new battery or capacitor
- Thread starter bmw4life13
- Start date
Well first off is your amp 800watts? Because if it is the liklyhood of it actually pushing your sub/subs @ 800watts is very unlikely. It would be more so 500watts give or take. Maybe if the amp was struck by lightning would you push 800 watts or more. However If you have an 1000watts amp you might push 800watts but still it is ussally under that still. I do suggest a new battery. I would also suggest purchasing a good capacitor because you don't want to strain the battery too much, plus you will most likely stop seeing dimmed headlights and whatnot, and your system might sound a lil better. And if you have any noise distortion coming from the subs, the capacitor should remove that, since it would be the power source for the amp/ amps. Hope this helps you out a little bit. But I would def look into getting a new battery.
Patrick
Patrick
why would you say his amp isnt putting out the power he says? do you know what kind of amp it is?
definitely get a new battery. a red top should solve your dimming problem. it did in my old car.
you dont need a cap. it wont change the sound of your system and wont take strain off the battery. it will make your alternator work harder than it is already.
definitely get a new battery. a red top should solve your dimming problem. it did in my old car.
you dont need a cap. it wont change the sound of your system and wont take strain off the battery. it will make your alternator work harder than it is already.
I never said his amp wasn't putting out the power he said, all I said was that if he had an 800watt amp than it most likely is not pushing 800watts. If you read back and look what I said I also asked him if he had an 1000watt amp because if he did than he could easily push 800watts constantly. You are right Cap. do strain the alternator, but it is no more strain than the amp being powered by just the battery. All the cap. does is store extra juice so that you can have better output from your amps. If you don't belive anything I say than go ask a professional installer he will tell you the same thing. Just because an amp is rated high doesn't mean that it pushes that. For example I have a 500watts JL amp, I know for a fact that it does not push 500watts, it's prob. more like 350-400ish. I know all of this because at one time I knew nothing about sound equipment, and I though that I could get stuff that was rated high, and it would push high. I was wrong I went with inexspenive brands with the high ratings and all I got was crap, so a proffesional gladly talked to me about how the stuff really works. I am not saying that I am a professional by any means what so ever, so If you can't take my word for it than go and ask someone how is certified and can back themselves up. And no I don't know what kind of amp it is thats why I asked!
his amp isnt putting a strain on the battery because it is powered by the alternator when the car is running.
youre right about crappy brands being overrated but only a small amount of amps are like that. is your jl amp the 500/1? if so then it puts out a little over 500 watts. jl isnt a company to exagerrate their power ratings.
youre right about crappy brands being overrated but only a small amount of amps are like that. is your jl amp the 500/1? if so then it puts out a little over 500 watts. jl isnt a company to exagerrate their power ratings.
You both need to go to a professional dealer and talk. An Amp rated at 500 Watts, may or may not be pushing 500 Watts. It depends if its peak output power, or RMS (Root Mean Square, or in laymens terms, average) Power.
Typically Amps are rated at peak power outputs for marketing purposes, but honestly power doesn't mean much when it comes to sound quality. The ratings will also change specifically per amplifier depending on input voltage and current characteristics. You could provide 14.4V to an spectacular amp, yet be using 12 guage power wire and be pushing very little power out of it.
Also, another sympton of dimming lights is a bad power loop. If you have a bad, rusted, or corroded connection on the ground clamp, or for that matter, any electrical connections within the loop it will starve the current flow to the amps and cause a dimming of lights.
Get the true ratings of your amps, take into account the capacity of all power wires and grounds, and power specs on your electrical system as it stands (battery and alternator). From there you can calculate whether you need a CAP (size, and or # of) or a new battery, or even both.
And for that matter, when an amp is rated in peak power, its rarely ever provides that type of output, and when it does, its for a fraction of a second on certain types of music only.
Typically Amps are rated at peak power outputs for marketing purposes, but honestly power doesn't mean much when it comes to sound quality. The ratings will also change specifically per amplifier depending on input voltage and current characteristics. You could provide 14.4V to an spectacular amp, yet be using 12 guage power wire and be pushing very little power out of it.
Also, another sympton of dimming lights is a bad power loop. If you have a bad, rusted, or corroded connection on the ground clamp, or for that matter, any electrical connections within the loop it will starve the current flow to the amps and cause a dimming of lights.
Get the true ratings of your amps, take into account the capacity of all power wires and grounds, and power specs on your electrical system as it stands (battery and alternator). From there you can calculate whether you need a CAP (size, and or # of) or a new battery, or even both.
And for that matter, when an amp is rated in peak power, its rarely ever provides that type of output, and when it does, its for a fraction of a second on certain types of music only.
j2azz said it all basically. a cap will only help smoothen out the large draws of current from your alternator...thus improving the life of it and helping with large punches. find out what size your alt is...the amount of amperes it puts out. then get the rms rating of your amps, depeding on the load your amp is running at. then divide the the amount of watts by 14.4....that will tell you the amount of amperes your amp is using. subtract that nuber from the amount of amperes your alternator put out...and what you have left is what the rest of your car is running on...ie lights, anything electronic. for a bme, i'd think you'd want at least 60 or more amperes alone for your car to run on without overdrawing power from the alt.
![[?|]](/images/smilies/icon_smile_banghead.gif "Bang Head [?|]"){kind=icon}
![[confused]](/images/smilies/confused.png "Confused [confused]")
To add onto what jscar said, you have to think of it in terms of what a battery and capacitor actually do. In simple terms they store energy. So if you have a large current draw from your amplifiers, the extra capacity of the battery or amplifiers will compensate for that draw, and you don't see the lights "dim". However, all that energy that you drew from the system is now gone and needs to be recharged by the alternator.
When you buy a car, typicall they alternator is rated at different current and voltage outputs depending on RPM's of the engine. Many high end car audio enthusiasts will actually replace the alternator in the car itself. When you bought that car, for example, that alternator may have been rated at 60A at 14.4V. That is adequate to run the car itself, but not a current hungry stereo. So now when those batteries are being recharged, that 60A of capacity from the alternator is no longer available for the car itself, thus a lot of strain goes on the alternator.
But what if you have an alternator that outputs 100A? You already know your car will never use more than 60A, since thats what the factory rated it at, but you now have 40A spared just for your stereo, and to keep your batteries and capacitors charged.
Just another angle to think about if you have the money to spend.
When you buy a car, typicall they alternator is rated at different current and voltage outputs depending on RPM's of the engine. Many high end car audio enthusiasts will actually replace the alternator in the car itself. When you bought that car, for example, that alternator may have been rated at 60A at 14.4V. That is adequate to run the car itself, but not a current hungry stereo. So now when those batteries are being recharged, that 60A of capacity from the alternator is no longer available for the car itself, thus a lot of strain goes on the alternator.
But what if you have an alternator that outputs 100A? You already know your car will never use more than 60A, since thats what the factory rated it at, but you now have 40A spared just for your stereo, and to keep your batteries and capacitors charged.
Just another angle to think about if you have the money to spend.