Ok I recently had my sounds put in my car. Everything was working fine until last week when I had to go and get an alarm installed. Someone tried to steal it out of my trunk. Anyway, after the alarm install when I turn the music to a certain volume the sound would cut in and out. I thought it was the radio and went and got a new one. I took the old one out and hooked everything up exactly as before. I had the radio playing and tried to turn the volume up when I heard this real fast clicking noise. Almost instantly after this happend my battery died. When I tried to crank it, it didnt make a sound. The lights were real dim and the door chime sounded real weak. Also, I can get the radio to work but the antenna will not come up. What could I possibly have done. No wire or anything touched because they were already connected and taped up.

Try charging your battery.

As for the Audio issues, I'll move your topic to the right section.

By "sounds" in your car, do you mean a system? The reason I'm asking is because if you're running a decent sized amp to power subs, you also need to invest in a capacitor that will handle the load...this will save you many headaches from dead batteries, dimming lights when the bass hits, etc.

Capacitor'* are just a crutch, that'* it. Now, I'm not saying all capacitor'* are bad, but if your gonna get one, nothing below 5-10 farad will do. What he really needs to do is upgrade his electrical system:

Larger positive and negative cables.
Higher output alternator.
Gel cell or dry cell battery.

BTW, in case ANYONE wants some test results for a capacitor, here you be:



This is a real world test that was measured by Richard Clark on a Audio Precision unit to portray what happens with a typical capacitor install.
The main point for those who point out the obvious differences between the Red (cap installed) and yellow (cap not installed)…how much of a dB difference is .1-.4 volts in terms of music? And do you feel you are going to hear this within a car? On with the explaination:

Dark Blue curve---
For our first test we played the system with the engine off and no cap. The result was the purple trace at the bottom. We played the system as loud as we could get it that seemed to produce no audible distortion. This was track 30 of the IASCA disc. It starts off with fairly low level sounds for the first 34 seconds. In order to insure the electrical system was stable we did not start the measurement until we were 20 seconds into the song. This means that our 0 starting point is :20 on the CD counter.
The battery was able to maintain it'* voltage just below 12.5 until the loud bass hits at 34 seconds (14 seconds into our chart) At this time it dropped to about 11.5 and had a few large variations due to the music. According to the computer calculations (third chart) the average voltage for this test was 11.7volts. This test was done as a baseline for the following tests.

Yellow curve—no cap
For this test the volume was left as it was for the baseline test. The engine was started. Notice that at low volume the alternator was able to maintain about 14 volts. When the loud music hit the voltage dropped to about 12.5 where it remained
except for a few short moments where it actually climbed back to over 13.5 volts. The computer averaged calculations for the average voltage during the 100 seconds of this test was 12.973 volts.

Red curve—cap added
This test was identical to the previous test except the cap (15 farad type) was added 6 inches from the amp with 4 gauge wire—no relays or fuses. The red curve seems to overlay the yellow except that the actual peaks don’t rise as fast or as high during the brief quiet moments. I feel this would be due to the alternator having to recharge the cap. The voltage on loud passages hovered around 12.5 volts. The computer averaged calculations for this test show the average voltage to be 12.878 volts. I see no meaningful differences with or without the cap. I certainly don’t see the voltage sitting solid at 14 volts. One note I might add is that this was a two thousand watt system driven right to clipping and the average voltage stayed above 12.8 with a stock 80 amp alternator. Under these conditions the battery would never discharge! The green and light blue curves were done just for kicks while we had the system set up. In both these tests we turned the volume up until the system was very distorted. This placed a severe load on the alternator and caused the voltage to dip as low as 12 volts. The curves seem to follow each other so closely that unless you have a good monitor it is doubtful you can tell there are two curves. The average voltage for these two curves were both 12.277 and 12.295 volts. If this volume were sustained for very long periods of time this battery would discharge

How exactly does an 80 amp alternator keep a battery charged when the 2000w amp is drawing (2000w/13v) 153 amps?

2000w at peak conditions. Most likely drawing no more than 30 amps, max.

I figured out what it was. I had a shortage in the wiring harness from my old radio. I bought a new one and hooked everything up and it works fine now. Also if anyone wants a radio that will match the interior lights of the car the JVC KD-PDR30 goes perfectly.