Some thoughts,

Current flows from the highest potential to the lowest.

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.

EG When your engine is running, current is flowing from the alternator

(14.5v) to the battery

(Who's source voltage is

~12v)

It's also worth considering that by definition therefore, with the engine running, car accessories are actually being powered from the alternator, and not the battery

(which is now a LOAD)

- right up until the point you outstrip the alternator capacity, it's supply voltage under load falls to the same as the battery, at which point the Battery now becomes a SOURCE and provides the ADDITIONAL current required.

Lets apply some maths.

i(t)

= C dV(t)

/ dt

Current through a capacitor is proportional to the rate of change in voltage across the capacitor

A typical Optima Yellow has a source resistance of 0.003 Ohms

(Manufacturer quote)
4AWG Cable has a room temperature resistance of 0.00096 Ohms

/ Meter

Say you have a Battery

@ 12v, 5 Meters of 4Gauge cable, a 1Farhad Cap

@ 12v, and your amp pulling 100Amps
Lets ignore the capacitor source resistance for a moment

(is actually quite significant for crappy car 1F caps!)

Lets assume the capacitor supplies all current to the amp up until the capacitor source voltage has fallen to the battery source minus the voltage drop across the battery loop resistance

@ 100A

Total loop resistance from the battery source voltage to the amp is 0.003

+ 5x0.00096

= 0.0078 Ohms
Voltage drop with 100Amps flowing V=I.R

= 100

* 0.0078

= 0.78v

Therefore we can say that

(Ignoring the capacitors significant source resistance)
Once the capacitor source voltage has fallen by 0.78v, it actually becomes a load, and not a current source!

the battery as the only other source

(engine off) will then supply all current.

Taking our capacitor equation above, with

-100A constant current flowing, the voltage across a 1F capacitor will drop by 0.78v in

0.0078 Seconds.

.

.

.

So, basically 7.8 milli-Seconds into your bass beat, the capacitor has become a load.

Now actually consider that even a

'Good' capacitor like Stinger quotes source resistance around 0.0016Ohms, and this does not include connection resistance etc which all adds up.

.

.

God forbid you buy a capacitor with a built in disconnect relay

- as even a 40A Automotive relay has about 0.05Ohms contact resistance.

So.

.

.

Add up real world resistances, and you can see the capacitor becomes little more than install

!!BLING!! and will do nothing useful for a bass beat

- remember one cycle of a 50Hz tone lasts 1/50

= 0.02 Seconds

- That is a long duration for any capacitor to deliver a high load for

- and also a long duration compared to any chemical reaction in the battery.

.

.

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The capacitors present on the input of a switch-mode power supply are there to provide a low source resistance to the 20-40KHz switching frequency of the

DC-CD converter

- and are not intended to supply any long duration load.

Do also remember that the amplifier output will not be affected

(distorted) until the INTERNAL power rails fall below that required to deliver the expected voltage to the speaker load! Drive your amp within it's rated capacity with adequate cable and you won't have a problem.

Paul