I have had my car stereo installed for about a month, and up until 2 weeks ago it sounded wonderful. At the time I was running an older Pioneer DEH-8600MP head unit, an Orion 8004 4-channel amp at about 100w x 4 rms to power 4 6-1/2" pioneer speakers, an Audiobahn A1500-HCT amp to power a 12" Audiobahn alum12q sub. I got all of this equipment second hand and I know the history of most of it, except for the 4 channel Orion. When I got it, it had no back on it, and I had to cut some aluminum to make one.
As I said, it sounded great once everything was hooked up, no interference at all and a very crisp clean sound. Until the subwoofer burned up its voice coils (and I'm still not sure how). While I was waiting for a new sub to be shipped to me, the amp was still hooked up to power (I'm unsure why I didn't disconnect it). One day while leaving work I was listening to music at a moderate volume when all of a sudden I heard a booming noise coming from my speakers that was so loud I thought they would be blown in seconds. I quickly turned off the head unit and let everything sit for a minute or so. I then turned it back on, and ever since then I have had pretty bad interference (whining). Also, the speakers pop when the unit is turned off (but not when it's turned on), but only when the subwoofer amp is connected (I now have it hooked up to a sub again).
I have been messing around with wires and trying to isolate the problem, but I can't seem to find where it could be.
As I've said this problem started spontaneously. The RCAs are brand new and in good shape, I've even tried another RCA down the middle of the car with no results (near no wires). The amps are currently grounded to the floor of the trunk using the hole where a cd changer used to be mounted.
I get some interference and popping when the engine is off, but much more when the engine is on. I seem to be getting alternator whine. I tried moving the ground for the amps to another screw hole and that seemed to make the problem worse. My question is can a ground just go bad? and, if so, should i move it to something thicker like a seatbelt bolt? I would accept any other ideas or suggestions.
Thanks
