Fellas
Which car battery would ya recommend to power a new car stearo system without taxing the alternator.

Optima red top.

If you're not running a ton of power from the sound system though, any decent brand heavy duty battery should be adequate.

save up a bit more and get a optima yellow top rather than a red... yellow is better for multiple amps and electronics

Yellowtop for sure

Yellow top for sure if you are serious about car audio.

yellowtops are well overpriced. try looking for a northstar nsb75 or nsb90, a datasafe hx300 or somthing in the odyssey battery range.

Have a look at some of the stinger batteries and then compare to the like of odyssey and hawker. same cases, similar Ah and similar internal resistance. I got 2 Hawker Genesis batterys for £20 each which are the same as the Odyssey PC1200 (£150 each) and Stinger SP1000 (£300 each)

Excellent batteries with a nice low internal resistance. better value for money than an optima

Another vote for the yellow top.

optima's are good batteries... that are overpriced. take in to consideration cold cranking amps, the size of the battery, and the weight. i forget what they recommend for our car's cca wise, but i think mine has 800 and i paid around $100 for it at advanced auto. it's all about what you want and what you wanna pay. optima is a good name though you pay for it, just like any brand name.

^ I agree with that about the cold cranking amps that's important. Ultimately what's important is that you get something that's proportionate to your power needs. If you're running an aftermarket deck with an amp powering a pair of subs, a decent heavy duty battery is totally adequate. I've run a 12" sub on an MTX 1000 watt amp (don't remember the RMS of the subs) on a heavy duty battery with no power issues and no lights dimming. I believe the deck was 50w x4.

light dimming is not really due to a small battery but due to the lack of good connections between the components. many people wire things up with 4awg cable but then don't upgrade their battery negative to chassis connection. bad cable connections account for the vast majority or light dimming issues

Just get a high CCA battery and run a capacitor for your audio equipment, Optima batteries are indeed good but the prices are steep. Don't need to get a battery that is more than you need.

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um NOOOOOOOOOOOOO. They put a strain on the system. If your struggling with dimming lights etc you need to beef up the cables, battery and alternator. This is well known in the car audio industry

Umm nooo, I run 12 speakers in my car with a regular AC Delco and no capacitor. It all depends, a battery is really just to crank up the car, the alternator does most of the work. So in this case in the "Car audio Industry" an alternator is what you would be more of a concern with, you do not need no OPTIMA high class battery.

^ he speaks the truth

So--a good hi cold- crank rated battery and a high-amp alternator for a BIG stereo, and a good hi cold-crank rated battery for a mild stereo?

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for mild stereo your ok with just a battery with over 540 and up CCA and a good working condition alternator. Sometimes the higher the CCA the battery gets too big to fit onto the plate and the terminals won't reach. Mild setup does not need anything special but a good condition battery and good working condition alternator. If you like, get a capacitor, it helps store energy up front so that you don't drain your battery too fast since it will pull from the capacitor more so.

Im buying a new battery tomorrow and im thinking about getting the red top. I have a system with around 1200 watts Should i go for something else instead?

If you can afford the optima, get it, I like the idea of high CCA with lightweight battery. I find with a 600+ CCA battery you get good starts, and can play music for leave headlights on for a good 30 minutes without worrying about whether you're going to be able to start the engine or not. the 400 CCA and lower you cant really park up and listen to music without running the engine.

It is true, the alternator provides for all of the the electrical current needs and more when the engine is running.

A capacitor (eg 1 Farad or 2 Farad) will eliminate headlamp dimming, and keep your spark ignition energy high when your subwoofer kicks and also extends their lifespan by eliminating voltage spike/drop.

However I've had to throw mine away as it was slowly draining the battery. If you can find yourself a 100 - 200 AMP relay to enable it with the ignition key, it will be all the problems solved.

Make sure you're running atleast 4GA to your amp

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um NOOOOOOOOOOOO. The car audio industry is full of highly deluded individuals that have no idea what they are talking about.

As others have stated, its all about the altenator. A capcitor main function on a audio setup, is protection of the equipment due to voltage drops and raises. It is quite easy to wire it up with a relay so it doesn't constantly drain the battery.

Beefing up the cables is one of the worst things to do, do the damn math, and find out your ampres throughput and buy the correct cable.

If the battery starts the car, its done its job. If your lites are dimming, its bad alt, or bad grounding on the audio.

This post has been edited by rave2n: Feb 24, 2010 - 3:57 PM