[mxmissile]

The most frequently recomended step to help with a low voltage situation is to add a capacitor of one sort or another. This advice is given even by seasoned professionals in the industry. Unfortunately, it is more often than not the wrong advice.

Capacitors (caps) are a good thing - if they're used correctly. When added to an electrical system that can keep up, they provide the extra on-demand power a big amplifier craves. However, if the electrical system is already lagging, a cap helps until it's discharged, then it becomes one more thing for the already overworked charging system to keep up with. Once drained, a capacitor becomes a point of resistance in the system untill it is able to regain a voltage equal to or greater than that demanded "down stream", as it were. Since caps drain very quickly, and the demand that drained them in the first place will draw the current it wants with or without the cap, they do not recharge until the demand drops.

Hmmm....