I NEED SOME PROFESSIONAL HELP. MY HEADLIGHTS DIM WHEN I PUSH MY MUSIC. I KNOW IT'S THE LACK OF CURRENT THAT CAUSES THE PROBLEM. SHOULD I GET A CAPACITOR FIRST OR SHOULD I GET THE YELLOW TOP. A 1 FARAD CAP BRAND NEW IS ABOUT $120 AND A USED YELLOW TOP IS ABOUT $120.

 

go w/ a 1 farad cap...
atw

 

what brand would you prefer?

 

dont know all that much bout bass caps/farad caps/power caps/capacitor whatever you wanna call em, but i have a Lightning Audio and its doing its job
atw

 

Go find one on eBay. I got a brand new 1 farad RF cap for $75 with $13 shipping. Stay away from the Legacy and Pyramid cheapy ones if you can. You'll see the crappy ones out there for $49-$60. Be careful. Good luck bro!

 

Fosgate, Lightning audio and Audiobahn make good caps.

 

Eagle Power is another good one.. They're one of the actual makers of the stuff, unlike Rockford and people like that... they just buy them from the manufacturers and print their names on them.

blah blah blah..
I bought a brand new Eagle Power 2F cap for $200 the other day. straight from the local dealer.

 

Pearl, do you know what you are talking about dude? Those are probably the worst caps in the industry along wth the Alumapro "CAP" (yes, its all hype). The cap I would trust 100% would be Stinger's cap by Richard Clark and Davide Navrone. Those are the guys who were first to develope capacitors strictly for car audio. I use ARC ones just because they go well with my system and mostly because Brax makes them for ARC Audio. And you know what kind of products BRAX produces.

As for the original question. Run 1 cap for each 1k RMS watts and that can help you with dimming. I'd get Optima Yellow top just because it is one basass puppy!

 

Just going on what i've heard....i don't have a cap yet, but if you say those are crap, I won't buy one. I'll look into the Eagle Power caps like Matt said and the Stingers.
Thanks

 

Quite honestly, I would get both!!! Infact I have both. Well, actually an Optima Red Top and a Phoenix Gold 1.2F cap. Never had an issue with my lights dimming and that's with a 1kW+ system. I will be pushing ~1.5kW when it's all said and done!!

 

Ok, since you guys know about caps....i've heard 2 diff. things. I went to a stereo shop and they told me that the cap had to be a certain distance from the battery. And then went to Best Buy and they told me it had to be a certain distance from the amp. Who's right here...i'm gonna install it myself and who's answer should i follow?
thanks...blake

 

Without doing any research I am 99% sure that it needs to be as close to the amp as possible. That way the power will suffer less voltage drop between the cap and amp. And this is the only way I have seen it done. Another advantage of a cap is that it isolates most alternator whine from the amplifiers.

Reference the Alumapro Cap I believe Richard Clarks view on this issue is wrong. I agree with most of the things he says, but not this. I have had zero trouble with my CAP, installed about two years ago. A normal car audio cap has a 1 - 2 year half life. Numerous competitors and SQ fanatics use the alumapro without any power issues. There was a great review of the 5 farad version in Car Sound a couple months ago. And they come with all necessary connectors.

 

That is what i thought...being as close to the amp as possible. It makes more sence that way, unless i put in a seperate battery in the trunk. Thanks bro.

 

The only time a second battery is useful is when the engine is off. So unless you keep the stereo on while washing the car or sitting in parking lots for hours one stock capacity battery is plenty.

 

hmm. can someone please list the 5 best caps out there? 1 farad that is..

 

1 Brax
2 Stinger
3 ?
4 ?
5 ?

 

I have both, and my lights still dim a little bit.

 

You dont seem to be drawing that much power either. I have a brax x2000 amp, and that thing dims like crazy (but no cap).

 

Dude, did you charge the caps? And recheck the wiring. I mean that one little bitty RF amp shouldn't dim the lights with a 1/2 farad cap.

 

uhhh, if the cap is wired into the system, it will be charged. as soon as you connect the wires to it and connect it to the rest of the system, it charges to the system voltage.


If the battery itself is weak, it can cause the lights to dim.. if the alternator isn't running up to par, the lights will dim. if the power wires are too small, the lights will dim. there's about a zillion reasons the lights will dim, even on a system that should be up to spec.

 

When you first get a cap you have to charge it....to do it, it usually comes with a resistor that you connect to it and it will charge the cap...you only have to have it on there a couple seconds and the resitor will get hot...after you should check the voltage the cap is puuting out..if its right around 12 your good it its too low charge it some more.

 

And a cap typically has a voltage that it tries to sustain. I think that is why I always have plenty of voltage at my amps, regardless of whether the car is at idle or not, since my OG, like all Delco alts, doesn't turn on till at least 1000 RPM's.

 

1.2 Farad 24v Capacitors W/ LED display shipped for $110.00

E-mail me at: Sales@McSierra.com

 

anyone have any suggestions on how to mount the yellow-top (other than the FAQ's)? I am getting one, as my OEM is dying a crusty death.

 

Um, maybe a battery tray? If the factory tray isn't large enough they sell a larger tray at places like Trak Auto.

 

I'd actually run 2 farads for anything between 1-2k watts... 1 farad for anything under 1k watts