Originally Posted by
Miles
1 farad caps aren't useless per se, just not terribly useful. they'll even out the voltage on really low power systems (500 watts at most, and not for long either... maybe half a second of actual power, probably less), but i can't imagine they'll do you much good if you start cranking it up for extended amounts of time listening to 36 mafia.
Theres a thread where I did the math - I beleive its about 250 ms for a 1 farad capacitor with an 80% tolerance and a 60amp peak.
The reason they are usefull is not for enduring long bass notes - but for punchy bass such as double bass notes. I'll break it down really simple:
The power wire itself presents a voltage drop and a time delay or about a 1/30th of a second from demand to supply AND a lead acid battery presents a supply delay of nearly 1/10th of a second for a 50 amp draw!
That means that for a fraction of a second there is NO increase in current. That means there is NO increase in power to the amp which results in a massive voltage drop - to around 9 to 10 volts from 14volts.
A capacitor's measly 1/4th of a second of maintained power is more than enough to cove the supply delay and since the battery has no problem maintaining that current spike for a few extra milliseconds while the capacitor recharges, it causes no loss in power.
In order to understand the value of a capacitor you have to understand how short a bass punch really is - maybe a half a second at most. So half of that note isnt getting full potential from your amplifier every time the bass hits.
Capacitor = HIGHER PEAK POWER
BIG THREE = HIGHER MAINTAINED POWER