Ground loop question?

[lilpride 10+ year member]

Ok so doing a camaro the Battery was in the back already. So when grounding them amp I directly grounded it to the battery figuring this is the best ground. I get a bad whining noise through the speakers. I know I need to reroute my rca jacks because they are right next to the power right now. but could the ground on the battery cause this? FYI I am using a line out converter. how could I test a differnt ground for that?

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[lilpride 10+ year member]

Bump for any advice?

 

[wickedwitt 10+ year member]

Best guess is the RCAs picking up noise from the power supply.

 

[disturbed471985 5,000+ posts]

Best guess is the RCAs picking up noise from the power supply.

^^ Seperate RCA's from power wires.

 

[WhyUmad 10+ year member]

move the amps ground wire from the battery to the chassis

 

[lilpride 10+ year member]

move the amps ground wire from the battery to the chassis

Can you tell me why? It seems the best ground would be at the battery.

 

[WhyUmad 10+ year member]

Just move the ground wire off the battery and come thank me when the noise is gone.

 

[lilpride 10+ year member]

Just move the ground wire off the battery and come thank me when the noise is gone.

I am not asking if it will work or not. I am very curious as to why it would work.

 

[WhyUmad 10+ year member]

I don't know the technical details but even though it "should" work, every time I have seen it done on a highs amp the car had noise that went away when grounded elsewhere. Seems like you can get away with it on a sub amp though but I never do it.

 

[lilpride 10+ year member]

Its a 5 channel polk audio amp. So you do hear it more on highs. I will try moving the rca jacks away from power line first. Then Ill start checking the grounds.

 

[WhyUmad 10+ year member]

lol ok let us know how it goes

 

[sacsking916 5,000+ posts]

i grounded my highs amp directly to my rear battery and have 0 noise. then again i ran my rcas about 2 feet or so from my power wires

 

[theMessenjah44 10+ year member]

Just move the ground wire off the battery and come thank me when the noise is gone.

no, the best ground is straight to the battery. everything comes back to that post anyway, but when you run a direct line there is less chance for interference or voltage drop.

my guess would be you're getting noise from the LOC, less likely would be the RCAs running near the power. I would still move them, but I've seen tons of best buy installs that ran right next to power wire with little to no issue. I think it's something more significant than that.

 

[wickedwitt 10+ year member]

no, the best ground is straight to the battery. everything comes back to that post anyway, but when you run a direct line there is less chance for interference or voltage drop.
my guess would be you're getting noise from the LOC, less likely would be the RCAs running near the power. I would still move them, but I've seen tons of best buy installs that ran right next to power wire with little to no issue. I think it's something more significant than that.

Good shielding means no noise, but yes the first two places noise show up are a bad LOC/converter box and RCAs in parallel/contact to a power source.