Rca Path From Headunit?

[pluto 10+ year member]

Iam hooking up my rca's to the back of my headunit and was wanting to know how the correct way is to run the cables in the dash. do you go left towards the wheel or right towards the door or straight down? Does it really make a difference?? 1st install and I want to do it right the first time.Is there anything electrical in the dash that can interfear with the signal?? thanks in advance!

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[revrider1 5,000+ posts]

Just keep it away from the power

 

[Showrides]

Iam hooking up my rca's to the back of my headunit and was wanting to know how the correct way is to run the cables in the dash. do you go left towards the wheel or right towards the door or straight down? Does it really make a difference?? 1st install and I want to do it right the first time.Is there anything electrical in the dash that can interfear with the signal?? thanks in advance!

The correct way to run RCA cables, is by having them travel the side of the car opposite the side that the power wire is on. So it depends what type of car you have and how you wired your amps. But as long as you keep it away from the power wire and it looks clean it should work well.

 

[helotaxi 5,000+ posts]

The proper way is whatever works for you. Run the RCAs where ever it is convenient. You don't need to go to great lengths to separate power cables from RCAs. Total myth with no science to back it up. About the only thing that is going to radiate noise in the car environment is the ECU and the alternator. In most cases both of these are under the hood where you aren't running RCAs anyway. You might have a problem with the ABS computer, but the most basic shielded cable will be immune to that.

 

[pluto 10+ year member]

the vehical is a 93 F-150 . the power for my amps is running down the right side by the door. Just wanted to know if there was anything behind the dash electrical that would interfear with the signal.Think it will be ok to run it behind the dash to the left door by the parking brake then straight back? Thanks

 

[helotaxi 5,000+ posts]

If you are getting enough ripple to cause EMI through the shielding of a basic RCA cable, your car's computer won't work right either. You also won't get enough of a filter effect from the caps in the amp power supply to keep noise out of the system. Same for the head unit. Routing of the RCAs will be the very least of your concerns if your electrical system is in that bad of shape.

To say that I'm wrong because you might have a problem if a major component is defective is a pretty messed up way of looking at things. That's like saying the amp only really NEEDs a 100A fuse but you should use a 150A in case you have a bad ground, or the engine is making a terrible grinding noise so just turn up the radio so you can't hear it. The fact is that in a car with nothing seriously wrong with it, you can go as far as zip tying the RCAs to the power wire without any ill effects. If there is something wrong with the car to the point that the power wires are raditating noise, that problem needs to be addressed, and not for the sake of a noise free stereo, but rather for the continued safe operation of the vehicle. If you want to continue to propagate car audio myths that have no basis in science, then go right ahead but you had better have a better argument than "that's wrong because what if something else is broken."

 

[n2audio 5,000+ posts]

About the only thing that is going to radiate noise in the car environment is the ECU and the alternator. In most cases both of these are under the hood where you aren't running RCAs anyway. You might have a problem with the ABS computer, but the most basic shielded cable will be immune to that.

Don't forget the HVAC blower motor. Horrible noise source in my wife's Montero.

Power wire???...uhh, no.

 

[helotaxi 5,000+ posts]

Yep, forgot the blower motor.

 

[johnecon2001 5,000+ posts]

umm, thats wrong...
if your battery if bad, and isn't providing decent ripple current filtering from the rectified DC from the alternator, then you will get interference...

it could even happen if the battery is in perfect condition, depending on the alternator, and how its set up.

Your responses are quite stupid.

 

[helotaxi 5,000+ posts]

Wow, only 12 hours to come up with that scathing, witty comeback. Look out folks, he's a sharp one...

 

[helotaxi 5,000+ posts]

Only 10 hours and 31 minutes this time! He's getting faster, too bad this one was even worse...Maybe you should just take your time. Don't rush so much.

 

[blue93corsica 10+ year member]

^^ honestly man, you are the one who is incredably un knowledgeable here and not anyone else, i wopuld like to know where you are getting any of this info from?

first off all, anything passing power though it cases elctro magnetic fields around it, smaller guage wires obvisioully much less then a 0 guage wire but both will still have magnetic fields around the wire itself, by strapping or zip tying your rca's to the power wire, the magnetic field gets into the rca cable causing system noise (ie. alt whine and etc)

now lets look at the alt. itself, how do you think the power is created inside the alt, it gets spun by a pully from the engine, which inside spins a series of magnets which then creates energy and is then stored and sent through a series of diodes (sp) and rectified and altered from AC to DC power, exact same concept

and unless your using $150 and + RCA's which can prolly be strapped to a 0 guage, anything else it is very likely that it will pick up interference, which is why rca's are always placed on the oppoisite side as the power wire

not a myth what so ever

come back with a reply once you have a proper education in what your talking about, i wouldn't be so hard if you didn't flame everyone else who disagrees with you when actually you were the one who was wrong all along

edit:

Total myth with no science to back it up.

there i just provided you with the physics and science of it to back it up, something you cant argue with seeing as though i am going to school for this shit right now and there highly trained professionals instructing everyone this and there not gonna lie and give us bullsh*it

which is also why it isn't recomended to run large guage wires by or near ecm's or abs control units

 

[Prowler573 5,000+ posts]

^^ honestly man, you are the one who is incredably un knowledgeable here and not anyone else, i wopuld like to know where you are getting any of this info from?
first off all, anything passing power though it cases elctro magnetic fields around it, smaller guage wires obvisioully much less then a 0 guage wire but both will still have magnetic fields around the wire itself, by strapping or zip tying your rca's to the power wire, the magnetic field gets into the rca cable causing system noise (ie. alt whine and etc)

now lets look at the alt. itself, how do you think the power is created inside the alt, it gets spun by a pully from the engine, which inside spins a series of magnets which then creates energy and is then stored and sent through a series of diodes (sp) and rectified and altered from AC to DC power, exact same concept

and unless your using $150 and + RCA's which can prolly be strapped to a 0 guage, anything else it is very likely that it will pick up interference, which is why rca's are always placed on the oppoisite side as the power wire

not a myth what so ever

come back with a reply once you have a proper education in what your talking about, i wouldn't be so hard if you didn't flame everyone else who disagrees with you when actually you were the one who was wrong all along

Justify your position all you like but at the end of the day you are simply wrong. Period. End of story. How do I know? Well, I'll tell ya...

After coming to this forum and seeing the seemingly never-ending debate on the proper way to run your interconnects I went and changed the way mine were run! (A rather laborious task in my car just for the sake of personal education, I assure you...)

I do not have the uber-expensive RCAs...one set of RF Stealth Twisted, one set of StreetWires ZN2.0, and one set of Stinger Hyper-series...all around $20 for the 17-foot lengths I bought them in. So - that argument is out of the way.

As it was commonly accepted wisdom to run interconnects on the opposite side of the car that's how mine were run. They now sit immediately next to the power cable that comes from the '+' post on my battery through the firewall and down the driver's side of my car underneath the carpet and whatnot to its terminus at the power distribution block in my trunk. Guess what? NO NOISE! Not one teeny weeny little bit. No, the RCA cables are not zip-tied to the power cable but they sit close enough that they are physically touching one another. No noise outside of whatever is coming from the source.

If there is inducted noise in the system it is indicative of faulty wiring or an improper install - not the physical location of the cabling. (this ironclad belief comes from the results of my own personal experience rather than a regurgitation of something I read somewhere else)

/story

 

[blue93corsica 10+ year member]

this is a proven scientific fact, doesn't mean that it will happen every time, but a proven fact none the less

 

[Bolognablake 10+ year member]

Most factory amps have the power and interconnects run together.

Just an FYI.