Other than wearing rubber soled shoes, a grounding strap, remembering to discharge oneself to ground, or treating oneself, carpeting and furniture to reduce static buildup, is there any component, device or circuit that could replace the "capacitor idea" in my previous design to absorb and pass the discharge to ground without creating a ground loop or other ill effect?It seems to me that the use of braided ground straps from each chassis to a common ground point, as I described above, might do exactly that in many cases.
Why are some components less susceptible than others?Good question. My feeling is that the root cause of these problems is most likely the failure of the designers of equipment that is susceptible to this problem to adequately address the issue during the design process.
It's interesting that computers, which contain digital devices and circuits that are much more complex than in most audio components, and that run at much higher frequencies, never (to my knowledge) seem to have these kinds of problems when their metal cases are touched. Makes you wonder.
Best regards,
-- Al