No problem... glad you found the info useful

Actually.. you didn't... you said change the battery and don't bother with an alternator. And you also said you run your system off your battery... which isn't true unless the car isn't running or your alternator is maxed out

Your alternator voltage will only sag if it cannot produce enough amperage for the desired load of the car at any given RPM

You are not drawing from your battery AT ALL until you have maxed out your alternator and your alternator output voltage drops to 12.6V... in fact, you battery is drawing from your alternator until you have maxed out your alternator

BBEngineer

 

your clearly hardheaded im not arguing with you.good day sir.

 

I fixed it for you... you're welcome

BBEngineer

 

thanks.

 

Uh...lol

Seriously a bigger battery wil help, along with the big 3 upgrade before you buy an alternator. With a system of that size, he doesn't need to buy that alternator.

Now if you plan to upgrade to more power, go ahead and get it. I wouldn't look at DB Electrical as my primary choice tho, I'd go ahead and spend the extra money on a Mechman, DC, Excessive Amp Or Iraggi Alt. I say Mechman is the better choice as all are good but MM is proven best IMO.

I personally know a couple people running 2k rms systems on the stock alt, with the big 3 upgrade and a better battery under the hood and in the rear withouth any issues and voltage stays around 13-14v without everything on and playing.

 

Maybe you could explain how a bigger battery is going to help, because the math and physics say otherwise...

You can't base how much current a system will draw solely on the RMS wattage it produces... there are many other factors, the biggest of which you are not taking into account is the class of the amp (and hence it's efficiency)

BBEngineer

 

ive been doing car audio for a couple years now, and I was with you in the begining, untill i saw the real changes a bigger battery can make to a system, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me either but it just works, can't argue with what works. after all, science is just that, a predictable outcome that can be reproduced with the same criteria.

 

Well I did order a car audio specific battery. I forget what brand it is but I am picking it up saturday from an audio shop in my area.

 

I've been doing car audio for over 20 years (a good number of those professionally) and a bigger battery doesn't solve dimming... period.

A battery with lower ESR might help as it's not taxing the alternator as much allowing more power to be supplied to other accessories, but that isn't a result of the power a battery is able to supply..

As I have said many times already, you are not drawing ANY current from the battery until your alternator is maxed out and it's voltage drops to that of the battery.

And just because you swap in a 'bigger' battery and it 'works', doesn't make it science... because you would have to swap in a 'bigger' battery while keeping everything else constant (ESR, slew, reserve, etc)

Hopefully you will get good results, but even if you do, it won't be because it's a 'bigger' battery, but rather, it's a better battery (with lower ESR). Make sure you do the Big-3 if you want to maximize your results

BBEngineer

 

What he's looking for is to get technical. I'm not about to play word play but the car audio thing I know and have been doing for many years, installs and all.

With the equipment he provided, and what he has. I will put my money on it that if he does the big 3 and add a better battery, he'll diminish the dimming. Being I did the SAME in my car which is an 02 MC.

"the math and physics say other wise" common man it's pretty simple. Big 3 will allow more juice to flow to the components since the stock wiring is restrictive. 0 guage wire. Get yourself a battery with more storage and power capacity and you'll see a very noticeable change in your electrical WITH THE STOCK ALT.

Matter fact, I dont see the thread with the guy who did the SQ-type setup on here, he was running the AQ-1200 on the (2) ID 12"s and another amp. Again, did the same thing I stated above, no dimming and voltage stayed in the high 13v's low 14v's system playing and a/c on.

JL amps are power hogs, they're efficiency isnt the best among other class D amps which the 500/1's are but with that power he's not sucking alot of juice at all.

So with that being said, no alt is needed unless he's planning to run more power down the line. The alt wont hurt to get now if he wants but it's not NEEDED at the moment.