CONNECTION AND ACCESSORIES
Rockford Fosgate CPCC25
By Paul Sonoda
Posted on Thursday, Apr 8, 2004

Factory electrical systems were never designed for the power demands placed on them by the car audio amplifiers of today. These amplifiers quickly find themselves starving for power when pushed to the limit. Car audio has one solution in the form of a supplemental energy storage device called the storage capacitor. Similar to a battery, the storage capacitor stores large amounts of energy. Different from a battery, capacitors are designed to be placed near power amplifiers and to deliver power to the amplifier much more quickly. The revised Rockford Fosgate CPCC25 is an excellent example of the latest evolution of capacitors.

First Look
Housed in a silver painted decorative plastic casing, the Rockford Fosgate CPCC25 is a 25-Farad "Carbon Capacitor" energy storage device. The unit is designed to supply power when the demands of your amplifiers exceed the ability of the factory electrical system. According to Rockford Fosgate, the CPCC25’s design allows them to charge and discharge more than 100 times faster than a battery while having the highest power density of any commercially available capacitor."

A Closer Look
This first thing I noticed about handling this capacitor is its relative light weight. In spite of its overall volume (approximately 238 cubic inches), the CPCC25 weighed less than 4 pounds. From the balance, a majority of the weight is attributed to the robust terminal connection block at one end of the unit. Rockford Fosgate attributes this light weight to their electrode forming process which "produces ultra-dense, yet porous carbon electrodes".

The CPCC25 has the ability to accept 2-gauge power and ground wires from the vehicle, and redistributes power to your amplifiers in the form of three pairs of 4-gauge power and ground connections. The connections are made through a nicely constructed distribution blocks on the bottom of the capacitor. A digital meter displays DC voltage on the top of the unit. The LED display was very easy to read and looks cool.

Installation
The installation of the CPCC25 was very straight forward and easy. An integral part of the chassis, the four plastic mounting feet are sturdy and well placed. The supplied charging resistor was very robust and worked well. Using a volt meter, I was able to track the compare the charging voltage to that of the voltage of my system. Charging the capacitor took only about 10 minutes. As far as components go, the CPCC25 is relatively easy to install.

Please do not mistake easy to mean "without potential hazards". There is a lot of energy stored in this capacitor. Rockford recommends that the CPCC25 be fully discharged before servicing the stereo system. Improper installation can lead to damage and potential harm. If you’re not confident in your installation abilities, I highly recommend you seek an authorized Rockford Fosgate dealer for installation assistance. Not only will they do the job correctly, but you’ll add an extra year to the warranty of the CPCC25.

Manuals/Web Support
The owner’s manual was easy to read and provided pictures to make the installation a breeze. It also provided you with a list of tools and other installation consideration so that your install will go smoothly. Nice touch. From reading the manual, I noticed that both the CPCC25 and its larger brother, the 40-Farad CPCC40, share the same housing. It would seem that it would be possible to put the CPCC25 into a smaller chassis.
Rockford Fosgate’s Web site, www.rockfordfosgate.com , contains massive amounts of information and technical assistance. There’s some really good information about Rockford’s products and how to get the best performance out of your system. Since this is a new product, the new image of the product was not available on the Web site at the time of writing this review. The installation manual was available for download in the tech section.

Sound Q & Performance
To test the CPCC25, I used an amplifier and a power supply with the output current of the power supply limited to less than what the amplifier would require to achieve full power. I created this situation to mimic a situation where an amplifier draws more current than an electrical system is able to support. I then played a 30-second bass track with high dynamic content. The results were interesting (See Table 1.)

At the first volume setting, the amplifier produced the same about of power. However, the voltage drop without the CPCC25 was 1.79 VDC versus 0.98 VDC. Next, I raised the volume (one click on the CD player). With the CPCC25, the amplifier produced an additional 81 watts with a DC voltage drop of 1.54 VDC. Without the capacitor, the amplifier shut down. Increasing volume more, I was able to generate over 625 watts of power, or a 34 percent gain in power output.

Summary
When looking to improve your stereo system, it’s best to add a capacitor to your system only after you’ve done what you can to fortify your vehicle’s electrical system. The whole idea behind Rockford’s CPCC25 is to supplement your vehicle’s electrical system, not replace it. It’s here that the Rockford Fosgate CPCC25 delivers what it promises. Using the CPCC25 in your system will help maximize the performance of your amplifier and reliability of your entire system.