What's That Whine?

[CJ Rodarme]

There is a slight whine coming from my speakers. It increases in pitch with the gas. How can I get rid of this? I have a skar 75.4 on the mids and a audiopipe 2000.1 on the subs.

 

[Doubeleive]

sounds like you are getting feedback from the alternator, checking and cleaning up all your grounds is a good place to start, I am presuming this is something that just cropped up and has not been a problem from the get go?

 

[iamdub]

Probably interference from the alternator and power circuitry. It could be a faulty alternator but it's most commonly caused by a weak ground or an RCA routed alongside a power wire.

Does it stop with the engine off but system playing? Double check all grounds- head unit and amps. Unplug each RCA channel from the amp, one at a time, to see if you can isolate it to a particular channel.

 

[CJ Rodarme]

It's kind of been a problem from the get go. But it seems to have gotten worse lately. I don't notice it at my normal playing volume but that's pretty loud. I'm only worried about it now as I'm going to upgrade my door speakers so I want them to be very clear. I've had this problem across three different alternators so I have a feeling its not a bad alt. Also, there's a amp ground? I mean I know there has to be for it to work but I just matched all the wires and called it good. Would it be in my best interest to pull it and solder everything?

 

[HiHoeSilver]

There is a slight whine coming from my speakers. It increases in pitch with the gas. How can I get rid of this? I have a skar 75.4 on the mids and a audiopipe 2000.1 on the subs.

What is your music source? The HU, or do you have a phone or something plugged in to aux or USB? How about a charger?

 

[CJ Rodarme]

What is your music source? The HU, or do you have a phone or something plugged in to aux or USB? How about a charger?

For the most part I use my USB plug in, but it seems constant across all sources.

 

[iamdub]

It's kind of been a problem from the get go. But it seems to have gotten worse lately. I don't notice it at my normal playing volume but that's pretty loud. I'm only worried about it now as I'm going to upgrade my door speakers so I want them to be very clear. I've had this problem across three different alternators so I have a feeling its not a bad alt. Also, there's a amp ground? I mean I know there has to be for it to work but I just matched all the wires and called it good. Would it be in my best interest to pull it and solder everything?

I'd check the wiring behind the HU. Make sure the ground is good and no wires are pinched and shorting to the radio's chassis. Some HUs do better with their own ground straight to the frame instead of the factory ground in the original radio harness.

How did you wire up the HU? Did you use a harness adapter or cut the factory wiring? Sometimes a negative trigger is mistaken as a ground.

After verifying the wiring is correct and the routing of your RCAs is not near any other power wires and that the grounds are clean and solid, your next step is to isolate components. If you have an aux jack-to-RCA adapter cable, you could plug a phone or iPod straight to your amp's inputs and play music. Do this with the engine running. If the whine is still there, then it's coming from the power source to the amp(s) which is usually the alternator. Since you've pretty much ruled this out, you may have faulty circuitry in one of the amps.

Aux to RCA:
https://www.amazon.com/6in-Stereo-Audio-Cable-Splitter/dp/B00KTHGDCS

 

[Dan Acosta]

I had a similar issue, it was being caused by the rear seat entertainment control. I adjusted the plug into it and it worked. Try "persuading" it by bumping the rear hinge area of the console if you have RSE.

 

[Doubeleive]

Like Chris said check your wiring, do not run the rca's and power wires anywhere near each other, run power wires down the drivers side and (shielded) rca's down the passenger side, the shielded wires cost a little extra but will prevent these kinds of problems.

 

[adriver]

Your head unit should have a grounding screw. Make sure that's grounded.

remove the fuse, remote turn on, RCA, OR power wire, for each amp one at a time, and if you get the whine on both then its a problem with your head unit. If its only one, then its from the RCA wire/power wire, down the line.
Personally its incredibly easy on these vehicles, and depending on how you are wired up, I would unplug the RCAs directly from the back of the head unit, and pull the fuses for the amps.

You should be able to turn the stereo volume to zero/completely off. Turn off your stereo, (and in an extremely quiet area, where you may even have to let your ears adjust to the silence for 15 minutes), then turn it on. You should be able to hear the whine even without any volume. This might help you identify if you have any whine at all as opposed to trying to hear it when cranking it up.


What do you mean you just matched the wires? Its really not that hard to figure out the correct size wire that you need. Figure out your peak wattage listed (and usually you want to overestimate it. You can always search for videos on what your amp truly runs at, or you can see how to check for yourself). You can get a measure of your wire length (doesn't have to be within inches, just get within a foot or two). Check your wire size needed for your length and wattage. That's your power wire, Your ground should be either as short as possible (less than a few feet), or ran back to the battery. Make sure all grounds are to bare metal, clean. That you didn't cut any wire at the connection, and that there are no frays or cuts in any of your wiring from when you were installing it. Properly crimp or solder all power connections.

 

[CJ Rodarme]

I'd check the wiring behind the HU. Make sure the ground is good and no wires are pinched and shorting to the radio's chassis. Some HUs do better with their own ground straight to the frame instead of the factory ground in the original radio harness.

How did you wire up the HU? Did you use a harness adapter or cut the factory wiring? Sometimes a negative trigger is mistaken as a ground.

After verifying the wiring is correct and the routing of your RCAs is not near any other power wires and that the grounds are clean and solid, your next step is to isolate components. If you have an aux jack-to-RCA adapter cable, you could plug a phone or iPod straight to your amp's inputs and play music. Do this with the engine running. If the whine is still there, then it's coming from the power source to the amp(s) which is usually the alternator. Since you've pretty much ruled this out, you may have faulty circuitry in one of the amps.

Aux to RCA:
https://www.amazon.com/6in-Stereo-Audio-Cable-Splitter/dp/B00KTHGDCS

My headunit was my very first mod, and I connected all the wires using walmart crimp connectors. I didn't want the onstar or chimes so I just used a normal harness, and all my mids are ran off my 4 channel. My RCA's are opposite of my power wire to my 4 channel and my 1/0 for the 2k is ran under the truck. Do speaker power wires also count as power wires in this case? I had this problem in both my 5 channel and my new setup with the 75.4/2000.1 so I highly doubt its the amps

 

[CJ Rodarme]

Like Chris said check your wiring, do not run the rca's and power wires anywhere near each other, run power wires down the drivers side and (shielded) rca's down the passenger side, the shielded wires cost a little extra but will prevent these kinds of problems.

Looks like shielded RCA's are the next purchase. My rca for my sub amp is the one that came in my $20 "5000 watt" amp wiring kit that I used in my old setup and the two for the mids are twisted ones from amazon.

 

[CJ Rodarme]

Your head unit should have a grounding screw. Make sure that's grounded.

remove the fuse, remote turn on, RCA, OR power wire, for each amp one at a time, and if you get the whine on both then its a problem with your head unit. If its only one, then its from the RCA wire/power wire, down the line.
Personally its incredibly easy on these vehicles, and depending on how you are wired up, I would unplug the RCAs directly from the back of the head unit, and pull the fuses for the amps.

You should be able to turn the stereo volume to zero/completely off. Turn off your stereo, (and in an extremely quiet area, where you may even have to let your ears adjust to the silence for 15 minutes), then turn it on. You should be able to hear the whine even without any volume. This might help you identify if you have any whine at all as opposed to trying to hear it when cranking it up.


What do you mean you just matched the wires? Its really not that hard to figure out the correct size wire that you need. Figure out your peak wattage listed (and usually you want to overestimate it. You can always search for videos on what your amp truly runs at, or you can see how to check for yourself). You can get a measure of your wire length (doesn't have to be within inches, just get within a foot or two). Check your wire size needed for your length and wattage. That's your power wire, Your ground should be either as short as possible (less than a few feet), or ran back to the battery. Make sure all grounds are to bare metal, clean. That you didn't cut any wire at the connection, and that there are no frays or cuts in any of your wiring from when you were installing it. Properly crimp or solder all power connections.

I matched the wires on the head unit color to color. As far as the amps its all 1/0 OFC from SHCA for the sub amp and 8 ga OFC for the mids amp with proper crimps (8 ga soldered) and short as possible grounds.

 

[adriver]

most wires are universal, but I have seen
Power be red, orange and also yellow
orange be illumination, nav, and power.
auxiallary be red, yellow, orange, yellow with stripe.
You really shouldn't just assume that they are the same wires because they are the same color. I don't think that's going to be your problem, but its worth verifying just to know if were trying to come up with possibilities.

Is the 8ga for the grounds? You should be using the same size 1/0 grounding wire, on the sub amp.

The twist in the RCA cables is supposed to reduce the interference.

Depending on how your RCA cables are routed, you might want to pull them out, and make sure there is no damage to the cables. If there is a cut in any of the shielding it could be making to contact to metal. If you have pulled them out, and put them back in and tugged on em, if they are ran anywhere they might get wear, they may have taken even the slightest fray in the coating. Especially the cheap wiring kit RCAs. A cheap kit would use thin shielding, and cheap connectors made with minimum standards. I would take a detailed look over the RCA plugs connection with the wire. A few broken wires, or poorly soldered connections could have got broken wires, or loose connection.

Where and how are your grounds, grounded/connected?

Do you have ANY other electrical changes to the vehicle, that maybe those grounds could be interfering with your amp grounds?

Speaker wire is at a different rating then power wire. If you ever use an amp, you should just run new speaker wire. Some of the head units are powerful enough they should get new speaker wire. The factory speaker wire is good for about 50 watts, maybe a little more IIRC, might be a little less.

 

[CJ Rodarme]

most wires are universal, but I have seen
Power be red, orange and also yellow
orange be illumination, nav, and power.
auxiallary be red, yellow, orange, yellow with stripe.
You really shouldn't just assume that they are the same wires because they are the same color. I don't think that's going to be your problem, but its worth verifying just to know if were trying to come up with possibilities.

Is the 8ga for the grounds? You should be using the same size 1/0 grounding wire, on the sub amp.

The twist in the RCA cables is supposed to reduce the interference.

Depending on how your RCA cables are routed, you might want to pull them out, and make sure there is no damage to the cables. If there is a cut in any of the shielding it could be making to contact to metal. If you have pulled them out, and put them back in and tugged on em, if they are ran anywhere they might get wear, they may have taken even the slightest fray in the coating. Especially the cheap wiring kit RCAs. A cheap kit would use thin shielding, and cheap connectors made with minimum standards. I would take a detailed look over the RCA plugs connection with the wire. A few broken wires, or poorly soldered connections could have got broken wires, or loose connection.

Where and how are your grounds, grounded/connected?

Do you have ANY other electrical changes to the vehicle, that maybe those grounds could be interfering with your amp grounds?

Speaker wire is at a different rating then power wire. If you ever use an amp, you should just run new speaker wire. Some of the head units are powerful enough they should get new speaker wire. The factory speaker wire is good for about 50 watts, maybe a little more IIRC, might be a little less.

All grounds are matching wire. 1/0 power/ground for sub amp, 8 ga p/g for mids. I have a 240 amp mechman and the big 4 upgrade. If I remember right I think I checked the wires for the head unit to make sure it was all correct. That's not what I'm worried about at all, I'm more concerned with possible issues with how I connected them. The grounds are under my drivers side middle seat on bare metal

 

[Doubeleive]

one way to verify if it is the rca's is to just lay the new rca's loose in the cab first and swap them with the ones already installed and see if the whine is gone, before taking stuff out and doing a bunch of work.