Conflicting advice...

[martin]

Having acquired a car stereo amp "stiffening capacitor" cheap, I'm keen to try it out, but I'm finding totally conflicting advice on the 'net as to how to wire it - some say cut the positive feed to the amp and put it there, some say wire it in  parallel - which is correct?

[DaveSnafu]

series on the live, but really you can put it where you like it won,t do much.
Much better to have short fat cables to amp.

[martin]

thanks! - I've already got the short fat cables, and am hoping that it may enhance the stability of my "shed system" as I'm a bit partial to some "thump", and the lights tend to dim in time with the hefty bass notes at the moment (big amp and subwoofer)

[hiccup]

Uh no!

If it is a capacitor it should be wired in parallel to the amp - positive to positive, and negative t negative.

Put it in series with the supply and no DC will reach the amp!

Hic!

[DaveSnafu]

Hic you may be right !!, I have to say I have never used one, always veiwed them as snake oil.
Would love to know if it makes any difference to the voltage drop with sustained bass notes.
If its browning out on bass notes the supply needs to be bigger, sure he will get back to us in a minute with a verdict.

[martin]

I'll let you know later how well it works, once I've had a chance to experiment - it's a good hefty battery supply (6xfully-charged 110 ampere hour batteries), and my CF lighting visibly keeps time without the capacitor, so............

[martin]

Coming to you from the Shed of Earthly Delights........ As the result of some swift bodginations and application of meters, it would appear to "do what it says on the tin"- wired in parallel it completely removes any visible "sympathetic pulses" from the lights, and the metered indications are interesting - without the capacitor the ammeter swings rapidly between 3 and 15 amps in time with the music, with it, between 6 and 9 amps, in a far more "damped" manner, with similar voltage effects - without it there are voltage differences of around a fifth of a volt, with the cap a few hundredths of a volt....
It's purely subjective, but the bass response also seems improved - at "only" around a metered genuine 100 watts (amp input) feeding into a bass tube, it's a real window-rattler!

I count that a well-spent £2!

[Antman]

I bet your neighbours love you on a Sunday afternoon 

[martin]

Luckily they're several hundred yards away with loads of trees and hedges in the way 

[Billy]

THUMP Martin, just exactly what do you mean by Thump pray?

Are we talking drum and bass (surely not) or Heavy Metal?

billy

 

[martin]

Well........ I have a remarkably catholic taste in music, and some deep bass can help most of it it along  - the shed has this week rocked to some King Tubby, Faithless, Bob Marley and Groove Armada, and such things as Johnnie Walker's "sounds of the 70's"......... and I'm looking forward to the releases of the Superheavy and the Beth Hart/Joe Bonamassa albums....

ps just downloaded "Superheavy", and so far it's excellent!

[linesrg]

Good Evening All,

Any hard working amplifier is going to benefit from a stable power supply and the stabilisation will certainly reflect in the bass delivered. This why the likes of Naim seem to have more boxes for power supplies than amplifiers.

Capacitors are used around all voltage regulators to 'iron out' varying demands for the same reason.

Being a luddite and still believing in valve powered equipment I tend to take our American cousins view on 'muscle cars' as there is no substitute for cubic inches, same same with power supplies - they can never be too big. Give me a transformer based system over a SMPS for grunt anyday.

Regards

Richard