Have noise from my lights and from engine...can kill both by turning them off.

Head end is Kenwood, amp is Soundstream Van Gogh. Had installer do the work. Want SILENCE. Ideas? Replaced ignition wiring. No change.

 

Noise problems are almost always due to poor grounding, manly from a difference in ground potential between the diff. components of a system.
There are 3 or 4 main types of noises in car audio systems, "alternator noise" commonly referred to as alt. whine, it is a whiny whistle kind of sound that increases in volume as you load up the alt., [turning on electrical things on in the car, EG: lights] and will change pitch as you increase the engines RPM, this noise can be "induced", [ wiring works like an antenna and picks up the noise "signal"] into the audio wiring, or it can get into the system through the power/ground wiring.
The next most common noise is "ignition noise" it can be described as ticking, buzzing, whirring kind of sound, very connected to the firing of the spark plugs or the triggering of the ign. system, it gets into the system mainly by RF, [induced, picked up by the audio wiring, or even the cars radio ant.
The next most common is "system noise" sometimes described as a "hum" and unlike the other two does not require the motor to be running, and is almost always caused by too much "gain" output or input levels turned up too high.
The 4th and less of a problem is "switching noise" sometimes referred to as "switch pop" this is hearing something, [pop or static] from the speakers when you switch something on or off, EG: step on the brake, switch between high and low beam, turn on the wipers, and as they flash, again as above it does not need the motor running and can enter the system through the electrical or be induced by RF in.
In all 4 cases grounding may be the cause, grounding is the one common factor of every electrical circuit in the car, EG: "alt. noise" it can be caused by a poor ground on the HU, amp, alt., batt. or chassis or a combination of any or all of them, whether caused by improper connections or inadequate wire/cable gauge, but most commonly by a differential ground potential. Noise problems can also be caused by improper running or poor quality or both of the audio wiring. EG: running the amps power cable and the RCA signal cable next to each other is asking for a noise problem, although can and has been done without a problem, using "cheap" RCA cables is also asking for trouble, but again may not necessarily cause a noise problem.
One more thing, the problem can be as simple as a poor ground on the amp, or as complicated as a whole bunch of minor problems, that by themselves would not be a problem, but together become a problem, all of this excludes the possibility that the problem is in one of the components of the audio system, [number 5 on the list of causes] a broken chassis ground inside a Hu or amp can cause noise problems without having any effect on anything else.
Oh yea one more thing, having had it installed by an "installer" only says to me that he may not have been the best installer, there is always a way to eliminate a noise problem, nothing goes out of my shop with a noise problem, unless I have a customer that will not follow my recommendations, EG: insists on using the extra set of cheapo RCAs he got with his cheapo home system. 93

 

thx, that's pretty much what I expected. Now gotta go back and work with him, he's a good guy and had to hustle to get it out the door with a few warts.