Filter capacitance-how does it relate to amplifier performance?

If I was trying to sell you an amp, and that is what you wanted, wouldn't that be GOOD selling point?

If my product is VERY shiny, wouldn't that be what I would want to turn your eye towards?

The build quality, the noise floor, how fast, how slow, how big, how small are thing I look for. BUT I'm not a designer... The application, then quality control are KEY issues for me, from  REBUILD or repair perspective.

More is not always better, to much can be a problem too.. I've screwed around and doubled the capacitance in certain things...Power supplies in certain SS amps....
  
Tough to fire some of my contraptions up.... Fuse blowers...Room warmers. But once they are going.. LOL # 10 SC copper wire  (20 amp breaker and feed wire) fixed that.

A LOT of BASS a lot of CAP, kinda go hand in hand...

Look at my Mac valve amps... Caps aren't to big at all.. VTL, HUGE!!

Regard

My understanding of capacitors is that they store energy. Does this mean that my Due amplifier is just as powerful as the on paper more powerful Atoll in300?

For comparison sake with my Due amplifier I demoed a Plinius Hautonga integrated amp with 200wpc in 8 ohm and 280wpc in 4 ohm. I did not hear any appreciable difference in bass or other frequencies.

The ability for an amp to drive hard loads, also comes down to very much what the output stage is and how much current is availible (transistors amount if they are Bi-polar or mosfet, and yes capacitor storage amount ect ect)

If you look at old Mark Levinson ML2 monoblocks they are only 25w into 8ohm, yet can double into 4ohm (50w), double again into 2ohm (100w) and again into (1ohm 200w) This means they can drive ANYTHING to a certain volume level.

Too many of todays manufactures "under quote" their 8ohm wattage, so it looks like the 4ohm is doubling (this should be eradicated from the industry and advertising as it’s fraud!!)
That why it’s always good to read Stereophiles bench test as they expose this "under quoting" of the 8 ohm figure so the 4ohm looks much better.

Cheers George

My understanding of capacitors is that they store energy. Does this mean that my Due amplifier is just as powerful  as the on paper more powerful Atoll in300?

No. It just means that the energy storage for the output section will have less noise so less intermodulation at full power.

But one thing left out is the voltage of the power supply with all these different amps. Its important because in the formula for electron storage in a capacitor, the voltage dominates the equation


W (work) =1/2 (C xVsquared)

where C is capacitance  and V is voltage. So by raising the voltage a little, you raise the storage a lot!

BTW, its the storage in the supply that is usually what is being quoted when the manufacturer states the 'amps' it has- for example 80 amps. If we use that figure we see that its obviously not output power, since using the power formula

P=Isquared x R  (where P is power in watts, I is current in amps and R is resistance in ohms)


If we give the amp the benefit of the doubt and state a 1 ohm load, then the power is simply the current squared. No-one makes a 8400 watt amp. Into 2 ohms this would be 16,800 watts....

So a value like that is actually the current that flows for 10mS when the power supply is shorted out. Its an easier way of understanding the energy there instead of the 1st formula I showed above.

Our MA-2 amplifier has 72,000uf at 150 Volts... it can easily do that 80 amps and its a 220 watt tube amp. Capacitive values like this are there solely because the amp sounds better when they are.