Capacitors Aren't Useless

[XHiFiX 10+ year member]

Many times when people hear or see caps/capacitors mentioned, they say "get rid of it" or "it's just a waste of money and it's useless", etc.

Well, I picked up a cheap 1.2 farad Tsunami cap and installed it in my system and I liked it. First of all, I didn't get it to "fix" headlight dimming or to "beef up" my electrical system. I got it for power conditioning and the AC ripple filtering that I read about.

I already had a 170A HO alt, Kinetik HC1800, Kinetik HC600, and 1/0 gauge Big 3 before ever getting the cap and never had power issues.

But after installing the cap, I could hear a noticeable difference in sound quality. If I could describe it, I'd say that before I was listening to nice sounds, but now I can hear nice music. It makes sense I guess that if a cap cleans or conditions your power line of noise and AC ripple, then at the end of the link you end up with purer sound. Clean power in = clean audio out.

So I Google'd and looked around to see what other people thought, and found this post from a guy named Larry Frederick:

Name: Larry FrederickJob: I am the USA distributor for Elettromedia and responsible for all technical issues concerning Audison, Hertz and Connection products.

Portion of his Bio:

I designed all the Phoenix Gold products from way back when (MS250, 275, 2125, MPS2220, 2500-and the MPH-6300($125,000.00 amplifier).Tuned over 1000 WINNING IASCA and USACi cars. Judged 300 events, Head judged 3 finals, help write 3 of the rule books, trained over 10,000 salesmen and installers in 27 countries and 44 states, have 5 design and engineering awards and 2 design patents.

Oh, and here is his take on caps:

-stiffening caps should ALWAYS be used, but on the WHOLE system NOT the bass amp. Caps are just BIG AC filters (hook up a dual trace scope -all REAL car audio retailers have them (yeah right!!) Look at the DC in (looks like a moving semi flat line) and then notice the AC components on top of the DC. Huge spikes above and below the DC. This is AC ripple. Check in front of the cap, then after the cap. At least 20 dB ripple reduction! This is what caps really do! Filter out AC Ripple! Makes ALL audiophile car audio systems sound better as the DC is filtered. And anything over 2 Farads is a total waste of time. RF proved that years ago. As well as Alma Gates. Her Bronco(way back in the PPI days) had something like 40 capacitors. Did you know that after running the Bronco for weeks with caps, they disconnected them because the vehicle played LOUDER without the caps connected??? Interesting,Huh!!! Again...take all of this will a grain of salt. Test Test test. Prove it to yourself. Caps are a REALLY good thing and should be in EVERY system out there. My opinion.

Now I'm sure as hell not as smart as this guy, but that is why i am using a cap on my lowly TC4004. Can I hear a difference? Probably not. Except for the cost, will it hurt? Probably not.

Cheers!

I'm not the first to say it, but after having my own experience with caps, I can say that they do have a place in car audio and they're not just pieces of junk.

For the SPL fanatic, it looks like they do more harm than good, but for SQ purists, I think they cam be beneficial.

Click to read more...

 

[rc10mike 10+ year member]

Im thinking of putting my cap back in just because it has a voltmeter. I never noticed a SQ difference though,

 

[DB_DRAG_SPL 10+ year member]

Do you believe everything you read on the internet?

 

[SethPhillips 5,000+ posts]

ive got a cap. just no room for it in my car.. ive been thinking of putting a .5 farad cap in for my mid's and highs amp under my seat.

 

[TurdFergueson2 5,000+ posts]

So your music sounds better after installing it? I doubt that. Placebo effect if anything.

I think most are saying no to those that think that it will substitute for a battery. The threads you see say "Caps are useless, get a battery: I used one in my last install with a battery, and It was useless. Even the display gave off the wrong voltage. I was using the 3 farad Power acoustik.

 

[SRim23 5,000+ posts]

Do you believe everything you read on the internet?

clearly he doesnt since the beginning of his post is all about his own personal experience then he read that on the internet.

 

[jmanpc 5,000+ posts]

He is correct. Capacitors are good as a filter. But as a fix for dimming, no.

 

[XHiFiX 10+ year member]

Do you believe everything you read on the internet?

clearly he doesnt since the beginning of his post is all about his own personal experience then he read that on the internet.

LoL thanks for saying what I was about to... //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

 

[CadillacMatt 10+ year member]

Good for the "WOW, shiny bright lights" effect lol

 

[XHiFiX 10+ year member]

Good for the "WOW, shiny bright lights" effect lol

Well, I know what you mean... If the industry didn't market them as "bling" and "bass boosters", and actually stated what they're good for, I think they'd be better appreciated.

I didn't like the annoying blue flashing LED on my cap, as well as the shiny chrome finish, so I just painted mine lol...

 

[helotaxi 5,000+ posts]

The cap is wired in parallel the amplifier, battery and alt. There is no "in front of" and "after" the cap. Putting the cap in parallel at any point in the system would have the same effect. Don't believe everything that you read.

Voltage ripple is also only present with the alt spinning (car running). No SQ competition organization I know of has the car running during listening tests other than a test fro audible noise with a zero data track and that's a "yes" "no" test. It's a simple matter to eliminate audible noise from the system without a cap, in fact a good amp will have sufficient capacitance in the power supply for that purpose. Also consider that the power supply of the amp creates its own ripple and that would not be influenced by the cap at all...

 

[XHiFiX 10+ year member]

The cap is wired in parallel the amplifier, battery and alt. There is no "in front of" and "after" the cap. Putting the cap in parallel at any point in the system would have the same effect. Don't believe everything that you read.
Voltage ripple is also only present with the alt spinning (car running). No SQ competition organization I know of has the car running during listening tests other than a test fro audible noise with a zero data track and that's a "yes" "no" test. It's a simple matter to eliminate audible noise from the system without a cap, in fact a good amp will have sufficient capacitance in the power supply for that purpose. Also consider that the power supply of the amp creates its own ripple and that would not be influenced by the cap at all...

So are Capacitors useless?

 

[germandark 10+ year member]

So are Capacitors useless?

no, they are a good easy money maker for stereo shops.

they are cheap and don't do anything at all honestly. imo

if you really care that much about a "ripple" effect then just set up a separate electrical system with isolation from the vehicles 12volt system for all the other electrical components in the car.

also you could just go with an active crosser network, most decent digital processors know how to handle these type of problems. they're made for giving you a clean, optimized signal. why would manufactures spend money developing these processors and not have these problems taken care of and send unfiltered signals to be amplified? think about it, its fact so it shouldn't take that long to ponder.

/rant

 

[XHiFiX 10+ year member]

The cap is wired in parallel the amplifier, battery and alt. There is no "in front of" and "after" the cap. Putting the cap in parallel at any point in the system would have the same effect. Don't believe everything that you read.
Voltage ripple is also only present with the alt spinning (car running). No SQ competition organization I know of has the car running during listening tests other than a test fro audible noise with a zero data track and that's a "yes" "no" test. It's a simple matter to eliminate audible noise from the system without a cap, in fact a good amp will have sufficient capacitance in the power supply for that purpose. Also consider that the power supply of the amp creates its own ripple and that would not be influenced by the cap at all...

So are Capacitors useless?

no, they are a good easy money maker for stereo shops.
they are cheap and don't do anything at all honestly. imo

if you really care that much about a "ripple" effect then just set up a separate electrical system with isolation from the vehicles 12volt system for all the other electrical components in the car.

also you could just go with an active crosser network, most decent digital processors know how to handle these type of problems. they're made for giving you a clean, optimized signal. why would manufactures spend money developing these processors and not have these problems taken care of and send unfiltered signals to be amplified? think about it, its fact so it shouldn't take that long to ponder.

/rant

Not everyone uses their system under competition conditions. I would think the majority of people who enjoy this hobby actually listen and like to enjoy their music while driving...therefore the alternator has to run, along with the car's other noisy accessories and electronics on at the same time. You know, car + audio = car audio lol //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/wow.gif.23d729408e9177caa2a0ed6a2ba6588e.gif

I don't have the equipment to test the 20dB ripple reduction that Mr. Frederick states, but my OWN personal experience tells me that there is, at least in my system, a noticeable audible difference (ie. cleaner audio, better transients). So for a $30 cap (cheaper than some uber exotic super-low-noise RCA's that some people buy) I can't complain.

 

[AJ²06 5,000+ posts]

srsly? orly?