Power caps??

oooo, power caps all over again lol

i ended up getting one, smallest petrol engine therefore smallest battery and alternator and i thot why not, if you can get one cheap theyre a nice addition to a sound system. they certainly assist the sound system, they point is that the assist in giving the additional power required for some notes though they arent a dedicated source, wer'd you get 1 farad for every 40 watt rms stu? i find them a bit overpriced new specially out of my work lol. so for your money you can get better out there to beef up the sound more, sound proofing is a good place to start

bigger battery and fatter cable is a better place to start.

I used to be in contact with a couple of guys in America. I met them when i was very young doing my first install and these guys are absolutely brilliant at electrical and sound space mathematics. I understand that there are a number of very complex mathematical equations involved in Audio design but i havnt learnt it yet so i cannot say that it is gospal truth but you should see some of the installs that they have built, they showed me a civic and said that they couldnt turn it up very high because it sets off the alarm on a car a block away and my got it was actually like being hit in the face with a brick it was that good.

well i have to study how sound waves behave for my course in uni, and i learn the electrical side of things from my job. now 1 farad per 40 watts rms seems really small. a power cap isnt there to power the system, it simply gives assistance, for example, if you have say a 4 farad power cap, which is a fairly decent size, 8 gauge running to it, running say a 1000 watt max active sub and amp. the 8 gauge may be adequate for most of a song, but on certain notes the power required for the amp needs 4 gauge wiring to get the power from the battery adequatly, but if a power cap is close to the amp and is connected by only a foot of 4 gauge then the power cap will have delivered the power required for that note before the battery even knows there was a demand

Right well what your saying is quite possibly true and taking into account that 1000w max is about 300RMS A 4 farad cap will give you 75w per farad so its not that far off what i said really. But you also have to take into account that a decent 4 farad cap will cost you in xcess of £200 and to upgrade an 8 gauge wiring kit to a 4 gauge will cost you what £20 i know what i would rather do.
Also everything to do with car audio depends on what amount you spend on it as their figures are often much overrated on cheap stuff so its no use spending £60 on a supposidly 60 farad power cap because the figures are nonsence.

i know what your saying but 6m length in cable is quite a bit for demand and supply to travel to hit an instant note, even in 4 gauge. 4 farad is a bit much, the technology has to improve for prices to become reasonable but up to 3 farad the prices arent too bad for an improvement on the sound system which can supply those peaks on power only when needed. a foot of 0 gauge wouldnt cost that much if paired with a capacitor and deliver near as much power for the savings in using 4 gauge to the cap instead of zero gauge

You need to go off what sort of current your amp/s can potentially pull and base the cable gauge from that. If you need a cap to compensate for that lack of cable size then really all youare doing is addressing the symptom and not the cause.

I reckon that a run of 0awg and no cap would cost as much, if not cheaper, than using a short run of 0awg, a cap and a run of 4awg to the battery.

I completely agree my o gauge wiring kit cost me £90 which is slightly over the odds and that came with all the battery terminal, earth terminal, distribution blocks, rem wire and connectors which is about the price of a good 2 farad cap. Only thing that i had to buy was the Preout Leads which are as cheap as chips. Now im putting a battery in the boot so i wont even need the main stretch of Power cable which is a bit of a bummer but oh well.

try obeying the laws of acoustics to see how much better it sounds, the difference is amazing.

1 headunit
1 pair of componets (seperate mids, tweeters and passive crossovers)
1 amp for the components (2 channels @ 4 ohms)
1 sub in box
1 amp for sub (1 channel at 2ohms)


it wouldnt be too wrong of you to fit a matching set of components to the rear and use a 4 channel amp for all the comps. you can also go for 2 subs and use a 2 channel @ 2 ohm amp. if you're feeling special go for 1 ohm stable amp and a suitable matching sub.

remember the only wattage that means anything is RMS

whatever you do, only buy good quality gear. its far far far better to spend £100 on a decent set of components (e.g. alpine SPR-13S) than £150 on 3 sets of halfords 6x9s.

if i was u id go to a really good car audio shop no halfords r places what sell everythin for cars go to a full on car audio shop and ask about setups they recomend. Also like u im into my sound systems im runin 2 12inch awe12ps at 1ohm and 1 a18001dt amp also got a fusion set of 6.5 nv series and a fusion amp to match all bein run off a jvc avx11 head unit and also got a 5farad power cap and u can trust me u dont need 6x9s if u got a gud sub and speakers. if you look my my audiobahn equipment u will c its top end gear no cheap rubbish an i get looks everywere i go if i crank it up more than 5 on the head unit

I decided to try and stick with one manufacturer, alpine, even tho i like the sound of JBL speakers and had a brilliant MTX amp, i went for an alpine media head unit then from there went for a 4 channel V12 amp for X series componants and a Monoblock V12 amp for sub, all in all sounds ok.

But the only think not alpine was the power cap, lol

i went for jbl sub x 2
jbl amp x 2

again... the power cap wasn't jbl

Do you notice a common thing here Good companies dont make power cap's cos there s**t.
Says me with one but they do make it easier to see battery voltage whilst working on.