Tempe's Novel on Capacitors

[Tempe]

I am very much against capacitors. There are the times when they do help, but it is not going to do what most people expect. How do I know? I have a Lightning Audio Strike 1 farad capacitor that is sitting on a shelf in my girlfriend’s closet. Obviously, it not installed anymore. If you go into Best Buy and look at the Rockford Fosgate capacitor they have there, it is displayed with a tag that boasts about how it will boost your bass response and whatnot. It makes me laugh

Here is a quote from crutchfield.com:

"Looking for crushing, world-destroying bass but getting dimmed headlights instead? Car batteries are slow to deliver the kind of power your amps need to give you tight, powerful bass hits. These massive capacitors eliminate that problem by storing reserve power and then delivering it lightning-fast just when your amps need it most.

"Lightning Audio's Strike Caps act as a buffer zone between your amp and your battery, getting the juice to your bass for maximum performance. The LS10 1-farad capacitor can be used with amplifiers producing up to 1,000 watts RMS. Ground cable and appropriate connectors required."

Quote:

Looking for crushing, world-destroying bass but getting dimmed headlights instead?

Please notice how they never claim that the capacitor would actually help deliver "crushing, world-destroying bass." The wording is rather tricky. They want the consumer to believe that the capacitor will allow your amps and subs to deliver "crushing, world-destroying bass."

Quote:

That's why you see external capacitors in just about every stereo competition vehicle.

That statement is far from the truth. Most SPL competitor cars do NOT use them due to the simple fact that once the cap is drained, the cap becomes an additional load on the electrical system. This will actually lower the output of your system instead of improving it. Finally, a huge company such as Crutchfield should have excellent editors working for them. In this quote, the demonstrative pronoun "that" has no antecedent. The same holds true for all those term papers where people end it with "this proves my point," where no antecedent is given.

Now for some people that primarily listen to rock, country, or other music that does not have long bass passages similar to rap, they may say that a capacitor actually improves the response. I might be open to listen to their argument. If the person listens to mainly rap, I would find it hard to believe his/her claim. Again, the capacitor spills its load quickly and cannot draw enough power to stay ahead of the power consumption of the amplifier(s).

Ok... Pull up a tall beer, kick back, and enjoy these links:

• Why Caps are Useless, by Member 02
• Richard Clark is willing to pay $5,000 to anyone who can prove that certain capacitors such are worthwhile
• Topic: CAPS suck why?
• CT dispels myths about capacitors
• Richard Clark tests a system with and without a cap
• Additional information about caps

The first link by my bud Member 02 is my favorite. The second link is 5 pages long! Richard Clark writes a HUGE novel about capacitors, which is a must-read! The third post has many newbies posting, but Gary Bell
has some excellent comments that are both pro AND con about capacitors. The other posts are also very good reading.

In closing, lets go back to what I said earlier about my Lightning Audio capacitor. I removed it over the summer and cannot tell any difference in sound or bass response. In fact, my SPL score went up after removing the cap. It went from 136.0 to 138.2 after removing the capacitor..

Tempe

(Although I composed this tutorial previously, I figured I would post it here to include in our FAQ thread.)

[Old_Guy]

When I first did install,lights would dim when big bass hit.Put in 1 farad Monster cap.Problem solved.

O_G

[WhiteZQ8]

if your into more than just playing test tones caps will work for you

[Tempe]

I cannot tell any difference in my system since removing my capacitor...

Tempe

[WhiteZQ8]

I've gone both with and without caps in quite a few installs, made a huge difference in a couple of cars(2 farads on a stock ford probe electrical system 2 punch 200ix's), and not much of a difference in others(cars with big beefy electrical systems)

it isn't very good if your going for SPL, like you said it takes energy to fill the cap

but the difference comes with the quickness with which the bass hits, double bass and such

if your the average joe schmoe a cap is a good thing.....I think

[USEENMYBEER]

I agree that caps r good for the purpose at hand, in my opionon they help with the dimming of the lights. Other then they help with the extra boost the amp needs I FIND THAT HARD TO BELIEVE. I use them just for the fact the lights dim when I hit higher bass lines. I use a American Accessories 1 fared cap when I had my last system hooked up and I wouldnt dim nomore, now Im not useing it on my new system I just installed and I'm paying the price for it with the dimming and low volt readings..

I guess its mainly up to the consumer on what they decide is best for them. IMO I recommend ppl haveing caps if they want the dimming lights to be to a bare minium, but again its up to the consumer.

PLEASE ENJOY YOUR DAY....

[blu00]

I think that caps work for ceritan applications i have had many different setups with no cap but when i built my most recent system (2 81000d's , 6304 4 channel and 6 type r 12's) the alt caught on fire so i had to replace it at that time i also put in there exide orbital batteries (i think they r better than optimas) and still had a bit of a dimming problem and truck actually stalled a couple of times. Then i went overboard and bought the biggest cap they had at the local car stereo shop which is the Alumapro 15 fard cap. Not a 1.5 but a 15 and it made the world of difference plus it has a built in distro for both power and ground hell yeah i suggest it to anyone who is building a big system .

[DogP]

Well... I'm not gonna get into a debate about caps... I like mine, I've got reverse indiglo gauges which are really sensitive to voltage changes, so when my subs were hitting, my guages were flickering like crazy... I figured I should get a cap, so I did, and now they don't flicker any more... I didn't notice any difference in sound (good or bad), and if I lose 2 db's, I don't really care, I'll just crank it up louder . It's not like I have my system up to it's full potential very often.

So in conclusion... I like my cap for the purpose of keeping my system from screwing w/ my lights.

DogP