Transient Attack and Amp Design


I have observed with my new McCormack DNA-1 Deluxe (CJ Rev. 1 upgrade) that the transients are significantly better than my previous amps. Everything from classical, rock, and jazz has, for lack of a better term, better rythm and transients. (Granted, I have only owned mid-fi amps like Marrantz, Rotel, and Sunfire.)

I was wondering if the McCormack amp design explains the reason. It has eight caps on each output board instead of just one large cap for each channel. Maybe that means there is just more storage capacity? In any event, the amp is a heck of a lot more responsive than what I have heard in the past.

Is the multi-cap board topology more conducive to better transients or is this benefit dependent on the skill of the amp designer regardless of board layout?
jragsda

Showing 1 response by kijanki

Alamrg

Inductance of 1 foot of straight wire is not 15nH. According to this calculator:
www.consultrsr.com/resources/eis/induct5.htm
it is between 330nH for 0.1" Dia to almost 500nH for thin wires.

Large capacitors have large inductance. Bypassing them with film caps creates parallel resonant circuit (inductance + lossless cap) that tends to ring. It is always better to use bunch of smaller caps in parallel to further reduce already smaller inductance and to lower resistance (ESR).

There are better quality caps like slit foil type (used in Hypex kits - very expensive) where foil has cuts to prevent eddy currents and to lower inductance (losses).

Power supplies require large capacitance because they are unregulated. Regulated SMPS running at 100kHz is fast enough to response to any current demand at 20kHz in spite of small capacitors.