Common speaker noises and grounding issues answered

[skittlesRgood]

Changing from mechman to DC you probably got a much more regulated DC power supply, causing less noise. Possibly look at the grounding on your HeadUnit. And check how the RCA's are grounded to the Head Unit. Check it with a multi meter/continuity tester and check the actual ground of te headunit, you may need to ground the case for some more shielding.

ya... hu is grounded to the back batteries, RCAs are grounded to the HU case. neither did very much good.

everyone always says "check the grounds" for every problem. honestly it starts to annoy me because it usually isnt the problem. one thing people never seem to say with alt whine is that it could be the amp or hu. i have just changed these out and noticed a big difference is alt whine. it isnt wiring, its just the product.

anyways, look at the engine noise sticky on CA.com and take some notes from it. make this a little better and itll be worth a sticky. as it is, i dont think you go into enough detailed tips.

[cc_audio]

I've come across engine noise on many occasions. Couple fixes were uncoiling extra RCA cabling and laying it out. That got rid of it once. One time on a smaller install I connected the power lead to the + post at the fuse box and got noise, extended to battery and noise was gone. Had a new pioneer that made its own hiss no matter what it was connected to. Had an RCA wander under the carpet and get pinched while reinstalling the seat. You just never know. Usually these things take foooorever to find the problem but it always seems to be something simple and stupid. But these are good tips, they are indeed the first thing to check.

[Robert8252]

I've never bothered to ask but hey, this is here now so I'll just throw it in here. My subs are fine with no alt hiss but my door speakers do it like crazy. Good RCAs, good grounds, no wires are any where near something they shouldn't be. I have a Kenwood flipout HU which has a brain box that I have in the trunk. Everything plugs into this, RCAs, power, yadda yadda. So I only have 3ft RCA cables to the amps that are away from all electrical wires but I've had my brother in the trunk moving wires every which way and it didn't change a thing no matter how he moved the wires around. My actual question is that I think Skittles answered....Can a cheap amp just be a cheap amp and actually cause the problem?

[skittlesRgood]

I've never bothered to ask but hey, this is here now so I'll just throw it in here. My subs are fine with no alt hiss but my door speakers do it like crazy. Good RCAs, good grounds, no wires are any where near something they shouldn't be. I have a Kenwood flipout HU which has a brain box that I have in the trunk. Everything plugs into this, RCAs, power, yadda yadda. So I only have 3ft RCA cables to the amps that are away from all electrical wires but I've had my brother in the trunk moving wires every which way and it didn't change a thing no matter how he moved the wires around. My actual question is that I think Skittles answered....Can a cheap amp just be a cheap amp and actually cause the problem?

oh ya, ive seen bad amps cause tons of noise and ive seen little differences in direct swaps of HUs and amps. try it, see what happens.

[dugee81]

Like tomypg said, check all the speaker power/grounds if you still have engine wine. I had it terrible and one day decided to look at my back left speaker. The ground wire was being smashed in half because it was such a tight squeeze and I had just mounted it in there quickly (and poorly). Reinstalled it carefully, making sure the wire was straight and not being bent anywhere, and I haven't had a problem since.