i am running a jl 500/1 and 300/4 amp. do i need a farad cap

 

no

 

No - unless you're running other stuff as well. (I'm running Kicker's 700.5 amp and only see a small voltage drop (14V to 12V) when it's blasting and at idle...the moment I pick the revs up to 1K, the voltage goes back to 14V)

-peter

 

What I've been told: (rule of thumb)1 farad cap per 1000 watts

 

IMO

a cheap cap $50 to $ 100
a good cap $150 or more

put an optima battery in your trunk $150 , and get stinger relay isolater $50

this will be far superior than a cap of any price
IMO

 

thanks for the reply guys

 

simple answer, No.

Farad caps are used to store power(amperage). So when your sub amp has a bass note to delever to the sub, that the amp has instant power from the cap, instead of drawing it long distance from the battery in front.

Easy way to picture what a farad cap does is, You have a 5gal bucket of water(the cap) and a garden hose(the power wire) Now lets say you need 5gals of water dump on your friend, would you use the 5gals bucket of water right away, or wait for the 5gals of water from the garden hose. Same princible in (amperage) power with the audio system.

 

+1
Rule is for every 1000 watts of power you would need a 1 farad cap.
mostly applies to the sub amp, since it is the one that would need to power upfront more so then a 4channel mid-high range amp.