Capacitor

[flyingbrick]

it was my opinion, not a fact.



that sounds a little critical to be called "average joe".

im running a total of 600 watts in my truck without a cap. my amp is fed by 4/0 awg welding cable. i can make my dome light dim ever so slightly at night if i have my heater blower and headlights on and i dont focus my eyes at the light.

i might also add that ive been running the same (i believe its the original '93) alternator and orbital battery for the entire 5 years ive had my system and havnt had any longevity problems (of coarse, this is only one example out of many that ive expirienced).

ive worked at 3 different shops that install stereos and ive heard numorous systems with and without their caps and its my solid opinion that the money can be better spent elsewhere. im not denying that they help your system, because they do. but you could get a lot more "bang for your buck" elsewhere.

My brothers car (which is set up for SQ and not SPL) is running about 2000 watts with out a cap, OE alternator and a interstate battery i put in before i sold it to him. his lights don't dim.

 

[1993power ranger]

basically this is a general rule for every 1000 watts your gonna want to add in a capacitor

 

[Wicked_Sludge]

you must have dug deep to find this one

 

[Loud Ranger]

one thing that nobody mentioned is recharging the cap after every discharge takes power that should be directly going to the amp. closest id ever come to using a cap now that i know better is a batcap. the batcap 600 is equal to 600 1 farad capacitors.

 

[rjppunk]

Just watch out when buying them used... if not discharged properly they are like bombs.
Oh yeah +1 to AllanD for shining light on ignorance

 

[MagnaV30]

My system has a 90 amp alt, group 24 start battery, and a group 24 aux batter for my inverter and amp. I will be running a 1000W amp off of the aux bat, and a 1.5 Farad cap, all with at least 4G charge lines.
I probably dont NEED the cap, but it will be nice to smooth out the voltage spikes.

 

[mjonesjr]

Caps are good, but a proper alternator WITH a good cap is even better. Your vehicles charging system has to be able to keep the vehicle charged while also charging, recharging, and recharging the cap over and over.

 

[Ranger#1]

My brothers car (which is set up for SQ and not SPL) is running about 2000 watts with out a cap, OE alternator and a interstate battery i put in before i sold it to him. his lights don't dim.

you do realise you wont be able to hear after your 20

 

[flyingbrick]

you do realise you wont be able to hear after your 20

I'm almost 20 and i don't turn it up all the time, my bro is almost 23 and no problems with hearing there either. By the way when you go for SQ it's not as hard on your ears as SPL, cause your looking at 2000W vs some bass heads i know with 6000W.

 

[Ranger SVO]

If I didn't the FCC would probably take my license away

there are many devices that can't work without a capacitor.

High powered AC electric motors, flourescent lights, your IGNITION system!

AD

And you forgot to mention amplifiers. Count the number of Capacitors in the amp that are used to stabilize voltage. And if the manufacturer could have got more and larger caps in the amp, they would have.

 

[a-5 freak]

I may sound stupid, but don't you put the Cap before the amp?

 

[4x4fun]

i have questions on this...

if your battery and alternator cant keep up with the needs of system, how can it feed the cap fast enuff to be use full.

i know how and why caps work in industrial applications.

but when your bass is pounding, after the first two or three hits, how does it keep working, when you have massive draw over and over