Grounding Head Unit (Alpine)

[Peepers]

Hey Guys,
Quick question here ....
I have an Alpine (iDA-X100) deck currently installed and I'm hearing some feedback through the speakers when the volume is really low. I'm running three amps (fronts, rears and sub). I've tried installing ground loop isolators and they only made the feedback louder. I currenlty have the deck ground to the chassis but I'm thinking I should ground it to where the OEM Infinity head unit was grounded. Anyone know what colour wire the OEM ground was? Or have any recommendations?

MM

 

[DSMJake]

The ground wire should be black like usual.

 

[lo_boost]

hope this is a little more help. http://www.dsmtuners.com/forums/app...g-factory-stereo-harness-color-codes-pic.html

 

[Defiant]

The factory radios ground through their chassis. They have no ground wire. You'll need to run one. To the radio bracket usually works fine.

 

[grnchevyz]

Behind the radio, on the left side there is a 10mm bolt with ground wires on it, run a wire from the Black of the Deck to that bolt. Also, feedback at low volumes will usually result in a bad patch cable (RCA cable). After grounding the radio properly, if the noise is still there (I bet it will be maybe less though) start pulling cables from the amps. Start with the subs. I should also mention that if you ran the RCA cables in the same "track" as the power wires you will get feedback noise, you should move them to the opposite side of the car.

 

[RedTurboEclipse]

you seem to have installed it right, your problem is not with the ground wire, but as stated your RCA cables. Well it would be the next thing to investigate.

Did you run them next to the power cable? If so that increases the chances. Expensive RCA cables actually claim to be able to run next to the power cable and not develop noise, but still wouldn't do it unless it was only route.

I hate using ground loop ISOs, it's like running a longer slave cylinder rod.. just a bandage but not the for sure fix.

You seem to have done the full system upgrade, don't stop now and result in using GLIs, check those cables.

 

[Peepers]

I knew enough about car audio to keep the power and RCA's separate. I ran the power and remote up the passenger side and the RCA's up the driver's side. So I'm not too worried about them interfering with each other.

grnchevyz, you stated "run a wire from the Black of the Deck to that bolt". Are you referring to the actual "black" ground wire that came with my Alpine head unit or actually grounding the chassis of the deck (adding a separate ground wire) to that 10mm to the left or the radio?

Not sure if makes any difference, I have 3 Defi electric gauges under my head unit - see link. Could they some how interfere with the deck?
http://www.dsmtuners.com/forums/appearance-interior-exterior/296944-oem-gsx-shift-knob-2.html (half way down the page)

What medium to high end RCAs do you recommend I try? I don't want to break the bank on this system as the Spyder isn't my everyday car anymore. I just want it to sound clean.

Thanks guys!!

 

[grnchevyz]

The gauges shouldn't affect the audio unless they are ungodly noisy electrically. I am referring to the black wire from the head unit itself...grounding the case would help as well...one can't have too many grounding points. I still think you have a bum RCA cable. And a little fyi about RCA cables, the quality or price of them doesn't really matter as long as they're not 12678687234 years old and you're not going to go to sound offs where every .0000001db loss counts. A decent cable I found is the Raptor Red available at most audio shops. Any Raptor series for that mater. Price wise should be $0.75 to $1 per foot.

 

[RedTurboEclipse]

if the wires are away from the power cable let me tell you a tale of an annoying ground loop we had..

This was with a pioneer deck, you figure hey pioneer, its brand name no problem. horrible noise, goes along with the revs of the car. Only when the car was on, when car was off, it was not audible.

First thing we did was get ground loop isolaters, they barely helped. next moved the rca cables further away from power cable. still horrible noise.

this entire process trying to find out the problem got me a lot of experience with car audio.

so wtf could it be. i notice with the rcas not all the way into the deck the noise would be not be audible, but once its in all the way, the noise would come back. I get some foil and wrap some around the connector, put the rca cables, NOISE GONE!

so yes there was some kind of ground problem with the connector it seems.

if you are completely positive your wiring install is correct, get another deck to temporary test and see if that gives you noise, if not, its your beloved alpine deck.

oh yea, before i did the foil trick, i did what i just suggest and got another deck to test and had no noise so i knew it was the rca outputs on the deck

 

[NeMiZiS]

I think you just solved my problem. I just swapped in a pioneer screen and I'm having this noise going along with my engine's idle and rev. I know if I unplug the rca's to the subs the noise stops, but I change radio's a lot and none of the other ones made this noise.... It has been driving me crazy! I have a AVH-P6500DVD
Sorry to steal the thread, but the foil idea sounds good to me...

 

[Jeff99GS]

Put an RCA noise filter inline of your RCA wire. There is NO OEM ground wire. Like defiant said, The radio gets ground off the radio mounting brackets.

 

[RedTurboEclipse]

I think you just solved my problem. I just swapped in a pioneer screen and I'm having this noise going along with my engine's idle and rev. I know if I unplug the rca's to the subs the noise stops, but I change radio's a lot and none of the other ones made this noise.... It has been driving me crazy! I have a AVH-P6500DVD
Sorry to steal the thread, but the foil idea sounds good to me...

voila
reps please

some people never think that the deck is the problem, especially when its a big ol brand name, they dont want to admit to those like me who have used no name brands whos given me no problems at all, that their deck which cost 3-4x more with less features is faulty

but ive used them all, it does happen, just have to settle with tricks to resolve em, if warranty is over, bought used, or can no longer return..