i was just wondering i have 3 flame 10 ionch subs with a amp pushing out only 260 watts rms but when the bass hits everything in the car like the clock, intrament pannel, light up ac pannel trim, dims as well as the headlights i have got the battery and the altanator checked and and both are good i also have tried caps with other cars ive owned and nothing seems to solve the problem so i know there are juys out there that have more owerful system

SO DO OPTIMA YELLOW AND RED TOP BATTERIES SOLVE THE PROBLEM

 

Use a bigger capacitor... or upgrade your alternator to put out more juice. A 5 or 10 farad cap should hold enough juice to satisfy the most power hungry setups.

 

If your battery tested OK then an Optima won't solve your problem. If your car drove fine but made a loud noise whrn you turned right would you replace the steering wheel? My first question is how are the 3 subs wired? What is the speaker impedance at the amp. There aren't many subs meant to work properly in 3's. Next, check your wiring. Where is thewe amp getting its power ftrom? Is the ground connection clean and firmly attached to bare metal? Last, where is the amp gain set? with an amp only a rated 260 watts it is possible tha you are overdriving a low quality amp way outside of its efficiency range and causing a much higher current draw.

Buying the cheapest equipment you caqn get only to NEED batteries. caps and other band aids just makes no sense to me...

 

Simple answer, the Optima is nice but won't fix it... We need high-output alternators! Cap are ^, as Bill said, band-aids...they won't fix the problem. Upgrade the alternator and you'll be golden.

 

I have an alpine type r 12" subwoofer with a mono amp pushing about 500 watts rms. Then I have 2 sets of alpinw type r component sets with a 4 channel amp pushing about 300 watts rms each channel. The first thing I did when looking into powering this system was upgrading the alternator. The cheapest I found was $750. Pretty expensive. I opted to go with a Massive audio 2 fared cap, it works great, so far. Just my 2 cents...

 

^But do you still have the "dimming" light effects?

 

You can't be 'pushing' 300 watts a channel from a 4 channel amp to components. IF you are then 2 farads won't help at all. Even though you are almost never using the rated power of an amp. If you need batteries, caps, or alternators with a rated 800 watt system then there is something wrong with the install or the equipment is junk.

 

My bad, I don't know what I was thinking. The amp pushes 70 watts rms at 4 ohms each channel. The components are rated 70 watts at 4 ohms 350 watts max. yeah, what i said before made no sense. My 2 fared cap works well. No lights dim.

 

caps are stupid and a waste of money...all visual stuff dont get one

listen to billace about your amp settings and wiring etc... and if you want to upgrade your alt. get it rebuilt dont get a new one, you will save alot of money

 

Do you or have you used a cap? The cost of a rebuit alternator far exceeds the price of a cap. Yeah a beefed up alternator is the best route, but for HIS system, a 2-3 fared cap will do the job. My buddy had an Envoy with 9 tvs and a 6000 watt Diamond Audio sysyem. Now that is a situation when you get a beefed up alt., not for a mini subwoofer setup. My cap cost $50 and I have yet to see my lights dim. I don't know what people have against caps, I was skeptic, but i was very pleased with my purchase.

 

I don't think there is anything against caps. THe point is most systems should never need one. Most cars have an 80-90A alternator and every car already has a huge cap, the stock battery. The real reason that caps are popular is because consumers are too cheap to install equipment properly and use sufficient gauge wiring, upgrade grounds or find a proper ground in many cases.

The other issue is that amplifiers are now rated with rediculous, inflated power figures. There is no standard for the test so manufacturers just keep fudging the results to make bigger claims. (I call this the AudioBahn effect since it seemed to start when tehy became popular.) RMS is not the amplifier power equivalent of HP. No results are checked and no one gets in trouble or fined for inaccurate results. The majority of people have no idea what RMS stands for, let alone that it means nothing that describes how an amp will perform while listneing to music.

If you have a modest system, paying 50-$100 for a cap plus wiring and install time only can hide the fact that your amp is garbage. If that money was invested in buying a better amplifier from the start you would have a better sounding, simpler system. A cap does nothing to improve power or sound quality, it just hides the fact that something is wrong. A cap can only store as much voltage as the car battery supplies. They just can completely discharge in 1/32 of a second which basically chops up light dimming into many shorter events that your eye will not notice. The problem is still there, you ust don't notice it.

BTW, even cap ratings are subjective and typical caps only have around half the storage capacity they claim because that has become such a money making accessory...

 

I don't know if your claiming my system to be garbage or not, but i can gaurantee that it's not. All wiring is correct gauge, grounds are good, and qaulity of the wiring is Rockford Pro. The wiring cost me probably around $150-200, cheap because i work at best buy. Both of my amps are Alpine, not garbage. My cap helps maintain a 14.5volt system on a 12 volt battery. Sitting at a stop light, I can crank the music, have the air going, roll my windows up and down, and fiddle with the window wipers and my cars RPMs barely moves from idle..... I don't know, people believe what they want. I have seen the differences a cap have made.

 

I am not calling your system garbage, just about every amplifiers claims and quality. I must come and see your magical system though. A cap does nothing to maintain voltage at all. It can only store the amount of voltage it is given, less internal and the wiring's resistance of course. You have a much larger cap in the car, your battery. Any cap will always have slightly less voltage than the car battery if mounted in the trunk or away from the battery. Caps don't make power, they store what they are given, otherwise we wouldn't need an alternator, The only advantage an audio cap has is speed, a capacitor like a car battery can discharge over a long period at a steady rate. A "Stiffening Capacitor" will completely discharge in 1/32nd of a second, recharge in 1/32nd of a second at whatever voltage the battery is currently sitting at and continue repeating this cycle.

The thing is; every amp has caps built in for this instantaneous voltage requirement. I've seen amplifiers with 500mfd for the 300 watt RMS rating, well above the recommended cap size from the audio witch doctors. These days, amp manufacturers have to be creative to get customers that 1200 watts for $199. Stereo seperation doesn't exist, power supplies can't provide the current for even half the claimed power output, caps and other parts that aren't absolutely necessary are missing. If the amp includes chrome, gauges, LED's or a self lubricating vagina its even scarier.

 

yes i have used many caps they dont do anything for a system for what they are claimed to do. a cap will not fix his dimming lights problem. getting a nice big cap is basically a small 2nd battery which is just more strain on your alternator making less amperage going to your system and more to your cap to recharge. you can get a alt rebuilt for around 2-300 dollars depending where u live.

 

I have to talk a little here... If your lights are dimming because of bass hitting and it only happens then you can solve this with a cap. The cap's in amp's today do not store enough juice to power though hard hitting systems. People think power is pushed... it's not it's pulled... I item pulling the power is your subs... they pull from the amp if the amp doesn't have enough juice it will pull from the battery... when the battery doesn't have enough juice it pulls from the ALT.

A cap charges fast and discharges only when needed, While it adds a load, it does not pull much when it is charged. It only releases power when it is needed. A good Battery like Optima, Stinger, or Kinitic pull power faster, and release faster... this could solve your problem alone if its a small issue. Hell if you have monster ***** you could go the Axion 16 volt route... but read up real good before making the jump.

Having an upgraded alt will help as well, but all the add juice isn't needed most of the time. Sometimes it light out side... sometimes you don't need the air on... sometimes your not waking the town with bad music at 3am. Most of the time your subs are just looking for a little extra juice to extend a little more - a cap or a quality battery can give that too you short term...

Gold to back the talk? 1995 SQL IASCA Champion of IL. 75 to 149 watt class... Don't think thats real power... what wattage do you draw at .5 ohm?