Alt whine thru my eq, what next?

[acurtis_ttu]

I’m getting bad alternator engine whine thru my mids/highs. I have narrowed down the problem to my eq. I ran a separate ground from the back of my HU , by passing the factory harness. The only way the noise goes away is if I unplug all RCA’s from the back of the eq and disconnect its power, and just run straight from the HU to the amps. If you plug in the power to the eq’s the noise will retune even if there are no RCA’s connected. IF you unplug power to the eq and leave any RCA’s plugged in the noise will appear. Any suggestions? I have dual eq’s…the chances of two eq’s being bad are slim. There are the clarion 7 band eq/line drivers. I have tried running new ground power straight to my battery and the noise was still there. B/c its alt. whine I have to think there is still a ground loop somewhere.

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[kross 10+ year member]

Pioneer HU by chance?

 

[acurtis_ttu]

HU is kenwood. IF I unplug the eq's power/ground/remote and unplug all RCA's fromt e eq...and run RCA's directly from HU to the amps the noise is gone. the eq's are the problem...but it just started. like mentioned before the chances of both going out at the same time are slim to none...they are both only a few months old. I'm thinking it may be power line related? maybe remote? anyone haev any luck with power wire noise suppressors? do they work...any loss in sq?spl?

 

[playboyace35 10+ year member]

HU is kenwood. IF I unplug the eq's power/ground/remote and unplug all RCA's fromt e eq...and run RCA's directly from HU to the amps the noise is gone. the eq's are the problem...but it just started. like mentioned before the chances of both going out at the same time are slim to none...they are both only a few months old. I'm thinking it may be power line related? maybe remote? anyone haev any luck with power wire noise suppressors? do they work...any loss in sq?spl?

im a complete newbie so my comment might help and might not lol

anyways, are you running seperate individual rca wires from the EQ to the amp? or are you running one and then splitting it into two at the end to the AMP?

 

[SethPhillips 5,000+ posts]

ground the outer shild's of the rca's.

 

[frzninvt 10+ year member]

Ditch the eq unless you really need it, try an alternate power source and grounding point to see if it may help. Are you using twisted pair RCA's?

 

[playboyace35 10+ year member]

the shop just finished installing my complete separate rca wire from the eq to the amp and my whining noise is gone...fyi

 

[acurtis_ttu]

Yes, I am splittign the RCA's after the eq. I never thougth about not splitting them. each eq runs into a 4channel amp, thus the splitting...I'm not splitting RCA's going into two seperate amps. Just splittign and going to one amp.

I need the eq's to attenuate the comrpession horn on a certain set of speakers or I'd chunk it.

I will try groundign the RCA's....I tried only gournding one pair...I guess I will go back and ground them all.

No I am not using twited pair RCA's, btu the RCA's I'm using are shielded....I'm not picking up noise through my RCA's. This is in a boat, where groudn loops are uncommon as is picking up noise thru RCA's. while a car has a metal chasis...my boat is fiberglass and does not conduct electricity liike a car.

Keep the suggestions coming....THANKS!

 

[acurtis_ttu]

I am begining to suspect it's not the eq or the amp but the combination of the two that is causing the noise. I talked with an Alpine tech that brought up the issues due to the design of the new PDX amps being they are fully didgital and haev very sensitive input stages and may be picking up this noise that may haev always been there but was nto beign amplified due to the class AB design amp the PDX replaced.

Does anyone have or knwo anyone that is running a PDX thru an eq? if so what eq?

 

[acurtis_ttu]

At this point I have swapped every set of RCA’s from the head unit all the way to every amp…no change. Ran all power and ground from all components back to the battery. Tried grounding RCA’s. Tried GLI’s…nothing. Also switched out the amps, switched out eq’s (two different brands) even swapped HU’s….nothing has worked. The noise is still there.

At this point I think it has to be the wiring.

 

[enginerd 10+ year member]

I have checked wiring, RCA's and all on mine and still making noise on my system... Any solution yet?

Josh