So I had a system installed from scratch a few months ago. Everything works well except there is a buzz coming from my front left speaker, which gets worse when I press the gas. Sounds like alternator whine but i'm no expert with this stuff. I thought a signal wire might be crossed with a power wire but that doesn't seem to be the case.

I want someone to troubleshoot and get rid of this noise. I assume it will take less than an hour so I'm offering $30 to take care of this. IM/PM me if interested.

http://www.termpro.com/articles/noise.html
http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rls=GGLG,GGLG:2005-52,GGLG:en&q=alternator+whine



[Edited on July 13, 2006 at 12:53 AM. Reason : ]

7/13/2006 12:52:24 AM

make sure you have a GOOD ground

7/13/2006 1:37:33 AM

yeah it sounds like you might have an iffy ground, make sure teh area where you are grounding is sanded down to the metal.

Also, if you've got some long runs of RCA cables, investing in twisted pair RCA cables is usually worth it.

if you are using anything other than a CD player as your source (anything that has to be plugged into a cig lighter to work), you need to throw a ground loop isolator b/w that device and the cig lighter.

7/13/2006 9:18:39 AM

turning the gains down on your amp usually helps too, if you can afford to do that.



and 1 hour to diagnose + fix the problem is optimistic. Noise in a system can be a real bitch to diagnose sometimes.

7/13/2006 9:19:58 AM

^ Yeah I knew it was optimistic


after reading your comments above, the thing that I don't get is that my noise is just coming from one speaker, not all 4. Shouldn't that be easier to troubleshoot? The/rcas wouldn't affect just the front left speaker would it. And it seems like most of the noise is coming from the front left tweeter, not even the woofer. I've followed the wire back to the crossover block and didn't see anything so I have no ideea...

7/13/2006 9:40:40 AM

well, a high pitched sound like alternator whine will only come out of the tweeter because of the crossover that splits the high and low frequency sounds to the tweeter/woofer. Maybe, just MAYBE your right front tweeter is busted and that's why you don't hear it there...

best advice I can think of is check that all the connections are TIGHT, you could try swapping the wires that feed the speakers right where they connect on the back of the head unit to see if the problem follows the speakers and associated wiring, or if the problem might be somewhere in the head unit (ie: poor grounding or needing a filter on the power input).

7/13/2006 11:01:44 AM

you're right, it doesn't sound like RCAs, since it's only one speaker. Although it could be that just one side of your RCA cable is on the fritz (usually happens at the connector). Maybe it's too high pitched to be reproduced by your woofers.

my new + improved guess:

crossovers, since they have coils in them, can be very sensitive to EMF. Make sure they are far, far away from anything that has power running to it (like an ECU, power wire, or something like that). If you can't get it far enough, you can try wrapping the crossover in aluminium foil (ghetto, i know).


you sould try switching the outputs on your amp to try + isolate the root of the problem. Hook up your rear speakers (assuming you have some) to the amp output your tweeter are currently using. Then, try hooking up your rears through the crossover, see if it still whines.

my money's on the crossover-is-picking-up-noise theory.

7/13/2006 12:58:59 PM

I think I installed this system.... Only thing I could think of is that the crossover for the front components.... might be picking up some sort of noise interference To test the theory just take the doors off switch the crossovers and see if the problem switches sides... if it does invest in another set of speakers, if it does not do like everyone else has said and switch signal cables, if you cannot get the problem to switch around to different speakers in the car then the wiring should be fine.... Last would be disconnect the tweeter and put a replacement. Out of the three choices you should find what your problem is in one of them...

7/13/2006 1:16:08 PM

bttt

7/25/2006 7:28:59 PM

What do you mean, bttt?

YOU HAVE TO ACTUALLY DO SOME TROUBLESHOOTING AL.

WE CAN'T FIX IT THROUGH THE INTERNET.

YOU WERE IN ECE, I KNOW YOU CAN FIGURE THIS OUT OR AT LEAST ISOLATE THE PROBLEM MORE THAN YOU HAVE SO FAR.

7/26/2006 12:14:17 AM

oh fuck you, I can troubleshoot like a god. hell i was troubelshooting war planes in all kinds of foreign countries while you were still in high school trying to get through algebra 2.


i just don't feel like ripping my dash/car apart.

7/26/2006 9:21:32 AM

what kinda car you have? I had a camaro and they have a factory bose installed system and I got subs and a new reciever for it and they tell you that you can expect some wines and static sometime just because the bose system does not work right if you switch out some of the parts.

7/26/2006 10:57:20 AM