My experience with the Cap is this. Back in the early 2000s I had a system in my car. Without the Cap, every time my bass line drop, it would dim my headlights at night. When I installed my Cap, it stopped my headlights from dimming when a huge bass line dropped. That's my own personal experience. I didn't have any fancy metering gages at the time.
Keep in mind this was only this particular capacitor. So I am not going to assume that all caps will give these results. I’m sure some actually work. I want to test more soon to see.
@@Miles7955 After this test it definitely made me want to test a couple more from other brands. I will test some more in the near future so we can compare.
Not all these caps give these results. It has to do with the parts being used inside the capacitor. Theres a bunch of different ones. Ranging from 1 single rolled capacitor, too 1000s of little small ones.
In my research when deciding on a cap for my stock charging systems I found the consensus among experts, not enthusiasts, was that the caps turned into a load on the charging system as soon as they were discharged. Because the energy stored is so small and discharges so fast compared to a battery, they at best decrease an initial dip in voltage in music playback while remaining an additional load while recharging after each peak in amp output. They seem to be more useful in banks as part of a custom high output electrical system. A better solution for stock electrical systems is using the biggest agm(most cca’s) battery that will fit in your car.
I'd be curious to see what a high quality hybrid capacitor can do like the Stinger SPC5010 10 farad, NVX XCAP10H True 10, and Rockford RFC10HB 10. Also a standard Rockford Fosgate 2 farad. It's pretty clear that all the cheap brands and Chinese caps are junk and only good for a voltage display if they even include one lol
I had the NVX XCAP10H in my Honda Ridgeline. Lights dimmed before and did not dim afterwards. Also, the built in distribution block was nice. I ran the NVX JAD 4 channel and 1200w mono with this setup.
@@superchile9640awesome thanks for the feedback man. It sounds like a good option for mild 1500-2000w systems which is what I run also. I get some pretty bad dimming on my F150 even with more efficient led headlights installed and a good bit of voltage drop when beating on it. No cap, Optima yellow top + big 3. I'll definitely be looking at one of these hybrids
Am guessing the test should be done with an alternator to supply 🤔 constant D/C current to give the capacitor a fair charging chance. Seeing this test means it's a waste on capacitor.
I have used one as a distribution block in every system I have owned at least since the 80s. You old timers might remember Richard Clark of Autosound 2000 and his trick Buick Grand National. His exhaustive tests showed a notable improvement in transient response and recommend one Farad per 1000 watts. I suspect modern China made caps might be the issue.
@@aaronbright5028 I would say the bigger the better. If you have access to an LCR you should measure the capacitance and see if it's really what they claim. 50 farads would be more than sufficient to make a noticeable difference.
@@aaronbright5028 An LCR is an instrument that measures inductance, capacitance, and resistance but it's not really something most people have I wouldn't worry about it. I'm running 1500w rms through a cheap Rockville 5 farad cap that works really well in my application. NVX sells a nice true 10 farad cap that should also serve you well unless you're running insane power over 10k watts. There are others out there but I would avoid the really cheap off-brand junk. While we're on the subject, watch a video on RUclips on how to properly charge a cap before use, and use real copper wire, not the CCA aluminum trash they are selling today. The real stuff is worth it trust me.
@@aaronbright5028 Strange my earlier reply seems to have disappeared. An LCR in an instrument which measures inductance, capacitance, and resistance. They're handy but not really necessary I keep one around because they're cheap. Anyhow, I run a cheap Rockville 5 farad cap on 1500 watts RMS and it works very well. If I was starting over I would take a hard look at the NVX true 10 Farad cap that would be more than you need unless your system is competition level. Also, since you're new to the hobby, I can't emphasize enough to avoid the cheap aluminum CCA wiring kits and use pure copper with proper lug terminals. If you're over 1000 watts, use 1/0 gauge, under 1000 watts use 4 gauge. This is the safest most reliable approach even if it costs a bit more. And most importantly, do a Big Three under the hood with at least 4 gauge. Google big three kit.
You are on point with your hypothesis. Utilizing a capacitor which only supplies a small amount of farads doesn't fairly support these type of applications. Would it help to use it as a way to aid a crank over on a vehicle if u have a battery in the back because of the distance from the power source, sure. However, you're still better off using a battery isolator with the 2 batteries in parallel if you go that route. I've been running the last for 2 years now. Wish I was aware of that in the late 90s/early 2000s when I was in high school.
If you have stock electrical and your not planning on putting on any long demos, the first thing you should worry about is your alternator. Adding batteries and caps like these will just create more points of failure and added resistance to the system. Supercap banks are actually effective but should only be considered if you're running a bigger 3k+ system.
The guy at the start of the video said it was a 5 farad cap. the results are weird, and questionable. I would like to see someone do the same test on the XS Power 1000 farad cap.
Its the brand cap for sure. Good assessment. Im an electrician. The actual cheap caps use little to no materials. Get a good brand and watch those levels differ.
@@jeffreybradley3736 I agree with this. I just got an amp install kit that came with a "2.5 Farad" cap. It is the size of a 0.5 Farad cap from the 90's. Good thing it was cheap and I got the cable I need and I'm only running about 500 watts... haha
It's a class D amplifier which is designed to run straight to the battery with no cap ... If you use a class AB amp you should have different results. Correct me please if I am wrong.
Back in the day when I ran a cap I noticed a big difference from having the power straight from a distro block than the cap directly to the amp. Like you said the cap after it's discharged starts sucking up the power. Yinlong FTW 😁
This is not a surprise to any of us that been doing this hobby very long. Thank you for the tests maybe try a recoil audio cap. Or a Rockford or nvx cap see if name brand true rated cap does anything
@@Chuck_Sanders some caps and some batteries and some amps are all rated bs ratings. Cheap caps with bogus ratings just like all other cheap electronics with bogus ratings are going to perform badly. But that does not mean there are not good quality products. Too. A good capacitor should actually do something capacitors are in ever amplifier and almost every electronic device there is and they serve a purpose and do there job well. Yes we all know these cheap poorly rated caps are junk and do nothing but that does not mean all are bad and serve no purpose. With that being said I'm never in favor running caps like the ones in the video. The only time I have had any use for caps like that is to filter electrical noise. I would still love to see some real world tests with better quality accurately rated caps
@@paulgood2218 yeah, I have, and still do work with quite a few build houses for almost 3 decades now. Most "caps" such as these are useless, no matter the brand name stuck on it. Real cap banks, like maxwell caps are a different story, but you still need a bank of them super caps to be beneficial. These are chokes in the electrical chain, and they discharge so much faster, than the recharging cycle. Sure capacitors have functions in most all electrical devices, and get designed around the desired capacitance needed. However, these type capacitors can't make up for current/voltage loss, and cannot replace amperage that isn't there to begin with. EXO has a great video on these, years ago. Better off buying a volt meter and a 2nd battery.. or some lithium would be better.
It’s been my experience that a good brand stinger example helps up to 1500-2k (EXO showed the same) but if you’re going big boy amps you should go big boy juice, agm , lithium, mechman etc
I get what ya doing but remeber when its on a car you have headlights AC and other accessories on so may be do a test live hooked up in a car not dead test on a bench
150a simulated alternator for a "regular car" is pretty high. Most cars have between 70a and 120a unless it's a massive American SUV or something. It would be interesting to see the test done with a 100a simulated alternator, though I suspect they won't be much different to what you have already discovered.
Without a cap in a larger system the alternator will be working so hard trying to stabilize the voltage that your belt might slip on the highest short loads. A super cap helps with that.
Very intrested in more testing. Although, my personal experience back in the mid 2000's, I ran 2 12's bridged at 2 ohms on an 860watt 2ch amp. The car was an econo sh|tbox and im sure it has less than a 100 amp alt. My headlights would dim when the bass dropped. I installed a 1 Farad Cap, and that issue was resolved. There's got to be something we're missing here.
Some caps might help if it’s a good quality one so maybe yours was a decent one? The problem is I think a lot of these cheap caps are fake . Because caps just like in electronics they work so caps are nothing new and in a lot of electronics amps included. I think that’s the issue is some of these cheap caps are snake oil.
Capacitors are a great load to the electrical system when on the discharge cycle. I am not sure if the general public knows this but when a capacitor is discharged it acts as an initial short to the supply.
Yes! And that’s why you have to “ charge” the capacitor before you connected to the battery voltage. so all charging means as far as the capacitor goes, is to get the voltage up slowly and easily before you connect full battery voltage so it doesn’t act like a short. I think a lot of guys don’t understand how they work they think charging them is like charging a battery and it is not.Great info thank for sharing that it was a great point!
I know this is an old video by now, but I'd like to know what gauge wire was used. If proper size wire was used for the amp power, I can see little help from the stiffening cap. BUT, say you undersized the POS (+) wire from the "battery" to the cap, then heavy wire from the cap to the amp, that would be an interesting test. The undersized wire would strangle the amperage like a low ohm resister. Now, I don't think the cap would do squat with a steady sine wave output except a voltage drop. But, do the quick bass attack hits with and without cap in place. I'd like to see what happens now.
Caps really only work well when they’re done right. You have to have a cap that’s true to its rating to start with and a power source (secondary battery) close by to recharge the cap quickly. I have volt meters right before and right after my cap bank, makes it great for seeing the difference in voltage drop
First of all, you have to hook up the capacitor correctly! Glad I never used one back in the late ‘80’s and 90’s when I had an all Orion HCCA (red’s) system! Yes, I was on Team Xtreme!! I know Richard Clark, too! We were in the same wattage class, except he was a Pro, and I was an Amateur - 1st year ever competing and I got invited to Nationals down in H-Town (Houston)!! I could have went and competed! But, I told Richard, I would rather go down there and be part of his crew and make sure he won because since he was Pro, we would get more points as a team, which would help us win Nationals! Richard Clark knows his shiznit! He is the reason, along with my homie and personal car audio installer, Derek Cox, I used an Orion battery isolator with two 6-volt Optima (red top) batteries in series, instead of using a capacitor!! Real Talk! 💰😂💯🔥💲😎
Just like with any other car audio component, quality matters. Most of us know that a Power Acoustik amp is not the same quality as an Arc Audio or Zapco amplifier. I would be curious to see if there's a difference in the results when it comes to the price and manufacturer. I'm sure someone would donate some Maxwell caps to test against the Power Acoustik. I have 2 cap banks.....one from the company BattCaps and the other is a Stinger hybrid caps.....that I'm not using right now. You're more than welcome to use them! Filtering is another benefit that is often looked over when it comes to outboard capacitors. Just like amplifiers, and almost all other electronics out there, have filter capacitor banks inside the device on the PCB. I've noticed significant reduction in the overall noise wall at the listening end of my systems. Any of you that remember installing high end CD players, you've dealt with having to find a place to hide either a black plastic or metal box that's inline with the incoming power wires in the harness. This a filter cap. I also, and this is the most important to me in competition, is that there is a noticeable difference in the sound quality of the actual music.....especially at lower volumes when the system is seeing less signal volume because of the the knob is at 4 instead of 11.....lol! Vocals are crisper. Snare drums and the plucking off the strings of a bass guitar. It just sounds better and it's not a major chunk of change for what you get in return. Sorry for the length of this reply! I'm just passionate about car audio and even more about the members want to learn. Thank you!
Not a problem man. I had this cap here so I just thought I would do the video and see what happened. But yes, I am sure a better cap would actually do something and I will be doing a couple better quality caps in the near future. I was thinking one of those stinger hybrid caps and maybe the NVX " true" 1 farad cap and maybe one more. thanks so much for watching!
What about hybrids with non replaceable alternators? My amp drains my battery after 10 minutes, voltage drops to 11 volts on the battery and the amp shuts down. The headlights etc never dim because the cars electrical system (powered by the traction battery) never drops below 12.7volts
Thank you for answering this question 🙏 I have had since about 1992👍😎 I had a 20f cap, mostly for the volt meter... It is officially a wall hanger 😂 Ioxus for the win 🙌
Take the audio system equation out. I’m wondering if a cap between the alternator/generator and battery would help absorb frequency waves or soften the initial hard start when charging begins. With a start/stop semi-hybrid could it smooth the transition from on to reduced on. Would it result in extended AGM battery life. The slight drop in voltage might not matter as much with a registered battery in the charging system.
I had a capacitor on my system on a newer vehicle and now that I took it out due to the connections being damaged on the capacitor, my vehicle is having a hard time keeping up with the subs. Before with one, it wasn't as bad and alot less voltage drop. I have another capacitor I bought that will be replacing the old damaged one to fix the problem.
I love the video, not bashing it in any way. I am just curious on what power supply you used to power the whole setup? Maybe the reason why the voltage dropped with the cap or the cap seemed to do worse is due to the large inrush current required to charge the capacitor. Depending on your AC-DC power supply, it may have reached the current limit and dropped the voltage to compensate. I think the test would be slightly more accurate if you use or mimic the power supply of vehicle with alternator and battery. Thank you.
My amp Dyno set up is capable at handling 1200 Amps of current so that was not a factor. I have a ton of power available. This was a very lower power test. Thanks so much for watching I appreciate it.
A 5 farad cap is WAY too big for both of those loads. I would be curious to see a test with a 1 or 1.5 around 1000w rms @ 2ohm, and with the cap given enough time to charge up. I imagine that 5f cap is causing more voltage drop because its trying to charge more than it's discharging.
This makes perfect sense 🤔 ❓ cause otherwise capacitors from these test results are useless. And am thinking of installing em to help in an audio setup 🤔
Hell yeah, shooting yaself in the foot using those things. Discharging/recharging rapidly inhibits the constant flow 👍 Nice honest review, thanks man ✌️
I’ve been going through your videos and I was curious about capacitors. I have a theory about this. If you put one in a continuous loop to the battery it would make a huge difference!
Prolly may need the big 3 before that upgrade but idk if that’s possible on a work bench and how many watts is that amp? You only can get about 2 farad for about 2 thousand wattsish give or take a few
You need an oscilloscope to do this test and it doesn't work and constant situations and definitely can't be seen from a volt meter the other part of this is its a give and take i personally use one to split the main led to two amps one to sub and the other to the speakers it helps with variations caps are there to smooth any waves not to add supply so maybe the volt meter is seeing the high points in the line when it is in a ripple so it would stand to reason that you would see more volt drop with a cap but its steady in stead of looking like a hart beat on a graph now I know what it's like to make videos and I would love to see another one with and oscilloscope so you can see what is happening
And do away with the display on the cap they only draw energy not worth the drain for the display the horror story from these are from the display not the cap itself
I have a limitless supercap bank I’d ship you to use for your tests…I only used it for 2 weeks and pulled it out only because I wanted my battery delete that lights up to go in its place lol I used it because I run 2 90 ah cmax banks and I know the initial start up takes some cca so I was using the supercap bank to take the brunt end of that and the supercap bank could start the truck with ease it has some sauce
They help if your using stock electrical on just over rms to where it strains your electrical system in car. If your going huge rms power don't use these, just get good batteries and or electrical upgrades, like a powerful alternator and batteries.
This wasn't really fair IMO. Caps are supposed to help with deep hits. Not a constant hit. The idea is to stop spikes in battery drain. As many have commented, it stops your lights from dimming when hitting lows. Not constant lows.
Honestly you would have to run everything at least 10 times and average it out. Cause with or without a cap the dyno will read more or less ea dyno run regardless. That's the nature of the beast with electronic components. Caps no longer have a place with alternators able to charge 14plus volts. And batteries that hold massive amount of angry pixies ready to dump with ea draw(bass note). Back in the 80s/90s with very small lead acid batteries and alternators that dimmed your head lights turning on your turn signal, the cap could give you a little boost. But even back then they were not worth the price of admission. Not unless you ran a pyle of em. But the audio industry was just figuring things out then. I'd love to see this test done again. But 10 pulls ea. And having the resting voltage 13.5ish. To really see if back then we were throwing are money away or not. Buying it today is absolutely not worth it. They will not due anything for your system. Unless you need a way over kill voltage display. Spend the money on a second battery. Even a lawn mower battery added would have a greater effect on a current system.
I'm not surprised by the results. My theory has always been that they reduce the voltage when your bass is not hitting therefore making your light more dim when the bass is not hitting. Therefore people assume they work
I would think adding a cap would be harder on a stock alt, cause now the alt has to try to keep the battery charged and the cap, maybe upgrade the alt ?
People always use these capacitor because they think it will give them more power for some reason. the purpose of these capacitors is just to be a power buffer so your battery/alternator doesn't drop in voltage (causing headlight dimming or other potential silly problems).
Hey man great video, as I was watching I was wondering, how bout trying a better brand capacitor, cuz we all know that Power Acoustik isn't a good brand anyways. Maybe Recoil or Audio pipe brand something a bit better... I would like to see that. Thx
Capacitors can draw more power to charge than what the system can provide ! It only works when the power supply itself can give you the current you need ..You need to have more voltage going into the capacitor than the device requires to operate on .Supply regulation .My 13.8 v regulated supply has 30,000 uf on the 35 volt side and only 10,O00 uf on the regulated side at 13.8v .You need to open the amplifier up and parallel capacitors on the DC to DC power supply side ..I used to parallel 2 capacitors at 3500 uf 50 volts on my old punch 45 ! That worked !
I'd be curious if adding an additional battery would do something similar. I see a lot of people use them as a crutch for a inadequate alternator, too.
I think that the cap is useful close the amp when de battery a few meters away the amp, and the cable act us an inductance for the audio transients ...
I use 500 farads in the engine bay to smooth my alternator output, and then another 500 farads right next to the amplifier to provide dynamic pulse headroom. 5 farad is tiny... i do think you experienced the voltage dropping from the cap recharging. Beyond that, its a little above my expertise to speak on what exactly was happening..
@@oldbuddyben No, it was not a typo. Its six 3000 farad super capacitors in series, which lowers the effective capacitance to about 500 farads. Google "3000 farad super capacitor". They are about the size of a tall soda can, and have drastically more capacitance than the old school ones. There are even 3400 farad super capacitors now in the same form factor from Ioxus, Eaton, Nesscap, Maxwell, and a few others.
Think of the power like water. The battery like a pond (volts) stored power. Amperage like pressure. Its using more water (volts). Because its pressurizing a little water. quickly delivering a small amount. thus using a little more (volts). acting like a little pump (fire truck) delivering a lot of water quickly. smoothing out the flow so headlights don't dim.
Cost vs. capacity improvement is difficult to justify. IF money is no object, of course the larger more expensive cap is better. It's really basic electronics.
are you here in Arizona I got one of those Maxwell super caps you can test do you think it was the quality of the cap I've run caps before and had decent results nothing like an extra battery but it did well btw you I think you gotta have the cap super close to the amp dumb I know
I'm not but thank you for the offer that was nice of you. There are caps that work and I'm sure the maxwell caps are beneficial indeed. I just had this one here so I thought I would test it out. Yea with my test bench the cap, batteries and power supplies are within 2 feet from each other. This sparked my interest though so I will be checking out a couple more in the near future. Maybe a Stinger hybrid and a NZX or?
Capacitors are not designed to handle a constant load period, they are designed to help stabilize instant high current draw and prevent power source circuitry from being damaged. You will never get an accurate test using a machine. Only true test is watching voltage and current draw on other equipment in the same electrical system (aka head lights). Either add a cap or add a second battery in the system to prevent voltage starvation from the other components in that system.
If you open up many of the cheap caps, you will find a couple are fake, and most that aren't have a tiny tiny capacitor that wouldn't come close to 1 farad. Just a smoke and lights show. Now going back in time, most 1 farad caps were the real deal. Amps were 95% class AB, so you would see a major improvement with headlights and voltage drops during peaks. You can thank poor outsourcing from companies that don't give a rip about the product.
My installer sold me on a capacitor back in the late 90's because my lights dimmed every time my bass would hit. Installed the cap and boom, the lights still dimmed. I want to believe that caps do something but I really don't think they do anything other than look like a cool accessory. I still have mine hung up in the garage.
I would like to see a review on a homebuilt supercapacitor array paired with a deep cycle, instead of a traditional car battery. That's something that seems like it'd be pretty neat.
If u ever had lights dimming and installed cap and it stopped u will realize what they do besides clean any line noise is that they take the load off the alternator not the battery he is testing battery and not alternator it draws power from battery and then charges the alternator which charges the capacitor the battery is the power but the capacitor and alternator stores power which charges battery back up
That’s pretty funny, but yeah, I have a 1200 amp power supply, but I had to turn it down on purpose. If my power supply was turned up to the max, the voltage would not drop whatsoever therefore we would not be able to see the difference between running a capacitor and no capacitor because the power supply would be so powerful to make up the difference and there will be absolutely no voltage drop especially on this power output. With the power supplies turn down low, we were able to now not quite have enough voltage to keep voltage solid so we can see if a capacitor in the system does anything or not which was the whole point of this test?.
I have and always will chuck caps in the trash there design was early 2000s probably 90s for A/B amps early 2000 almost every subwoofer rating wasn't more them 500watts kicker solo circles was the shyt especially the 90s kicker comp 200w infinity Corwin Vega
Am guessing the test should be done with an alternator to supply the capacitor with consistent 🤔 D/C CURRENT to give the capacitor a fair charging chance 🤔. Seeing these test results shows it's a waste 🗑 of time using capacitors
If you're quiet you can hear the sales on crappie capacitors dropping! I would put money on that powerless acustik cap is no way 5 farad its rated just like every other cheap ass power acoustik amp way more than it really does....i likely isnt even 1 farad so its probably a choke point of the power... When you see a 5 farad from a reputable company is way bigger and way more expensive so thats a dead givaway... I think the nvx 5 farad is multible caps like 6 i cant remember. Super caps are the only caps worth buying but after you get enough low voltage super caps for 12v its expensive... That budget bass head put big super cap set in and it was a flop so i think caps are a waste just get bunch of headways there like $5.50 at battery hookup i just bought 12 (24ah) with shipping like only $80,! Why would you go any other way... i made some bus bars and it holds around 13.8 to 14.2 running my APCLE 1800.1 on 2 d2 12s at .5 ohm wide open with a 130A alt. My van has a beast module 64ah 32cell and it runs a cab45 at .5 ohm it holds high 13s with stock 140a alt at full chooch... Ill never go anything else but lithium.
A Cap i nit a powerbooster o anything like this... Its like an Iron and flatening just the peaks. Witch is healthyer for the boardelectronics and the generator and Battery...
The power from a car is not consistent, It changes as the car drives. i might have missed something here but your power supply dose not replicate this. your trying to protect the alternator nothing more.
Try a cheap planet audio system they have a modern 20 farad flux capacitor for 100$ . That’s fit for the 1500 watt (1100 rms 2ohm) planet audio anarchy amp 89.99 Do a decent wire setup not the cheap 4 or 3 that it would come with . I think that’ll be a good cheap system to beat and see if it really works
Aren't there more farrads in a battery than a capacitor. I mean you're only dealing with five farrads as compared to close to 300 for a good battery. So why not just run another battery in line.
Supercaps are not the same as a battery, they can charge and discharge much quicker and with higher currents because energy is stored electrostatically where a battery stores energy chemically. And yes, their capacity is much lower. SuperCap is not a battery.
I run a 18v 500f cap bank about 8 inches away for my 2 jp33s,it helps bigtime. I know that's a tiny but different than what's in the vid lol,thanks for your time man! A lot of guys need to see this
Well damn,i just gave a guy $30 for a audiopipe and another cap. May do my own tests and see if itll help some. I just got a 4s sodium ion18ah bank so thats way better than a cap but i may try on mine and see anyway. My civic has that dumb eld system to shut the alt off to save gas and i need to by pass it. I think my factory alt is only 70amps anyway and definitely needs uograded to run the 1500ish watt amps im using
lets be honest tho, power acoustik has never really made anything worth a dam. but yea i dont believe caps work for crap no matter who makes them. i think down 4 sound may have made one that might work but not sure.
I did this test just for fun because I have that capacitor laying around but it really was an eye-opener so I definitely will do some more capacitors in the future but a better brand to see how it goes.
My experience with the Cap is this. Back in the early 2000s I had a system in my car. Without the Cap, every time my bass line drop, it would dim my headlights at night. When I installed my Cap, it stopped my headlights from dimming when a huge bass line dropped. That's my own personal experience. I didn't have any fancy metering gages at the time.
Keep in mind this was only this particular capacitor. So I am not going to assume that all caps will give these results. I’m sure some actually work. I want to test more soon to see.
This has been my experience as well.
@@HiFiVector Any chance you can test other brands out there? Maybe the self discharge of that particular one is hurting performance.
@@Miles7955 After this test it definitely made me want to test a couple more from other brands. I will test some more in the near future so we can compare.
Not all these caps give these results.
It has to do with the parts being used inside the capacitor.
Theres a bunch of different ones.
Ranging from 1 single rolled capacitor, too 1000s of little small ones.
In my research when deciding on a cap for my stock charging systems I found the consensus among experts, not enthusiasts, was that the caps turned into a load on the charging system as soon as they were discharged. Because the energy stored is so small and discharges so fast compared to a battery, they at best decrease an initial dip in voltage in music playback while remaining an additional load while recharging after each peak in amp output. They seem to be more useful in banks as part of a custom high output electrical system.
A better solution for stock electrical systems is using the biggest agm(most cca’s) battery that will fit in your car.
Super cap system
a cap is smoothing out ripples produced by the alternator though. for some reason rarely mentioned
@@hotdog9262 The capacitors within the amp’s own power supply circuit are there to smooth out irregularities in the voltage.
I'd be curious to see what a high quality hybrid capacitor can do like the Stinger SPC5010 10 farad, NVX XCAP10H True 10, and Rockford RFC10HB 10. Also a standard Rockford Fosgate 2 farad. It's pretty clear that all the cheap brands and Chinese caps are junk and only good for a voltage display if they even include one lol
After this test it definitely makes we want to test some more of different brands and models.
agreed, i'd watch that!
I had the NVX XCAP10H in my Honda Ridgeline. Lights dimmed before and did not dim afterwards. Also, the built in distribution block was nice. I ran the NVX JAD 4 channel and 1200w mono with this setup.
@@superchile9640awesome thanks for the feedback man. It sounds like a good option for mild 1500-2000w systems which is what I run also. I get some pretty bad dimming on my F150 even with more efficient led headlights installed and a good bit of voltage drop when beating on it. No cap, Optima yellow top + big 3. I'll definitely be looking at one of these hybrids
Am guessing the test should be done with an alternator to supply 🤔 constant D/C current to give the capacitor a fair charging chance. Seeing this test means it's a waste on capacitor.
I have used one as a distribution block in every system I have owned
at least since the 80s. You old timers might remember Richard Clark of Autosound 2000 and his trick Buick Grand National. His exhaustive tests showed a notable improvement in transient response and recommend one Farad per 1000 watts. I suspect modern China made caps might be the issue.
So possibly a 50 farad china cap might be a positive gain?
@@aaronbright5028 I would say the bigger the better. If you have access to an LCR you should measure the capacitance and see if it's really what they claim. 50 farads would be more than sufficient to make a noticeable difference.
@@donnie4191 kinda new. Lcr??
@@aaronbright5028 An LCR is an instrument that measures inductance, capacitance, and resistance but it's not really something most people have I wouldn't worry about it. I'm running 1500w rms through a cheap Rockville 5 farad cap that works really well in my application. NVX sells a nice true 10 farad cap that should also serve you well unless you're running insane power over 10k watts. There are others out there but I would avoid the really cheap off-brand junk. While we're on the subject, watch a video on RUclips on how to properly charge a cap before use, and use real copper wire, not the CCA aluminum trash they are selling today. The real stuff is worth it trust me.
@@aaronbright5028
Strange my earlier reply seems to have disappeared. An LCR in an instrument which measures inductance, capacitance, and resistance. They're handy but not really necessary I keep one around because they're cheap. Anyhow, I run a cheap Rockville 5 farad cap on 1500 watts RMS and it works very well. If I was starting over I would take a hard look at the NVX true 10 Farad cap that would be more than you need unless your system is competition level. Also, since you're new to the hobby, I can't emphasize enough to avoid the cheap aluminum CCA wiring kits and use pure copper with proper lug terminals. If you're over 1000 watts, use 1/0 gauge, under 1000 watts use 4 gauge. This is the safest most reliable approach even if it costs a bit more. And most importantly, do a Big Three under the hood with at least 4 gauge. Google big three kit.
You are on point with your hypothesis. Utilizing a capacitor which only supplies a small amount of farads doesn't fairly support these type of applications. Would it help to use it as a way to aid a crank over on a vehicle if u have a battery in the back because of the distance from the power source, sure. However, you're still better off using a battery isolator with the 2 batteries in parallel if you go that route. I've been running the last for 2 years now. Wish I was aware of that in the late 90s/early 2000s when I was in high school.
If you have stock electrical and your not planning on putting on any long demos, the first thing you should worry about is your alternator. Adding batteries and caps like these will just create more points of failure and added resistance to the system. Supercap banks are actually effective but should only be considered if you're running a bigger 3k+ system.
But a damn battery in your trunk problem solved genius
In my experience they've worked good for me as a filter making my music sound much cleaner and crisp on the highs, mids, and lows
Let's also consider the brand we're talking about here. If it's rated like the amps , we may be looking at a 0.5f cap.😂
The guy at the start of the video said it was a 5 farad cap. the results are weird, and questionable. I would like to see someone do the same test on the XS Power 1000 farad cap.
@@Hotecce1 I'm suggesting that the brand is crap and that the cap is rated 10x higher than actual. Just like the amps
Its the brand cap for sure. Good assessment. Im an electrician. The actual cheap caps use little to no materials. Get a good brand and watch those levels differ.
@@jeffreybradley3736 I agree with this. I just got an amp install kit that came with a "2.5 Farad" cap. It is the size of a 0.5 Farad cap from the 90's. Good thing it was cheap and I got the cable I need and I'm only running about 500 watts... haha
It's a class D amplifier which is designed to run straight to the battery with no cap ... If you use a class AB amp you should have different results. Correct me please if I am wrong.
thats a very good though!
When someone would buy one to stop headlights from dimming, I'd tell them hook it to the headlights
😎
Back in the day when I ran a cap I noticed a big difference from having the power straight from a distro block than the cap directly to the amp. Like you said the cap after it's discharged starts sucking up the power. Yinlong FTW 😁
This is not a surprise to any of us that been doing this hobby very long. Thank you for the tests maybe try a recoil audio cap. Or a Rockford or nvx cap see if name brand true rated cap does anything
Pointless to test others. All are so similar and built in a few build houses.
@@Chuck_Sanders some caps and some batteries and some amps are all rated bs ratings. Cheap caps with bogus ratings just like all other cheap electronics with bogus ratings are going to perform badly. But that does not mean there are not good quality products. Too. A good capacitor should actually do something capacitors are in ever amplifier and almost every electronic device there is and they serve a purpose and do there job well. Yes we all know these cheap poorly rated caps are junk and do nothing but that does not mean all are bad and serve no purpose. With that being said I'm never in favor running caps like the ones in the video. The only time I have had any use for caps like that is to filter electrical noise. I would still love to see some real world tests with better quality accurately rated caps
@@paulgood2218 yeah, I have, and still do work with quite a few build houses for almost 3 decades now. Most "caps" such as these are useless, no matter the brand name stuck on it. Real cap banks, like maxwell caps are a different story, but you still need a bank of them super caps to be beneficial. These are chokes in the electrical chain, and they discharge so much faster, than the recharging cycle. Sure capacitors have functions in most all electrical devices, and get designed around the desired capacitance needed. However, these type capacitors can't make up for current/voltage loss, and cannot replace amperage that isn't there to begin with. EXO has a great video on these, years ago. Better off buying a volt meter and a 2nd battery.. or some lithium would be better.
It’s been my experience that a good brand stinger example helps up to 1500-2k (EXO showed the same) but if you’re going big boy amps you should go big boy juice, agm , lithium, mechman etc
@titoham-DCXLs you certainly are but this will work until then
I USED MY FOSGATE CAP ONLY TO STOP THE HEAD LIGHTS FROM DIMMING & SO THAT THE CAP CAN TAKE MORE OF THE HIT THAN THE CAR BATTERY!
I get what ya doing but remeber when its on a car you have headlights AC and other accessories on so may be do a test live hooked up in a car not dead test on a bench
150a simulated alternator for a "regular car" is pretty high. Most cars have between 70a and 120a unless it's a massive American SUV or something. It would be interesting to see the test done with a 100a simulated alternator, though I suspect they won't be much different to what you have already discovered.
i would like to see this with the nvx 20 farid cap. And see if it makes a difference.
Nvx just came out with a new 1200-1500rms watt subwoofer.
Without a cap in a larger system the alternator will be working so hard trying to stabilize the voltage that your belt might slip on the highest short loads. A super cap helps with that.
Very intrested in more testing. Although, my personal experience back in the mid 2000's, I ran 2 12's bridged at 2 ohms on an 860watt 2ch amp. The car was an econo sh|tbox and im sure it has less than a 100 amp alt. My headlights would dim when the bass dropped. I installed a 1 Farad Cap, and that issue was resolved. There's got to be something we're missing here.
Some caps might help if it’s a good quality one so maybe yours was a decent one? The problem is I think a lot of these cheap caps are fake . Because caps just like in electronics they work so caps are nothing new and in a lot of electronics amps included. I think that’s the issue is some of these cheap caps are snake oil.
Capacitors are a great load to the electrical system when on the discharge cycle. I am not sure if the general public knows this but when a capacitor is discharged it acts as an initial short to the supply.
Yes! And that’s why you have to “ charge” the capacitor before you connected to the battery voltage. so all charging means as far as the capacitor goes, is to get the voltage up slowly and easily before you connect full battery voltage so it doesn’t act like a short. I think a lot of guys don’t understand how they work they think charging them is like charging a battery and it is not.Great info thank for sharing that it was a great point!
I know this is an old video by now, but I'd like to know what gauge wire was used. If proper size wire was used for the amp power, I can see little help from the stiffening cap. BUT, say you undersized the POS (+) wire from the "battery" to the cap, then heavy wire from the cap to the amp, that would be an interesting test. The undersized wire would strangle the amperage like a low ohm resister. Now, I don't think the cap would do squat with a steady sine wave output except a voltage drop. But, do the quick bass attack hits with and without cap in place. I'd like to see what happens now.
Caps really only work well when they’re done right. You have to have a cap that’s true to its rating to start with and a power source (secondary battery) close by to recharge the cap quickly. I have volt meters right before and right after my cap bank, makes it great for seeing the difference in voltage drop
Now you have the right idea I have two batteries In back with a capacitor and my bass hit will make your hair stand up 😂😂😂
First of all, you have to hook up the capacitor correctly! Glad I never used one back in the late ‘80’s and 90’s when I had an all Orion HCCA (red’s) system! Yes, I was on Team Xtreme!! I know Richard Clark, too! We were in the same wattage class, except he was a Pro, and I was an Amateur - 1st year ever competing and I got invited to Nationals down in H-Town (Houston)!! I could have went and competed! But, I told Richard, I would rather go down there and be part of his crew and make sure he won because since he was Pro, we would get more points as a team, which would help us win Nationals! Richard Clark knows his shiznit! He is the reason, along with my homie and personal car audio installer, Derek Cox, I used an Orion battery isolator with two 6-volt Optima (red top) batteries in series, instead of using a capacitor!! Real Talk! 💰😂💯🔥💲😎
How about testing with and without the cap while playing a heavy bass song?
Just like with any other car audio component, quality matters.
Most of us know that a Power Acoustik amp is not the same quality as an Arc Audio or Zapco amplifier.
I would be curious to see if there's a difference in the results when it comes to the price and manufacturer. I'm sure someone would donate some Maxwell caps to test against the Power Acoustik.
I have 2 cap banks.....one from the company BattCaps and the other is a Stinger hybrid caps.....that I'm not using right now. You're more than welcome to use them!
Filtering is another benefit that is often looked over when it comes to outboard capacitors. Just like amplifiers, and almost all other electronics out there, have filter capacitor banks inside the device on the PCB. I've noticed significant reduction in the overall noise wall at the listening end of my systems. Any of you that remember installing high end CD players, you've dealt with having to find a place to hide either a black plastic or metal box that's inline with the incoming power wires in the harness.
This a filter cap.
I also, and this is the most important to me in competition, is that there is a noticeable difference in the sound quality of the actual music.....especially at lower volumes when the system is seeing less signal volume because of the the knob is at 4 instead of 11.....lol! Vocals are crisper. Snare drums and the plucking off the strings of a bass guitar. It just sounds better and it's not a major chunk of change for what you get in return.
Sorry for the length of this reply!
I'm just passionate about car audio and even more about the members want to learn.
Thank you!
Not a problem man. I had this cap here so I just thought I would do the video and see what happened. But yes, I am sure a better cap would actually do something and I will be doing a couple better quality caps in the near future. I was thinking one of those stinger hybrid caps and maybe the NVX " true" 1 farad cap and maybe one more. thanks so much for watching!
What about hybrids with non replaceable alternators?
My amp drains my battery after 10 minutes, voltage drops to 11 volts on the battery and the amp shuts down.
The headlights etc never dim because the cars electrical system (powered by the traction battery) never drops below 12.7volts
Thank you for answering this question 🙏 I have had since about 1992👍😎 I had a 20f cap, mostly for the volt meter... It is officially a wall hanger 😂 Ioxus for the win 🙌
Take the audio system equation out. I’m wondering if a cap between the alternator/generator and battery would help absorb frequency waves or soften the initial hard start when charging begins. With a start/stop semi-hybrid could it smooth the transition from on to reduced on. Would it result in extended AGM battery life. The slight drop in voltage might not matter as much with a registered battery in the charging system.
I might be way off but what about a better brand? Not a cheap one but maybe Stinger 5 Farad or ????
Yea maybe better one’s work. I definitely think there are better ones that actually do something.
Brand name doesn't mean much, when it comes to these. EXO did a video years ago... same outcome. These style Caps are a waste of money.
I had a capacitor on my system on a newer vehicle and now that I took it out due to the connections being damaged on the capacitor, my vehicle is having a hard time keeping up with the subs. Before with one, it wasn't as bad and alot less voltage drop. I have another capacitor I bought that will be replacing the old damaged one to fix the problem.
I love the video, not bashing it in any way. I am just curious on what power supply you used to power the whole setup? Maybe the reason why the voltage dropped with the cap or the cap seemed to do worse is due to the large inrush current required to charge the capacitor. Depending on your AC-DC power supply, it may have reached the current limit and dropped the voltage to compensate. I think the test would be slightly more accurate if you use or mimic the power supply of vehicle with alternator and battery. Thank you.
My amp Dyno set up is capable at handling 1200 Amps of current so that was not a factor. I have a ton of power available. This was a very lower power test. Thanks so much for watching I appreciate it.
Did you charge the capacitor using the diode wired in series? If not, then all it is doing is drawing power to take its initial charge
Yes capacitor was charge correctly.
A 5 farad cap is WAY too big for both of those loads. I would be curious to see a test with a 1 or 1.5 around 1000w rms @ 2ohm, and with the cap given enough time to charge up. I imagine that 5f cap is causing more voltage drop because its trying to charge more than it's discharging.
This makes perfect sense 🤔 ❓ cause otherwise capacitors from these test results are useless. And am thinking of installing em to help in an audio setup 🤔
How are capacitor sizes 🤔 for audio 🤔 measured?
Hell yeah, shooting yaself in the foot using those things.
Discharging/recharging rapidly inhibits the constant flow 👍
Nice honest review, thanks man ✌️
I’ve been going through your videos and I was curious about capacitors. I have a theory about this. If you put one in a continuous loop to the battery it would make a huge difference!
Prolly may need the big 3 before that upgrade but idk if that’s possible on a work bench and how many watts is that amp? You only can get about 2 farad for about 2 thousand wattsish give or take a few
You need an oscilloscope to do this test and it doesn't work and constant situations and definitely can't be seen from a volt meter the other part of this is its a give and take i personally use one to split the main led to two amps one to sub and the other to the speakers it helps with variations caps are there to smooth any waves not to add supply so maybe the volt meter is seeing the high points in the line when it is in a ripple so it would stand to reason that you would see more volt drop with a cap but its steady in stead of looking like a hart beat on a graph now I know what it's like to make videos and I would love to see another one with and oscilloscope so you can see what is happening
And do away with the display on the cap they only draw energy not worth the drain for the display the horror story from these are from the display not the cap itself
I have a limitless supercap bank I’d ship you to use for your tests…I only used it for 2 weeks and pulled it out only because I wanted my battery delete that lights up to go in its place lol I used it because I run 2 90 ah cmax banks and I know the initial start up takes some cca so I was using the supercap bank to take the brunt end of that and the supercap bank could start the truck with ease it has some sauce
Appreciate the offer. Maybe later I’ll take you up on that would be cool to test. Thank you man.
They help if your using stock electrical on just over rms to where it strains your electrical system in car. If your going huge rms power don't use these, just get good batteries and or electrical upgrades, like a powerful alternator and batteries.
This wasn't really fair IMO. Caps are supposed to help with deep hits. Not a constant hit. The idea is to stop spikes in battery drain. As many have commented, it stops your lights from dimming when hitting lows. Not constant lows.
If you notice besides the initial first test the test were short bursts.
Honestly you would have to run everything at least 10 times and average it out. Cause with or without a cap the dyno will read more or less ea dyno run regardless. That's the nature of the beast with electronic components. Caps no longer have a place with alternators able to charge 14plus volts. And batteries that hold massive amount of angry pixies ready to dump with ea draw(bass note). Back in the 80s/90s with very small lead acid batteries and alternators that dimmed your head lights turning on your turn signal, the cap could give you a little boost. But even back then they were not worth the price of admission. Not unless you ran a pyle of em. But the audio industry was just figuring things out then. I'd love to see this test done again. But 10 pulls ea. And having the resting voltage 13.5ish. To really see if back then we were throwing are money away or not. Buying it today is absolutely not worth it. They will not due anything for your system. Unless you need a way over kill voltage display. Spend the money on a second battery. Even a lawn mower battery added would have a greater effect on a current system.
ive added one and I did get a better response and more consistent response. id recommend it and a extra battery
I'm not surprised by the results. My theory has always been that they reduce the voltage when your bass is not hitting therefore making your light more dim when the bass is not hitting. Therefore people assume they work
I would think adding a cap would be harder on a stock alt, cause now the alt has to try to keep the battery charged and the cap, maybe upgrade the alt ?
People always use these capacitor because they think it will give them more power for some reason. the purpose of these capacitors is just to be a power buffer so your battery/alternator doesn't drop in voltage (causing headlight dimming or other potential silly problems).
Hey man great video, as I was watching I was wondering, how bout trying a better brand capacitor, cuz we all know that Power Acoustik isn't a good brand anyways. Maybe Recoil or Audio pipe brand something a bit better... I would like to see that. Thx
Capacitors can draw more power to charge than what the system can provide ! It only works when the power supply itself can give you the current you need ..You need to have more voltage going into the capacitor than the device requires to operate on .Supply regulation .My 13.8 v regulated supply has 30,000 uf on the 35 volt side and only 10,O00 uf on the regulated side at 13.8v .You need to open the amplifier up and parallel capacitors on the DC to DC power supply side ..I used to parallel 2 capacitors at 3500 uf 50 volts on my old punch 45 ! That worked !
I don't get it, ... a cap in a DC circuit?
Makes no sense, ... only inserting some loss.
Right?
I'd be curious if adding an additional battery would do something similar. I see a lot of people use them as a crutch for a inadequate alternator, too.
Yes adding another battery is a better option for sure.
@@HiFiVector I don't agree
I think that the cap is useful close the amp when de battery a few meters away the amp, and the cable act us an inductance for the audio transients ...
I have a 12V 55ah mighty max deep cycle battery that i was gonna use on my trolling motor, can i use it for my amp?
Yes you can
I use 500 farads in the engine bay to smooth my alternator output, and then another 500 farads right next to the amplifier to provide dynamic pulse headroom. 5 farad is tiny... i do think you experienced the voltage dropping from the cap recharging. Beyond that, its a little above my expertise to speak on what exactly was happening..
I think you have 500 millifarads in each spot (which is .5 Farad each). But if you have 1000 1 farad caps in your vehicle.. I want to see that.
@@oldbuddyben No, it was not a typo. Its six 3000 farad super capacitors in series, which lowers the effective capacitance to about 500 farads. Google "3000 farad super capacitor". They are about the size of a tall soda can, and have drastically more capacitance than the old school ones. There are even 3400 farad super capacitors now in the same form factor from Ioxus, Eaton, Nesscap, Maxwell, and a few others.
You do get 500f supercaps, and they're not necessarily new either. XS Power make one. Plus, you could make one with 6 30kF cells.
You do get 500f capacitors, and they're not even that new. XS power make some. Plus, you could get the 500 from 6x 3kf cells. @@oldbuddyben
Think of the power like water. The battery like a pond (volts) stored power. Amperage like pressure. Its using more water (volts). Because its pressurizing a little water. quickly delivering a small amount. thus using a little more (volts). acting like a little pump (fire truck) delivering a lot of water quickly. smoothing out the flow so headlights don't dim.
What about the super caps? 100F or even 500F?
Cost vs. capacity improvement is difficult to justify. IF money is no object, of course the larger more expensive cap is better. It's really basic electronics.
Capacitors Do work I've used them even the guy with loud fiat uses capacitors & going to install bigger capacitors they are good filtering source
are you here in Arizona I got one of those Maxwell super caps you can test do you think it was the quality of the cap I've run caps before and had decent results nothing like an extra battery but it did well btw you I think you gotta have the cap super close to the amp dumb I know
I'm not but thank you for the offer that was nice of you. There are caps that work and I'm sure the maxwell caps are beneficial indeed. I just had this one here so I thought I would test it out. Yea with my test bench the cap, batteries and power supplies are within 2 feet from each other. This sparked my interest though so I will be checking out a couple more in the near future. Maybe a Stinger hybrid and a NZX or?
Great video! I never knew that caps do more harm then good
Well for this particular one but I can’t say none of them work. I want to test some more in the future and see how some other types and brands do.
Capacitors are not designed to handle a constant load period, they are designed to help stabilize instant high current draw and prevent power source circuitry from being damaged. You will never get an accurate test using a machine. Only true test is watching voltage and current draw on other equipment in the same electrical system (aka head lights). Either add a cap or add a second battery in the system to prevent voltage starvation from the other components in that system.
I love capacitors they look so cool lol
I have a super capacitor from xs power ioxus and order another helps a lot this cap is huge tho ….
If you open up many of the cheap caps, you will find a couple are fake, and most that aren't have a tiny tiny capacitor that wouldn't come close to 1 farad. Just a smoke and lights show. Now going back in time, most 1 farad caps were the real deal. Amps were 95% class AB, so you would see a major improvement with headlights and voltage drops during peaks. You can thank poor outsourcing from companies that don't give a rip about the product.
My installer sold me on a capacitor back in the late 90's because my lights dimmed every time my bass would hit. Installed the cap and boom, the lights still dimmed. I want to believe that caps do something but I really don't think they do anything other than look like a cool accessory. I still have mine hung up in the garage.
I would like to see a review on a homebuilt supercapacitor array paired with a deep cycle, instead of a traditional car battery. That's something that seems like it'd be pretty neat.
Did you energize the cap first ??
Yes
Would a cap be good for a 2500 watt system or no im trying to save my alternator from over use.
I would go with a secondary battery personally. The caps do work if you buy a legit high end one but they cost $$
Awesome sir thank you
I had a Rockford Fosgate .5 farad cap that weighed more than some cheap 2 farad caps.
If u ever had lights dimming and installed cap and it stopped u will realize what they do besides clean any line noise is that they take the load off the alternator not the battery he is testing battery and not alternator it draws power from battery and then charges the alternator which charges the capacitor the battery is the power but the capacitor and alternator stores power which charges battery back up
Actually the test was done using a battery AND a active power supply which charges like an alternator. The test was not just done with only a battery.
Thank you for exposing this garbage 🗑
Thanks for exposing these glorified voltmeters. Pure Junk. Prison for the sellers. Super caps are the only way to go
The cap stops my lights blinking I give it time to charge before I turn my bass on about 6 minutes
This has been an interesting find , I will be removing mine asap. Maryland showing❤
I tried using caps in a few systems back in the day. All they ever did was make my wallet lighter.
😂😂😂
Life is always better with no cap in it...
You have to have constant power +/- to capacitor then to Amp before it will work
Ill tell you what my amp was clipping and lights dimming ,,installed amazon pyle 5.0 farad cap and problem solved
If your 150amp PSU can't do 70amps without the voltage tanking like that, its not a 150amp PSU.. :/
That’s pretty funny, but yeah, I have a 1200 amp power supply, but I had to turn it down on purpose. If my power supply was turned up to the max, the voltage would not drop whatsoever therefore we would not be able to see the difference between running a capacitor and no capacitor because the power supply would be so powerful to make up the difference and there will be absolutely no voltage drop especially on this power output. With the power supplies turn down low, we were able to now not quite have enough voltage to keep voltage solid so we can see if a capacitor in the system does anything or not which was the whole point of this test?.
Going to by a jp630 supercap bank from down for sound. It’s about 500 farad.
I have and always will chuck caps in the trash there design was early 2000s probably 90s for A/B amps early 2000 almost every subwoofer rating wasn't more them 500watts kicker solo circles was the shyt especially the 90s kicker comp 200w infinity Corwin Vega
As the kids say nowadays, "No Cap".
No cap in my caption -
Snow Tha Product
🤘😎
Aren't you suppose to charge the cap first?
Th capacitor was charged
@@HiFiVector oh, okay.
I thought caps help with the cars electric supply more stable which helps with pwm
Separate battery🤦🏻 I prefer it because I don't want my head light flashing when bass drops 10 at night
Am guessing the test should be done with an alternator to supply the capacitor with consistent 🤔 D/C CURRENT to give the capacitor a fair charging chance 🤔. Seeing these test results shows it's a waste 🗑 of time using capacitors
The test was done with a dc power supply set to average vehicle alternator output. So it was hooked up to a dc charging system for the test.
If you're quiet you can hear the sales on crappie capacitors dropping! I would put money on that powerless acustik cap is no way 5 farad its rated just like every other cheap ass power acoustik amp way more than it really does....i likely isnt even 1 farad so its probably a choke point of the power... When you see a 5 farad from a reputable company is way bigger and way more expensive so thats a dead givaway... I think the nvx 5 farad is multible caps like 6 i cant remember. Super caps are the only caps worth buying but after you get enough low voltage super caps for 12v its expensive... That budget bass head put big super cap set in and it was a flop so i think caps are a waste just get bunch of headways there like $5.50 at battery hookup i just bought 12 (24ah) with shipping like only $80,! Why would you go any other way... i made some bus bars and it holds around 13.8 to 14.2 running my APCLE 1800.1 on 2 d2 12s at .5 ohm wide open with a 130A alt. My van has a beast module 64ah 32cell and it runs a cab45 at .5 ohm it holds high 13s with stock 140a alt at full chooch... Ill never go anything else but lithium.
A Cap i nit a powerbooster o anything like this...
Its like an Iron and flatening just the peaks. Witch is healthyer for the boardelectronics and the generator and Battery...
Now try an ultra cap huge diff however some high end caps do work but the cheap ones are doo doo.
The power from a car is not consistent, It changes as the car drives. i might have missed something here but your power supply dose not replicate this. your trying to protect the alternator nothing more.
Try a cheap planet audio system they have a modern 20 farad flux capacitor for 100$ . That’s fit for the 1500 watt (1100 rms 2ohm) planet audio anarchy amp 89.99
Do a decent wire setup not the cheap 4 or 3 that it would come with .
I think that’ll be a good cheap system to beat and see if it really works
Maybe take it apart and se if there really is a big capacitor in there?
Hopefully next time u could try a super cap I would love to see the results.
Definitely!!
Do one with the super caps
Also, would be better with histogram oscilloscope in a way
Aren't there more farrads in a battery than a capacitor. I mean you're only dealing with five farrads as compared to close to 300 for a good battery. So why not just run another battery in line.
Supercaps are not the same as a battery, they can charge and discharge much quicker and with higher currents because energy is stored electrostatically where a battery stores energy chemically. And yes, their capacity is much lower. SuperCap is not a battery.
@@flexairz super caps yes but these are not super caps.
I run a 18v 500f cap bank about 8 inches away for my 2 jp33s,it helps bigtime. I know that's a tiny but different than what's in the vid lol,thanks for your time man! A lot of guys need to see this
Well damn,i just gave a guy $30 for a audiopipe and another cap.
May do my own tests and see if itll help some.
I just got a 4s sodium ion18ah bank so thats way better than a cap but i may try on mine and see anyway.
My civic has that dumb eld system to shut the alt off to save gas and i need to by pass it.
I think my factory alt is only 70amps anyway and definitely needs uograded to run the 1500ish watt amps im using
I bought one 5 years back,but never installed it, it's brand new in package, What a waste of money..💸🙄 oh well,we learn from our mistakes..🤓
lets be honest tho, power acoustik has never really made anything worth a dam. but yea i dont believe caps work for crap no matter who makes them. i think down 4 sound may have made one that might work but not sure.
Nice work with those test. 😎👍👍
Thanks brother!
You have to charge your cap before use , I don’t think he did that.
Cap was “ charged”
Coo, I guess I just had better luck in the past with them.👍🏾
I would like to see a more reputable brand capacitor tested like Stinger
I did this test just for fun because I have that capacitor laying around but it really was an eye-opener so I definitely will do some more capacitors in the future but a better brand to see how it goes.
What about a 150 Farad cap?
Get a super cap system and do it again. Might be surprised