second battery.

Hey can anyone recommend a decent 2nd battery for around 1000w rms system..I already have the big 3 upgrade and hear nothing but negative about caps. I get alot of headlight dimming at night and a voltage drop as low as 13.0v with the car on in park..Thanks.re audio!

What type of room do you have to work with??? and what kinda of car do you have??? If it's dropping to 13V that isn't exactly catastrophic. Another thing... What kinda of amp and subs are you running and at what final impedance? Also where is your amp grounded?there can be only one.......

Well as far as space i got quite a bit of space since it will be in the trunk.. And i am running a single 12" nvx vcw12 1000w rms, powered by a Belva BB2000D @ 2ohms. And its grounded to a bolt on the ground of the trunk with the paint sanded off. I was looking at a XS Power battery, it says it's perfect for 1000w systems. I used to have a kinetic red battery but it failed after like 2 years but i had it as my main battery.re audio!

XS Power should work wonderfully for your application. I work at a shop that sold Kinetik for several years and the XS Power stuff is head and shoulders better and it has a better warranty. I would probably look into either a S3400 or D3400. Either one packs enough punch to function as a starting battery too, but should be more than ample as a secondary battery.there can be only one.......

OK thanks. Do you think i should install a second battery or just get a good main battery for under the hood since right now i just got a regular battery.re audio!

you should definitely upgrade your main battery first because that will probably solve a lot of your problems and you wont have to give up any extra space or buy extra wiring for a secondary battery. i would also go with xs power if you can afford them.

I've written heaps on such issues... EG - if headlamp dimming is your concern, then second battery for your headlights - eg, a 1.2AH AGM etc tho 7AH is probably the best bang for bucks and overall life. But if not wanting to bother about paralleled battery issue and hence battery isolators etc, then a big cap should do - at the headlight supply. If you want a 2nd battery for audio performance whilst avoiding headlight dimming, then the usual auto-isolated AGM next to the amps. A 1kW RMS system is too small to require a cap for protection of the amp's adjacent AGM (unless maybe a small AGM of 7AH or less...).    IMO replacing front enginebay main (cranking) batteries with an AGM for the sake of a rear amp is a poor compromise. AGMs don't like cranking and its lower (internal) resistance is usually reapplied but the wiring to the amp. IMO adding the 2nd battery (AGM) is better. You don't lose your OEM cranking performance (nor impact vehicle warranties & battery life) and have the benefit of independent cranking if you discharge your 2nd battery. (And yes, the 2nd can be used to jump start the first...) Plus the hopefully negligible wiring resistance from AGM to amp. Voltage dips below "normal" 14.2V or 14.4V alternator voltages are an alternator issue though battery "surface charge" will act as a HUGE capacitor from the charging voltage downwards, and especially from ~13.7V to normal fully-charged battery voltages of ~12.7V. I've covered all above ad nauseam on this site (and mp3car.com). That includes caps, battery isolators, idiots on audio forums (& here), and the far rarer clever audio forum advice.

well as far as battery advice is concerned i would trust anything oldspark recommends. BUT, with that said, ive always been a fan of the benefits of simplifying your audio system and of the mantra of your system is only as good as the weakest piece of equipment( battery, amp, radio, eq, speakers, etc...) this is why i personally would try upgrading the main battery first. you dont have to change the type from lead/acid to AGM but at least upgrade to something with more juice overall. also as i was re-reading one of your posts i noticed that your amp is grounded to a bolt with the paint sanded off and you stated that you have done the big 3 upgrade. normally a factory bolt is not a very good place for a ground. for one thing, how far away from the actual amp is the grounding bolt? more than 12 inches? also just because you have the paint sanded off doesnt mean that the path back to the battery is low resistance. sometimes they will glue body panels together and then bolt them to the frame and depending on how this is done in your car in relation to where your amp ground is, then it might not be as good of a ground as you think. the best ground you can make is straight to the frame of the car just like the battery ground should also be straight to the frame. factory frame grounds can also be improved upon because they dont sand the metal down before they make the connections. the factory grounds basically run through the spots on the thread and bolt where the coating has been worn down by the bolt. if you want the best ground possible then take a wire wheel and sand a spot on the frame down to shiny metal and drill a pilot hole slightly smaller than the screw you plan to use to make your connection. do this a few times so you can drive a few screws through the connector ring into the frame. after you make a nice tight connection for your ground wire and are satisfied with how it performs, spray over any bare metal with some sort of rust protectant paint or undercoating so that your connection will last forever. repeat the same process for your amp grounds. i would suggest making one large ground and then using a ground block to split it into however many grounds you will need to run your system.

Thanks SnS. Tho maybe not obvious, I agree that a main battery upgrade is a good "single" upgrade and can only improve the existing performance. Apologies to tmorales509 and soundnsecurity for missing that or suggesting otherwise. My main points relating to a mere battery upgrade include: - changing wet lead acid to same sized AGM usually results in decreased battery life (or increased cost over life) due to cranking currents etc. But having a big enough AGM overcomes such concerns. - the wiring resistance from main battery to the amp can negate the lower resistance of substituting an AGM (eg, typically halving internal battery resistance from (say) 15mR to 7mR (R = Ohms). Sure, it's still better, but IMO frustrating because - assuming (say) 7mR wiring resistance, total resistance has only dropped from (say) 22mR to 14mR whereas that same AGM next to the amp means 7mR plus the hopefully negligible wire resistance to the amp. Of course for non-fully charged batteries, those cabling resistances become irrelevant. Adding the AGM as a second battery overcomes the above issues AND has the advantage of cranking ability if the amp's battery is flat - ie, battery independence (and backup for a failed main battery). However that requires an isolator which can be a mere relay (or buffer & relay) is controlled by alternator charge light circuits or air-flaps or spark sensing circuits (though alternator is best - you may not want battery sharing if the alternator has failed), or the IMO misnamed "smart" or voltage sensing battery isolators. (Never diode isolators!!!) I've written much about charge light controlled (and other) isolators and their simple additional manual controls. Later articles referred to these as the UIBI. Voltage control is inferior but necessary in some cases - eg, marine, some bikes & RVs, ie permanent magnet or stator type charging systems. But where such 2nd battery systems are not required or desired or cannot be implemented, it's a case of bigger/better main battery, adequately sized alternator, and reduced wiring resistance (Big-3 etc). Of course one way to reduce headlight dipping is to increase the resistance between the (main) battery and the amplifier. (Some claim bigger cabling to the amp reduces flicker.)