bsmiller

Now I have a loud alternating whine and buzzing sound! I tapped into the leads going into the BOSE amp, solder those onto some RCA's and went right into the MTX sub amp. Sub sounds awesome... problem is now my rear speakers (the ones I tapped into for the signal) have not only a loud alternator whine, but also a low level buzzing sound.

I've done searches, and found some good info on reducing the alternator whine, but didn't find much about this weird buzzing sound. Could the RCA's be picking up noise from the power line and feeding that back into the BOSE amp?

icy CL

could be....or it could be bad ground on the amp too. make sure your grounding point is clean of all paint and your rca connections (the ones you soldered) are clean as well.

mattrush78

Just a quick questions. Are you tapping before the bose amp or after on the speaker output?? If you are tapping before the amp you need to install a line output converter. Soundgate makes one that works with the bose system in your cars. It is the Soundgate LOCB. It will most likely solve your noise problem. Soundgate's web site is www.soundgate.com

I hope that this helps with your stereo problem!

bsmiller

I tapped before the amp input, but I read a few threads here that said you could go straight from that into an RCA? That's what I did, without any line out converter. The sound level is good, it's just the BUZ that now comes from the speakers I tapped.

I did not solder, I just used cheap wire line taps, do you think this could be the problem? I was in a hurry and didn't have time to solder!

I did scrape as much paint as I could on the ground connection. I grounded where the tailights ground (several other items are ground there too).

SilverKnight

Try remove the wire taps and solder the RCA cable. I never heard or saw anyone use wire taps with RCA cable. You are the first .

Also try to ground the amp at a difference place. Check the link in my sig for a pic.

bsmiller

heh, I knew I'd get yelled at for using wire taps! I'll give that a shot tonight.

mcdanjw

I don't think the wire taps are the problem... I had the same issue doing it the right way.

A $10 Ground Loop Isolator from Radio Shack on the rca leads to the sub amp fixed the problem....

bsmiller

How did you wire the ground loop isolator? Does it go in parallel with the + and - leads on each RCA set?

My solution for now was to just unplug the rear speakers and deal with it later!

mcdanjw

I don't have a pic, but it has female rcas on one end and male rcas on the other. It just goes in line on the rca inputs to your new amp. No other wiring necessary.


I think the ground loop is probably caused by not grounding the new amp in the exact same spot as the factory amp. That would be hard to do, the ground loop isolator works fine.

bsmiller

Nice, I'll give that a shot before I drag out the soldering iron.

Thanks for all the help guys!

bsmiller

Just to let everyone know. I stopped by radio shack at lunch today and picked up the $14 ground loop isolator. It stopped the alternator whine AND buzzing sound altogether! Sounds great now!

mcdanjw

Glad I could save you from tearing it apart again.

Wire taps rock.

SilverKnight

LOL

Austin519

bsmiller:
Damn looks like you got it fixed before I got here . Oh well...but I was gonna say no, it's not the wire taps...I use them all the time.

Austin519