Just wanna know what a cap does. I have a lot of **** that eats up power such as the system listed in my sig, blue underbody neons and I dont want dimming. Will a cap help my car not to dim? Hard to install?

 

not 100% sure but i think caps are basically for keeping a constant flow of watts going to your sub, instead of having a dynamic flow.

notto change the subject or anything but...ur name is riceracist and u have underbody neon lights on ur car? uhhh... correct me if im wrong but that seems kinda ricey to me...

 

A cap supplies your amplifier with extra voltage when needed. S in other words when your battery doesn't have quite enough voltage a cap will make up for it within reason. rule of thumb is that a 1 farad cap is good for 1000 watts. What I would use is a product called a BAT CAP. The problem with a cap is discharges too quickly for spl type systems, a bat cap will take up to 30 seconds to discharge depending on the model. Also a cap shouldn't be more than 6 inches away from your amp to be affective and no they are not hard to install. It goes inline on the power wire to the amp and then it needs to be grounded. If you are interested in a bat cap let me know and I can sell you one.

 

so many are confused as to what a capacitor does.. -_-'

a capacitor STORES energy. it can't create energy at all.

personally, i woudln't use a cap. why? because i don't listen to my music loud enough that my amps draws so much currect from the battery. also, i would buy the farads by how much currect your amp needs. put a 2 farad cap on a US Amp 2000x and on a DEI 2400d. even thought the US amp makes a tad less power (unmodified), it will eat up more power than the DEI will.(2000+ watts of Class A/B owns you..)

 

Yes a cap does store energy but it also releases it when the amp needs it.

 

the comment wasn't made towards you.

 

i wouldnt use a cap either........my system dims when i turn it up, but that doesnt bother me becasue i never turn it up to its full capability

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by pjnuts19 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">i wouldnt use a cap either........my system dims when i turn it up, but that doesnt bother me becasue i never turn it up to its full capability </TD></TR></TABLE>


Thats putting a strain on your altenator and/or battery. Maybe when you go through one of those, you will take what you just said, back.

 

caps also serve as a filter and evens out the sound of the system. you will notice a difference in the tightness of the music. the best thing you can do is to upgrade the alternator because stock alternators put out only a few more than the vehicle requires. upgrading the ground wires will also help light dimming too.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by underESTIMATED &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">


Thats putting a strain on your altenator and/or battery. Maybe when you go through one of those, you will take what you just said, back. </TD></TR></TABLE>

If you are dimming when you turn up your music the cap will not help either. It adds an extra strain on your alt, and may kill it faster. IMO, caps suck. Upgrade the grounds and alternator.

 

^^^ I agree. The amplifier has capacitors built in anyway.

 

shouldn't this tread title be: What is a capacitor advertised to do....

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by rcurley55 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">shouldn't this tread title be: What is a capacitor advertised to do....</TD></TR></TABLE>

Of course

Or "Caps: Don't believe the hype"

 

Are you guys engineering majors?

 

was an engineering major...got my BSME in 2000

 

so basically everyone is saying caps suck, so i'll jump on the band wagon, i've installed caps many-a-time and i have yet to see a noticable difference in ANYTHING, including stuff with the battery, dimming of lights, and all that good stuff

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by rcurley55 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote"> was an engineering major...got my BSME in 2000 </TD></TR></TABLE>

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by PetroGuyX &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">so basically everyone is saying caps suck, so i'll jump on the band wagon, i've installed caps many-a-time and i have yet to see a noticable difference in ANYTHING, including stuff with the battery, dimming of lights, and all that good stuff</TD></TR></TABLE>

I have noticed a difference... granted small and pretty much useless. My ex-coworker had a Tiburon with a Concept 2400 and 2 Treo SS's (or whatever the 1000 watt rms subs are). The voltage held for just a fraction longer when the bass hit. Obviously it's only useful where the bass hits were infrequent giving the system enough time to charge the caps in the amps as well as the power lines. In my mind... pointless. The only thing it did help was keep the voltage around 11.2 rather than the 10.4 he was seeing on the quick loud hits. Pretty much it just gave enough power to keep the battery from being dipped as low because it wasn't quite used as long. But still, going from the 14.4 of the alternator to 11.2 produces a major drop in brightness of the headlights and also power output from the amp. In my mind... a waste. The amp has the caps it should need build in.

 

i have a 165 amp alternator, stinger 800cca drycell bettery, and a 1 farad metered cap and upgraded all wiring in the car. i am runnning 2 soundstream 500's (1 for each sub) and 1 soundstream 300 for my components, my voltage only dips from 14.8 at idle to 14.2 while cranking it.

 

GSteg...and you're trying to say WHAT exactly?

 

oh nothing..u know me..just bored.

btw..u have the ID midrange in kicks yet?

 

engineers rule the world. i'll be so glad to graduate.
my 1f cap does do one thing well - it kept the voltage spikes from my noisy engine out before i got new wires. not like that had anything to do with sound quality.
plus now with a cap i have a potentially dangerous explosive battery which could accidently discharge if something shorts it out! yeah!