The correlation I have is from car audio, where you must somehow grab as much current as possible from a 12v system. The alternator in your vehicle may provide a bit more voltage like 13v. A capacitor or ‘cap’ can placed in the current supply to suck up as much current as possible, so it can discharge it to the amplifier on demand. When you see the terms ‘high current amplifier’, the power supply of these amps is like a big capacitor for the energy needed to drive the speakers in momentary high demand situations. When I look at a toroidal power supply I see a big thing that holds a lot of juice.
Current Questions
More and more, I see the word “current” in audio reviews. The reviewers warn me that I’ll “need lots of current” for a given speaker but they don’t explain exactly what it is I need or how many “lots” is. I’ve looked at a few “Electronics For Dummies”-type sites but I’m still confused. A few questions:
—What is current?
—When someone writes, “These speakers need a lot of current,” what do they mean? Is sensitivity involved? Impedance?
—On the amplifier end, what specification measures current?
—Are there subjective considerations at work in that spec? The number of watts doesn’t tell me everything about loud an amplifier sounds. Does the number of [whatever measures current] similarly leave things unexplained?
—Everyone asks, “How many watts?” No one asks, “How much current?” Is it really so important?