ESD damage on audioboards

[Peder]

Hi …

ESD DAMAGE…QUESTION​:fire:

This is a “dear” problem within our interest.
I’m not that up to date on the subject other than I’ve heard an ESD damaged RIAA product.

In the picture below you can see how a USB- receiver card arrived to me yesterday,.between two one centimeter thick styrofoam sheets.

Otherwise well packed in a small box with bubbleplastic wrap above and below these styrofoam sheets with the USB-card in between.

It was NOT placed in an anti-static plastic
bag…!!

Could the USB-receiver card have received ESD damage due to this packaging method.
That it lay and “rubbed” a little between the styrofoam sheets…??

The reason for the question is below,.as I wrote to the sender of the USB-card just now…
----------------------------------------

The USB-receiver works…!!
BUT,.it’s a big BUT…
The Energy, the Attack and the Timing etc in the music are not at all at the same level as with the previous USB-receiver card.
The upgrade effect of the new V7-Classic Dual OP- amps is gone.

AND,.to get the same volume with my reference songs, I have to have the volume four to five digits higher…
Example: Instead of volume 25, volume 29 or 30.
I’ve had the same volume on all my previous four new amps I’ve bought from you over the last two years.

AND,.it came between two styrofoam sheets, not in an “anti-static bag”…could it have ESD damage.?

I’ll tell you more later,.my amp is put on a constant playlist to see if it gets better after a few days of break-in/burn-in.
But as it is right now, it plays more Hifi or Sound than Music, if you understand what I mean, I can’t bear to listen for long, it plays boringly.
-----------------------------------------
This above is an abbreviated extract of what I just sent to the sender of the USB-card.

Comments on this are very welcome…

[Richard.Dane]

ESD damage to chipsets is a possibility but in my experience it can take some time to manifest itself and will eventually cause sudden failure rather than any partial or gradual loss of performance. This is why it’s such a nasty issue, because the effects are not immediate.

[Innocent_Bystander]

Electrostatic charge, and consequential discharge, arises from dissimilar materials rubbing together, the charge depending on the materials. Whilst I can’t say a build up of charge is impossible with expanded polystyrene (styrofoam) rubbing against components and possibly tracks and board surface (usually laquered), it would seem unlikely, or at least a far lesser risk than handling in a dry atmosphere without precautions against ESD either before or after being sandwiched in that way.

[Peder]

@Richard.Dane

This is why it’s such a nasty issue, because the effects are not immediate.

Hi …

In my case,.unfortunately, it was immediately audible.
Soon the device will have spent 30 hours on a playlist with the new USB-card,.then I will listen again and see if there has been any change for the better.

But,.it is as you say,and hard to detect.
But my gut tells me that something is wrong as I described above.

My friend’s MC-riaa that got an ESD damage,.it was only he who heard that something was wrong at first.
He borrowed a new one,.and then it was immediately heard that his was “broken”.

I immediately became suspicious when I saw that the USB-card was not in a protective anti-static bag.
But something is wrong,.either an ESD damage or that some component on the USB-card is faulty.

That’s why I thought I’d bring up the subject here, and get some experiences from others here.

[Blackbird]

Stop buying crap from Alibaba Peder!