Slight Wine Sound

[youngcamarokid]

You don't want twisted pair RCAs. They will be prone to interference since there is no shield path.

That would explain it. Use a good shielded set of RCAs on the components.

[Backfire]

Actually, everything I have read over the last few years has said that shielding was an industry creation that did little other than act as an antenna for noise in the autosound envinronment. I was under the impression that unshielded twisted pair wiring was the way to go. In fact, a cheap alternative to ridiculously expensive wiring is to make your own from Cat5 network cable. It is 4 twisted pairs that will allow you to run 4 channels in the space normally taken up by 1 channel. As a bonus, it is easy to cut to the exact length you need and only costs fractions of the high dollar stuff. I have no noise problems in my system either. Plus I wired in a quick disconnect for the RCA's with the network connector so amp removal is quite simple. Just something to research a bit before you drop $100+ on some signal cable.

[youngcamarokid]

All I have to say is that while running twisted pair might work, it certainly cannot help.

Shielded cables will be better in all applications, whereas you are lucky to have twisted cables without interference.

They don't need to be expensive shielded RCAs, any shielded cable will work better than the twisted.

[eZD]

I'm pretty sure you are wrong about the twisted pair. Twisted pair are the most expensive and highest quality RCA's you can buy, and you are suppose to use these for all your front/rear channels.

[Backfire]

Car Sound Bulliten Board

That is a pretty good source for audio related info. The moderators on there are some pretty respected names in car-fi. There are numerous posts on there concerning cables, and from what I have found, shielding offers no advantages and can actually cause problems, and twisted pairs are the way to go. They also say that there is some benefit to the high dollar twisted pairs interconnects, but it is all relative to the quality of the rest of the system. Kind of a 'weakest link in the chain' scenario. You could spend thousands of dollars on cables, but if your noise problem is not entering the system through the cables, you will wind up with crystal clear hiss!! :D

[ April 10, 2003: Message edited by: Backfire ]</p>

[key2emptiness]

did you try those little boxes i mentioned?

[eZD]

I ended up lowering the gains on my amp and the hiss went away significantly. There is still a tiny hiss, but I can only hear it if I put my ear up next to it, so I guess it's FIXED!

[black cali v6]

i had alot of alternator whine, and figured out how to make it go away in a really weird way.

i have a half din eq.....and if i turned the headunit volume really high, and adjusted volume via the eq (which is recommends anyway because its supposedly more senstive than the head unit) it goes away. if i adjust volume via the headunit, ie put the head unit volume really low or all the way off via the head unit.....the speakers buzz.....but if i leave the head unit volume on like 3/4ths of max.....and mute via the eq turning down, its pin drop quiet

strange but it works in my application

[youngcamarokid]

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by black cali v6:
i had alot of alternator whine, and figured out how to make it go away in a really weird way.

i have a half din eq.....and if i turned the headunit volume really high, and adjusted volume via the eq (which is recommends anyway because its supposedly more senstive than the head unit) it goes away. if i adjust volume via the headunit, ie put the head unit volume really low or all the way off via the head unit.....the speakers buzz.....but if i leave the head unit volume on like 3/4ths of max.....and mute via the eq turning down, its pin drop quiet

strange but it works in my application<hr></blockquote>

Well yeah, it all has to do with gain.

If you have a tiny signal coming out of your head unit, and it's amplified by your EQ with the gain up, you get a large voltage signal at your amp with only a small portion of music.

Turn your head up, get a large voltage from it, and then attenuate it with the EQ, and there's a much clearer signal.

The same is true with a sound dude's mixer board at a concert.

Come with me on a pipe dream....the gain of the mixer board is like a kitchen sink. The "gain knob" (or in our case the head unit) is like the valve under the sink. It controls the maximum level of "water" (or sound) that can flow through the faucet. The faucet on top (the EQ volume attenuator) controls how much of that water we actually send off to the sink (or amp).

First reading this post I didn't even think that the man had his gains WAY off....

Oh yeah, the same relates to the gain control on your amp. You shouldn't just turn it up all the way (wait...louder is better...NOT), because if you're not supplying enough water to the amp, you'll get a trickle with a LOT of fuzz...

Anyway, I'm done rambling.