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More good discussion and fascinating remniscences

Who would have thought this group has so many Bob Pease stories?

My point on the topic is still that many dielectrics do not have linear behavior, and this behavior grows more nonlinear as the stress approaches zero. "Soakage," dielectric absorption, or whatever we choose to call it, this behavior bears directly on the electrical behavior of audio IC cables insulated with such dielectrics. What is the capacitance of an interconnect cable? Does anyone measure it as a function of signal level and frequency? Does the history of the applied stress affect the result?

My mental picture of DA is like slop in the steering gear of an old truck. One expects a linear response when turning the steering wheel, but one finds a few degrees of initial rotation of the steering wheel results in no change in direction of the truck, and a bump in the road might cause the truck to change direction with no change of steering wheel position. (Been there, done that.)

"Capacitance" is the ratio of charge to voltage, or change in charge to change in voltage. If there is charge change without voltage change, then the effective capacitance is infinite. If there is voltage change but no charge change, then the effective capacitance is zero. Raising the signal level gets the measurement away from the singularity, so the instrument reads out a plausible number. Adding a DC stress may also move the system away from the troublesome area, which is what the DBS cable design appears to intend.

I'm not trying to minimize the measurement difficulties inherent in these questions, or parameterize a messy situation. It just seems that we ought to use data relevant to signal levels of interest in deciding whether the existing knowledge of dielectric response has anything to do with audio performance. Thanks to Steve Eddy for trying to get frequency response information out of Bob.

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