Specialists > Audiologists
Amplifier caps, what they do, and where they are...
S Clark:
Caps in a crossover are something I'm familiar and comfortable with... but amps??? Filter caps, coupling caps, power caps... what exactly is the difference, where are they in the circuit, and where does quality come into play?
There are several of you guys that are amp guys. A little help please.
P.I.:
This is a subject that is simple in concept, but a great big ball of fuzz in reality.
The nuts and bolts are these:
Filter caps/power supply caps provide ripple control after the rectification stage in an application. This can be initial power filtration after the power transformer and rectifier or downstream for local ripple and noise rejection in whatever piece of gear. Coupling caps do exactly tha. They couple one stage in a piece of gear to another. This is done for several reasons. Most common is to block any DC component from effecting the music signal (an AC signal) or to provide isolation between stages that operate at different electrical potentials.
That is the very bare bones reply. I’m sure Jeremy (Folsom) and Steve will have a lot more to add.
It’s late and I didn’t want you to wake up in the morning with nothing to read.
Next I’ll dive into -
DA - dielectric absorption
DF - dissipation Factor
ESR - equivalent series resistance (a bit of a misnomer)
Materials
Lots more to come from people here!
S Clark:
Thanks for a good start, Dave. I think I understood, mostly, some, maybe. So the initial power (in the US, 120+V) comes into the power transformer, gets bumped up to ???V, contains miscellaneous crap, and goes through a filter/power cap. So are these usually the bigger value caps that so commonly dominate the landscape on the circuit board?
rollo:
All I know is when I upgraded to Duelund CAST output coupling caps in my Consonance Mono blocks my world changed. Then power caps oh my goodness.
charles
S Clark:
--- Quote from: rollo on September 17, 2019, 06:49:14 AM --- ... when I upgraded to Duelund CAST output coupling caps in my Consonance Mono blocks my world changed.
charles
--- End quote ---
I bet it did. Your billfold got a lot lighter! :rofl:
But this is one reason for the initial question. I'm trying to have a better understanding of what the caps are doing, so that I can upgrade more intellegently.
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