To help figuring out how this works just make an analogy between the electrical power system of the car and an hydraulic system:Originally Posted by Tiger
- the battery is like the main water reservoir,
- the alternator the main source of water,
- the cable between the alternator and the battery the water pipe;
- the capacitor installed close to the amplifier is a secondary water reservoir;
- the amplifier is the load that drains current like a tap drains water;
With that model in mind the electrical power in watts that may be delivered to the amplifier (or the amount of water that could be push through the water tap by unit of time) is restricted among other things by the cabling (or the water pipe) because it introduces some electrical resistance (water flow constrain) in the system.
When the amplifier requests suddenly a great amount of power (or water) the fully charge capacitor (secondary water reservoir) installed near it will discharge in or feed the load so you avoid the effect of energy drop in the cabling (water pipe) between the battery (main water reservoir) and the load.
Because power peaks (bass punchs) are needed only part of the time, not all the time, if the system is well design the capacitor will have time to be fully refilled between those peak power requests.
Also in a well design system the battery (main water reservoir) is big enough to refill the capacitor (secondary water reservoir) between 2 requested power peaks and the generator (the water source) is itself big enough to completely refill the battery (main water reservoir) in a resonnable amount of time.
For sure it help to have the bigger water pipe (bigger cable) possible to link the different components of the system and that the secondary water reservoir (capacitor) be real close to the load (power amplifier).
That's it for my analogy.
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