I have honestly explained this tons of times.

A capacitator is a bandaid and not a solution.

Where does the cap draw its power?

 

is this a quiz? wrong section for that. weve all had to answer the same tired old questions time and time again. If you dont like it get off the internet and become a writer.
a capacitor will work just fine unless you are pushing some serious wattage and competing in sound competitions on a regular basis. it may not be ideal, but not everybody wants to upgrade their alternator and install a second battery in the trunk. really, for casually listening to music i dont see why a capacitor would be a problem

 

he's just naysaying, capacitors are used by anyone who is serious about their systems. he's for lack of a better word a [:-]"noob"

 

i know. and asking "where does it get its power" is a ridiculous question. if its just a bandaid what is the solution?

 

This noob wrote up this sticky. So obviously You fail.

If You use a capacitor, then You have very little knowledge about car audio.

/end thread.

 

if you want /thread then all you have to do is ask. from what I remember you are barely tolerated at MF due to similar attitude issues....

why dont you take some time to expain WHY a capacitor is bad, and how you would fix it? from what I can tell, there is no issue in using one for a moderate system.... as i said, not everyone wants to run quad gel batteries and a specialized alternator to run a competition style system. all he wants is to keep his headlights from dimming.... capacitor will do that, will it not?


I should add, im not claiming to know more about audio than anyone in here. im just telling you to justify what you are saying instead of being a *******

 

A cap stores energy that is used to deliver to the amp when the car's volts drops below whatever Your car's alt puts out. I think mine is like 13.5 or so. After the cap has shot its juice to the amp it then draws more power from the alternator, thus, putting a terrible strain on Your electrical system.

Now, if You had the big 3 upgraded. Which would cost considerably less. Then You would, most likely, not find Yourself in this situation. And You would be $20 richer, and not own a $40 paper weight.

 

Sorry Hiss, I'm going to have to disagree with you here. Number one, I think you're getting a few of your terms mixed up. It's not a matter of how much voltage you can put out it's the amount of current you can supply. I can output 25 volts but only be able to provide 1mA of current. Likewise I can get almost infinite current (read electric arc) for a short amount of time with a potential of only 25 V. If anything I would argue that a slow discharge capacitor would relieve the strain on your electrical system and here's why. The time constant of a capacitor to charge/discharge is RC where the resistance is in series with the capacitor. If you don't have a capacitor the capacitance of your power providing system is only dependent on the innate capacitance of the wires and other components,we'll assume this is zero for the point of the argument. This effectively means the time it takes to discharge the entire system is instant (in all reality it's not, but it's pretty close...). If you have a capacitor you are simply increasing the amount of time the electrical system has to respond to any given current draw. This means that although the alternator has to run a little longer it doesn't have to work as hard while it's doing so. Either way you look at it the energy has to come from somewhere, if you use a cap in the immediate sense it comes from the cap and then gets recharged over time, and if you upgrade the big 3 it comes instantly. A cap doesn't mean you use more energy, it just gives you some room for your system to catch up.

 

The only thing I said about voltage is that my alternator puts out 13.5v.

And You just said it Yourself that the Big 3 upgrade is a better option.

 

It's not a matter of voltage, it's a matter of current.

And I didn't say the big 3 was a better option, I said that it caused more strain on the electrical system of the car because it requires a faster response which means it more of a peak rather than a flatter curve. Typically drastic changes in short amounts of time are bad for electronics. In many applications you utilize a capacitor to help subdue quick changes.