So I've had my sound system (Alpine deck, speakers, MTX subs, and 2 amps) in for about a year and until a couple months ago, everything had been great. Then I noticed that, when on low volumes, I could hear this static, buzzing kind of noise in the background. The noise is only present when the CD player is on, not the radio. It doesn't change when the car accelerates and it is also present even if the engine is turned off, which leads me to believe that it's not interference from the power wires. Also, the power wires don't overlap each other at all and run up different sides of the car. The only thing I can think is that the deck might need to be cleaned, which I suppose I can do. But before I have to go and disassemble the thing, I was wondering if any of you might have any ideas as to what else could be causing this sound and how I can fix it.

Please let me know what you're thinking.

 

Seriously... no one has any thoughts or opinions?

 

I would definitly try to clean it if it were me. I have never had this happen to me though. I still have the shty bose cd player that plays cds when it wants to.

 

It sounds like the internals of the head unit are screwed. I would look into buying a new one assuming that you didn't pay too much for the one you already have. Also, check your ground wire for your deck and make sure it’s a good ground. Sometimes a radio will try to ground itself through the antenna. You can try cleaning it, but it’s not a tape deck it’s a cd which means its digital. It either plays or it doesn't play. You might have better luck posting this question in the head unit section of sounddomain.com rather than here since all people talk about here are y-pipes and aftermarket ecus.


Did it just start or has it been doing it since you hooked up the system?

 

Hey man,

Thanks a lot for the advice. I'm pretty sure it only started a couple months ago. I really never noticed it before--not saying it wasn't there, just that I didn't notice it being there. I've only had the deck for a year--it's an Alpine (can't remember the model number) that was $280.00 on sale at Circuit City. I've had good experience with Alpines in the past, so I don't think it's a crappy system, but I could be wrong. I'll post on sounddomain.

 

I don't know about your car, but when my cell phone is inside the cupholder while I'm driving, it causes crackling/popping from the speakers. I don't know if that could be your problem, but it's just something that I noticed with my car. It also happens with my desktop pc speakers.

 

That's really weird. Don't think that's what's going on with my car though, because the sound is definitely coming from the deck, not the speakers.

 

Check the ground point on the head unit, even try re-grounding it, it may help, it definately couldn't hurt. It's hard to diagnos a problem from my comp desk

 

Hey man,

Appreciate the advice. Yeah, I can understand that it's hard for you to figure out what's going on with out actually hearing the problem. I have two amps hooked up to the head unit that are both grounded in my trunk... I guess I should try regrounding both of them?

 

well yeah, but also the headunit has it's own ground, re-ground that as well. As for the amps make sure they are isolated from any metal parts in the trunk as well.

 

try and clean it, and maybe check ur connections, thats all im comin up with.

 

Your deck is pretty new at least compared to mine. I have a JVC deck for more than 4 yrs w/ no problems...

What are you using for your ground points?

I'm using s driver side strut tower bolt in trunk for 2 amps (hifonics 2-channel & JBL 600.1). The JBL is on the bottom (60A max draw) and hifonics on top (30A max draw). My ground point has been sanded down and I used one of star terminal things.

My head unit is grounded to an already used ground point which can easily be seen when removing the center console. I didn't have money at the time to buy the easy hookup wire harness so I hard wired everything which for me was only 3 wires (constant 12V, ACC, and ground)

 

In terms of the amps, I just shaved off the paint on the underside of the trunk until it was completely removed and drilled two holes and screwed the grounds in. It's the not the prettiest, but I think it does the trick. As far as the head unit, pardon my ignorance, but I didn't even realise that their's a separate ground for it. All I did was take out my old deck and replugged in the wires via the wiring harness and also popped in the antenna and the three pre-outs.

 

on a side note.. does anyones after market head unit correctly signal to the antenna when to go up/down depending on if radio is on or cd is playing ? I have a pioneer and it doesn't do it.. so i have a extra switch in the car

 

there are some that do it, but my pioneer doesnt either and i just have a switch on it as well.

 

Alright, so I posted on Sound Domain and I have a whopping total of 0 responses. I've also had my head unit checked by the store who sold it to me and they don't think there's anything wrong. It's under manufacturer's warranty, so I don't think they're trying to **** me.

I regrounded the head and both amps and it's still giving me this problem. This is getting really damn irritating! If you have any suggestions, please share them. Thank you.

 

you can wire in a relay onto the wiring for your antennae if you wouldlike it to go up with the key instead of manually switching it. send me a pm if you need help with it. bosch relay is about 1.50 and then you need the crimps.


as for your sound utilize a ground on the rcas. essentially make a piece of speaker wire into an L push the short part of the L around the outer ring of the rcas, careful not to touch the center pin. then push the male rca onto the female coming from your deck. the other end of the wire you secure to the chassis of our radio or to the utilized ground point. that can be done on both ends of the rcas (IE at the headunit or the amps or both) and will reduce noise from whichevder component is introducing the noise. you do this on all the rcas. pretty sure thatll cure it

 

Hey, I have the same problem. I have a 99 SE and I only have the Bose stock unit. At low volumes I hear a buzzing interference sound. It happens pretty much every day and a few times a day I hear it.

 

did you make sure that you're amps are not touching any bear metal themselves? if the mounting screws of the amps are touching any bare metal they will ground themselves and create noise as well. You may have it at other times too but it just may not be noticeable then.

 

What are you using as a ground point for your amps?

Do you have any speakers that are connected directly to the head unit to hear whether or not its an external amp or the head unit's amp?

Where are your RCA's going in your car?

I have my power wire going down the driver side and my RCA's are going down the passanger side. The closest they ever come to each other is the amp itslef and I have 0 noise.

 

Wow, that'll really work? I'll have to try it out tomorrow. Thanks for the advice.

 

Do I ground both the red and the white ones? Or just one in particular?
Edit:Maybe this is kind of a dumb question... do I just ground the white one?