Getting a bit of static

[fulmetal7777]

Here's what the static sounds like


It's not super loud, but loud enough to where it's somewhat audible.

Here's what I know:

Sent the signal straight from the speaker to two different amps, one speakers static what a little louder, but barely, so I know its not the amps or dsp.

I sent the signal straight from the dsp and got the same static, so its not the radio.

So its not the amps, radio, or dsp. So does that mean its a grounding issue?

All my grounds are pretty solid, the amps (a mid range/tweet amp, sub amp and midbass amp) are connected to a grounding distro block with the highest gauge they can accept, and the distro block is grounded to the frame under my seats with 0/1 gauge (paint scraped, etc). The batt is also grounded to the frame in my trunk, so i think that's ok too. Also, knu ofc wires.

My gains are also set at their lowest on the amps. Ill check again to make sure though.

What am I missing? Thanks guys

Click to read more...

 

[wew lad 5,000+ posts]

ground each piece of equipment individually to the closest piece of thick sheet metal you can find and then ensure that the ground from your body to the battery up front is also upgraded

id also verify that your headunit ground is up to par, but if you used a secondary source directly into the dsp and amps cutting the headunit out completely but still got noise it should rule out your headunit.

i think your problem lies within the fact that the amps are grounded on the same distro block

 

[fulmetal7777]

I was definately starting to lean towards a grounding issue as well, but every is grounded pretty well. I'm all out of ideas so ill try that out!

p.s. also tested out my sub amp to see if it did the same thing and got the same static, so its 100% not the amps.

Also, if this changes anything, there all mounted upside down, bolted into a mdf board thats attached to the inside roof of my trunk. I thought it would be cool because everythings "hidden", but it just turned out to be a huge pain is the *** lol

 

[wew lad 5,000+ posts]

I was definately starting to lean towards a grounding issue as well, but every is grounded pretty well. I'm all out of ideas so ill try that out!
p.s. also tested out my sub amp to see if it did the same thing and got the same static, so its 100% not the amps.

Also, if this changes anything, there all mounted upside down, bolted into a mdf board thats attached to the inside roof of my trunk. I thought it would be cool because everythings "hidden", but it just turned out to be a huge pain is the *** lol

that wont be a problem and is probably a good idea, ive seen it done before on the rear shelf. less likely to get stolen, just make sure no wires are pinched and the amp screws are only going into the wood not the metal behind the wood. 99% chance it wont matter but its a good precauting since you already put the wood in

 

[fulmetal7777]

hmm, to be honest im not sure if there touching metal of not, but i doubt every amp would be having the same problem if the screws are touching the metal. Also, its not wires being pinched because i used a different wire lead and hooked up the speaker and that way and had the same problem. I also used a dedicated ground for one amp going to my battery ground and still the same problem, so the grounding is good (i also used a voltmeter and tested resistance and it was 0, further backing that up)

Whenever i have them hooked up straight from the radio, if its at volume 0 theres barely any static, and when i put it on 1 the static gets like 4 times as loud, and get a little louder and i turn the volume up. And this is the same for speakers connected to both amp. Ill post a video in a second.... Got an other ideas?

 

[fulmetal7777]

Heres a video.



Also, each speaker is connected to a different amp, to show that it cant be the amps. Its not as loud as it sounds in the video, but its noticeably annoying.

 

[fulmetal7777]

This might be an obvious observation, but it only makes the noise when rca's are plugged into the amps, if that changes anything lol

 

[wew lad 5,000+ posts]

its coming from your headunit... or a ground loop between your headunit and your amps.

the reason i say that is because when you turn the volume up on the headunit it's essentially increasing its signal, including all noise (there's a noise floor you're trying to avoid). if it stayed the same at any headunit volume i would be looking at the amp more than the headunit

is there noise with the dsp unplugged from the headunit but pluged into the amp? I assume your signal chain is phone> hu > DSP > amplifier > speakers

does it matter what source your headunit is on, does the noise change?

 

[fulmetal7777]

its coming from your headunit... or a ground loop between your headunit and your amps.
the reason i say that is because when you turn the volume up on the headunit it's essentially increasing its signal, including all noise (there's a noise floor you're trying to avoid). if it stayed the same at any headunit volume i would be looking at the amp more than the headunit

I thought that too, so i hooked my amps up straight from the dsp and didnt use the radio at all, so it cant be the radio :/ it just had a constant noise when connected to the dsp. Ill go check one more time real quick to make 100% sure tho, but im almost certain the hu is ok.

Edit: just went out and checked again, disconnected the dsp from the hu completely and hooked up an amp to the dsp and the speaker made the same noise

 

[wew lad 5,000+ posts]

i still have a hard time believing its not the headunit considering the noise floor raises when you increase the volume.. but id take my previous post and replace hu with dsp and check from there.

is your dsp gain maxed out? dsp has a bad ground? it might not like being grounded with a big amp that backfeeds noise into ground.

how long are your grounds? keep in mind this isn't amp to distro, this is amp plug distro to ground

 

[fulmetal7777]

i still have a hard time believing its not the headunit considering the noise floor raises when you increase the volume.. but id take my previous post and replace hu with dsp and check from there.
is your dsp gain maxed out? dsp has a bad ground? it might not like being grounded with a big amp that backfeeds noise into ground.

how long are your grounds? keep in mind this isn't amp to distro, this is amp plug distro to ground

the volume is about halfway up. The dsp is grounded with everything else at a grounding distro block, which then feeds a 0/1 gauge wire to the frame, and that ground is solid, there was no resistance. I had the amps connected to the hu without going through the dsp and made the same sound, so i dont think theres anything wrong with the dsp hook ups. my ground arent very long at all, and all the wires are the max wire fit for everything. I've literally ruled out everything, theres nothing left, so its gotta be something that i dont know about lol

 

[BoogerMan]

I'm sure you didn't do this, but I didn't see it mentioned so I wanted to ask to make sure all basic steps have been covered.

Do your RCAs run near any power or ground wires, including the remote turn on wire for the amps?

 

[fulmetal7777]

welp, i think i solved the problem, i think i turned my gain all the way up instead of all the way down and didnt realize it, so i turned the gain all the way down, and the noise stopped lol im so dumb! Thats probably my issue isnt it? i havnt tested it with the dsp yet but i will soon

 

[wew lad 5,000+ posts]

welp, i think i solved the problem, i think i turned my gain all the way up instead of all the way down and didnt realize it, so i turned the gain all the way down, and the noise stopped lol im so dumb!

i bet you wont do that again //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/rolleyes.gif.c1fef805e9d1464d377451cd5bc18bfb.gif

 

[BoogerMan]

Lol glad you got it fixed! 99% of the time it seems to be something super basic that always gets looked over.

The other day, I went to give a demo and my subs weren't getting any power. Sub amp was on, wires secure, gain set right, etc.

I checked a handful of other advanced things before realizing the slave master switch somehow got set to slave... I'll always check that switch first from now on haha.