Ground loop isolator, isolated half my audio?

**Phatsacks** · 04-25-2008, 11:11 AM

So I get a whine, it's not terribly loud, and with my music at a decent level I can't hear it.

However, if I'm not listening to music, but say navigation directions, or a road trip and someone isn't blasting a DVD, then you hear it.

So I had the install shop throw on a ground loop isolator. No more whine! Half the sound gone =(

So we had to remove it. Do you think it was a bad isolator? Are some isolators better? Any other solution, other than trying different locations for the ground?

It's not terrible, but it's annoying if I'm wanting to use the navigation

**Sonicxtacy02** · 04-25-2008, 11:38 AM

some are DEFINITELY better than others.. i bought a scosche one from walmart a couple days ago and it made the sound twice as loud as it was before the isolator was installed so i took that crap back lol

**Phatsacks** · 04-25-2008, 11:55 AM

Well if anyone has one that works well, please post so myself (and maybe others) can try it out.

Thanks!

**Nola111** · 04-25-2008, 02:46 PM

I read somewhere very recently that the one that the Best Buy install shop sells is very good and is the most transparent one they know of.

**rgarjr** · 04-25-2008, 03:21 PM

I bought that one from BestBuy and it really didn't help out much on my setup.

**2k1Toaster** · 04-25-2008, 04:06 PM

I had 2 laying around from RadioShack from when I worked there, and they worked pretty well. When I moved my PC I was more careful with the wiring and didnt need them anymore...

**brucedog** · 04-25-2008, 10:33 PM

I, too, purchased the Radio Shack GLI (about$17) and noize went bye-bye.

I have a discriminating ear and the GLI did not degrade sound quality one bit.

Best of luck and blessings.

**TTeuer** · 04-26-2008, 05:20 PM

The RadioShack GLI I bought made my sound HORRIBLE. Low frequencies were muddy/non-existent, vocals were lost in the jumbles of high frequencies... horrible. I thought it was my BlitzSafe adaptor the whole time, even had it replaced under warranty and the same result. I took out the GLI today and it's back to perfect sound quality - looks like I don't even need the GLI anyways, I have no background noise from the car/alternator.

**Rob Withey** · 04-26-2008, 05:43 PM

Has anyone considered the output impedance of the circuit driving the GLI? Consider the high pass RL filter on this page : http://www.play-hookey.com/ac_theory...s_filters.html

Personally I use a unity gain opamp "buffer" to reduce the output impedance to drive my GLI, I get no issues.