Where does the antenna in the rear window attach? I just had my amp installed yesterday and my radio reception has sucked ass since.

If it was just the amp I figured i would have heard about it by now.. so where does it attach so i can double check it.

 

Your installer may have tapped into the remote turn on lead that goes to the amplifier for the antenna in the rear of the car... the amplifier may not be turning on as a result, leaving you with a significantly weaker antenna signal.

 

Where is the antenna amp so i can trace the lead?

 

The antenna amp is in the drivers side rear pilar. You have to remove the trim on the pilar behind the back seat to get to it.

 

I have traced the remote lead down and its not tapped into the amplifier (for fm) at all.

I have done some tests trying to pull the RCA's to see if it was feeding back interference and its not.. i even rewired the remote to be on run instead of accesory and if you have it in accesory with no amp its fine but as soon as i turn to run my fm reception sucks.. and then i have tested by pulling the fuses out of the amp and as soon as the circitry in the amp fires up fzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

So.. its the amp causing the interference..

I was thinking of picking up a cheap amp which i could return and hook it up to verify that its the brutus causing the interference and not a problem with the lead killing the fm amp..

any other ideas?!?!?!?

 

If you have a battery-powered FM radio, you might try putting it right on top of your amp and seeing if you have the same problem with the battery-powered radio.

Usually when amps interfere with the radio reception, it's AM that they toast (the power supplies often emit interference on the AM band).

If the amp is interfering with FM, it's way defective.

Also, where did the installer get power? At the battery?

Do you still have the problem when the speaker wires are disconnected from the amp?

 

Well, typically Class-D amps cause FM noise and Class-T (a modified Class-D style) cause FM noise. But there have been cases of Class-D amps creating FM noise as well.

If you have another non 'D' or 'T' amp around, try it. If not, unplug the amp inputs, outputs, and turn on lead.... then run the turn on lead to another car. If you still have noise when the other car turns on your amp, its probley the amp. If not, it's probley a wiring issue. Run the same test again with the inputs connected, then the outputs, then both and see if the noise comes back.

Isn't trouble shooting fun?

BTW, vs. just ranting in your post, it would have helped more if you have told us what and how it was installed.

 

Well i did the walkman thing and it is the amplifier.. (took a walkman in the car to see if its FM reception gets nuked and it does) I called hifonics and they said that they get this complaint a lot about the brutus..

My problem is that I have the amp mounted in the back and have my antenna in the rear window and the lead from the antenna goes right by the amplifier

is there an amp that can put out similar wattage to the brutus that has a wired remote that people have had good luck with in an acura with an in-window antenna..

or are there options without major drilling to convert to a higher gain external antenna (its a lease)

The amp is wired with 4 gauge and was installed by best buy (i only did it with them because the best buy by me has always done good work and they will take all the wires out for free at the end of the lease) and there is a line output converter on the rear 6x9's going to rca's and the remote lead is wired to the run position in the fuse box..

 

THis has NOTHING to do with installation, I suspect.

The antenna is inches above your Class D amplifier. As another poster has pointed out, Class D amps often create this problem. (It may be made worse because of the antenna amplifier, which is why I wouldn't attempt to change antennas).

Remote gain controls aren't rare any more (Kicker, Rockford, etc.) Just get a traditional Class B or A/B (they are all B, really) with a forward knob. As long as you aren't getting Class D, I wouldn't worry about making sure someone else has had one in a TSX. But if you were getting another Class D, I wouldn't do it unless you knew someone had done it before.

Or you could just build a lead box for your amp.

 

Hum, a lead box might make it more theft deterrent...

 

yeah i talked to the guy about moving the amp and he said some people tried moving it to the front and went from bad to no reception..

It just looks like this amp + my car = bad match..


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