dkelly

after a spirited discussion last week about power or stiffening caps i decided to check with some real experts about the use of them i talked with David Navone a recognised expert in performance and competition cars. also the dealer only tech support desks at alpine, rockford fosgate, and jl audio this is what i found:

Alpine, we find little value in power caps sonicly there is no value. they do tend to stop headlight dimming and such but they might do a better job if they were connected to the headlights.

jl audio, our amps do not require power caps as they have a very tightly regulated power supply that is not affected by voltage variation.

rockford fosgate, they work great i have one in my tacoma with about 1500w because of the power supply of the rockford amps the stabilization of the voltage really tightened the bass and eliminated headlight dimming associated issues

David Navone, when an alternator is operating it will charge a stiffening cap to the PEAK of the alternator ripple this will get you more peak power than without a cap.... however it takes an excellent audio system to notice a difference... in most car audio systems the big cap is audio jewelry .... on the other hand i wouldn't compete without as much ESL capacitance as possible.

and there you have it the guy that builds competition cars uses them but doen't necessarily recommend them, the guys with the more tightly regulated power supplies say they don't help and the guy with the loosely regulated power supply finds they work great. does it work for you ... maybe

when i asked about rewiring alternator battery connections they agreed that in older cars it probably would help to rewire battery ground and engine block ground with 4 ga. as to the battery - alternator wire there was some disagreement. issues such as oem warranty, and a lack of knowledge of other wires intersecting this wire and fusible links within that wire

all agreed a good battery is a must and would only do an alternator if there were no other choice. one person commented that you knew when you needed an upgrade alternator when you just blew the one you have.

the handy website is www.bcae1.com a basic car audio electronics primer

forcedfed

I agree with all of those statements. Farad caps really only need to be used when the following occurs. 1500+ watts of power in a system....low alternator output coupled with a small battery. Going with a farad cap is simply cheaper that buying a yellow top battery and a high output alternator. When putting in a system of 1500+ watts and using a farad cap it is also reccomended to upgrade the grounding points in the vehicle as well, all of this will help out with transient response in the system. Farad caps are NOT for everyone! But they do serve a purpose. Some people like them as eye candy for small systems......you are better off using that extra cash on a better amp. Thanks for your write up!

dkelly

is that amps with a loosely regulated power supply get the most benefit from a cap while those with a tightly regulated power supply got little or none. on the other hand dave navone who has built lots of top rated competition cars felt that with a relatively new car to assume that the charging system wiring was inherently deficient was incorrect as well
as a car stereo dealer i go on sites like this to sharpen my skills. what makes me better than the big box stores is my ability to solve problems and (god forbid) make a buck i can say i've accomplished that thanks to all who participated