who makes a good capacitor? do i really need one?

i'm running a 400 watt kicker amp to 2 12" comp vr's, and i was wondering if i really need a cap. i never run the stereo without the car running, so that will help save up my batter, right? so do i really need a cap?
also, who makes the best cap? is it really worth the extra money for a digital display? and what do the numbers before it mean? (like it says .5 farad cap, or 1.0, or 2.0)

most cap are the same, just some has different voltage and ESR. you shouldn't worry much about them anyways. if you just want something to help out, don't get the digital display. all it is, is a display of how much voltage it's running at.... those numbers you refer to is the farad. generally, .5 farad should be use with a 500 watt system. 1.0 farad should be used with a 1000watt system, 1.5 with 1500watts and so on...

oh yea...i think ikesound.com has some 1.0 Rockford Fosgate caps for ~$70. i think its a good price. the site might be down right now though..:bloated:

for the amount of power you are running, you wont need a cap.

you probably don't need one, but if I were you I'd get a .5 farad cap just for the hell of it. :)

Caps are just "band aid" fixes for electrical losses...

Do you need a cap? I dunno you tell us... do your ligths dim at all with the sytem cranked? If so you need to pull more power from somewhere -- a cap, another battery, higher output alternator... something! :bandit:

Originally posted by sparq
higher output alternator...

if you're stock electrical system can't handle a 400 watt amp, then the alt is shot. If the lights dim during bass lines, then a cap will probably help for that. As mentioned previously, do NOT get caps with a voltage readout - it raises the ESR (effective series resistance) so high, it makes the cap worthless for this application. The caps tested as having the lowest ESR were the lightning Audio caps.