Big caps v Little caps


I'm not an EE guy, so its ok to talk down to me. I'm just curious. I've noticed 'older' amps (Robertson Audio Forty-Ten) and certain brands (eg Hafler) and 'unusual" brands (Pathos) use just a couple of giant capacitors, while most of the mainstream equipment I see, seem to use lots of smaller caps.
I bet someone can explain this to satisfy my curiosity?
lester_ears
Bigger caps typically have a higher ESR. To try and put that into English, a high ESR is equivalent to a higher series resistance / slower cycling of power delivery & charging. By using multiple smaller caps AND selecting specific values that are widely used in other industries, not only is the ESR kept low, manufacturing costs are reduced due to buying commonly available parts in greater quantities. After all, there aren't many applications that call for HUGE caps, let alone at the voltage that high powered SS amps run at. Sean
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From what I understand, using many smaller caps is both cheaper, and they have a faster recovery time.
I wasn't aware that brands had to be 'unusual' or 'old' to use only one large-value filter cap per channel in the power supply. Amps I've owned from Classe, Conrad-Johnson, and VTL have done just that. Some even sound(ed) good. The McCormack DNA series, which I just bought one of, takes the 'modern' approach, hence its Distributed Node Amplifier moniker (the smaller caps are 'distributed' near their respective output devices, not clustered near the power transformer). I've wondered though, with this topology, do the power MOSFETS wind up foregoing any potential source impedance benefits arising from filter capacitor paralleling? Or is the power supply actually conventional and the 'distribution' just cosmetic?
Another reason is that the large can type caps are connected to by wires but the multiple small cans are pcb mounted which would add parts cost but lower assembly cost and lower inductance.