Thread: Speaker "Noise", Poor-quality Amp the cause of it?

"Ground Loops:
Every piece of car audio equipment has some type of noise canceling circuit on the audio input circuit. These input circuits will, ideally, completely isolate the audio's shield ground from the amplifier's internal connection chassis ground. The amplifier's input shield connection (if properly designed) will have virtually no connection to the amplifier's power ground. It should take the signal from the RCA cable's center conductor, compare the center conductor's signal to the RCA's shield (the reference) and amplify the difference between the two. Remember the voltage generated in the body(voltage drop across the chassis from other electrical accessories)? Well if the amplifier used the ground in the rear of the vehicle (where the amplifier is mounted) as the audio reference instead of the shield ground (which is referenced to ground at the head unit's mounting position) as a reference, the voltage generated through the body would become part of the amplified signal. The amplifier would amplify the difference between the signal on the center conductor of the RCA cable and the amplifier's ground (in the rear of the vehicle). Some manufacturers use poorly designed input circuitry which allows the equipment's power ground to have too much of an influence on the signal (not enough isolation). This causes a small amount of fluctuating DC current to flow through the audio shield which allows noise (from the voltage drop across the chassis) to enter the signal path. The 2 ground paths create a ground loop."


So it could be possible that my ****ty Autotek 4channel amp could be causing noise in my speakers? If I hook up the Line Out to my Kenwood amp which powers the subs even with the low pass filter off to get the full range of sounds there is no buzzing going on. But with the LeadOut connected to the Autotek to the 4 speakers in the car I have lots of buzzing. This leads me to think its time to toss the Autotek amp. I don't want to spend another 100-200 bucks for a low-end 4ch amp if I don't have to but I don't know what else to do. Everything is grounded including the PC I've gone over that. An old thread I looked up one guy mentioned that possible the USB cable could be causing buzzing if run parallel with a power cable? What do you guys think?

Another thing, what am I doing wrong here with my connection? I'm running the basic setup with lineout->stereo->rca splitters into amps->speakers. I've got System, Master, WAV volumes down to like 5% almost zero and the music is still pretty loud even at like 10 volume on Winamp. Anything wrong with that or is everyones system volume set that low?