do i need a capacitor
Printed From: the12volt.com
Forum Name: Car Audio
Forum Discription: Car Stereos, Amplifiers, Crossovers, Processors, Speakers, Subwoofers, etc.
URL: https://www.the12volt.com/installbay/forum_posts.asp?tid=13666
Printed Date: July 14, 2025 at 6:53 PM
Topic: do i need a capacitor
Posted By: saiful
Subject: do i need a capacitor
Date Posted: May 18, 2003 at 4:49 AM
i want to run a 12" sub through a 1 channel amp can anyone tell me if i need a cap and what difference does it make? thanx. ------------- saiful
Replies:
Posted By: tdsteele
Date Posted: May 18, 2003 at 8:47 AM
Nope, would be a waste of money more than likely but just for the sake of info, what kind of sub and amp do you have in mind?? What will the rest of the system consist of??
Posted By: showdwar
Date Posted: May 18, 2003 at 10:00 AM
saiful, Well the rule is 1.0 farad for every 1000 amps (.5 farad for 500amps). I am also in a stump on this in another post. What is the wattage on your Sub and what are you putting out with your Amp? These are the key determinates.
Posted By: Jussi
Date Posted: May 18, 2003 at 12:01 PM
showdwar wrote:
saiful,
Well the rule is 1.0 farad for every 1000 amps
1000 amps.????
You mean 1000W... don't you? ------------- Installer/Owner
JL-Autosound
Helsinki, FINLAND
Posted By: red_1
Date Posted: July 08, 2003 at 2:26 AM
It all depends on the type of music you listen to. If you listen to music with a lot quick, sudden hits (rock) a cap would be a great choise. But if you listen to music with a lot of bass like rap, a cap would be a waist of money
Posted By: fuseblower
Date Posted: July 08, 2003 at 8:46 AM
In my opinion you don't need a cap, I would say save your money and opt for a optima battery if you feel that you need to upgrade something..
Posted By: emarald
Date Posted: July 08, 2003 at 9:31 AM
Personally I don’t have a cap but my friend recons that he can play for longer with the cap than before he had it, aka his battery would run out of juice a lot quicker. Note in an amp the power supply side requires a certain amount of capacitors to supply high drain peaks to prevent the transformer from completely unloading, this can be worked out precisely when designing an amp and quality manufactures will ensure that there is more than adequate capacitance built into the amp. Car batteries take about a tenth of a second to recover from a short high current power draw and caps take less than 1 microsecond to refresh, where caps really save you money is when the supply voltage drops to below 12v, amps will draw more current to make up for the lower voltage and this extra current gets dissipated as a lot of extra heat, with a cap in the middle, aka a 20v cap, voltage will build up in the cap to it's rated voltage and that's what will get dumped to the amp, of course if the battery is to low to charge the cap before the next high draw........smoke!!!!! ------------- I need more power.....
Posted By: Sebastian018
Date Posted: July 08, 2003 at 9:35 AM
First, if you see your lights are dimming, you should get first a HIGH oUTPUT ALTERNATOR, SECOnd Yellow TOP OPtima.....
Posted By: speedwayaudio1
Date Posted: July 08, 2003 at 9:56 AM
Seb018 is right you need to up grade your alternator. 200 ampers should be more than enough to do the job. if you still want a cap do it after the alt and batt up grade. I run a 200amp alt. 2 duralast 1000amp batts under the bonett and a 400 amp 200 farad battcap at the amps. I have no troulbes feeding my amps all the power they need. I run a 2000wrms classD and a 800wrms class AB and a 370wrms class ab. with 8 12's 4 6x9's 2 6.5 comps 2 5.25's and 2 4's and 2 tweets. If you want to see the battcaps go to www.battcap.com ------------- Big Dave
Posted By: speedwayaudio1
Date Posted: July 08, 2003 at 10:01 AM
I'm sorry wrong address for batcap. www.batcap.net that will get you there. ------------- Big Dave
Posted By: MAXST
Date Posted: July 08, 2003 at 12:06 PM
first you get a battery. and a cap..if your still dimming-shouldnt be. then you get a bigger alt. I had this problem in my 79 civic..rigged a system up..put more wattage head lights...power was sevely drained...i got a bigger battery..problems solved. stock alt works fine and charges right. ------------- I need quality equipment, feel free to donate.
Posted By: MAXST
Date Posted: July 08, 2003 at 12:08 PM
cant edit.... Should have put this in but i just remembered..you need to calculate your draw and match that up to your alt's output. IF its higher..then yes time for a bigger alt. ------------- I need quality equipment, feel free to donate.
Posted By: fuseblower
Date Posted: July 08, 2003 at 12:19 PM
What kind of amp do you have and what kind of car is the system in? An upgrade to your alternator and charging system can become expensive especially when not necessary. First look to see if your lights are diming when you air is on at night, if not you are fine.
Posted By: pmh61
Date Posted: July 08, 2003 at 5:48 PM
well to save some money try this first up grade all power and ground wires so the match if you are running 4/g use it on everything. but for the dimming upgrade your ground wire on the alternator it will get rid of almost all of it if not all. cuz a stock alternator i only like 10/g maybe 8/g if you do that it will help out alot and save you alot of money
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