Hi there, I've just installed a capacitor to my system under the impression it was going to improve my bass and prolong the life of my battery. However the bass sounds worse than it was before? I am using a 05 corolla hatchback factory system coz it sounded pretty good already and used a line level converter to splice into rear speaker wires so I could use low level output(RCA) instead of high level output which inturn I can run amp and sub off rear speaker wiring. Is this possibly a simple wiring problem or is it possibly a problem due to me using factory headunit and the cap is now restricting power limitations or something. I'm a very frustrated wee boy any help would be awesome!? =D
Cheers
the newbie

What size, model, brand capacitor. New or secondhand? How did you wire it up? what size wire did you use?
What model amp? how many channels? how much power? how did you wire it up?

We need a little more info.

and a capacitor will only prolong the life of the alternator, not the battery.

it may improve the bass, but not likely, more the 'midbass' may be a little punchier (if the wire size is insufficient)

Sony xplod amp 2 channel 350 Watts, into a JBL 12" sub. Connected to amp is a DNA 1.2Farad capacitor. I'm gonna re-check all connection terminals as I replaced old ones. Is it possible the trigger could cause loss of power going to sub?

Oh yeh it is a new cap and using 8 gauge power cables.

With that sort of equiptment I'd be surprised if a 1f cap made any difference at all,
Your probably not drawing enough power for a 1f cap to come into use anyway, if anything it probably makes things worse.

Juls

But the whole purpose in the capacitor is so the amp basically draws current direct from there and not the battery is it not? The reason I bought one is that my lights were dimming quite a bit and battery was continually excreting the sulfuric blue crap which I guess was more than likely going to kill the battery before it's life was supposed to run out.Tempted to buy a new deck. Probably pioneer. This should increase power output no?

The cap will only work if the current draw exceeds the momentary capability of your battery, alternator and wiring, at which point the cap will fill the gap.

with 320W I highly doubt you would exceed the capability of your battery and alternator.
in which case a cap probably won't help.

The cap will not help with light dimming,
your earths and wiring gauges are not up to scratch, thats your problem.

Also your battery may be dead, if it keeps leaking, try keeping your terminals clean, and update your battery terminals with fresh ones.

Juls

I highly doubt you would need a cap. I am running a 1000+WRMS stereo in my car, and my battery is SMALLER than stock, and i have no headlight dimming. Also, my amp isnt a class d amp, it is an inefficiant class a/b.

Here is the problem

personally id look into a larger sub amp, sell the old amp and cap. Keep the existing factory headunit the newer style with mp3 capability are very nicely made and look the best in the car (since they actually fit unlike the aftermarket options).

my 2004 rolla has upgraded earths + new bettery and doesnt have any problems at all.