Capacitor or not?

[Hatchman]

I've heard some people argue to the extremes on the pros and cons of adding a cap. For some, it's as controversial as abortion is to others! Some say it's a band aid to a weak electrical system, and all they do is keep the lights from dimming a bit. Others say it kept their amps from shutting off all the time, and they are little coke can shaped miracles! Others say there are only two companies in the world make them, and you just pay for the name on the sticker.
So, what do y'all think?

1. For a 600W RMS system in the Titan, should I get a cap?
2. What brand, does it matter?
3. Can they do any harm? Drain battery? Extra strain?
4. Digital w/ voltage display or not?

Thanks in advance for the advice.

[bestatchess]

Based on my experience, I would avoid the Lightning Audio capacitors. I had one with the digital voltage display that would not hold a charge. Also, one of the terminal connectors arrived pre-stripped. Next, I got one without the voltage display and it arrived with a broken plastic mounting bracket, even though the blister pack was intact, it was well packed, and no apparent damage to any of the packaging. The second capacitor seems to hold charge, and I still have the original mounting bracket in place for mounting. So my experience with Lightning Audio capacitors is that they suck. They seem to have no quality control on these things. Both of these are 1 farad capacitors. Another factor is that the one with the digital volt display projects out a bit further radially from the central longitudinal axis of the capacitor than the one without, so that might be a consideration depending on where you are going to mount the capacitor. I decided to go w/o the digital voltage display on the 2nd one because of the first one not holding the charge and also the further radial projection. Also, it is pretty easy to check the voltage with a regular volt meter, and you are probably going to mount the capacitor under or behind a seat where nobody will see the voltage display in any event.

I have a 100 x 400 watt amp driving two component sets (4 mids & 4 tweets) and another amp bridged to 400 watts driving one sub. It sounds fine w/o any capacitor. I am waiting on a low voltage remote switch to turn the amps on before I connect the capacitor. The amp remote on wire for the RF head unit dropped way down to like 2.3 volts when I had it connected to a relay for the remote ons, and wouldn't trip the relay, which requires 8 or 9 volts to trip. So either the RF remote amp on current is really, really weak or I had a bad relay. Anway, I ordered a solid state low voltage switch for the remote ons which should solve that problem.

I did the 0 gage upgrade on the ground wire from battery to chassis to engine block as posted by lizardking. He was having the lights dim and alternator whine before this upgrade, so this is probably way more important than the capacitor.

[WazzuCoug]

Install your system, and see how it sounds. If the lights dim, or you think your amps need the extra current- add a cap. They are really easy to add "after the fact" and arent needed for initial intall. Maybe you saved yourself $200.

[smoketitan]

for 600w you wont need a cap, not really neccessary (if at all) once you hit around 1200-1500wrms and above. just do the ground fix nad you shouldnt get any dimmimg at all

[B@SSAN8OR]

you might think this is dumb but it works better then everything. if you are running i big power wire say 4 awg or below run the ground back to the battery....

it will have less resistance then using the car as a ground and it will technically be a shorter ground, or a ground with out a bottle neck.


if you measure the resistance of your vehicle ground it will be simialr to the resistance of a 4awg wire... so if you are using 2awg or something it would be better to run it to the battery. we do it in all of our installs and we never have the problem of lights dimming on stock charging systems.

[TIsTAN]

is all that power for the whole system, bass only or just the mids/highs? i think most usually add caps for bass heavy systems where, when the bass hits, it's associated amps will tax the electrical system. i agree, just leave it out for now and see what happens.

[Hatchman]

It's going to a pair of components, and to a single 10, so only 300W is used for bass. I'll probably go with the 0 guage wire change, and see how that does. Can always add a cap later. But the wire change might help 'whining' sounds as well, so kill two birds with one stone.

Thanks for the help.