We love a spot of ultra-high-end SQ audio here at FC, but there’s still a lot to be said for an old-fashioned SPL system designed to blow the bloody doors off.
And, for that at least, one of the biggest considerations is having plenty of juice to back it up. That’s not to say of course, that there’s anything old-fashioned about these rather brutal speciality batteries from legendary firm NorthStar USA, quite the opposite in fact.
Basically speaking, there are two types of performance car battery; high-cranking starting batteries (for starting and running your car, obviously), and deep cycle units which have a huge reserve capacity for prolonged use in amp-sapping audio systems. What’s great about these SMS items, is that the use of lead AGM (Absorbent Glass Matt) technology means they can actually do both.
Where an average car battery will crank over around 4 or 500CCA (Cold Cranking Amps) too, some of these can put out a whopping 1420CCA! So, if you fancy dropping competition-ready bass burps on a monster 8-kilowatt system with a single battery, it’s not gonna be a problem.
Plenty of world record-holding SPL cars are now packing these buggers and we’d imagine they’d be useful for running many a bonkers hydraulic suspension setup too. But the main point is that these monsters are not only hardcore, but they’re as clever as you like. This stuff is exactly where NorthStar pushes the realms of technology and innovation.
What’s perhaps the most mind-blowing thing of all, is that these SMS units all have built in Bluetooth, meaning you can keep an eye on their voltage and temperature on your smartphone via the new NorthStar Ace app. Mentalist bassheads and gadget freaks rejoice!
Priced from£190
Looking for something a little more… err, normal?
OK, so we understand that not everyone needs a battery the size of a medium-sized pickup truck to run their audio system. The good news is that, NorthStar have a solution for every other car out there too. Their top-of-the-line Elite range also start at around 190-quid each, but these items are more conventional in size and shape for easy, direct fitment.
Most importantly though, these are also top-notch AGM units with the same minerals as their SMS cousins. They’re able to crank over way more CCAs than standard car batteries and have plenty left over for running uprated audio systems, air compressors and anything else you could possibly pug in. Best of all too, they also use Bluetooth to make them compatible with the epic NorthStar Ace app. Love it!
For more info see Battery Megastore
