When the bass hits, do your lights dim? If so, these will help solve these issues...

Consider an amp with a regulated power supply....
Diamond Audio 9800 Series, or JL Slash Series Amps, there are others out there...

Upgrade Power, and Ground wires...
use the biggest possible you can to the rear...
keep the same guage going in out/ of the amps
upgrade the grounds coming off of the battery
upgrade the grounds coming off of the motor
upgrade the charge wire from the alternator to the battery

Capacitors...
They will aid to prevent lights from dimming, but are also one more thing the
alternator has to charge.
I would recommend using caps if you don't play your system loud for prolonged
periods of time. It saves embarrassment more then anything else... and some look
cool...

Batteries
Your battery is only there to start your car, and smooth electrical fluctuations out
that the alternator can not do on it's own..
In SPL competitions with multiple battery setups... They are often wired in a
combination to create more voltage to provide to the amplifiers, which may not be
safe for a daily driven use on newer cars with lots of electronic components.
Doing so often bumps you in a different class of competition.
When upgrading your battery check for the amount of amperage that can run
through it.
Yellow top optimas are great on a show car, ones that sit for a period of time, but
these batteries do not like being charged while being aggressively used. Red tops
are more suited for that application.

Alternator
The heart of your charging system... Your car is ran off of this. I recommend doing
this upgrade on any true 1000 watt+ systems.

 

Great post. I would also like to add info for the caps since people seem to trash them as not necessary or purely for looks.

Stiffening Caps
What are they? What do they do, really?

This definition will be in its simplest form. You will see audio capacitors referred to as Stiffening Capacitors. A capacitor is a device that stores electrical energy. Well, you say that’s what a battery does. Well yes it does, but the difference is the ability and speed that this electrical energy is able to be discharged.

Batteries are designed to store electrical energy for long periods of time. A battery also discharges slowly. A capacitor charges and discharges very rapidly. The reason behind this is due to the internal resistance of both devices. A battery has a high resistance that allows for long-term energy storage and a slow discharge. The capacitor has virtually no internal resistance, which allows for rapid charges and discharges.

An amplifier requires current as music signal passes through it. This creates transient signals in the amplifier. The problem occurs when many of these signal come in rapid succession in a short period of time. The time we are talking about are very small fractions of a second (milliseconds). If your electrical system is unable to react to this it causes a sagging effect in the audio output.

As the current goes up, so must the voltage. Since you can’t increase the voltage as the current requirement increases we get a decrease in voltage and this decrease in voltage causes a sagging power supply. Amplifiers work best at 14.5 volts and can easily overcome a factory installed alternator current output capacity. When the engine is turned off, the system requirements are supplied by the battery increasing the problem of supplying the transient requirements. You could add 10 or 20 more batteries and it wouldn’t help. Remember, as we explained above batteries can’t supply energy quickly enough to supply the transient needs of the amplifier. Please note that these transients may be 100 amps. They occur so fast that your fuse will not be effected, remember this takes place in milliseconds.

By adding a large stiffening capacitor to your amplifier input power line you should be able to meet these transient requirements. Remember as we explained above, a capacitor can store energy very fast and discharge energy very fast. This should solve the transient current requirement to the amplifier.

The voltage of the capacitor can only be the same as the alternator output or if the engine is off, to the level of the battery. So, as you can see a capacitor doesn’t maintain battery levels. If you are still having energy shortages to operate your system you may need to look into a high output alternator.

 

if someone can help me im having that issue PLUS i am losing so much power from my 1000 watt JL mono amp that the whole entire sub and amp setup shuts down... the guy at tweeter said rewire the connection between the alternator and the battery plus get a new alternator that can handle like 130 amps or something like that... does ne one have any reccomendations for an alternator and possibly a place in CT where i can get this installed?

Thanks in advance for your help.

 

Check around your local area and see if there are any electrical shops that can rewind yours. An alternator shop will only rewind a stock alternator if they can do it, and do it well. They know exactly how far they can safely rewind one for higher output without running into any problems from heat, etc. Cheaper than a new one by far and able to use your existing housing.

If not, then my second choice would be a 2nd alternator if it would fit or keep hunting for an aftermarket one that wll fit. Big bucks usually.

 

Majorly big bucks , rewinds now I've heard great stuff about it but whats a normal price for it?