Ground issues... need ideas

**Jemmi** · 01-30-2005, 11:46 AM

Ok... I just did some major revamping of my carputer setup. I got rid of my head unit and am now using an Empeg Riocar MP3 player (awesome unit btw) as my heda unit and it goes straight into my amp. The Riocar unit has line in jacks and I had previously just ran the PC line out into the RCA jacks of the Riocar line in. But I just got XM installed also at the same time using an XM direct and using Frodoplayer to control the XM. Here's where it all gets interesteing. I live in the midwestern US and the temperature extremes (0 lowest in winter and 100 or so in the summer) sometimes prevent me from using my car pc. But I still want to have XM available. So I bought the XM commander also to use to control the XM but I also needed to run the XM output to the Riocar line in. I used a splitter to do this. But when I have both computer and XM connected I get a volume drop I've found generally associated with a ground or phasing problem. Due to my setup, I need to find a way to make this work... anyone have any ideas

**kickercivic1** · 01-30-2005, 01:21 PM

how is it a Ground issues?

**Jemmi** · 01-30-2005, 01:25 PM

hmm... ground on computer audio is not same as ground on XM audio... basically it's like an out of phase thing that kills the sound level... Hence GROUND ISSUES

**John M** · 02-02-2005, 01:17 PM

Nope. You're dividing the output voltage into 2 receiving devices so each gets half. You need an amplified splitter or distributor of some sort to maintain signal levels.