When caps actually work......

[audiolife 5,000+ posts]

haha, true. but they are cool to dream about? you wouldnt have to worry about your headlights dimming...

kinetik for the win! lol

 

[spoonraker 10+ year member]

I still don't think anybody has really answered the original question...

Is there any reason at all to ever have a cap? If you have a good electrical system, what will it do. People always say that they aren't used for fixing voltage drops in a poor electrical system, but you also say they wouldn't do anything in a good electrical system.

So do caps just have absolutely no purpose at all in any install? I find this hard to believe, they've got to do something. Somebody told me the only thing a cap ever does is make quick bass hits sound better or something...

 

[audiolife 5,000+ posts]

when the electrical system is up to par a cap can fill in the void of the voltage regulator as it reacts. more noticeable when you dont have/use batteries with a low esr. you can also use a kinetik 600 like a cap but its main advantage is it supplies more current than a cap....

 

[spoonraker 10+ year member]

So in terms of actually listening to your music does a cap do anything at all, ever?

 

[iceteebone 5,000+ posts]

So in terms of actually listening to your music does a cap do anything at all, ever?

i'm just gonna paste something i typed earlier on the subject

see people don't understand the purpose os stiffening capacitors. i'll explain it basically for you.
a cap is more or less suppose to be used for sq and not to fix electrical problems. basically is stores up current to release at a split second and only for a second, and then it recharges. so you need a good electrical system to keep it charged. where it becomes useful is on quick bass hits where you amp needs a quick amount of current to keep up, the cap can feed it quicker then the alt can, so you won't have a muddy note. then when the alt can catch up it recharges the cap. an alt only puts out the current it needs to keep everything running, so if your amp is drawing 100 amps, and then a big bass note makes the amp draw 150, the alt is gonna be a second or 2 slow to deliver that extra current where as a cap can release it instantly, and you have a smooth bass note. the cap is being used when the alt is not big enough to handle an amplifier which is not its use

 

[audiolife 5,000+ posts]

it can just depends on how much lag it helps with (probably wont be as noticeable as seen by dimming)

 

[thylantyr 10+ year member]

So in terms of actually listening to your music does a cap do anything at all, ever?

Here's my checklist of *extra* capacitors added to an existing good amplifier

design. The audible effects are;

Car Audio Ampliifers

When you add *extra* 'stiffening' capacitors to either the input and/or output side of the

SMPS found in car amps, it would be very hard to notice an audible difference. If you were

to perform a proper blind test, you would fail to identify the amp with extra caps. You can

measure difference with test equipment, but your hearing isn't that precise to identify this.

Non Car Audio Amplifiers [Home or Pro audio amps]

A. Amplifiers with PFC power supply: You won't hear any difference by

adding extra caps because PFC already ensures power is constant even if input

voltage sags.

B. Amplifiers with standard SMPS driving non-subwoofers: You won't hear a difference if you add extra caps to the design

because midranges and tweeters don't present a big load on the amplifier.

C. Amplifiers amps with concentional power supply design driving non-subwoofers: You won't heard a difference if you add extra caps to the design

because midranges and tweeters don't present a big load on the amplifier.

D. Amplifiers with conventional power supply design driving subwoofers: You might be able to tell a difference if you add extra capacitance to the design.

It really depends on how much there is to being with.