whats up people, I'm new to posting on this site, however i do use it for alot of information.

Question 1: I was just wondering if anyone knows if the stock alternator will handle a 950 watt system....i was told by a guy at auto image that i do need one...but before i go and get one i was looking for second opinions.

Question 2: If so, where can i get a high output alternator, for an '06 xB

oh, and if this was already covered, i am sorry, but i searched and couldnt find.


Thanks in advance to anyone who can help.

 

There are a few companies that make them, but be for warned they are pricey ($600 + in some cases). You can probably get away with you stock alt, just make sure you upgrade the "big 3" here is a link of a great article dealing with it http://forum.sounddomain.com/ubbthre.../312025/page/1)

Get the biggest capacity battery you can fit in there and give it a go. Another alternative is to have your alt rebuilt by a electronics shop, they can rewind the coils and increase its capacity.

Search ebay for Scion Alt, there are a couple audio shops that sell them on there

Good Luck

 

Oh yeah to be honest though, you should really upgrade the alt for a system that size... Although you could probably get away with band aiding the stock together, its not going to have longevity being pushed so much for long.

 

i'm running about 2000 watts through my system..using two caps inline and chnaged out the stock battery for a optima battery..still running the stock alt. ....so far havent had any charging issues...

 

I have a nine.1, nine.2 and a nine.2x. Around 1800w, but gained down. The nine.2x mids is at (o'scope) optimum, the nine.1 is HU variable w/level control and the nine.2 is gained down for the tweets.

Stock alt/batt, but I don't listen at extreme volumes for any length of time. It will hit hard, but I'm into SQ. Going for an Optima or Walmart batt when its time.

To answer your Q, its OK if you are reasonable.

 

thats a pretty small system compared to many, i personally would say do it right the first time thought and upgrade your "big 3" get that new battery, upgrade your grounds, upgrade your power wire from the alternator to the battery, and either have your alternator rebuilt to higher output, or go with an aftermarket one. Like diablo said, there's things you can do to bandaide yourself for a little while, but over time it'll just get worse and worse. I personally had my stock alternator rebuilt to push 120 amps all from the stock casing. and then running 3 batteries. upgraded to 0/1ga from alt to battery and upgraded all my grounds. Then again, im running 6,000 watts through just the subs and 800 through my components

 

Where is a good place to find an aftermarker alternator? I found two on e-bay through a store called Hi-Amps Alternators. One of them is for the xA or Echo, but I assume that it would probably fit on an xB also? I looked for Iraggi Alternators, but couldn't find anything.

 

Yeah, but I still have a back seat and cargo area!

All kidding aside, 1800W is pushing the stock 90A alt and battery! That was the point I was making to the OP. With big three and eDead done, his 950W system should be fine.

BTW, did you get (2) more amps? Your profile says "only" 2x 1500W amps for your 4x 15" MTX 7500s.

 

with the stock alt, you could push a maximum of 1,240watt *Volts X Amps = Power, 13.8v X 90amp = 1,242watt*, this is ofcourse if your alternator is ONLY powering your audio system, which it's not it's powering the engine aswell.

you must also take into account, these guys saying they have 2,000watt systems in thier xB arn't actualy pushing contineous 2,000watts. while listening to music you have what's known as the "crest factor" which means that power levels in your normal music play are jumping all over the place. depending on what you listen to and how loud will determin the amount of power useage you are demanding from your altenator. for instance, say you are listening to your system at "full volume", this does not mean you are pulling all 100% of the capable 2,000watt. in this case you are pulling anywhere between 10%-80% of your total capable power because of the crest factor. crest factor happens between bass hits and bass line synthenies, mot of the power drawn is only during the deep to mid bass notes when having to REALLY move the mass of the speaker cones to get what you want to hear. mid to high treble zones use hardly any power at all and puts your amps into extreme efficiency zones compared to lower notes.

so what you'll want to do is figure out what you'll need for power. a good example for power useage of diffrent types of music is below, again, it's an example, not exact.

classical - 20-60% of 100 capable
rock - 50-70% of 100 capable
metal - 50-80% of 100 capable
tencho - 20-75% of 100 capable
drumb N' bass - 30-85% of 100 capable
oldies - 55-60% of 100 capable
rap - 70-85% of 100 capable
movies - 35-55% of 100 capable

no bass = hardly any power useage at all
lots of bass = LOTS of used power

for your settup, what i would do is assume you have 1,000watt of power pull. now factor in the types of music you normaly listen to... say rock, rap and techno, add the percentages togethere and devide by the sum of them to get a mean amount of power draw. for example, a mean aprox. max of power pull between rock, techno and rap would be about 76.666%. this means, out of 1,000watt of capable pull, you would pull an aprox. maximum of 766.66watt or in other words, at 13.8v your altenator would see a power draw demand of about 55.55amps thus being within your power demands of your altenator's capable output amount.

for you, we can assume basicly that you would be using a maximum of 80% of total power capability, in otherwords 760watt out of your 950watt capability.

you CAN use capacitors if you'd like, but do know, thier purpose is for sound compitions where extreme SPL levels are seens in a matter of a single second. capacitors are built to store energy and then quickly release that energy all at once, all this is going to do is put an extra load on your altenator. what you should do for power stiffening near your amplifier(s) is use a Kinetik Audio HC600 battery. it's small *7inches long, 6.5inches high and 3inches wide* light weight *12lbs* and is sealed dry cell *means it charges quickly and can not be spilled which means it can be mounted in any way that you see fit*. an HC600 is just enough for power stiffening so that if your system draws MORE power then what the altenator can handle, the HC600 will stiffen the demand right there at the amps, just like a capacitor but only much more effective and doesn't but anywhere near the extra load on the altenator to charge. plus, an HC600 is a weather resistant dry cell battery... you can mount it under the car if you wanted to and wouldn't have to worry about a thing.

the diffrence is this...

capacitor = power stiffening for short 1-3 second bursts
HC600 = equivelant of 100x1fared *100x1,000watt capacitors*, power stiffening for anywhere between 30 seconds and 2 minutes depending on the draw. also have a dry chemical compound like any other dry cell that keeps it's charge while the capacitor does not and looses all it's energy in a short burst.

hope this helps

 

Is it worth paying $300 for a 165 Amp alternator?

 

in a way yes. but if you're willing to spend the money on one, get an Irraggi Altenator. Dom Irraggi takes the stock altenators and rebuilds them to produce insane amounts of power reliably. he's got two models for the xB, a 90amp @ idle / 180amp Max and 110amp @ idle / 200amp Max. think he charges between $380 and $400 or something like that... can't remember exactly.

it's best to have more power production then what you are using for the long run that you might upgrade or add other electrical demands and such. it's just smart to plan ahead of your self.

 

not to get off topic but auto image where? in somerville?