Can Adjusting Voltage on a cap increase volume?

[bloodhound50 10+ year member]

if i adjust my voltage from 14.4 to 17v on cap does anyone think it willl become louder? (*note that my amp reqs 17.0v for its correct rms.

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[Prowler573 5,000+ posts]

You have a capacitor with an adjustable voltage?

I thought they contained exactly what was fed them from your battery and no more...

 

[pilyin 10+ year member]

http://www.answers.com/topic/capacitor

A cap is just a storage unit. Some can be adjusted. Some can't. However, I don't think that it would necessarily make your set up louder. If you do set it to 17V, make sure your battery is outputting that much also (which is probably isn't unless you did some major electric work on your car as 17 V can fry stuff on a lot of cars) because if the cap is set to retain a higher voltage than the input source, it wont ever store that amount of voltage as it will continually be bleeding it to the item it's trying to keep at 17 V.

In other words, your cap will try to give your amp a constant 17 V load, however there wont be enough power to keep the cap charged, and your amp will just get a 14.4 (or whatever your battery is putting out) load anyways.

 

[n2audio 5,000+ posts]

I'm going to make an educated guess here --

You're not adjusting the voltage of the cap -- you're calibrating the voltage gauge.

You can't just charge the cap to 17v w/o some serious modifications to your car's electrical system (the 17v would have to come from somewhere).

 

[pilyin 10+ year member]

No, it's adjusting the amount of charge the cap COULD hold if it's getting that amount or greater from the source.

 

[n2audio 5,000+ posts]

No, it's adjusting the amount of charge the cap COULD hold if it's getting that amount or greater from the source.

Ah - I see.

The answer's clearly no then. It won't make any difference.

A lot of "basic" caps are rated for 16 or 20v anyway when they never see anything much higher than 14.

 

[luvinthebass 5,000+ posts]

prolly see 14.4 for a second or so, i've never seen a cap say 15 volts with a system goin ever

 

[dcyphure 10+ year member]

but isnt that what step up transformer does?

i remember in electronics class hooking up a small transformer where the coils are wound to increas voltage from a 9v battery to quite a bit higher

i think thats also what load coils for telephone lines do too, the longer the path of travel, the lower the voltage becomes so the load coil steps it back up.

so i dont see why a cap couldnt have one built into it.

but i've slept since then

 

[req 5,000+ posts]

yes but to do that you would need a huge step transformer that can take a shitload of current. so lots of heat, a huge heatsink, and it would be heavy as a beefy sub (or more)

and they are not very efficent eaither. they basically up the voltage and drop the current. so in theory, your amp would be getting less current anyway. and you would be wasting a LOT of energy.

but a little dial on a capicator is not a voltage step up transformer.

they are quite large. espically for that kind of current to be transfered. so no. that will not do anythig at all for your electrical system. the only thing your cap really does is regulate the voltage for your amps a little bit.

 

[BassAce 10+ year member]

yes but to do that you would need a huge step transformer that can take a shitload of current. so lots of heat, a huge heatsink, and it would be heavy as a beefy sub (or more)

//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/laugh.gif.48439b2acf2cfca21620f01e7f77d1e4.gif

I like how you prove things. You go all out with the diagram and the very rare situation. But you would also need to convert the DC voltage to AC first before feeding it through the step-up transformer.

 

[req 5,000+ posts]

yea that too.

hehe. i didnt even think about the ac voltage thing. see. thats another transformer that youd need.

what i was trying to proove tho - was that the dial is NOT a transformer //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

and therefore, will not change the voltage //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif