Never had any dealing with these, can someone give me the low down on these. May want to incorperate one in my new install and want to find out all there is to know before starting :)

big capacitor mate - holds a charge ready to be released when your amps delivers the big bass notes and they hit hard to stop your lights dimming and take some strain off the alternator.

Rough concensus is that over 1000 watts it's advisable or a second battery or both.

again it's down to personal preference but many incorporate a volt meter in lcd form so you can keep track off your volts!!!

If you intend on showing it then get a bling one, if not just get a plain one

see this mate it may help

Power CAPs - Talk Audio Forums (http://www.talkaudio.co.uk/vbb/showthread.php?t=17906)

How much am i looking at for a blong one :D

Are they just wired in line to the main live, with its own remote, or no remote :wonder:

no remote mate but yes wired in line and earthed separately

pick em up for around a ton for a decent one but they do get extortionate so be warned.

Audiobahn (blingtastic), renegade - check out a car audio website for further prices like car audio bargains or such like and get a feel for the prices (oooh errr)

If you are going to use one be careful, where you install it and make sure nothing shorts out the contacts.
If you short one out you can get a big bang.
A mate shorted one out try to reach a screw and ,elted the screwdiver blade.

looks like at least another £100 has been added to the boot install cost :D

I have secured 2 X 1 farad Caps from a SNET member now, thanks for the advice guys :)

As a rough guide you would want to have about 1 farad per 1000wrms, it's just a suplimentary power supply thats generally needed for the hard hitting low bass notes as has already been said, bass needs to use more power from the amp to be produced so when you are playing it hard the amp will draw power from where it can.
An uprated power supply (bigger alternator) would be better to start with tbh, but they are ok if that isn't possible.
Another way of looking at it as well is that they also put extra demand on your existing alternator as it is another thing that will need to be charged (along with the battery and running the rest of the electrical system)
If your current alternator is not very good, adding more work for it to do i.e charge 2, 1 farad capacitors then you may find it will die pretty quick.
Caps are cheaper than uprated alternators though which is why they are prob so popular.

I was thinking of just adding one for now, leaving scope for later on as I plan to add more amps.

add it to power supply for the bass amp or if your are running multi channel amp put it there mate

Speaker sound reproduction doesn't take that much draw from your current whereas the bass will

Oh and the one fared cap will be fine as thats whats controlling my two!!!

understood, will be running seperate amps for bass and components, so run the cap into the supply for the bass one, would it have a negative effect if I ran one on the components amp also.

Only reason I ask is becasue I will have two so might as well use them if i can :)

I would definatly be looking at a bigger power supply if you are going to/maybe running 2000w's of Amplifiers, your car needs a certain amount of current just to run usually about 50-60amps in a car like ours (Subaru Impreza - lots of electronic bits to power up) your alternator is going to be about 90amp output iirc, this means that there is about 30 amps spare as it were,

Now on normal running of a couple of decent amps (PG, JL audio etc) at normal volumes you will be needing about 10-15 amps of power for them to run at the required volume (lets for arguments sake say a tad over normal speaking volume to someone 1 meter away) to get any louder you will need more input from the power supply as the amp is being asked to work more and thus will need more.
If you don't supply your amp the requisite power then its output is going to be vastly less than you expect.

To get a genuine 500wrms you are going to need about 60 amps going into the Amplifier! Rough guide as not all amps are the same. If that Amp isn't getting 60 amps then it isn't making 500watts.

To get a 3db increase you will need the following, double the power AND double the speaker area as well. 3db might not sound much but it was recognised as being the fiqure which was twice as loud as before e.g. if your system is 130db then twice as loud is 133db

I thnk i have just gone off at a bit of a tangent :freak3:

However, what i am trying to say is that they work but only in certain applications, and it's all dependant on your power supply and what Amps you are running.

I have one :D

it wont have a negative effect mate so dont worry about that just means that your amps will be better fed and able to cope with continuous power

understood, will be running seperate amps for bass and components, so run the cap into the supply for the bass one, would it have a negative effect if I ran one on the components amp also.

Only reason I ask is becasue I will have two so might as well use them if i can :)

Put them so that they feed the entire system. if your sub amp needs loads of juice cos it is being run hard it will take it from the nearest place it can i.e the other amp sitting next to it, which will result in less power for your components. to little power will kill your speakers easier than too much.

How much are the uprated alternators? I can see this being the start of a VERY slippery slope for me again, I do rememeber something about a yellow top battery being mentioned but also with a £300 price tag :eek:

stinger do a battery (in my boot) for 150 and it is more than ample for what it is needed for but IIRC yellow tops are around 200 quid

same sort of money iirc, they may have changed as i havn't looked into it for a while, Optima batteries used to be about 180, these are worth getting, they have a much deeper cycle than a normal battery and will last longer whilst being used and take more charges/discharges

p.s. alternator is fine as there are still spare amps even after my build

dont know how he checked but he told me coz i asked the same question

So would an additional battery be a good alternative to the alt?

Im assuming i would need to install some kind of split charging system

definately mate and a split charge system is about a score

Do they look like car bateries though, or can you display them as part of your install?

they do like car batteries but lary colours (some) and sure you can display them as part of your install. depends on space and where you mount it but definately - show it off

yes you will need a split charging system but it will be another thing for your existing alt to charge, it it is not an alternative to an uprated alternator.

Best option would be to fit what you have and see from then on what you need to do, it's not compulsory on every system, they all should be considered individually really, some cars are better at it than others.

I have 2 Pg Xenon amps - a 600/2 and a 400/1 i have Boston Acoustics Z6 components and a JL Audio 10W7. A 1 Farad cap, am happy with mine and will not be getting an uprated alternator or a split charging system. If i was competing then things would be a bit different.

:thumb:

sorry was replying to line 2 in post 20 (didnt read it properly) thanks for the correction

no worries, this can be a bloody minefield if you let it be, sometimes it best to keep it simple and just see how it goes

...To get a 3db increase you will need the following, double the power AND double the speaker area as well. 3db might not sound much but it was recognised as being the fiqure which was twice as loud as before e.g. if your system is 130db then twice as loud is 133db...

Sorry to continue the nerdy :sleep: side of this, but...

To get a 3dB increase you need to double the power (assuming the 'speakers can handle it and power compression isn't a factor...).

3dB doesn't sound like much, and it isn't as far as your ear goes.

To sound twice as loud you need to get about 8 to 10dB more.

Generally speaking, a 100W amplifier will only sound twice as loud as a 10W one (similarly, a 1,000W amplifier will only sound twice as loud as a 100W one etc.).

Life's unfair! :D

ps given the choice of a power cap or a split charge system and secondary battery, get the second battery every time. The cap will only be able to deliver a short 'burst' of power, fine for a transient signal but not much good for long bass notes.

If you do use a cap, then wire it as close to the amp as you can.

There have been some excellent well thought out answers in both my threads, thanks guys for your efforts and advice :thumb: :thumb: