PlayinWithFire

I called JL audio cause i recently purchased 3... yes 3 10" JL W6v2's but i wanna know what amp to get. At first he said the 1000 watt mono amp but when i told him i had a tC he said that most likely my lights would be dim and maybe even drain everything all together. Is this true? He said something about a perfomance alternator but i dont know what that is.... someone wanna help me out?

hehe scion commercials on(xA)....

LavaBox_v1

No way ... Lights may dim when the bass hits low and hard ... but there is noway it will drain your battery empty ... I know a kid with an xB and he is running a 5,000 watt system and he has the stock battery, stock alternator and NO cap ... and his lights barley dim ... You will be fine!

PlayinWithFire

thanks man i was gettin worried

reybz

Just to be safe and to hear a difference replace your battery with a yellow top optima you won't regret it. Im pumping 5800 watts and that battery made a difference

Reign_Man

yea upgrade to a red (not yellow) top and get a 2farad cap. the way the JL amps are designed is that they run as effectively as possible with its given power. and no matter what ohm they are wired itll still give the same power. in other words the more volts you have the more watts you get. ohms mean nothing to the amp

tbone587

the jl amp is nice, just overpriced in my opinion.. But it is cool how it puts out 1000w rms no matter how you wire.

ScionRI

dude, there's no way you're pulling anywhere close to 5800 true watts without a h/o alt.

i'd like to know your set up.

And capacitors won't help with the dimming, get a battery.

Reign_Man

caps only really help if your chargin system can keep up with it. all of JLs stuff is over priced. im not saying its not quality..but still its over priced

achow

The reason for a cap is not for charging any type of system. In fact, it gets charged by the car. What a capacitor does is hold a charge so your amps will get a constant draw of power versus pulling the power away from your altinator. Most car manufactures do not intend for the car to be modified with such systems and therefore us an altinator just enough to power the car and its electrical system in itself. Thus, a capacitor is to relieve the stress on your altinator because it holds the power your amp needs. hte rule of thumb for a capacitor is that 1 farad can power 1000w.

"And capacitors won't help with the dimming, get a battery." a capacitor does help with the dimming of lights. The reason headlights and other interior lights dim when a sub its or your stereo is being played loud is becuse it is draning power from your altinator tha is suppose to be for your car. With a capacitor wired up correctly, it will act as a direct battery for your stereo.

As for the person who is running a 5000 watt system, the reason why the light barely dim is that his altinator is brand new. If that is true rms and he is running that power constantly, his altinator will fry very soon.

To answer the original quesiton, a 1000 watt amp will not drain your battery, but a capacitor is highly recommended.

Sorry for the long post. I just wanted to clear some misrepresented info.

-alfred

Reign_Man

yes and no...the cap does help reieve stress on the alternator that the amp is drawing...but then in return the alterator has to recharge the cap AND the battery while still maintaining power for hte ampso unless you have a strong alt. a cap is kinda not worth it

lilman4210

Wow I really wish people would know what there talking about before they post in here. I agree with achow. A cap is def worth the money. It acts like a small battery to sum it up. The amp pulls the power needed from the cap before it does the battery that way the battery will keep the most amount of power possible.

SuperCrunchyAction

Caps are garbage. If you're alternator can't keep up with your amp, how does introducing another power sucking device into an already deficient system help? It doesn't. The cap needs to be charged and that takes power that you don't have. He'd be better off buying a higher output alt or a secondary battery.

VtScionGuy

A "small" cap isn't worth it. Getting the Alumapro 5 or 15 Farad might be. But for that price get a new battery, I like the Stingers myself.

I had that JL1000 for about 2 days before I traded it in for a Zapco 6.0 and never looked backed. Night and day difference. Try getting a used 6.0 on ebay instead of that JL. I was running two 10W7's btw.

As to the 5000 watt comment above, its true that he isn't using anywhere near the 5000 watts. ust think about how much power your amps are getting and if that's enough to make 5000 watts?

DenZinz

Do you realize if you have a true 5000 watts you will be pulling an upwards of 550+ amps? You really think your 75 amp altenator could handle that? Just because there is a power rating on the heat sink doesnt means thats what the amp puts out... Well maybe if 10 lighting bolts strike the heat sink at the same time, just maybe. Brands such as Crossfire and JL have true power ratings. For example, we tested a Crossfire VR4000D (4000wx1) on our 400amp power supply and it shut down the power supply. There is no way a scion or any factory alt. can handle that.

That still doesnt change the fact that the alt. is only 75 amps.

I agree with SuperCrunchyAction.


Im sure JLTD will chime in soon and go in depth more about the issue.

lilman4210

Alright well just to let you know cap's dont drain power. They store extra power like a battery!

achow

you also have to consider that most people do not constantly use the full potential of their amps meaning the amperage draw is very low for the most time.

IF you read my post in its whole entirety you will see the first thing i said twas that it gets charged by the car. I never said it didnt. Basically what i was trying to say is that the first step in preventing your alrinator from going out is to buy a capacitor to prevent he immeate pull from the altinator.

I completely agree with you that a higher output altinator is definately a way to go, but must people do not have the ability to get a hold of one and/or be able to install one. since a capacitor is widely availane at any audio store including shops such as best buy and good guys, it is an easy way for preventing your car stock altinator from from the sudden spikes an amplifyer draws from it.

...

okay lets clear this up. lets sum up what i was trying to say about the capacitor in teh first place. a capacitor acts as a secondary battery that is able to to react to those sudden spikes of power that an amp may need. meaning, when your amp needs that extra power to make that "thump", your amp will be able get the power from a secondary source instead from the altinator that is already stressing to power your car's electrical system. basically it smoothens the spikes of power your stereo system requires from your electrical system.

...

just for those who are wondering how a capacitor should be wired up, you need to connect the positive lead going right to the amp's positive lead and make sure you ground the cap on the metal chassis.

...

As for full fledged additional batteries, they also to take their load on the altinator to charge up aswell. if anything adding a battery from such a small system may actually be more harmful and less effecient than a capacitor because that it is less of a load. the real reason for additional batteries is that you are able to prolong the use of your stereo when your car is off.

-alfred

DenZinz

batteries typically can handle more current than caps, thus being useless on high current systems.

know_fun

www.termpro.com <--theres some serious audio ppl there. do a search on h/o alternators. theres a guy that deals with that and he can do nething wit the right price. his pricing is good too (i haven't dealt wit him personally just what i read).

caps work to some extent. a cap would be like another battery. but seriously if your able to get a 1000watt sub + amp, your able to find a way to get a h/o alt. someone told me just get your alternator rewound so that it fits your application + its cheaper than a new alt.

Reign_Man

anyone ever realize weve got into the same argument like 5 times....batteries..caps...alternators....enough power...theres like 5 other threads that have the exact same things posted in them

....wait are you guys copying and pasting?

oneslowxa

JL is priced high because of the technology and engineering packed inside.. They have the e series line which is VERY affordable... and still has most of the JL quality, but isn't regulated, which means savings in price but a dip in performance.

SPL people will argue regulated power supplies sucks...
SQ people will argue regulated power supplies rule...

Caps do help the lights from dimming, but is also another strain on the battery.
for small systems you can get away with using one
Capacitors are great... when used inside amps, or in crossovers...

If you are going to do a serious system your going to need to get an alternator.