Capacitor

[Estsound 7]

Alright, i have been looking around few days, and i get a lot of different answers about capacitor. Some people say that they are for ricers who like LEDs, others say that you need it to supply power. and third group says that it will mess your system up. So whats the deal do you need it or now and why ? Why do they make them at all then. I think that you don't really need one because amplifiers already have necessary capacitors.

[shizzzon 461]

capacitors are not "needed", they are an add-on if u got extra cash to blow and thats it.

If ur electrical system sucks, you get upgraded alt and\or batts.

A cap will attempt to maintain constant voltage to your amps!

This is good and can only be done if your alternator is capable of running your whole setup because your alt must also be able to charge caps back up.

[Juslivin 1]

i vote no

[///M5 2,833]

If you are into believing marketing hype then buy one, if you are smart and can think/research for yourself save your money.

[Basshead 3]

7k ish watts and i dont have one and i'm fine. i will never get one. tho they have their place in car audio (albeit a small one) i'd rather buy something that supplies power rather than stores it

[Maddenkid2011 3]

They look pretty damn cool but they are mostly a band-aid for worse problems

[KU40 173]

No.

[nem 2,019]

Just say no.

[1200 bandit 2]

Ok, in the 80's we did not have a good car audio battery hell 1000 cca was a lot back in the day. The amps with power was all High Current an killed the little batteries. We ran the amps with 8ga. wire an 12 volts with 80 amp alternators. The caps worked good for us, but now we have great amps, alternators, an batteries. Today the caps are dated.

[shizzzon 461]

there are times where a cap can help but like i said before, your electrical system must already be capable to handle the load.

When the voltage starts to dip, but not dip low enough to reach the float of the batts, a cap will prevent this from happening.

Let's say ur batts float at 13.2v and your alt puts out 14.9v.

Your jammin and your voltage is droppin to 13.8 all the time.

You get a cap in there, it should keep the voltage at a constant 14.9v as long as it stays charged which is should in this scenario.

[bigrank916 72]

I have one in my geo but its for cosmetics only. Sometimes I want to know the voltage is good and a cap is an easy way to tell.

[///M5 2,833]

I have one in my geo but its for cosmetics only. Sometimes I want to know the voltage is good and a cap is an easy way to tell.

Except that the update rate on the voltage measuring device on them is not adequate nor accurate.

[thespoon25 3]

no wonder MemphisMzd gave me his....jakcalope

[just1moreamp 0]

just say no to the crap cap

[AccordSiR87 2]

I had a cap one time. I felt like it helped.

Now I am more educated and choose to upgrade electrical as necessary to avoid using a cap.

[shizzzon 461]

caps can also help in spl competitions as well to maintain constant voltage for those couple seconds as long as u have farad for what you're outputting.

a cap is like tweaking your electrical system. You should only decide to tweak it only if it already works and nothing wrong with it.

Kinda like overclocking a computer. You don't wanna OC a pc that crashes all the time... if it's stable, then OC it and see how much better u can get.