What is the importance of Capacitors on Car Audio?

What is Capacitor?

You are on the way to your destination, shaking your head at the beats and singing at your lungs’ top. Suddenly the bass gets lowered, and the headlights start dimming. 

It happens often, but there’s nothing to worry about a minor bug that can be fixed easily with the “Capacitor.” You need to invest a bit and install it. Capacitors are composed of two electrical conductors and a dielectric that can take the sound system to the following levels! 

These electronic components can preserve energy in them for a long time and can discharge rapidly.

Why Do I Need a Capacitor?

The car’s electrical system works complex. You love to listen to solid bass music and have some amplifiers in the car to generate adequate sound, but that consumes a large amount of energy provided by the car’s electric system. 

At some point a car’s electric system becomes unable to provide that massive amount of energy, and the voltage drops, which makes the headlights blink, and you may experience dull sound coming out of the system. 

It would be best if you had capacitors to install next to your amplifiers to fix this to reduce the overall strain. 

How Does a Capacitor work?

The dielectric is the insulator. The device is known for storing electricity. When the car’s electric system powers its conductors and an amplifier, a field is generated that stores power inside that doesn’t let headlights dim and provides the insulators with a jolt of energy.

When the current is supplied, conductors store electrical charges between the plates, which stores charges. When it is connected with an external source, it discharges itself rapidly. 

However, capacitors are all different and come with different capacitances, which means they have different storage capacities. Hence the efficiency is variable as well. 

What is the importance of a Capacitor on Car Audio? 

Although we have already learned how the Capacitor works, these are quick remedies to solve the car’s headlights’ dimming issue. It is considered a non-powered device that can be used for a temporary power shortage. 

It doesn’t create the field on its own; instead, it relies on the car’s electrical system. Still, gladly, you don’t have to worry about the fading audio of the music in the car when you get to know that your car is not left with enough current to provide an amplifier since you have a backup – the Capacitor!

 It doesn’t matter how large the Capacitor is. It always works great in the end. So besides helping with the headlights and dashboard lights from dimming, 

it also helps you keep enjoying your favorite songs until you reach the desired destination. But don’t get confused, capacitors cannot improve sound quality, but they can prevent it from deteriorating by limiting the voltage. 

So basically, 

• Your Capacitor first stabilizes the voltage, which is consumed by an amplifier. Capacitors have to be installed as near as possible to an amplifier. 
• It shares the burden of an amplifier, which helps it get cooler quickly to provide adequate sound with solid bass continuously. 
• The most important thing is that it doesn’t let your songs flatten or fade. 
• It helps with the dimming of headlights (which is helpful at night). 

What can a capacitor not do?

Though they offer great help to an audio system, commuters bind a lot of expectations with the device, which often doesn’t work, and I hate to break it to you, but there are some things where the capacitors don’t help in real life. 

• It’s not always due to the electric power supply that causes flickering on your car’s headlights if they do it more often, even if you’ve just started the car, and the lights start to dim. 
• You don’t need a capacitor then, but upgrading the primary power source might help. And if the issue is still not resolved, consider replacing the headlights. 
• It’s impossible to increase the sound quality with capacitors no matter how efficient your Capacitor is because it all depends on an amplifier connected with the car audio system. 

Car Capacitor vs. Car Power Cell

Capacitor and Battery are two different things; however, they both perform a common task of storing charges and releasing them when necessary. While in terms of functions and design, they both differ. 

Batteries store charge in the chemical form, and on the other hand, a capacitor creates a static electrical field by holding the potential energy. 

Batteries utilize processes to convert chemical energy into electrical energy before discharging the charges. In contrast, capacitors discharge them when required, and this is why the time taken by batteries takes a little longer than capacitors to get the work done. 

Batteries also have higher internal resistance in comparison. Thus, capacitors can deliver a large amount of current faster than batteries. 

Learn more – How to install a second battery for car audio?

What is an appropriate size for the Capacitor? 

The common saying is for every 1000 Watt RMS of the system, you can have 1 Farad Capacitance, but that’s fine if you choose a capacitor of the higher capacitance of 2 or 3 Farads. 

But it is to make sure that the higher the capacitance of the Capacitor is, the more it can store charge and take more time to store. 

Conclusion 

Capacitors, in short, are saviors! These devices can hold charges from your car’s electrical system but cannot produce them. 

They have several advantages, including saving your car’s light to dim and how long. Yes, you can have one for your audio system as well. 

It entirely depends on the capacitance of the chosen capacitors; they share the burden of an amplifier and keep it calm, which never affects the quality of the song that you love to listen to while driving.