How many Farad?

Ian01ex

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I was looking at capacitors and I was wondering how many farad I should look for for a 500 watt sub and one 10 inch sub? I plan on getting a 60X4 to run my speakers so I dunno if I can run that off the same capacitor or not? I know a decent amount about systems but never got into capacitors since my old vehicle was a truck and didnt have to worry about draining the power. Thanks for the help guys!
 

Matt.

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You shouldn't have to worry about power draining on this low of watt. But I would get a 1/2 it'll be fine.
 


Ian01ex

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Cool thanks for your help. Do you think I can run two amps off one capacitor or would I need a second one? I would assume that I could do two but like I said I'm new to this part of stereos.
 

plazmascivic

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ok heres the thing all a cap does is take the power that you are sucking out of your battery and makes it less from the batery and more for the amp. im runnin a 15 two 12's and 4 5.5's, a 13" monitor, and my PS2(occasionally) in my 89 HB and i do need a cap, but im runnin two 1000 watt amps and its fine to run them both off of one im doin it rite now, the thing you could do if your concerned about power is get one and test it with the system and if you are still losing battery volts then get another one.
 


cujo613

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A half farad will be fine for you. Since your alternator is about 65 amps your current draw will be faily close for a cap to make a difference. If you go with about a true 1000 watt amp in a honda a cap will do absolutely nothing. All a cap does is store power. If your alternator is not big enough to run the system adding a cap is useless. It will do absolutely nothing. In that case you need a high output alternator
 

qwikxr

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There's some incorrect information here..
The rule of thumb for the size of capacitor is, 1 Farad per 1000watts RMS..

If you're running two 1000w amps, on a stock honda charging system, without a capacitor, then without trying to insult, you're running shitty amps, or very low-end equipment.. (Pyramid, Optimus, Rockwood, etc)..

Put two 1000w JLAs or something on that stock alternator and see what happens....

A Capacitor stores energy.. When a bass note hits, the amplifier need voltage right away, and alot of it.. So it takes it from the stored capacitor energy, rather than knocking the hell out of your alternator and battery to get it.. And since a capacitor charges quite quickly, it's usually ready for the next beat..
Using capacitors, I've used 4 Orion 1000w amps in a '73 Beetle, pushing 4 18" subs, all off the 40amp Alternator, with no ill effects, and without killing the alternator is short order..

There's much more to look at than just wattage of the amp and what your alternator puts out..
 

plazmascivic

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yeah dude no insult taken it sounds good to me and i do have a 1/2 farad cap. if it was anymore i would go deaf. and for how i built my trunk its good, and its not like im into doing bass comps or anything i just wanted a little bit of bass and clarity with that bass.
 

qwikxr

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In all honesty, even a single 1Fd cap, close to the amps as possible, would definitely still help.. If you are running power and ground distribution blocks, put it just BEFORE the power block.. And keep your grounds as short as possible, and under 15".. This keeps down the noise. Also, ground them to the same point.
 

qwikxr

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Most of that is ground-loop noise..
Fix your grounds, make sure the RCA cables don't run along the car with the battery wire, and where they cross, they need to cross at 90* angles..
 

cujo613

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hmmm 4 1000 watt amps off a 40 amp alternator. So not to insult you using ohms law your 4000 watts worth of amps was only creating 480 watts. No matter how many caps or batteries you were using your power supply was driven by a 40 amp alternator. So basically on the first bass hit your caps would have been depleted and the stock alternator would not have the power to replenish them. Audio systems do run off of 12 volts but are fed by amperage not voltage. It all comes down to tje alternator no matter what.
Again a cap does not store a magical power fairy that mysteriously supplies a system with amperage from an imaginary artesian amperage source drawn from the high Himalayas.
No alternator no power.
 

qwikxr

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relax, snoopy..

It was a typo.. I'd typed 1000w in that post too many times...
I meant 100w total.. 4 Orion 250HCCAs (from back in the day)..

And I do know ohms law.. Yes, it was taxing the alternator, but that wasn't my point.. My point was that the Caps mad it possible to do.. without them, it'd never hit a note..

Thanks.
 

plazmascivic

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yeah. it i need to tune my system like adjust it so it doesnt sound horrible with too much bass and not enough. what do u think the best Bass to treble ratio is? i heard 2:1 was ideal.
 

qwikxr

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I've never heard of a "Ratio"....

Put it on an RTA..
Or set it to how you like it and run with it.. too many variances in how we humans hear the sound range to give it a "ratio"...
 

qwikxr

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ok, well, I know what a ratio is...


Im saying there is no set "ratio" to how it should be tuned...........
 


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