should the power rating of any capacitor or inductor be around the RMS value or the Peak value? i would assume that RMS would be fine but i just wanted to ask.
Are you talking about crossover components?
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Support the12volt.comGenerally inductors will handle any power amplifier, but use larger gage inductors (with lower DCR) in higher power applications, and in general don't use inductors made from less than 18AWG wire. Capacitors are a different story. Caps are rated by the voltage they can safely handle, and most non-polar capacitors suitable for crossover use are rated at either 50, 100 or 250 volts. For car audio, it is generally fine to use 100V rated capacitors as these can handle up to about 2500 watts into a 4-ohm load. Oh, and always, always, always use RMS ratings when discussing power.
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Support the12volt.comnow do i have to go to a specified car audio electronics dealer to get rip me off pricing or can i go to any industrial electronics store to buy just general stuff? and if im looking through general electronics items.. are there any sort of discharge capacities or something that i should look at?
so with the coils the powerhandling isnt specified on the devices? something tells me otherwise. and 100 volts? so my 4 ohm 50 watt speakers draw 500 mA?
1: No, any non-polarized capacitor will function in a crossover, even the ratshack has 'em... not great quality, but functional. Speaker City in LA has primo quality
caps and
coils. Caps have a given discharge rate across a given resistance (it's called DeltaT), but that specification will have no basis in your figuring of crossover values.... All you need to look at is the value, in microFarads (uF), and the voltage they can handle safely - 50 to 100 volts, minimum...
2: No, coils do not have a power handling, especially if you use a coil of sufficient gauge wire, so as to not be a significant resistance in the circuit - no resistance, no voltage drop, no power dissapated. One thing to keep in mind, however... As your inductance goes up, the resistance of the coil does too, so your highes value inductors should also be the largest wire size.
3: Trust DYohn and me (we've BOTH built our share of passive crossovers), 100 volts, and no lower. It matters not one iota how much current you speakers draw. What matters is the voltage your amplifier makes... Any decent quality cap will be rated at a minimum of 100 volts anyway, so don't worry about the voltage - except 100 volts minimum. End of story here, man...
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It all reminds me of something that Molière once said to Guy de Maupassant at a café in Vienna: "That's nice. You should write it down."