A couple of weeks ago my Alpine HU went bad, so I returned it to the store I bought it from. Unfortunately, they didn't have the radio I wanted to get in stock, so now, I'm cruising around without tunes.

My question is, even though I don't have a radio, I am getting feedback from the speakers. I kinda get that "supercharged" buzzing sound when I drive. I checked all the connections on the amp (including the ground) and they were all tight. Somebody suggested that the RCA cables could have gone bad and that what is causing the feedback. So I unpluged the RCA's from the amp and viola, the buzzing is gone. Have any of you ever heard of RCA cables going bad? Is that possible? They are Streetwire zero noise cables with gold tips.

TIA

 

were the tips of the cables that used to be connected to the HU touching anything?

 

They might have touched each other when I first pulled the head unit out. For the last week, I had them sitting on the carpet making sure the ends didn't touch each other.

 

yes they can go bad. i had a pair do that same thing. also if they are ran along side power wires that could happen.

 

that or they were touching the body of the car, this would cause a ground loop which would introduce the alternator noise into your setup

 

i have the same problem..it usually isnt the rca's...i have new monstercables running to both my amps..the whinning sound only can be heard on my mids...i went to an audio shop to find a noise filter...which i find out isn't the primary solution for the problem..i was told to check my ground...maybe find a better ground or scrape off the paint if there is any to bare metal...then ground it there...

i havent tried to fix the problem yet...got a car seat thats strapped like a mug to the rear seats lol..but when i do i'll let you know if it solves the problem..

 

I have the same problem. I have stripped my ground and ran a new remote wire on the opposite side of the car from the RCAs. The hum is still there at high RPMs. Anyone with more suggestions?

 

I have the main power running down the passenger side, but the remote wire is joined with the RCA's. I tightened up the ground yesterday, but maybe I'll try taking it off and cleaning the spot it's screwed to.

Thanks for the suggestions, and keep them coming if anybody has any other ideas.

 

Is the end of the rca that is not connected to the amp just laying on the carpet?

 

The plot thickens...This morning on the way to work I noticed that the hum happens sometimes not always. On the first leg of the trip the hum was not there. On the second leg it was back in full force. Any ideas?

 

Yea, is that bad? I pulled them out since I currently don't have a radio in the car, so they're sitting on the passenger side floormat, but the tips are not touching each other. I thought the feedback was coming from the RCA's possibly touching some of the metal supports where the radio goes.

 

hrm... how old's the car? Maybe the internals in your alt are starting to crap out making a larger gap inbetween the cycles of the AC the coil's makin... ?

 

it's a 95 GS-R

 

The buzzing is probably just static electricity I could be wrong about that. I think instead of worrying about the buzzing from when there is no HU then you should just unhook the amp, pull the fuse out or something and not worry about the buzzing sound unless it comes back after you install the hu and everything is hooked up. Dont go buying new rca cables until you verify that the problem is still there after hooking everything back up. Plus it could actually damage your amp having it on and those cables hooked up. I think it is a 4 to 5 volt signal that goes through those rca from the hu and you could easily discharge a few thousand volts just from the static electicity from your body.


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[Modified by Bigjon, 8:45 PM 4/2/2003]

 

i had the same problem with the buzzing noise but it was constant. it sounded like a record player. i was running a 4 gauge and a 8 gauge straight from the battery so it caused a current through my whole car. i had regular rca's and then i switched to monster XLN. the rca's won most silent rca's so i tried them out and sure enough almost all of the annoying buzzin sound went away. i got a 2 channel pair and a 4 channel pair. both rca's cost me over $100. it was well worth it though