Where did you mount your capacitor?

[IsLNdbOi]

I'm considering purchasing an Alpine PDX-5. I'll be mounting it under the front passenger seat. I think I'll need a 1 farad capacitor and the manual says that it should be mounted as close to the amp. as possible. Where should I mount it? I'm thinking somewhere behind / below the main glove box. Is that close enough to the amp. or is there a better place to mount this capacitor?

Where did you mount yours?

[The Architect]

as close as possible is so when it unloads it takes as little time as possible and travels as little distance as possible to the amp.

under the glove box would be pretty far.

I wonder how long itll take for someone to come and lecture about the worthlessness of capacitors haha

heres mine.


http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q29/thenixonyouth/DSCF0031i.jpg

[sportin83]

i put my cap under my seat and amps in the rear of car. the cap should be within 4 to 5 feet and be ok still so just make it as close as u can

[talnlnky]

I wonder how long itll take for someone to come and lecture about the worthlessness of capacitors haha

heres mine.


http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q29/thenixonyouth/DSCF0031i.jpg

actually.... they work pretty darn good at being a distribution block,.... other than that tho... ehhh... sometimes they look good.

[sportin83]

ya i figure give it a few hours and someone will tell us we wasted our money on the caps , but i can tell a big difference with mine.

[IsLNdbOi]

If it should be w/in 4 to 5 ft. from the amp. then it should be fine below the glovebox while my amp. is under the front passenger seat.

[battleversiontc]

caps should be mounted within 2 feet from the amp any much more then that its worthless. caps are only good up to a given point in a audio setup anything bigger then 2 farad (2000 watts) or more i would use either a optima battery or kinetik battery to handle the higher load of energy needed. but the do work as they save your alt from being destroyed ive burned 4 stock alts in my sounds car until i switched it out for a higher one and a bunch of kinetik batteries. but if you run the two battery thing you would need a higher amp alt, a stinger isolator to isolate the charge to two batteries and some 1/0 wire. but caps do work by not straining the alt and provide the power when needed and so increase bass by a little dbs if not you can always try to find a db meter and test to see the difference with a cap and without

[FcukThis]

i hate caps :\

[IllusionX]

isn't a cap is for when bass hits hard, it would compensate for the sudden drop of current, and a bigger alternator/2nd battery for when your system is demanding too much power?

[battleversiontc]

a bigger alt is so you have enough amps to be able to supply power to be able to handle the added load on the electrical. the second battery acts like a cap but a better source of energy and adds the amount of energy required no matter what. so not really its a demand its just a better source of energy the caps or for smaller systems you can run a yellow top optima battery or a kinetik battery. but then again thats why they sell batteries just for bass down to 600 watts hench kinetik batteries

[IsLNdbOi]

Adding a second battery sounds complicated. I think I'll stick with a cap. then.

[IllusionX]

a cap goes in series with the amp.

a battery installs parallel to the main battery.

[battleversiontc]

a cap does not go in series with the amp its parallel. do you even know the diff between series and parallel and a seperate battery does not wire into the main battery it actually wires to a isolator which both would wire to so it switches the car when needed. and anyways parallel is pos to pos neg to neg series pos to neg neg to pos so if you wired a cap in series youd blow it up

[sportin83]

This is correct! I have always wondered what a cap would sound like blowing up? :bellyroll:

For the people that say caps don't work just wait till hybrids start using them to supplement quick burst of power, but then you will probably still say they don't work! :laugh:

Amps on one side of the amp rack and cap on the other side (trunk side) and are there is about 2-3 foot of wire to the subs. Works like a champ. 15 farad stinger cap.

i had a old cheapo cap one time and took it out of the car and it has a little plug in the top which was a overload vent i was told. i removed from car set it on a table and like 2 mins later i look over and the plug is blowing up like a little balloon the size of a dime and then pop and shot some gray powder all over the place and it wouldnt work after that. was crazy

[YarisSedan]

I duno id return your cap and use the money to buy a yellow top optima instead its a good altenative to a cap. Its meant to handle quick large drains of power and be able to bounce back up fast.

When i had my cap it was causing me problems. Some reason when i removed it i had clearer sounding music.

[battleversiontc]

i see a 4 chan amp there what you running on door speakers. and wow that sucks i wonder why the cap nlew up after you took it out thats kinda insane to hear that happening i wonder why it did that. i was also trying to say the optima battery thing or even a kinetik battery would do the trick and maybe a higher amped alt to be able to juice the battery back up quicker

[FcukThis]

This is correct! I have always wondered what a cap would sound like blowing up? :bellyroll:

For the people that say caps don't work just wait till hybrids start using them to supplement quick burst of power, but then you will probably still say they don't work! :laugh:

Now that really depends on what you are talking about..

"A capacitor is only good so far as the audio system isn't trying to pull too much from the electrical system. A cap doesn't provide more power, it's designed to 'stiffen' the voltage to the amp, nothing else. If the current isn't there, a cap won't help.

The alternator must have at least 20% more amperage power than the entire vehicle and sound system combined for a cap to be of benefit and even then the benefit is purely for voltage conditioning and has nothing to do with power conditioning.


THEY DO NOT HELP WITH DIMMING LIGHTS.

To get more current to your system, you need a high output alternator. This is the cure for dimming lights.

For the record..... The ONLY purpose of the battery is to start the vehicle and run the accessories with the engine off nothing else. The REAL power plant of the vehicle is the alternator."

Start with our dinky alternator.. ;o

[Stargate YARlantIS]

so....w/ all this said...I have an Insignia 1000watt 2ch amp, I run 2 12" 1100watt Dual subs....I really don't listen to hard bassy music, I have the bass on my player turned all the way down (-5) and on the dial switch to the amp I usually run it at "7", is a cap really needed? just curious...any thoughts would be appreciated.

[IsLNdbOi]

Same question here. I'll be adding this amp. soon:
Pioneer GM-D7400M - mono amplifier
http://www.crutchfield.com/S-aJtHmMDlzic/p_130GMD7400/Pioneer-GM-D7400M.html

It's 200WRMS w/ peak 800W. They say that at 2-ohms its 400W (not sure if that's RMS or peak).

I'll be using this sub.:
Pioneer TS-SW2541D - 10", 4-ohm, shallow subwoofer
http://www.crutchfield.com/S-Y95dsPveil6/App/Product/Item/Main.aspx?I=130TSS2541

It's 50-250W RMS and peak 1000W.

I never max out the volume of my HU. During the loudest driving (on the highway), I usually turn the stock HU up to 20-22 volume.

When I get back onto the surface streets, I turn it down.

[FcukThis]

All of the above was cited from an Audio engineer with 25 years of experience... also just from the knowledge i've from diyma..ca forums --- whats there not to love...
I'm not saying caps dont work. I'm saying there are definitely alternatives in terms of audio.
imo i would rather turn your money towards big 3 and Battery upgrade. if anything more, grab a bc 400 and call it a day :D. By all means if you want a cap go for it. just yank a generic one rated over 16v 1f ;; they sure add some points to the install.
this isn't what the thread was about anyways. sorry for jackin'

Arch. it looks like i'm the one :D.

[battleversiontc]

caps take strain of the alt by providing power up close to the amp under hard energy depletion there for. they do cure dimming of the lights and now you have two sources of power one far away and up close the response is that it does help to a given point in small systems under 2000 watts but another alternative is a higher output amp and a upgraded battery (optima, kinetik etc). caps are designed to store energy until a given point when need to supply the power quickly and cleanly if caps werent needed and didnt work then they wouldnt have designed it. since there would be no use for it. but the fact is anything that is above 500watts max you exceeded the limit the factory alt can handle there forwill cause a strain on the electrical which in turns dims lights hurts performance of car and etc. but by installing a cap inline it doesnt dip into the battery as often since now the energy is right there so there for taking a strain of your alt to having to keep charging the battery.