Why don't HT receivers have more than 2 filter capacitors?

[Rick]

It seems to me that HT receivers would have more power reserves if they had 1 capacitor per channel. Am I right in assuming this? As far as I know they all have 2.

[Malcolm]

Why would the number of capacitors make a difference? It is the total capacitance you are interested in, right? Kind of like a small city water system having a single large water tank instead of each building having its own smaller tank.

[efzauner]

The filter capacitors are for the power supply. There is only one power supply for all channels that produces a positive and negative supply for the amps. There is a capacitor on the positive voltage and one for the negative voltage. You will see amps with more than one cap per side, but this is often because 2 smaller caps take less space than one big one, (less wasted space) or due to some other technical factor. 2 or more caps in parallel would sum their individual capacitance. It is the total capacitance that counts.

I am sure that there may be some very high end amps that that a power supply for each channel. You see this in the stereo world ( it would then be called a dual monoblock)

[rjon17469]

Also, multiple caps in parallel tend to have lower output resistance (and lower inductance if you're interested in that).

Reece

[michael hurd]

Reece is correct, less ESR in using multiple small caps, they also charge faster.