Whats a 'Power-Cap'

[SupraStar 3000]

people keep telling me I should consider buying a 'Power-Cap' but to be honest I don't really know what one is, other than some kinda power regulator.

Anybody shed some light on the subject for me ;)

I'm running a INFINITY Reference Series 5760a amp (6 chl) pluss two Reference Series 1030w Subs through 4 gauge power cable direct for the cars battery.

:donkey:

[Scoboblio]

IIRC a power cap is like a giant transistor... it stores up power incase of a sudden power drain on the system.

Useful if you're running loads of ICE and keep getting power cut outs.

Edit: Doh... meant capacitor, not transistor ;)

Nice one WL

[Whitelightning]

Its a capacitor.
Stores power (electricity).
Connected correctly it will slowly charge up as you drive and then run down either in unison or as a replacement to a battery.
Capacitor is measure in Farads, higher the better.

[Whitesupraboy2]

if you get a tune, that has a deep base note, ull notice when ur driving at night when you have lights on etc... the dash dims on the beat, it stops this happening giving the note a better sound as it is getting the power needed and it also stops the dash and lights from dimming.
It basically stores a little bit of power

[SupraStar 3000]

Cheer mate,
havn't had a power-cut so far, so think I pretty safe.
;)

[SupraStar 3000]

Thanks guys ;)

explanation works for me. I'm now enlightened

[JamesArup]

I saw various bits of info on these in the past few weeks of trawling car audio forums in an effort to enhance my audio-numpty skills :rtfm: . From what I've read, most people tend not to like them? Some even say that they take even more juice out of your battery, and aren't really worth having unless you have a very big system (more than 2 amps etc?).

That almost sounded like I knew what I was talking about!! Mwahahaah .... the illusion is almost complete :upside: :sly:

Cheers, J

[Chiefgroover]

Your amp draws power from your battery, and in most cars thats from the other end of the car. The cap can hold power so your amp can draw instantly when sonic peaks need it. Recently i had a mate come to me with a big Soundstream amp on his subs. The bass sounded like it was 1/2 a note behind all the time, quite unconnected to the music of the front end, so a short while later he left with a 1 farad cap on, and fast tight dynamic bass rather than the muddle of noise he arrived with. He could probably do with 2 farad, but for now its a load better. One easy way to fit a cap is on a very short power cable into your fuse block, and the earth to its distrubition block. I believe that your system would benefit from a cap 1 farad or more. Shorter cabling works best (dont put it on the other side of the boot!) :-)

[The Hornet]

Chief G has told you how to wire it properly, good stuff.

Tecnically it works someting like this: (simple terms)

When your bass hits hard for example it needs lots of power to feed it, Car batteries can provide this power but they are slow to react to demand. So when your Sub says give me power the Battery says "oookkkaaaaaaaaaayyy heeerrrree yoouuuu gooooo" but by this time you will have a small time delay in your sound and your lights may dim. A capacitor can provide power extremely quick but it only provides it for a very short space of time. But can do this over and over again as its constantly being charged and is not in use when the battery catches up, if you see what I mean.

So caps will help to prevent lights dimming, sound delays and power supply smoothing, hence the name smoothing caps.

The real way to help and provide adequate power is by upgrading your alternator but this is costly and to be fair most people can get away with one or more caps.

Caps will not hurt your system or damage the battery or alternator. For best results it should be connected with as short a cable as possible to the amps.

Like I said thats how it works in basic terms, its a little more complicated than that but hopefully the above will help.

Hornet

[jonshaw_uk]

my brother has 2 audiobahn ACAP3P powercaps in his system - as he is running an Audiobahn A2300HCT amp - its massive

[The Hornet]

Is he using Optima Yellow top batteries ? if so one or two, I was thinking about adding a second one but no where to put it :(

Hornet

[Mad Hatter]

he's running two powercaps ! lol why ? must be for show lol as that amp doesn't pull a massive amount of current to suddenly need a cap boost as it were ... he would be far better off if going for major systems installing a slimline drycell battery. Chech out demon tweeks they do them cheap.

[jonshaw_uk]

here is a pic of what hes got setup at the moment - it is the look more than anything that he is going for

[The Hornet]

Yep them subs certainly do need some juice :D

Take it he likes loud bass which drowns out the music then :D

[SupraStar 3000]

thanks again for all the help and advice guys.

Think I picked up a great little bargain today at my local car audio store.
Directed Audio 1.0 Farad power display capacitor rated 10/10 review that apparently retails at £170.00, but I payed £69.00 due to small crack in fixing base.
Not bad I thought ;)

Quote from the box "This can increase your amp peak output by as much as 50%"
ok... so thats wishfull thinking, but still happy for the price, and it looks good ;)

[The Hornet]

Sounds like nice deal matey