do i need a capacitor?

[maluskeeter]

getting a new system two jl 12" w3v2 and hifonics monoblock 1600d amp but dont know if i really need a capacitor or not? i dont want to kill my battery with this system but dont know if a capacitor will really help b/c i see many systems without one... actually i really dont know what the actual purpose of them is?


thnks

 

[spikehairboy]

They are a waste of money and they only help stabilize the voltage not the ampreage. If your really worried about eletrical problems, I would look into a Jacob's Voltage Stabilizer. Its a little gadget that can output any voltage no matter of load size.

Maybe you should upgrade the size of wire u run. i switched to 4 gauge and stopped having dimming.


just see how well a cap helps when your playing your system full on for sayyy 7 minutes.. caps dont make power they take power

 

[tisguy]

well current= V/R, so with your explanation a cap will indeed have effect on amperage. current is proportional to voltage. if voltage goes down, current will go down, resistance remains constant. Another thing if I recall correctly is once the cap is charged, it becomes a break in the circuit(in parallel), so the current will still run to the amp anyways (reason why they have you charge the cap before putting it into the set up).

wire size helps a bit, but if the system demands a lot, wire size wont do any good.

someone correct me if I'm wrong here.

 

[speedin]

well current= V/R, so with your explanation a cap will indeed have effect on amperage. current is proportional to voltage. if voltage goes down, current will go down, resistance remains constant. Another thing if I recall correctly is once the cap is charged, it becomes a break in the circuit(in parallel), so the current will still run to the amp anyways (reason why they have you charge the cap before putting it into the set up).

wire size helps a bit, but if the system demands a lot, wire size wont do any good.

someone correct me if I'm wrong here.

You got it. Capacitors can eliminate ripples. If a line carrying DC voltage has ripples or spikes in it, a big capacitor can even out the voltage by absorbing the peaks and filling in the valleys. Ripples = fading. Capacitors are also used to store charge for high-speed use. Basically a flash of voltage. It can just dump all its voltage at once, a battery cant. This is for those BIG hits of the sub.