Thread: The quest for no noise

I would like to give some advice without being a jerk. Please do not take this the wrong way. I have dealt with car audio for many years now. I still have a lot to learn though.

If your noise problem is engine noise related then there is almost always something that you can do to rid it of the noise, without using a suppressor.

Running the ground back to the battery is generally not a good idea. The reason is that the longer your ground the better the chance is of picking up noise. Now in several cases is have heard of guys doing this and not having a problem. I am not saying that it can not be done, just try to avoid it at all cost.

Your ground needs to be short. The shorter your ground wire is, the better. Less chance to pick up noise that way. It needs to be the same gauge as your power wire, a little bigger would not hurt. Also try and ground all equipment to the same point. You shouldn't have to move your radio ground. Leave it where it is if you can. The guys that design the cars will not gound to a bad point. Your factory radio didn't have noise did it. If it did, then I suggest you get it seen about. Not saying that you can't, just that it generally isn't done. Make sure that you ground to the frame. Typically the seat belt bolts and what not will give you a very good ground. Make sure that your gound is clean. Scrape, rub, buff what ever you have to do, to clear the paint away and get to bear metal.

Follow your power wire from the battery. Look and see if is running close to a probable cause of noise, i.e. fan motor. Keep the RCA's away from sources of noise. This one is more important than the power wire. KEEP IT AWAY FROM THE POWER WIRE. This is not an option. It is a must.
There are other things to do that I am not thinking of. Please do not take this as "THE GUIDE", but as a collection of suggestions. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask.

I have a problem with my setup. I am also looking to cancel noise in my carputer. The noise that I am getting comes from my inverter. It is actually a UPS with the battery connections running to the battery under my hood. There are a few minor issues that I need to work out on the operation of it, but it does work.

I am getting a constant and steady noise out of it. I know that it is coming from the inverter because if I turn it off the noise stops. Also there is no noise in the rest of system. Radio and CD player play with no noise. The noise is a hum. It sounds like 60hz coming from my tweeter. I know that is not possible. My tweeters are crossed over a lot higher than 60Hz. I do not know if the 60hz is riding on the line seperate of the music. It may not be 60hz either but it is something and it remains constant.

Also I use an EQ for the inputs into my system. The EQ is a clarion. When I have the head unit and the carputer pluged into the unit (one is plugged into main and the other one is on aux), I get horrible noise. If I unplug one or the other, it goes away. Anyone have a suggestion?

Sorry this turned out to be so long.

I used to use a radio shack noise suppressor to get rid of alternator whine but then I upgraded amps and they didnt make a model higher than what my amp might draw. What I ended up doing was to bolt an industrial grounding block(available at Home Depot) to the frame of may car. There wernet an bolts very close and I wanted to keep the ground wire as short as bossile so i just driuled sanded and buffed with stell wool screwed in the grounding block and attached the 4-guage wire. My system has never sounded cleaner. Oh and another tip chep low guage wire can be obtained at Home Depot and bougfht byt the foot. The casing is tougher and may not look as pretty as the transperant red of the 'high quality car audio' type but its still copper on the inside. The strands are also a little bigger so its a little bit harder to bend into place but for the price I paid its worth a little extra muscling.

Catlas

to Rifken:

i have a 60hz buzz coming from my inverter also. it's noticeable only when my stereo volume is turned up pretty loud. i can't figure out how to kill the noise. if you find any solutions, let me know!

thanx


//dj