Capacitors in parallel.

[Cyrus Ramsey]

G'day,

If I needed to make up a capacitor value by adding Caps in a parallel bundle and it's going into the signal path does the number of caps in that bundle degrade signal quality at all. 3 or 4 caps vs 20 or so ?

[[email protected]]

Re: Capacitors in parallel.

I don't think so.

[Wolf]

Re: Capacitors in parallel.

G'day,

If I needed to make up a capacitor value by adding Caps in a parallel bundle and it's going into the signal path does the number of caps in that bundle degrade signal quality at all. 3 or 4 caps vs 20 or so ?

Any cap in a xover is in the signal path.
Later,
Wolf

[fdieck]

Re: Capacitors in parallel.

Actually it is often a good thing. The ESR will be reduced and the smaller value caps are often better than larger value caps of the same type. I like to use caps no bigger than 10uF for film types.

[jonpike]

Re: Capacitors in parallel.

+1.

Parallel resistances divide, and ESR is resistance. Any of the slight nonlinearity a cap may have (and that's why we prefer the film caps) will add in series configuration, not a parallel one. Linearity is (mostly) different from ESR, but would (mostly) behave the same in series/parallel setups.

[fdieck]

Re: Capacitors in parallel.

+1.

Parallel resistances divide, and ESR is resistance. Any of the slight nonlinearity a cap may have (and that's why we prefer the film caps) will add in series configuration, not a parallel one. Linearity is (mostly) different from ESR, but would (mostly) behave the same in series/parallel setups.

N
..... Except one non linearity that a series capacitor connection is used to fix. Film caps can have a resonances since the winding layers can move a bit. A dc bias applied through a high value resistor provides a bias that provides electrostatic attraction between the windings. Arnie Nudell of Infinity and Richard Vandersteen of Vandersteen have both used this approach in crossovers. Back to back polar electrolytics with have less distortion with this bias technique. You will still probably still wind up with a lower ESR by using low ESR caps designed for switching power supplies, even though the ESRs add. Most bipolar electrolytics have pretty high ESR.

[Cyrus Ramsey]

Re: Capacitors in parallel.

Any cap in a xover is in the signal path.
Later,
Wolf

Yes it is