Capacitors

Your car is your favorite hangout. You will rather get stuck in traffic because you enjoy XM. And others would get envy because your head lights seem to dim along at the stomping beat of your amplifiers. You think it’s cool.

But it’s not. You car stereo needs something as much as your car needs help and before you ran out of battery, rush now to the nearest car audio store to grab some car stereo capacitors.

The car stereo is like an amalgamation of electronic parts that play a vital role to give you a heart-pumping music experience. Car stereo capacitors or car audio capacitors are at forefront of the car audio system. It’s a like mini store house of electricity.

When your car does not have a car audio capacitor… each time your car stereo amplifier thumps to the deepest and biggest bass beat of a CD track, a sudden burst of electricity is drawn from the car battery to accommodate the amount of power it needs. This sudden burst of electricity flow will cause head lights to dim and affect other battery powered devices inside the car. It happens because the electrical consumption of an amplifier varies directly with the succession of drum beats and bass notes in songs that car stereo plays.

An upbeat music such as a dance track is a likely culprit. Slow and mellow songs don’t really use a lot bass. And because other parts in your car are also eating up electricity from the battery, it seems like the amplifier is being deprived of power and so when it needs to blow bass in the speakers, head lights will have to give in.

When your car has car audio capacitor installed... it remedies the shortage of the car power system. Capacitors are like storage of electricity but unlike a battery it does not create its own power. It gets its source from the battery and stores it when it runs out. The presence of capacitors will eliminate shortage of power and provide continuous and adequate power supply to amplifier especially during those heavy-duty bass thumping.

A car stereo capacitor’s strength is distinguished by farads. The smallest is .05 and highest is 3. Different amplifier size requires a specific car audio capacitor. A capacitor should be installed near the amplifier to accommodate faster access to power when there is demand in peak levels.

Amplifier’s output and electricity consumption is measured by watts, this should help you get the right car stereo capacitor. The rule of thumb is that for every 500 watts there should be .5 farad of car audio capacity.

When you install car audio capacitors… you need to know the basics of capacitors. For starters, a capacitor, in the traditional days, is like a tube with lots of insulation between the two rods or plates that top its container. These two plates are respectively charged positive and negative.

You must know that these two plates should not touch as horrible things will really happen if they do. That is why there so much insulation that keeps them apart inside and outside its tube. Different materials are used to insulate capacitors. There are ceramics, plastics, polyester, polysterene, paper and even air. These insulators are commonly called dielectrics by experts.

The negative plate is usually wired as ground. The positive goes to the amplifier terminal. The most ideal distance between a capacitor and the amplifier is two feet. This should result to better sound quality.

Installing the car audio capacitor really needs a lot of technical help especially if you don’t have so much background on electronics. It is advisable to get hands on when you let somebody set up the car audio system so you will know the basics and troubleshooting tips in case the car audio flips.

Capacitors are decently priced these days so it is never a question why one should not get a good one for his car. Remember that it is not a good sight to have your head lights dimming along with your amp.