Thread: How exactly do you ground the audio wire?

#1 its laYman

#2 as far as i can remember from my installing days, you ground the components-not the cables. one trick i did use quite a lot (1985 or so) on some pioneer decks--if your units are grounded properly you can make a short rca cable and only use the positive wire. so basically you're dropping the ground. even with all those ground isolators out there i used to be able to play with grounds to rid the noise problems.

good luck!

what you want to do is to connect the outside of the rca (called the sheild) to a metal part of the car body, such as a seat bolt, mounting screw, ect.
For the best ground I would solder the wire onto the sheild then ground it, it doesent need to be a very big wire, im using 20ga. but all the ground loop isolators in the world wont help the problem.

Hmm, so all I have to do is wrap a wire around the outside sheilding of the audio cable, and attach it to a ground on the car? And when you mention soldering the wire to the outside of the audio wire, do you mean soldering it right onto the external plastic shielding? I know I know, layman .

Thanks for all your help guys.

wrap the wire on the metalic part of the RCA end,
and yes, ground the psu to the frame, this will probally fix the problem you have

Well, I have a Keypower DC/DC PS, and it's grounded to the frame from the "G" plug on the PS. What I'll try is wrapping a wire around the metalic part of the RCA cable and grounding that.

I know what I'm hearing is alternator noise, because when I press on the gas the pitch gets higher. I know it's some grounding somewhere. I'll also try grounding the motherboard to the car frame. I'll keep you all posted, I know this is a common issue.

Ok, so I grounded the shielding around my audio wire and it helped reduce the whining A LOT. Here's what it looks like...



That's the ground.



That's the wrapped audio cable shielding.



That's the whole setup under the carpet and rear seat.



That's the carpet that whole mess is under.

I'd say there's still a little whining left, but it's hardly noticeable especially to before. I've also uploaded some new install pics to my webpage, check 'em out...

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