Capacitors

[silverado71 10+ year member]

How do you know if you need a cap?

What does a cap do to help if your lights arent dimming?

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[Savstyle 10+ year member]

you dont need a cap, ever there useless and dont help anything. there jus eye candy

 

[gHOstFaCe 10+ year member]

Nothing really.

There are some long posts about this, just do a search. Most would agree that a cap is not worth the money.

 

[jrz126 10+ year member]

What does a cap do to help if your lights arent dimming?

yes a cap would help for dimming headlights....as long as you connect it to the power wire for the headlights. I could get into a long explaination about RC time constants and throw out a bunch of formulas and whatnot, but lets just say that since headlights draw alot less amperage than the amp, then the cap would stay charged longer. It would only last for a certain time before the headlights start to dim.

 

[knukonceptz 10+ year member]

Caps are not worthless, but most times a battery would be a better solution to most users problems. Perfect world solution is one battery, one cap. Problem is in a perfect world we all have a perfect budget for that perfect system......we are all flawed....LOL

 

[TypeRBass 10+ year member]

if you listen to rap, bass, music with long bass notes, etc....a cap is useless. and ifi you get one with all the little mumbo jumbo lights on it...it serves no purpose at all. then again if you listen to music like rock and what not without a solid bass note...they will work for you in that application. if you dont, get a second battery.

 

[knukonceptz 10+ year member]

If caps are worthless, why are they used in every amplifier's power supply? Because they lessen the fluctuation of voltage, hence the name stiffening capacitor. They store current that is already on hand and deliver it instantly. Now a battery creates an additional supply of current, making the system capable of twice the current draw (assuming you have two identical batteries) Making it a great solution for high powered systems and since batteris install just like a cap, they can easily be added in place or in addition to.

I am not saying they are the best solution, but they are not as worthless as they are made out to be. To say listening to rap or R&B will make the cap ineffective is not a true statement. Do you think it takes a cap a full second to recharge, electricy moves pretty quick (speed of light er some thing...lol) So any break in beat, the cap has recharged. Sure you can have 6 sub amps and one cap, that would be worthless... I am talking average systems, one or two amps and a 1 or 2 farad cap.

Now test tones/sweeps will render a cap helpless. I would say that a cap will improve effeciency of a power supply and in turn improve SQ. Most rap tunes are not used for SQ judging so I guess thats another strike on the cap.... //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/wink.gif.608e3ea05f1a9f98611af0861652f8fb.gif