While I'm not generally one to suggest things like Legacy or Pyle...
With Capacitors it's not really an issue... there are a very small number of plants in the world that manufacture large electrolytics such as are used in car audio... and essentially all the 20v large electrolytics come from just one of them.
In that way - very much unlike most other car audio gear - Legacy = RF = Brax = etc.

So, I'd suggest checking these out:
http://www.ikesound.com/category-category_id/36
And I'd suggest purchasing a can of spraypaint that matches your car to give it some new cosmetics.

I'd also avoid the square carbon-type capacitors... including those high-dollar 15F, 30F big caps...
They've been shown to have very high ESR as well (I believe Richard Clark also has testing published on the web on this.. not that I find his testing particularly unslanted generally ) - in fact enough ESR to slow their transient response enough to effectively nullify much of this "big capacitance", and perhaps just as bad, cause them to actually present a continuous small load on your alternator, as current is burned up through that ESR.

The best part, Ikesound has 1F caps as cheap as $35 often.. their inventory tends to rotate a bit there, I've noticed that much... they must take advantage of purchase opportunities as they come.

 

can you have to much power from a cap that it will blow out your system?

 

I would put the capacitor at 4th in the power upgrade path. First have a solid electrical system (upgrade the quality of the connections with new wire and terminations as needed, this includes an upgrade to the chassis ground), second a good alternator (80A is OK), a good battery is third (red, yellow, black no big diff), fourth is the capacitor. The electrical system in every factory vehicle works very well without it and quite frankly doesn’t work much better with it. I think it does provide buffering (maybe some noise filtering…) and a nifty bling bling factor and is therefore worth the purchase price!
The graphs used in the earlier post are text for why you should have a cap (sales-speak) it does try to explain the true benefit of the capacitor to buffer and filter the DC with a small power source. Unfortunately it doesn’t take into account the wire resistance and the amplifier input impedance which will slow the rate of discharge and lower the current available. And quite frankly a 2 volt dip is only going to give a fraction of the power the cap could produce. I don’t think in an automotive environment you will get much more than 10 amps from a 1F cap.
With a cap my term-lab SPL score 130 without a cap 130.1…

Here is the link to RC's cap test draw your own conclusions http://www.welcometotheden.8k.com/caraudio/Captest.pdf


You’ve been served…

 

Order of importance? I'd have to say 1), "The Big Three", 2), batteries (Optima or equiv. in the front, and the same in the back if you're going to exceed 1000w RMS), 3) Capacitors, 4), Alternator.

But, you can do it bit by bit as you grow... Do the math... Count up the fuses on your amplifiers. Using my system as an example, My Clarion amp has a 40amp fuse, my RF has a 20, and my Orion has 2x30. That's 90 amps, and using the amp clamp from an AVR reveals that there are 80 amps heading to my system engine on and stereo workin' hard. I have a 100 amp alternator, and an engine takes roughly 20 amps to run. SO, I need an alternator, and I'll be bolting in a 160 today actually.

Good thing I sell them [img]smile.gif[/img]

 

I would like to thank Tim Baillie
1) For pointing out he is number one! "Turn it up Tim!"
2) For bringing Hooker Audio to my attention... their stuff REALLY rocks, there are so many details in their construction that are just plain superior to about everything else out there.

 

Most capacitors are complete JUNK for any audio related application. Don't be fooled by the manufacturer hype. What a load of crap

 

geolemon, I've got to admit that you express your oppinions well. That is something that earns respect on any forum.

I disagree with some of the theory though.

Everyone assumes that a capacitor has ONE Farad of energy stored at 12 or 14.4 volts. This is NOT the case. As current is drawn from the cap, the voltage drops. In reality, a capacitor has much less current avialable above 12 volts than common current demand requires.

I think caps are over rated, and system grounds and quality wiring are under rated.

BTW, I own a couple of caps and yellow tops.

Adam

 

Tom, I'll trade you some caps for....

 

defro, Iron Maiden....