Power Capacitor & Amplifier Heat

rapper_bob · 04-09-2008, 10:46 AM

Hi all, I've read about power caps and I'm wondering if they reduce the amount of heat coming from your amplifier by keeping a constant 13.9 - 14v flowing to your amp on the heavy bass notes? this will reduce the stress on your system. so before I had a power cap when hitting the heavy bass notes I was getting around 11v, when voltage decreases, current flow increases, and current flow creates heat (due to resistance) in components.so my question is do power caps reduce amplifier heat in anyway?

thanks

pancit175 · 04-13-2008, 07:59 PM

Capacitors are only designed and marketed for stabilizing the input voltages to the amps, and not for preventing or reducing the heat byproduct of the amplifiers hooked up.

I would expect little to no difference with the heat radiation of your amps.

scott_fx · 04-13-2008, 09:14 PM

thats a very interesting concept. it kind of makes sense but i haven't had any real world experience with them. Since you have the components already, why dont you do some tests? :-) i'd be curious to see your results

rapper_bob · 04-14-2008, 12:40 PM

Pancit was right it makes little difference, my amp still gets really hot keep your hand on it, it will burn it lol. its a fli loaded 800s. I would say they do put out well for a £100 amplifier but they are useless when it comes to heat, I've been through 3 of them, they have all been replaced by the manufacturer for free, but they will never tell how they fail. I would say its the heat produced from fli amps, there heat sink it useless overheats way to quick. just powering a 200w rms rockford fosgate sub and vibe slicks 6x9 160w rms it gets really hot within about 10 mins of medium range volume music, hiphop so some heavy bass in there.

CrArC · 04-15-2008, 03:16 PM

Isn't that using a switching power supply? As in, unaffected by most voltage drops? I think it does make sense a steady supply would reduce heat because it wouldn't need to draw as much current to compensate, but yeah, still little or no difference. Also as I recall it really has no obvious "heatsinks" on its casing, which may explain the heat issues there

pancit175 · 04-16-2008, 10:02 PM

In the simplest of terms, heat can be measured in watts. The most basic component in electronics are resistors. Resistors are designed to restrict and dissipate electons in the form of heat. Besides being measured in ohms, resistors are also rated in watts not current, i.e 1/4, 1/2, 1 watt resistors. And with an unchanging circuit, a drop in voltage creates an increase of current proportional to the power, wattage.
The same thing goes for transistors, the main components of an amplifier. If you were to look at the specifications of a standard transistor they show the threshold amount of voltage and current that can be given to it and it also shows the amount of wattage it can handle. Usually they specify it as total power dissipation, heat.

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