lack of power

I have had issues with stereos in my 97 Acura Integra. Even 4 6.5 inch speakers ran off an amp would make the lights dim. I then added another amp and powered a sub woofer. Obviously the car really didn't like that. After many blown speakers and subs I finally was able to upgrade the alternator. I went from 80 amps to 165 amps. I haven't tested it to see how much power it is actually putting out yet. I did the big 3 with 2 gauge wire. I have a 0 gauge power and ground wire for the sub woofer amp. I have a separate 4 gauge kit for the 4 way speaker amp. My current system is 2 6.5 inch infinity references powered by a RF 300.2 amp. The subs are 2 kicker 10" L7 in a sealed box. They are 1200 watts RMS powered by an Audiobahn 1800DT? amp which is 1200 watts RMS at 2 ohm which is how the subs are wired. I have a 3 farad cap that is wired in series for now and is powering the Audiobahn amp. My current issue is the fact that I just got the big 3 done. My voltage is at 14.5 on my Cap and about 14.4 at my amp. However when I play trance/techno the songs that don't even have much bass cause the voltage to drop to about 12.5 and then the amp clips. I notice that I have some pretty good RMS power. I can play rolling and continuous bass basically as loud as the bass spikes. Is this clipping caused by lack of voltage/current? Why does my system clip so easily? It should get a lot louder than it does before it clips. I noticed now that the voltage will be at 14+ then drop down to 12+ after some loud listening. If I play it loudly long enough it will drop to 12s then stay there until I turn it down. What is causing this and what can I do about it?

I just wanted to add that I am still running the stock battery which I believe has 625 cranking amps. Also my battery never seems to run down from my stereo. Ever.

The sound it self is clipping. The amp also has a peak meter? on it that shows red for clipping. I think you have a good point about the cap. I am actually using it because I have to go from 0 gauge to 4 gauge for the amp. So basically it's a reducer at the moment. That's why it is hooked up in serial. If you or others think it is worth while I will buy a power splitter or reducer and do away with the cap to see if it helps. If it is the cap what exactly is the problem with it? Old and crappy? Broken? Not large enough? To much load on the electrical system? I got the cap used and it was a deal with a bunch of other components I don't have anymore so it wouldn't surprise me if it has a problem. I do need to check the ground resistance. I will look for the article on this form. Thank you for your suggestions.

You say you hooked the cap "in serial."  Can you describe what you mean by this?  A cap is supposed to be connected in parallel with the amplifier power, if one is used at all.  And from your description it sounds like your amp is not clipping, it is shutting down in protection mode.  Clipping is distortion and does not shut the amp off.  Again, either your impedance is too low, your voltage is too low, you have a bad ground, or your gain is too high - or some combination of all the above.Support the12volt.com

The amp is not shutting off. It just does not play peaks well at all in the music. A bass drum is is very weak. However rolling continuous bass is rather loud. It seems like the amp lacks power when a peak comes and doesn't play the sound at a high volume. The voltage drops and the amp clips quickly. On rolling bass I can get a lot more volume before the amp clips. It is very disappointing because of the type of music I listen to. The speakers out shine the subs by a large margin. Sorry I have never had to describe this in text. The capacitor is hooked up incorrectly because I have to use it to reduce my cable size until I get the problem items. I have the power cable going to the capacitor then to the amp. However I also have the ground going to the capacitor then going to the amp as well. I have to do this because my power and ground are 0 gauge but the amp will only take 4 gauge or so. If you believe it will help I will buy the proper items today to reduce the cable size and get rid of the cap. I will check the ground resistance as soon as I can. I was going to do it anyway so this is a perfect opportunity. As far as getting gain I maybe a bit confused. I have two amps so I set one up to play at the volume I want without clipping at about 75% of my head units max volume. I then adjusted the sub woofer amp without bass boost to almost match it where I thought it sounded right. I then intended to use the equalizer on my head unit or the bass boost on the amp to make it louder when needed. However it isn't loud at all and it clips quickly. My friends comment on the subs not being nearly as loud as they were in other cars. Does lack of power to the amplifier cause this? What exactly happens when you don't have enough power for your amplifier? Thank you again.

To clarify a little bit the amp does get distorted when it clips. What would cause the voltage to drop so much and what can I do about it?

This is sounding a lot like a poor ground/positive supply issue to me. Check those leads.Ohm out and reduce as much resistance in positive feed cable to blocks/cap then clean and verify proper ground to chassis from the negative lead off the amp to cap, then to the floor pan. (Obtain, familiarize yourself and test with a digital volt-ohm meter) Incorrect grounding killed a friend's install that was displaying these same symptoms. It could hit and sustain long, deep bass but a sharp hit from a drum beat would sound like mud. He eventually set his carpet on fire like this and called me only after the smoke cleared. When tested, his ground was high through a 4 ga. 12" run to his chassis - about 2.3 Ohms. Scraping the area with a putty knife, polishing to bare metal with a steel brush and a star washer later, we were good at about as close to zero as god allows us mere mortals. ;)Life is too short to build slow computers or weak audio!

You may be right about the bad ground. I'm having a hard time finding a good ground in my car. Anyone know a good place to ground in a 97 Acura Integra? I'm getting to the point where I want to drill a hole and make my own. I'm kind worried about doing that though. I don't want to drill through something.

First things first, while you are in there verifying your ground and supply leads for as little resistance s possible, do what it takes to get that cap either removed from the loop altogether, but at least wire it correctly if you are going to keep it. Drawing current through it rather than across it will act like a huge series resistance. Wire it in parallel: Batt + -> fuse -> 0 ga to distro. block -> Capacitor + -> Amp + Batt - -> Chassis ground strap (big 3 should take care of this) -> Bare metal chassis connection to short pigtail near capacitor to cap. - terminal -> Capacitor - -> Amp - If you are having trouble getting heavier gauge wire stuffed under the power terminals on your amp - try this: If you have a 0 ga. distro block with 2, 4ga. taps - run a pair of 4 ga. from two ports on your block to the one positive terminal on your amp. On the two pigtails to the amp power terminals, crimp, solder and sleeve two 4 ga. lugs that are positioned 180 degrees in rotation to one another so that the spades are parallel and back to back to provide a thin enough profile to sit under the plate and screw. The rest you should be able to do and figure out with even a cheap W*lmart "Automotive" DVOM. (About $25 and pays for itself the first time it fixes something)Life is too short to build slow computers or weak audio!