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newbe86 · Jan 29, 2009, 10:08 PM

I have a 97 saturn sl2 and I just put a pioneer system in it consisting of 2 10in tsw252r and a 760 watt amp. When I turn it up all the lights dim in my car. A friend suggested I invest in a capacitor. Would that solve my problem.

MarkwithaK · Jan 29, 2009, 10:13 PM

Sounds like you're using up too much voltage on all that fancy stereo stuff.

KISS · Jan 29, 2009, 10:23 PM

I think your in need of an upgraded alternator or tuen the volume down. If it was just a few thumps, then the cap could help.

newbe86 · Jan 29, 2009, 10:32 PM

The alternator is brand new 3 weeks ago

MarkwithaK · Jan 29, 2009, 10:35 PM

Originally Posted by newbe86

the alternator is brand new 3 weeks ago

Not a new alternator. An UPGRADED alternator. They make higher output alts to supply enough juice to these new fangled ridiculous stereo systems.

newbe86 · Jan 29, 2009, 10:52 PM

OK so what kind of alternator should I get. Cause I have no idea what I would look for.

MarkwithaK · Jan 29, 2009, 10:56 PM

I'm guessing you didn't put a whole lot of thought into this! Check with Crutchfield or Summit or your local car audio place. It's not that difficult.

KISS · Jan 29, 2009, 11:39 PM

Example:

GM 2.2 motor alternator upgrade

A standard alternator is probably 60 or 90 amps. It's basically designed to run all of the cars loads. Heating, lighting, stereo, heated seats, alternator field etc. are large loads.

Power is V *I, so a 60 amps * 12 V is 720 watts, so there isn't any power left.

The cap can give you better bass and so can the higher capacity. Both may be necessary.

I built a dual 100 W amp with +-50V rails and an 18 amp constant voltage transformer with 46,000 uf of capacitance. I later changed it to 4 X 50 V rails at 3A. There was a noticeable difference. I could get better performance when I added a surplus 500 Watt sine wave regulator to the system. Used it was about $100. New about $1000. It was for a home system.

The amp can slew at 100 V/us and has an unrolled of response from 0.0 Hz to about 0.8 megahertz, It's intentionally rolled of to have a response of about 0.5 Hz to 40 Khz

The sound is comperable to tube amps like Mcintosh. Mine could not drive horns loud due to the voltage rails and the tube amps could not do bass very well. Bi-amping would work really nice in that situation.

Fr_Chuck · Jan 30, 2009, 06:14 AM

That must be one heck of a sterio system, many have installed separate battery systems and a dual charging system just to run advanced items.