What's the value in lots of capacitors inside a line stage preamp?


On one system I am using a Conrad Johnson gat2, and it's loaded with Teflon capacitors and step attenuator volume control, vishay, and I'm sure lots of other lovely things going on.  It's doing a great job.

But I have no idea how important all those capacitors are except that they store a lot of reserve power and are available to fulfill Power demands of musical changes.  Maybe that's all I need to know.

emergingsoul

Showing 1 response by mikhailark

Not all capacitors store energy for transients. Those big ones in power supply - yes. They also act as part of filter reducing "ripples" in the DC which remain after AC/DC conversion.

Now, small caps in the amplifier are NOT for power storage. They serve many purposes. For example, isolating one cascade of amplification from another. Capacitor passes AC but not DC. Music is AC (not to be confused with AC mains). Another purpose is to improve stability at high frequencies. Some may not be even part of the amplification and rather operate buttons and such.