these.

Cheers!

[bacon665]

If you canw ork them then go for it but keep in mind they cant take the abuse their larger kin can and that cooling can be an issue

[Mr Evil]

I use them quite a lot. They're great when you need to squeeze things down into the smallest possible space, and you get a wider selection of some types of components.

[jcx]

power dissapation has to be watched

for resistors going NiCr is relatively cheaper though

there is little choice in signal path C - PPS is likely the best smt film - also hand soldering smt flim can be difficult due to melting the cap

[Pilbromatic]

Originally posted by bacon665
If you canw ork them then go for it but keep in mind they cant take the abuse their larger kin can and that cooling can be an issue

Cool, thanks for that! Good point about the cooling. My prototypes will be all PDIP etc so I can see how hot things get then. I was thinking about cooling the other day, this project is going to have something like 150 op-amps in a 4U case!!! I'm thinking a proper 100 hour test may be necessary - I need these things to go the distance!!!

[star882]

Almost every modern sound card uses surface mount components on both the digital and analog sides. In fact, some sound cards have no through hole components at all.

[Pilbromatic]

Originally posted by star882
Almost every modern sound card uses surface mount components on both the digital and analog sides. In fact, some sound cards have no through hole components at all.

Thanks. I don't normally consider soundcards to be of great audio quality anyway, unless its a PCI M-Audio (or similar) analogue card. Even then, they're still pretty bottom range as far as the professional industry goes. Some of the better brands do PCI/PCI-E cards, but these are normally digitally based.

I'm more referring to using surface mount in professional analogue preamps - Rackmount or Home Theatre.

Thanks for your input though!

[BrianDonegan]

There is a great range of thin-film surface mount resistors available, which will give you much lower noise than thick-film. You also get shorter pathing and tighter bypassing capabilities (caps).

If you use ceramic caps, try hard to stick to C0G/NP0 rated caps (usually available up through .1uF), falling back to X7R for larger values if needed (up to >10uF).

[Pilbromatic]

Originally posted by BrianDonegan
There is a great range of thin-film surface mount resistors available, which will give you much lower noise than thick-film. You also get shorter pathing and tighter bypassing capabilities (caps).

If you use ceramic caps, try hard to stick to C0G/NP0 rated caps (usually available up through .1uF), falling back to X7R for larger values if needed (up to >10uF).

Great! That's the sort of information I love to hear!!! Thanks heaps!

[Conrad Hoffman]

I don't have any (mental) problem with SMT except for caps. There are times when a COG can't be had in a large enough value (or would be the size of a Buick), and only a film will do. It's assumed you'll use a properly designed multi-layer board, so cooling shouldn't be a huge issue.