You only need a capacitor for your car stereo if your car has surges of power, often visible by the dimming of your car lights. The capacitor is a band-aid solution if you have frequent power surges. In this case, you should consider adding additional batteries instead or increasing the existing capacity.
Car Stereo Capacitors are excellent in preventing lights from dimming while the amp plays. However, you can solve the dimming lights by adding a high output alternator or additional battery instead.
Capacitors can do an excellent job in some cases, but they won’t fix the root of the problem.
Even with the best car amplifiers, you can’t have the best sound with crappy power. On the other hand, high-quality amps that help produce crisp and clear music need a lot of power for high fidelity.
Most people recommend using a car audio capacitor for continuous excellent music quality.
But do you need a capacitor for your system? Let’s find out.
Do I Need A Capacitor? YES or NO
What Is A Car Audio Capacitor?
A car audio capacitor (or stiffening cap) is just like a backup battery.
It stores energy that will get deployed when the car voltage needs a bit of a push due to a sudden heavy voltage change.
Car capacitors act as a buffer to stabilize the system up to its maximum capacity only. When used, the load in the capacitor gets recharged as soon as possible.
A car capacitor works similarly to a regular electronic capacitor but is usually much larger.
Why Would You Ever Need An Audio Capacitor?
High-tier amps produce the best stereo music quality. However, these amps also eat up a bit of the car’s supply.
Soft music doesn’t consume a lot of power, but heavy bass does. Hence, if you play a song with full-on bass, your headlights might start to dim. The dimming happens because the amp needs more energy to produce those bass sounds (or any power-hungry sounds in particular.
What an audio capacitor does is supply more power to the electrical system.
This prevents headlight dimming by providing additional electricity strength to the vehicle’s devices while limiting what the amp uses.
Example of a car power surge
Do You Really Need A Car Audio Capacitor?
Car audio capacitors might be a good option in the paper. It improves your sound even if you have a low-capacity car battery, an underpowered alternator, or low amperage wires.
However, it does not answer the problem of power shortage during high-fidelity music playbacks.
Think of your whole car’s electricity system as a shower and the capacitor as a water glass. The water glass is filled continuously for backup in case your plumbing gets problematic again.
If the plumbing stops working, you can splash the whole glass of water on your face to get the soap in your eyes.
But the water shortage and your faulty plumbing problems are still there.
Will A Stereo Capacitor Fix The Dimming Problem?
A better solution is to add another battery instead of a car audio capacitor. This way, your music playback won’t interrupt your headlights because enough power is stored to leverage both.
If you opted for additional battery banks, don’t forget to add high output alternators too.
Add one battery and see if this is enough for your power consumption with your amps.
If not, you can always have additional batteries until your system can supply your needs without any problem.
Frequently Asked Capacitor Questions
Is a capacitor necessary for car audio?
No. In most cases, a capacitor will not be necessary for good-quality car audio.
Most cars will not use so much power that they will require a capacitor.
Final Thoughts
Most people will not need a capacitor for their car’s stereo system, but systems that use a lot of power could benefit from it.
As we’ve said, a high-capacity battery or additional batteries may be a better option than adding a capacitor if you see frequent power surges.
If you’re wondering why your speaker might be disporting at the high volume it’s likely not because of your capacitor but the amplifier.
