Need HELP with alt whine

[1moreamp]

Braided strapping blocks RF and high frequency information from traveling the path. Go look at any industrial piece of equipment and you will see flat strap copper or high strand count straight cable for grounding that braided cable stuff is from the lawn mower days of car building.

Plus why do you trust the stuff the auto makers use when they created the problem with poor to little or no proper grounding under the hood in the first place ??? Only car makes use that braided stuff for flexibility.
Unfortunately it does a very poor job of actually making a high frequency low impedance path for grounding. Just a FYI my friend.

For more good reading look up proper earth bonding methods in some of the latest electrical engineering documents available on the net.


PS I have seen this system work on cars that the only choice was transformers. Once the cabling system was installed all the audio equipment worked as it should and sounded great without noise issues.
Why spend 6 trillion dollars messing up your audio equipment when its not your audio equipment to begin with, its your cheap light weight copper bonding used by car makers to save weight and increase gas mileage and of course car profits. think about it.

Fix the problem. Your stereo is fine, your car is messed up. not your stereo.

Plus the grounding system costs about $45.00 to buy and about an hour to install. How many hours have you spent trying to fix this issue. They would not be selling these kits if they did not work.

The only other issue that could be causing this Perry mentioned about but since your stuff is new, I seriously doubt your stereo equipment is broken.

[I Am An Idiot]

Originally posted by Perry Babin

Originally posted by I Am An Idiot

[1moreamp]

Originally posted by justonemoreamp
Braided strapping blocks RF and high frequency information from traveling the path. Go look at any industrial piece of equipment and you will see flat strap copper or high strand count straight cable for grounding that braided cable stuff is from the lawn mower days of car building.

Plus why do you trust the stuff the auto makers use when they created the problem with poor to little or no proper grounding under the hood in the first place ??? Only car makes use that braided stuff for flexibility.
Unfortunately it does a very poor job of actually making a high frequency low impedance path for grounding. Just a FYI my friend.

For more good reading look up proper earth bonding methods in some of the latest electrical engineering documents available on the net.


PS I have seen this system work on cars that the only choice was transformers. Once the cabling system was installed all the audio equipment worked as it should and sounded great without noise issues.
Why spend 6 trillion dollars messing up your audio equipment when its not your audio equipment to begin with, its your cheap light weight copper bonding used by car makers to save weight and increase gas mileage and of course car profits. think about it.

Fix the problem. Your stereo is fine, your car is messed up. not your stereo.

Plus the grounding system costs about $45.00 to buy and about an hour to install. How many hours have you spent trying to fix this issue. They would not be selling these kits if they did not work.

The only other issue that could be causing this Perry mentioned about but since your stuff is new, I seriously doubt your stereo equipment is broken.

Fix the problem, not the symptom

[zigzagflux]

Originally posted by justonemoreamp
Your stereo is fine, your car is messed up. not your stereo.

You can't be sure about that. If the car is messed up, explain why an amp, grounded ALL the way in the back of the car, is quiet. Thus far, that has been pityocamptes report. Why fix some engine noise, when he is likely dealing with a poor ground or broken shield? The amplifier is the highest current device in the system, and will be MOST susceptible to grounding problems as a result (V=IR). But the amp produces no noise to the speakers. Therefore, his car is likely NOT the problem.

RF is not the problem, his noise is audible. He is hearing the AC ripple generated by the alternator. All vehicles have it, and it's not a problem. A properly grounded and designed stereo system will be immune to this noise.

A number of people here are leading pityocamptes on the right track, but he hasn't finished his testing to confirm WHERE the problem is. If he completes tests, he will KNOW where the problem is (even if it is a problem with the car); he will not need to guess and buy parts like ground straps and transformers to hopefully fix the problem.

Troubleshooting is methodical, logical, and is not based on experience per se. That is, just because I had a car 5 years ago, and it had such and such a problem, and I fixed it with such and such a transformer, does NOT mean you should follow this path. The noise can be isolated down to the very root cause without buying anything. Once the problem is identified, the solution WILL work, it won't MAYBE work.

[ppia600]

Regardless of how much cable or what type you use, you are increasing the current carrying capability of the path, so why are you disputing my method in the first place? Just because I'm not promoting an overpriced "jdm" (taiwan made ((tdm)) wire kit doesn't mean it doesn't work effectively. I never said take the stock ground out and add another one. I simply said to add more, how is that creating a problem?

Also, I didn't fix a "such and such" car with "such and such transformer" once five years ago... I deal with issues like this almost EVERY DAY. I install car stereo equipment for a living (unfortunately) and it is the reason I am the lead in our shop and our region. Noise problems are common in car stereo systems because of poorly grounded components and some can cause damage to components upstream if not identified quickly. That is the job I am paid to do, not something I act like I know about. If you have a doubt, come by my shop and pose a audio problem for me and see how quickly I figure it out. Its not guessing, its experience.


I hope the OP can find something out before we all tear eachothers' heads off over the internets, haha.

[1moreamp]

I have a 34 year old truck with a two wire style alternator. I recently bought a HU, eq, and two amps. All have clean grounds. I have unplugged the RCA connectors at each unit working my way back to the HU and no noise (alt whine). I have just turned on the HU, bypassed the eq. and I still get noise. I have turned the HU off and just turned the eq. power on and I get noise.

I have experimented with RCA filters and they work pretty good except they completely cut the frequency and the system sounds like ****.

He has a ground loop of course, but ground loops only pick up noise generated within the vehicle the system is installed in. My proposal was to FIX the noise source, and be done with the issue. Hence my suggestion of installing the Super grounding system under the hood of his truck. Thus killing the noise at its source. Sorry but braided cabling is not used anymore for electrical noise grounding. Maybe it looks OK in the car theater but in has been tested and proven not the best grounding pathway.

My suggestion of using Jensen studio grade isolation transformers is just a quick fix approach to the problem, that he has already tried as stated by him above. And It worked but, cheap transformers sound really bad, we all know that. Jensens sound pretty good and they should MSRP is $140.00 a set of two RCAs being isolated. And ruler flat response I might add from 20 to 20K.
Four channel gets really pricey. these are studio grade devices as used in recording studios worldwide. Please leave it not to me to be marketing something that is not tried and true, and used worldwide by audio recording engineers galore. that would be sacrilege LOL LOL LOL...

As for the difference in wire bonding methods well here again I am just quoting the NEC, and the NFPA, and several other sources on proper earth bonding methods.< grounding for the lesser experienced>
I would also like to mention the old reliable STAR common grounding method that most audio engineers have used for the last 40 years or so.

So all in all I did not invent any of this, the industry did, I am just a spokesperson for what works worldwide and in all stereo installs weather it be a football stadium, a recording studio, or your home stereo or even possible your car stereo.

I take no offense from all you young fellas out there weather you do this for a living or not. I was simply stating the obvious as for his alternatives, and possibly a cure for his car audio blues he is having.

If any of us help him fix his car stereo then it was all good for all of us. This is not after all a race of the brain pans, it is a forum of people trying to help one another.

Oh and please overlook any offensive sounding remarks on my part. I'm just a grumpy old Engineer that has worked on a lot more than car stereo's in my 51 years, and sometimes I sound grumpy, but I don't really mean it that way at all

[pityocamptes]

Originally posted by justonemoreamp
Braided strapping blocks RF and high frequency information from traveling the path. Go look at any industrial piece of equipment and you will see flat strap copper or high strand count straight cable for grounding that braided cable stuff is from the lawn mower days of car building.

Plus why do you trust the stuff the auto makers use when they created the problem with poor to little or no proper grounding under the hood in the first place ??? Only car makes use that braided stuff for flexibility.
Unfortunately it does a very poor job of actually making a high frequency low impedance path for grounding. Just a FYI my friend.

For more good reading look up proper earth bonding methods in some of the latest electrical engineering documents available on the net.


PS I have seen this system work on cars that the only choice was transformers. Once the cabling system was installed all the audio equipment worked as it should and sounded great without noise issues.
Why spend 6 trillion dollars messing up your audio equipment when its not your audio equipment to begin with, its your cheap light weight copper bonding used by car makers to save weight and increase gas mileage and of course car profits. think about it.

Fix the problem. Your stereo is fine, your car is messed up. not your stereo.

Plus the grounding system costs about $45.00 to buy and about an hour to install. How many hours have you spent trying to fix this issue. They would not be selling these kits if they did not work.

The only other issue that could be causing this Perry mentioned about but since your stuff is new, I seriously doubt your stereo equipment is broken.

Thanks! Do you have a link for the grouding system ~$45.00? I've spent more than that in time and resources and am getting to the point that I might can the whole system and plug in my Walkman, or is that iPod?

[1moreamp]

Try this or build your own if you like, there are other brands also, Shop wisely and enjoy the fact that your fixing the problem not the stereo

heres a linky:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/JDM-B...QQcmdZViewItem

[ppia600]

After installing the "japanese domestic motor" ground system, be sure to let us know if the engine noise goes away. This will be the first time I've heard of it working for engine noise, I'm curious as to what it will do. I've installed them many times because some guys think it makes their engines run better. Maybe the older vehicles (early seventies and older) respond well to that. I usually work on late 70's and up.

[1moreamp]

The JDM unit was just one of the setups found in 2 minutes on e-bay,
There are others and there are better ones I am sure as I have seen them in cars, hence my final comments about shopping wisely.

I built my own out of 2 gauge wire and cheap gold terminals sold at a local audio gear outlet. Also JDM is a business name for a large corporation not just a ground terminal system.

The grounding system uses the battery as a giant filter for all the engine noise under the hood.


Heres the exact unit I saw installed on three different cars before I built mine.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/UNIVE...ayphotohosting