ok , i installed an amp with 2 jvc 300 watt speakers in seperate boxes, i put remote and rca's on one side and positive on the other of the car. When the car ain't running it sounds awsome, but when i start her up, i get whistling sound comming from the speakers, that are pretty lound, its frigging anoying, what could the problem be, ground is good, and so is postiive cable.

 

Do you have MSD ignition??

 

you have what is known as a ground loop, it can be caused by poor ground location, a long ground wire, a bad component inside a unit, alternator having a bad part, or as stated above an ignition source. I know guys who don't do any installs anymore, they just fix issues like yours

 

my instructions said not put put the positive any where near the ignition, but i put mine on the drivers side and it didn't affect it..... i would try moving the positive wire...

 

^^I think if anything that would cause ticking, not whistling. You could try grounding the head unit to the floor instead of the factory ground, it's not the best out there. Make sure there isn't any paint where your grounds are. It could be a bad head unit too. You could try taking a piece of wire from the outside of a rca cable to the chassis of the head unit to test that out...at least if it's a pioneer. Not so sure about other brands.

 

sounds like unshielded rca's and it whistles with the rpms right?

 

I found something on the Internet for you.

"Ensure that power cables do not run next to RCA signal cables. If the cables are too close, engine noise, which may sound like a high-pitched whine, can get into the system. If whine is unavoidable, you may wish to use a Noise Filter. In addition to having your RCA cables mounted away from power cables, make them as short as possible, as signal strength is lost over distance, and higher frequencies are attenuated."

 

How long is your amp's ground wire?
Try and keep that as short as possible, and make sure it's on a clean piece of metal.

 

it does sound higher pitched as the engine sound goes up and thier is also a ticking sound coming from the speakers, and i am 100% sure its no the head unit, since it used to be in my sunfire, which i had 2 subs hooked up too. And no i do not have msd igition, my amp ground is about 6 inches long, and its definatly not the ground since i tried it on the flood, and a seat bolt, their is still no difference at all. ANd the funny thing is, that sound does not get higher if i raise the volume it stays the same, so if i put volume up, i can't here the noise anymore, but still i want to get rid of this, i have a 350 under the hood and i like to here it from time to time .

 

Few things you can do, and some have already been suggested.

Keep your main power and RCA wires away from each other.
Redo the ground again (even tho you already have messed with it, you never know)
What type of RCA's are you using? Make sure you are using some with good shielding.

Try this to help narrow it down too, unhook the RCA's from the amp. Is the sound still there? If so, then the engine wine is coming through somewhere else (ground, or could be a bad amp). If it goes away when you unhook the RCA's, then focus on the RCA's. Try replacing them with a better set, and see what happens.

 

ok , now you mention that it does stop when i take out the rca's.

 

Hmm, I'm having the same problems.
I have the power cable running down the driverside and the RCA's down the passenger side.

It's happened with 2 different AMP's. With the 1st amp tho we got it so that noise never happened but then when I turn on the car and the power got to the amp the subs would make a loud BOOM.

Keep us updated please JLC

 

I hear a little whine only when I have a.m. on which is like on Sundays trying to keep up with pro football. Any ideas on why I only hear this whine on am but not on fm or DVD's.

 

try separating your rcas from your power wire. i always run the remote and the RCAs together, and the power and the ground separately; away from one another.
i had this same problem, then i separated my wiring, and made sure none were touching each other except for the RCAs and the remote.

 

AM whine is almost unavoidable. There is a reason all the stations moved to FM when it came out. Am is amplitude modulation, and any stray signal can effect the amplitude of a signal. Frequency modulation , FM, is much better because the frequency of the signal cannot easily be impacted by stray signals.

 

About the only thing I can really say to check on the AM only whine is check your deck ground, and maybe try moving it to somewhere else.

 

About any audio shop will have a ground loop filter that goes in the cables with the RCA plugs that go to the rear. This works when all else fails, about 12 bucks usually.

 

the wining noise is coming from the ignotion but there is a simple soltion. go to a auto parts store or radio shack and ask for a resistor that you can put into the ground off of your dis. my buddies got a 78 vette and the factory radio was doing the same after a complete rebuild on the car. and factory it used this resistor to tune the noise out

 

shielded rca's are your new best friend trust me! no filters needed. but spend the money and get a good set of rca's. in my car i used for IASCA competitions i had power, rca's and remote, and ignition wire running all together back to my hatch and had a power wire from the car battery, to an isolator/regulator producing a 70 amp charge for the deep cycle battery in the trunk powering my amps and subs. i never had a problem and i had 3 12 inch jl subs, 2 6x9's a 4 inch component set, a 6 and half inch component set with a 2nd tweeter adding to the 6 and a half inch woofer an audio control processor, the isolator/regulator and orion hcca amps. there was a crap load of wires and power going everywhere in a little escort gt...lol. like i said i had no problems. along with 147.6 decibles and i was only in a 50 watt class...lol.

 

you should never put a resistor of any type or size in a ground wire if you do your askin for trouble

 

ok, i haven't touched anything yet, but tomorrow one of my friends lend me one of his subz, ill check to see if it does the same thing

 

if i were you i would remove the belt from the alternator and drive it with a drill or something like that then and if it makes the whine then theres your problem

 

good idea i never even thought of that!

 

hey, i tried putting subs in and still use my same amp and it sounds just fine, nothing wrond at all, i don't even know anymore, ijust baught a sub in stead sounds frikkin awsome. Only 200 watt amp!!!! and i converted my little crappy front speakers to huge 6x9 instead that sound much nicer and clearer, i didn't even want to put a big sound system in my maro, lol now i have a nicer one that i had in my shitfire, and it cost me cheaper!!

 

did you put the subs on the same amp as the speakers at the same time?

 

nope, i took out the speakers i had and placed them up front, and set up the amp to run a sub, and everything sounds just the way it should

 

well thats weird i dont know what was goin on

 

if anything i think its the amp, its pretty cheap the cheapst ones they have at walmart, like 40$ lol. it has a crossover for subs or speakers, thats what i don't get, when i switch it to play a sub, it works good, but when its switched to work with speakers you get this ticking and whistling sound.

 

whats the brand and model?

 

ishhh!!!, i don't know i threw away the box, the amp has like a see threw galss, and the sides are red. its like 40 something dollars.

 

its probably dual or sumthing like that but it dont realy matter. your problem is solved lol

 

yup it sure is but know whats funny? i don't have one thing that is matching in my maro, pioneer deck, sony sub, back lightning audio, front jvc 290watt, and someking of amp, their. lol but it still sounds really good.

 

folks....

i had to use a ground loop filter.

I had cheap unshielded rca wires plus a power wire running on the same side. (what was i thinking!)

but after getting GOOD wires and separaing the power wire from the Rca wires, i still had the high pitch engine whine coming through the speakers.

i couldnt shake the problem....being that this is my daily driver now since the winter beater died, i could take my time on this. so i bought an ebay noise filter and it WORKS perfect. i think i paid like 3.99 for each