So the noise that is audible in my system right now (a slight crackle) is coming solely from the tweeters and actually goes away within 10 minutes of playing the system continuously. In the process of rewiring my system to accommodate a sub off the rear channels, I decided to try an experiment.

Both amp and matrix pro are velcroed to the portion of the trunk floor board closest to the rear seat. So I unplugged the signal rca's from the matrix and plugged them directly into the amp.

While the output was noticeably less (due to bypassing the matrix and not adjusting the gain on the amp), the amount of noise was 10x worse. I could hear the crackle in the tweets, engine noise and a horrible hiss when at full volume (for me that's around 30) in between tracks.

From what I read on this forum my experience sounds backwards and is leading me to believe that my amp is defective....

PS: Amp is Zed Draconia II. Comps running off front channels and nothing off the rears atm...