I finally got the money to have Strathfield propperly secure all my gear in my boot (because up 'till now my subs and amp have been loose and unsecured). I got them to install my new Stinger 1.2F Capacitor in as well to fix my dimming lights problem. But something sounds wrong now. The subs arnt responding as aggressively as they did before the install. They also dont seem to be playing the whole frequency range that theyre supposed to be. The bottom lows are fine but the 80-130hz is lacking or not playing at all. My 6x9s and 5x7s usually cut off at 125hz but now that this install has been done that leaves a bit of a frequency gap between the 6x9s and the subs, even though the subs are set to cut in at around 130hz. I have to set the 6x9s and 5x7s to cut off at 80hz to make up for what the subs arnt playing properly.

None of my settings were changed during the install so I checked the wireing for problems and noticed something that may be wrong. The positive cable is fine, going from battery positive to capacitor positive to amp positive but the negative cable may be wrong. The negative goes from amp negative to capacitor negative to ground point. The capacitors manual states in bold letters "Note: Do not ground to the amplifiers ground" and the diagram shows the capacitor grounded to a different ground point to the amplifier. Does anyone know the effect of the capacitor sharing the same ground cable as the amp? Would it be the cause of my problem or could it cause damage? If no one heres sure Ill email Stinger.

I have some photos of the install but it might be a bit hard to see the wireing...

If it says in the manual for the cap to not ground the amp to it then dont.

I would go back and show them the manual and have a good talk to them.

And as some ppl here say caps are the work of the devil and are a fire hazard.
Most say to get rid of headlight dimming increase the power cable size.

but thats my opinion and im no audio guru eek or s_tim_ulate would be better able to help out.

Tom

lol

I dont beleive it... A cap stuffed things up??? And Strathfield did a dodgy job??? No way! :P

Install looks nice n neat. How much did that set you back?

Anyway as for the cap: Positive lead should go from batt +'ve to cap +'v. Then from cap positive to amp positive.

Negative lead from battery -'ve to chassis ( already done in engine bay, but doesnt hurt to upgrade this, and may have solved ur dimming headlight problems)
On the negative side: Go from cap to chassis (in boot, or whereever you install ur cap)

The reason behind this is due to the large amount of power that caps draw on big sub bass hits.
Grounding to the same point as this for your amps causes strain on the cap.

Caps suckass.... Looks cool though :)

Peace

Tim

Its not the first time Strathfield has done a dodgey job on me. I got them to put the subs into the boxes. Not only did they wire one of the subs in reverse polarity inside the box but they also used 6mm female spade connectors to connect the sub to the boxes 4.8mm male spades (needless to say they fell off and I had to rewire the inside of the box from scratch). The boot setup cost $320.

Any explainations on the changed sub performance? Maybe the incorrect wireing is causing power issues for the amp. I might email Stinger. At least my lights dont dimm anymore.

Knowing them they may well haev changed some settings, check ur gains perhaps maybe they knocked an rca lead out.

Otherwise could be a power issue...

yeah, check the gains....the freq cutoff sound ok to me. what speakers do u have? pair of 6x9s, pair of 5x7s and two subs? :confused:

Maybe they stuffed up the sub wiring inside the box again :bowrofl: Check polarity of subs too.

oh, yeah, i think the cap is wired up right. has anybody ever heard about a cap exploding? :P

that is a nice cap...can i have it? i highly doubt the cap would have caused your subs to become pussy. the voltage readout more than 12V?

Who made the side panel? Doesn't even look like it was done very well, ahh well, irrelevant to your problem.

Yes EEk I have seen a Cap Explode when some clumsy installer Bridged the Caps terminals with a Screw driver while installing and Amp ZZZZZZAAAAAPPPP BAAAAANGGGG !!
I would never trust straithfield to install anything, it looks like the apprentice installer may have been made to do the install un supervised....

Yes EEk I have seen a Cap Explode when some clumsy installer Bridged the Caps terminals with a Screw driver while installing and Amp ZZZZZZAAAAAPPPP BAAAAANGGGG !!
I would never trust straithfield to install anything, it looks like the apprentice installer may have been made to do the install un supervised....

sweet, i wanna see. can you blow yours outlaw? :P

Caps suckass.... Looks cool though :)



so how do you get around the whole 'dimming lights' issue?

Ive looked around the forums, and from what i have read you should:

upgrade power cables get bigger ones
get a better CCA rated battery- ie yellow top optima or red top
more powerfull alternator

with all this you would solve the issue from what i gather from reading stuff eek and s_tim_ulate post and others.

correct me if im wrong guys.

Tom

Well if it sounded better before tha cap, remove it and see how it sounds. (just be carefull cause that is a big ass capacitor :shock: )

I would also check all your speaker polarities.

I think I've worked it out. I fixed two things, the first helped the quality and the second I think may have fixed the frequency gap (gotta run proper tests yet). First, you'll notice in the last two pictures in the original post show that there is a lot of excess speaker cable that was not trimmed and was instead coiled up (about 50cm excess). Its also zip tied to a large power cable and zip tied to the RCA cable lower down. I cut off the excess cable and routed it away from the power cables. Seems to have made a slight improvement in quality.

Second, I found a setting that had been changed. The low pass filter on the head unit had been set to 80 Hz. I didn’t notice at first because I wasn’t sure what that setting was but I read my manual and realised it was the LPF. The high pass filter on the head unit was set to 125 Hz as usual. That meant the speakers cut out at 125 Hz and the subs cut in at 80 Hz leaving the 80-125 range completely filtered out. Hopefully that’s fixed now. Might still email stinger about the capacitor wiring because they wouldn’t have specifically mentioned the grounding thing if it wasn’t important :think: .

To answer previous questions:
The power cable is 4 gauge for the sub amp/capacitor and 8 gauge for the 4 channel amp.
The battery is Exide Premium 460CCR 85RC (Not quite enough but manages fine).
The alternator is lacking a bit but still does its job without fail.
The capacitor reads out approx 12.5v when system is off and approx 14.5v when on (Amps manual says the amp expects 14.4vdc but will tolerate 10.8v-15.1v).
Strathfield made the side panel. It looks a lot better in reality.
No I won’t blow the cap for fun because it cost me $250 and would spray my boot with poisonous chemicals lol . Although, large caps like this don’t really explode because they have a sacrificial weak spot that blows open to relieve pressure and to stop the whole thing exploding violently. If you want to blow up a cap get a little electrolytic one from Dick Smith and put it on a 9v battery in reverse polarity... Just don’t be holding it when you do ;) .

Thanks all!

Strathfield is cheap, and thats the bottom line...
I wouldnt be suprised if they didnt even have a qualified installer, and the guy who did your install and stuffed it up was prob the head installer.

In the end, if you want car audio, or want it installed, why not go to a professional place?

In the end, if you want car audio, or want it installed, why not go to a professional place?

Yeh your right. But I bought the subs there and just couldnt be bothered driving around for a better install deal.

LPF is the highest point the speaker will reach(used to cap the speaker from going past a point)

HPF used to stop the freq's from going below a certain point

if you have your lpf set to 80hz then the channel that it controls wont go above 80hz to a point
and you have your hpf set to 125hz then the channel it controls wont go below that freq

obviously if it only has 12db/octave stepping then it doesnt filter out all the freq 24db/octave is better

if i remember correctly pioneer hpf controls the front channel so front speakers 125hz and up

rear channel 20hz-20khz(no filter)

sub output lpf 80hz and below

Nope, thats the cheap Pioneer. My HPF controlls front and rear and can be set to 50hz, 80hz or 125hz. My LPF controlls the subwoofer output and allows the same three frequency settings. I got the LPF set to 125 and Im still deciding whether to set the HPF to 80 or 125. Gonna play some test tracks to see which sounds better.

Guys, hp and lp are never brick walls. They gradually slope off acording to what slope crossover you have. (higher crossover generally shows better quality components) 6, 12,18,24 db/oct.... etc.

I have my sub cutoff at 80 hz (frequencies below here arent locateable) Sometimes I bring this down even lower when competing. I have my fronts highpassed at 50-80 hz....

Instead of a cap. Firstly ensure u have min 4 ga to amps. Then look to upgrade ground wires at the amp, to make them as big and short as possible. Ensure ground point is sanded back. Look to upgrade ground wires at the engine bay/ensure battery terminals are clean.

These are basic things, if after this you still have an issue: Upgrade battery, upgrade altenator. Finally after all this should you think about dual battery setups.

And you should never use a cap... :)

Well unless they look cool. You will get no audible benefits from them and most likely get problems. Including fire hazard.

Peace

Tim

I have my sub cutoff at 80 hz (frequencies below here arent locateable) Sometimes I bring this down even lower when competing. I have my fronts highpassed at 50-80 hz....





ok tim you lost me there what do you mean freqs below 80 arent locatable

ok tim you lost me there what do you mean freqs below 80 arent locatable

as a human, when you hear sounds of frequencies above 80Hz, you are able to locate where its coming from...

under 80, you will just hear the bass, and probably be unable to locate where the 'source' is. Mind u technically, you aren't supposed to be able to locate the sub (SQ points hey timmeh :P?:)

I'm running my sub low passed @80hz any higher and it sounds clippy

using a 24 db/octave filter

Yep as Eek said...

With a good setup the fronts and sub should blend seamlessly. This is when you really see the benefit of not running rear speakers. If you can get enough deep midbass, with good door preparation (sealed, deadened, mdf baffles) Your bass at the front should have a lot of 'weight' behind it. All the bass should seem to come from the front splits.

The actual sub bass should just surround you. You feel this when you run a low pass of 80 hz or lower.

Peace

Tim

Its good to see there are some knowledgable peeps on here posting

Keep up the good work

Cheers

Im gonna upgrade my battery ground cable as well. Can I just add a second ground cable and bolt it to anywhere on the chassis close to the battery or is there something more that I need to know? Would an aditional 8g be enough or should I use an aditional 4g? I dont really want to move the stock wireing because it goes into hard to get to spots. I rather just add an extra ground cable if I can.