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General speaker questions for audio and home theater.

ESR & capacitance linearity

The current delivery from a capacitor depends upon its reactive impedance at the stimulus frequency. Capacitive reactance varies inversely with frequency so it is high at low frequencies and decreases progressively with frequency until you reach a point where the inductance in the leads and internal connections have a reactive impedance that matches the capacitive reactance and the two cancel out leaving only the ESR. So, ESR only limits current flow at that specific frequency. Above that frequency the capacitor will behave like an inductor.

Capacitors have a voltage coefficient that specifies how much the capacitance changes due to voltage changes across the terminals. This mechanism can create distortion if that coefficient has a squared or cubic term. My expectation is that film caps will have smaller voltage coefficients than electrolytics but you'd have to look at data sheets to be sure.



Edits: 09/22/24

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  • ESR & capacitance linearity - 13th Duke of Wymbourne 15:22:52 09/22/24 (1)

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