hi all,

i just finished installing my stereo system:

Nak MB75
Nak NRS 650 tweeter and woofer
Nak SPS 651 rears
Nak PA 504 50x4 amp

i ran the power wire on the left side of the car and everything else on the right side of the car.

everthing was perfect except when i accelerate hard
i hear the most annoying whining whistling noise

what is that, what can i do to fix it??

thanx




[Modified by BlueR, 11:55 AM 11/5/2001]

 

how did you install the headunit? Sounds like a grounding problem.

 

Its alternator whine. You might have a bad ground, or your gain turned up to high. You should probably ask on the Audio/stereo board for better answers

Mattj

 

i purchase a standard radio mount kit for the headunit

i put the ground in the hatch section but was have a hard time locating a clean spot for it.

if its a ground problem, where is the best spot to relocate it

 

Had this problem once myself. Mine was caused by cheap RCA cables, so I bought a $60.00 set very high quality. Problem solved. If not try a noise polution box.

 

Make sure your grounds are secure, and that they are as short as possible. Putting it in the hatch is fine. Scrape off the paint where the ground is secured down for a better connection. Remember to keep it short!

Better patch (RCA) cabling may solve the problem if you used the really cheap ones (which I doubt looking at the equip. you are using!). Adjust the gains on your amp. when the head unit is at 3/4 volume, you should just begin to hear some very light clipping/distortion.

This whine is caused by a ground loop somewhere. I wouldnt put a ground loop eliminator in there...it is just bandaging the problem. Also, a lot of people use a thicker gauge wire to ground the alternator to the chassis.


[Modified by Yell00ITR, 9:20 AM 11/5/2001]

 

its not the RCA cables, im using monster cables
im going to try relocating the ground, what is the best location???

 

I grounded to the rear bar mount (the one at the back of the hatch, where the kiddie seat mounts are). No whine when I had my amp back there. Course, it was only running a sub, so I'm not sure I would have noticed...

BTW -- what are you doing with the factory head unit??

 

You have one, possibly two problems with your system:

1) ground loop as discussed previously. To eliminate ground looping - the best way is to have all the stereo equipment ground to a single point - it's not ideal but on paper it is the best way.

2) an overworked alternator and/or battery

2) is a problem that I have frequently encountered with Hondas as they come with pretty anemic alternators from Honda. You need to calculate the current draw from your headunit/amplifiers, auxiliary lighting, main lights and any other electrical equipment you have in your car. If the total current draw is equal to or greater than the stock unit can produce - you will continue to have alternator whine unless you upgrade the alternator. Sometimes a high farad capacitor will help the electrical system deal with the current demands of the amp in borderline cases - but they are a good idea for any systems with multiple speakers. As you are not running any subwoofers I would say that this option is optional for you right now. I would also double check all your impedances to make sure you haven't accidentally created a low-ohm draw condition to the amp. You have also not indicated the condition/age of the battery of the car - if in doubt - replace it with a new one (with upgraded CCA rating from stock).

The only other thing I can think of is occasionally the headunit will pick up the whine from the stock harness. You said you were using a harness adapter - which is the most common way of hooking up headunits these days. The downside to using them is on the "car" side of the harness you are dealing with substandard wire for high-end/upgraded audio system use. So you might have to rewire it bypassing the stock harness to remedy this problem.

Good luck.



[Modified by Big Phat R, 9:49 AM 11/5/2001]

 

thanx i'll try that
any other good places

sorry i'm keeping the factory headunit

Big Phat R: thanx also, i'm going to keep that in mind if the relocation of the
ground doesn't work


[Modified by BlueR, 12:39 PM 11/5/2001]

 

up until recently, I had a nice stereo sytem in the R...I had two amps w/ no alternator whine...

I grounded it to the bottom of the car....scraped off some paint and just bolted it down...never had any problems, I was using Phoenix Gold cabling, which it just as good as the Monster...so the cabling should not be a problem...

 

Could be alternater, but more likely ingition noise

Check all your grounds. Make sure you have an engine-chassis cable, and your battery is properly attached to the chassis as well (negative side only).

Also make sure you have resistor spark plugs & cables installed. They suppress the ignition noise. If you have after market ingition parts check them out too. VTEC controller, MSD, etc... Make sure they are installed properly, not backwards, or floating ground.

Cheap RCA, with poor sheilding can pick up lots of stuff, and then it get amplified. Keep your RCAs & speaker wires away from power cables too.

Check your power cable, make sure it is big enough and well conected. Bad conections can create noise (popping under heavy bass) and bigger issues that noise like excess heat...leads to fires!

 

Biggest source of noise in systems I've seen has been the old bundling of the power/rca back to you amps down the same side. Stereo shops don't want to take the time to tear up both sides. Also any time a signal line runs close to a hot wire from say a fuel pump/abs/you name it...even if behind the head unit.

my old system...phoenix gold mps(2)2150,(1)2500/phoenix dual 15band eqx/alpine 7939/s605 changer/phoenix alternator/usamp gellcell/1 farad cap/4 12" kicker solo's/6 kicker resolution 6 1/2, 6 kicker nd25 tweeters

currently have 3 orion polished aluminum 425 HCCA's, rated at 25x12 1/4 ohm stable or bridged 100x6. Anyone know how many speakers it takes to get 12 channels to 1/4 ohm?