Capacitor>?

[ImaLegacy 10+ year member]

At what point...of wattage should i install a capacitor

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[kickerlivinloud 10+ year member]

Never....haha. But no really 9 times out of 10 a cap will hurt your install IMO. Caps are just bandades on your electrical problems try upgradeing your alt, battery, and wire. If you have electrical problems that is were the answer is. Caps in my opinon are just put out there by manufacturs to lead unknowing newbees into getting one. Mind you there is a time and a place for caps but not very often.

Jon

 

[mud 10+ year member]

I have no idea how a cap could possibly hurt your install, but it won't really help it either. It just evens out the current flow to your amp a little bit. There is no evidence that capacitors make your system louder/better etc, spend the money on battery/alt/wire like kicker said. As for when you need an electrical upgrade, a ballpark figure would be somewhere around 1000wrms, but it really depends on the equipment you have now (alt, wiring, amplifier). If your lights dim when the bass hits, that means you could use an upgrade //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif but a cap won't fix that, or at least not much.

 

[kickerlivinloud 10+ year member]

I have no idea how a cap could possibly hurt your install,

The volt draw from the cap has been know to make seveir drops in the voltage which can hurt your system. This may have been an isolated insident but then again it may of not been isolated idk.

Jon

 

[AFaceInTheCrowd 10+ year member]

i saw a system setup correctly with a cap last night. it was in a jetta, the generation b4 the current. 200a alternator, redtop starting battery, yellowtop acc. battery, upgraded grounds. all ample audio. cap voltage stayed at 14.4 even during heavy bass. he was able to play the system at low volume all night with no voltage drop at the cap. it was a steady 12.4v. i think that was the right way to do it right there. i believe the cap was there to "catch" the voltage drops and suppress the peaks.

 

[Fr0sty51 10+ year member]

Every 500 RMS you need 1 farad and so on and so on

 

[zane 10+ year member]

Every 500 RMS you need 1 farad and so on and so on

Edit:

Every 500 RMS you yourself personally believe you need a cap.

I believe we covered much of this before. "Need" is the kicker word.

With better (alternator), and also some less costly(Big 3) upgrades, needing a cap is never a reality.

Most manufacturer's state 1 Farad for every 1000 watts of system power.

How they came up with those two magic numbers (which magic test did they perform to achieve those consistent results?) - They really do not say.

Caps are wang. Talking about caps is annoying, and wang.

Car Audio sucks.

 

[Fr0sty51 10+ year member]

I agree dude I agree.......im sorry lemme rephrase......

"You are technically suppose to have 1 farad to cover 500 RMS in a system."

I dont think they tell us this why because we are all to lazy to actually read so we wouldnt actually care about it.

But as most companies say they recommend 500 RMS to 1 farad......which seems fairly reasonable if caps are your thing.

cap talk is so annoying, just get a ****in alternator.

But im just tyin to answer ImaLegacy's question.

 

[Bavarian3 10+ year member]

lol well i thought it was techically 1 farad for every 1k watts...

 

[Fr0sty51 10+ year member]

500 RMS 1000 Peak..................think next time you post!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[slick316 10+ year member]

i saw a system setup correctly with a cap last night. it was in a jetta, the generation b4 the current. 200a alternator, redtop starting battery, yellowtop acc. battery, upgraded grounds. all ample audio. cap voltage stayed at 14.4 even during heavy bass. he was able to play the system at low volume all night with no voltage drop at the cap. it was a steady 12.4v. i think that was the right way to do it right there. i believe the cap was there to "catch" the voltage drops and suppress the peaks.

i would say its the 200amp alternator keeping the voltage steady, and not the cap. if it was a stock alt, like my 70amp in my civic, and the results were the same, i'd think differently of caps.

 

[ImaLegacy 10+ year member]

Those posts really helped.........some very confusing though (500 rms...and such), but none the less thanx....i'll have to look into a better alt and battery

 

[packerfan 10+ year member]

500 RMS 1000 Peak..................think next time you post!!!!!!!!!!!!

What does peak have to do with this anything? Why dont YOU think before YOU post next time, or just not post at all....

Oh yea, and lets see pix of you install, you talk big shit about it, lets see it.

 

[DBfan187 5,000+ posts]

500 RMS 1000 Peak..................think next time you post!!!!!!!!!!!!

It is 1 farad for every 1,000watts idiot! Think before you post!!!!!!!!!!!! You have just earned a place in my sig! You seem to be the poser when it comes to this shit!

 

[Fr0sty51 10+ year member]

How am i talking shit you ****???? All I did was come in here an answer a ****ing question about a capacitor, just because I'm right and i have expensive equipment you get all ****in jealous and all offensive.

Oh and by the way you ******s.................It's called Tweeter sponsorship!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!