A lot of threads on the internet showcasing installs with expensive HU , Amps , subs , speakers and expensive wiring seem to be missing something valid .
In music reproduction the most important thing is the source ..which is the HU , sound card , ipod or whatever .
Many installs feature expensive HU and expensive audio gear , but what I have noticed is with 50 % volume the lights on the HU start dimming when there is a bass transient . Seen some installs / members exclaiming that their HU has the best DAC and it is supposedly the best sounding HU etc .
I have installed caps for my HU power on the power and ignition line of 10,000 ufd and 3300 ufd and simply installing the caps for the HU gives a totally different dimension to the SQ of the system as a whole . Has anyone else tried and found any differences or is it that i am under an illusion
In music reproduction the most important thing is the source ..which is the HU , sound card , ipod or whatever .
Many installs feature expensive HU and expensive audio gear , but what I have noticed is with 50 % volume the lights on the HU start dimming when there is a bass transient . Seen some installs / members exclaiming that their HU has the best DAC and it is supposedly the best sounding HU etc .
I have installed caps for my HU power on the power and ignition line of 10,000 ufd and 3300 ufd and simply installing the caps for the HU gives a totally different dimension to the SQ of the system as a whole . Has anyone else tried and found any differences or is it that i am under an illusion
I've done it,and it does seem to help a bit with (bass)transients.
Another thing that helps is to run a dedicated B+ line,straight to the battery (don't forget the fuse!) to bypass all of the dashboard wiring. I usually use 12 AWG wire.
Another thing that helps is to run a dedicated B+ line,straight to the battery (don't forget the fuse!) to bypass all of the dashboard wiring. I usually use 12 AWG wire.
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what drains the power from the HU to make it dim??? surely on an expensive install all the speakers are amped, meaning the HU just powers the inputs for the amps. Or do they run speakers off HU too??
The amps are powered from the same source as the stereo-your battery! So when the amps drop the voltage of the system-usually with large bass transients, the voltage to the HU drops too-hence the HU cap🙂
i have considered it, but never used it as a solution. in my view, the head unit dimming is a result of 2 factors, with their own solutions, which never band-aid well with a cap. first, if your crappy stock wiring will not feed the 10a of current without drops, then the dedicated power wire should fix that sufficiently. second- if you are over-driving the head unit, then the problem is happening in the head, past the choke, which a cap will not fix. tune it better to not drive bass through the speaker outputs, or use it as a dead-head and amp everything. have always been able to fix the issue by taking the strain off the head power. now, if the problem is the system voltage, then that needs to be fixed, because it is a symptom of problems you are having everywhere, like in the amps, and the cleanest signal will not help there. not only that, but the activity of the cap will be searched out by the rest of the system, unnecessarily inviting unwanted activity to the head unit. my .02
I have evaluated these in a slightly different environment-a show room demo stand, running off mains power into a 12v transformer.
Put simply, with two identical Pioneer 50w x 4 radios, you could turn the one with the cap up 15-25% more before it started to distort-this was close to 10 years ago, so can't recall exactly how much, but it was noticabley different and not in an "audiophile banana" way.
Put simply, with two identical Pioneer 50w x 4 radios, you could turn the one with the cap up 15-25% more before it started to distort-this was close to 10 years ago, so can't recall exactly how much, but it was noticabley different and not in an "audiophile banana" way.
you should do the same test, performed with the head units running from strait battery power only. transformers inheirently have a large ac ripple, which woud most likely show itself when the draw through the regulator(s) of the power supply brings the ouput voltage as low, or below the regulated point. or, if it is non-regulated small transformer, the ripple does increase with strain. I, in fact, utilize a 2farad cap and choke to dampen the ripple from my bench power supply. another effect the cap has on my power supply, is to lower the secondary resistance, by allowing the ac to shunt, gaining roughly 2 more amps of available dc power....
.... please explain "audiophile banana"
.... please explain "audiophile banana"
TBH would be too much hassle for me to bother atm-my car is all run active so would have to wire speakers back to HU, invest in crossovers (bought raw drivers) and so on.
I'm not that techy on the transformer side of things, the transformer for the stand was about 300-500w IIRC and used to happily power a brace of 2ch, one powering FR the other whatever sub we wished to demo (normally an isobaric parallel tuned BP).
Basically the "audiophile banana" is psychoacoustics:
The Audiophile Banana - DIYMA Car Audio Forum
I'm not that techy on the transformer side of things, the transformer for the stand was about 300-500w IIRC and used to happily power a brace of 2ch, one powering FR the other whatever sub we wished to demo (normally an isobaric parallel tuned BP).
Basically the "audiophile banana" is psychoacoustics:
The Audiophile Banana - DIYMA Car Audio Forum
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