We love our bass-heavy music. We love our cars. Our cars love electrical energy. It keeps the lights on and music pumping.
If your battery voltage dips while driving with the tunes on, your lights can dim, and your music can fade.
Enter the audio capacitor: savior of sound amplifiers.
An audio capacitor keeps your tunes playing and lights on, even if your voltage dips. Sounds good right?
Sure. How do they work? Do you need one?
We have the answers you seek. Read on for your guide to audio capacitors.
How Do Audio Capacitors Work?
To understand audio capacitors we need to know why the voltage dips in the first place. Let’s take a look.
Why Does Car Battery Voltage Dip?
Corrosion and wiring issues can cause this, but that’s not what we’re talking about here. in most cars, voltage dips and rises during driving. Why?
What happens when your battery gets low, say because you dropped a huge bassline at full blast?
Your car’s resistor turns down the battery voltage. It does this to let in more electrical energy from your alternator. Filling your battery’s power storage.
Your resistor raises the voltage when the battery is near full to stop overcharging. Hence this mild yoyo effect.
Where Does Your Audio Capacitor Step In?
Audio capacitors can absorb electricity from your car’s battery. We can also charge them beforehand. When your capacitor takes in a charge, it can store it.
When your voltage gets low, your capacitor steps in and discharges power to your amp. This keeps your music playing and stops your amp from stealing power from your lights. It does this in the blink of an eye. It acts as a buffer.
Audio Capacitors: Does Size Equal Power?
We measure capacitance, how much capacity it has, in Farads. 1 Farad equals 1,000 watts of power for your sound and electrical systems.
You can buy larger audio capacitors, but are they worth it? 2 and 3 Farad capacitors won’t affect the amount of power in your battery. But they can store more electrical energy, so if your amp needs juice, it has it.
Do You Need an Audio Capacitor for Your Car?
Audio capacitors are ideal tools for car and music enthusiasts. But do they make your audio sound better if your voltage is fine?
They keep your audio signals running smoothly. They won’t increase quality per se, but your audio stays smooth even if your voltage dips a bit.
That said, a capacitor is like a temp, filling in for the battery in short bursts. Second batteries work better for long-term power. Or as a team.
Absorbed Glass Mat (AGM) batteries suit car sound systems. Check out bigjeffaudio.com/collections/xs-power for an example. They are non-spillable. They need little maintenance. They give your amp all the juice it needs.
Lights On, Music Pumping?
We hope our guide to audio capacitors helped you keep your sounds on. They are a handy bit of kit for cars decked out with subs, tweeters, and sound amplifiers. Pair them with a second battery and you’ll have no worries at all.
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