Rokkaholik

I just replaced all the speakers in my car as well as head unit, wiring and amp.


Kenwood DDX374BT
Focal 165AS in Doors
Focal 165AC in Sail Panels
CDT CL-42 in Hatch (still running off Monsoon Amp)
JBL S2 1024 in back cubby


Alpine PDR-V75 amp running it all


4 gauge power and ground.
16 gauge speaker wires.
6 channel EFX RCA Cables


It's loud and clear when the music is playing, but when I put it into standby mode, I can still hear a faint white noise from the speakers.


It's not alternator buzz or whine. It's like the dead air between songs on a CD or cassette. On standby mode, shouldn't the amp turn off, or ?


I've already redone the ground connection by taking it off, wire brushing the area to make sure the metal is completely clean and reattached it all and same thing. All the speakers attached to the Alpine amp are doing it. It's not loud or anything, but enough to annoy me because I expect them to be OFF.


Going to recheck my BLUE wire connectors on my head unit just in case.




Any other ideas?

tophatjimmy

iTrader: (1)

my guess is you've got the gains in your amp up a little too high and you are hearing your amps noise floor. Dial the gains back a bit and see if the sound goes away.

CFLFORMULA93

this or double check your rca's

Rokkaholik

No dice.... Nothing changed when adjusting gains, crossovers or Hi Pass filters. Same steady noise although nothing from the sub. Seems to be mostly coming from the front tweets and the tweets on the coaxials.


I did unplug one of the RCA's feeding the amp to rule out the amp and that cleared up the noise right away.


Either the EFX 6 Channel RCA's are crappy


http://www.ebay.com/itm/Scosche-EFX-...53.m2749.l2649




or my Kenwood deck is being the turd. With that said, the lone set of 4" in the hatch are still on the Monsoon amp and they are quiet as can be, so I'm leaning towards the RCA's

1999nbmZ

Any chance that your RCA's are directional? There are some that are built that way, they will have arrows printed on the covering that need to be pointed towards the amplifier.

One other thing that you may want to try, would be to run the ground wire from the head unit straight to the ground terminal on your amplifier. You would want to unhook the ground used on the factory radio harness. Let the amp and head unit share the same ground.

Both things are fairly easy to check and test. Give it a shot, and post up your results.

Rokkaholik

Looked into the "directional" thing. They are not. Called Kenwood 2 times and unfortunately, their "techs" are ZERO help. Or maybe I got 2 level ones reading off cue cards? It was a simple question of "in STANDBY, is the radio supposed to send a signal via the power cont wire to the amp to be on or off?"

Apparently I confused both of them, because they were both like deer in the headlights.

I ended up calling Crutchfield, where I got the radio. He said that there is an OFF feature if I hold down the HOME button. I did that and the speakers went silent as the amp turned off as well. The down side is that the radio is completely off, so no clock or anything showing. He was also a little stumped as to why OFF and STANDBY were set up like they were. On ALL my Kenwoods through the years, STANDBY was completely silent until I changed the source to Radio, CD, or USB, etc...

He suggested possible interference with the cars other wiring somewhere where the RCA's are routed. I'm going to find a set of good RCA's and plug them directly from the radio to the amp just to see if it changes. Then I'll try the alternative grounding method

If it doesn't change, then it has to be the radio.

1999nbmZ

That's really weird, standby should be the same as off, as far as the blue/white remote wire is concerned. If you have a volt meter, you can test that wire in both modes, and you should see voltage if that is in fact the problem. If the remote wire has 12 volts on it in the 'standby' mode, then there is a fault in the radio. Not sure how you would resolve that other than swapping it out.

If that is not an option, you may want to consider sending that wire to a relay first, and then back to the amplifier. Should keep residual voltages from turning on the amp.

Just another thought, does your amp have the option of 'auto turn-on' or something like that? This would be useful in a car with a stock radio, but can cause problems when the amp 'senses' a signal and turns itself on. Just looked up your amp, and it does have that feature built in. If the amp senses any signal coming in on the RCA cables, it will automatically power on the amp. This will happen regardless of what the remote wire is doing.

Next time you hear that noise, take a look at the amp and see if its logo is lit up. If its illuminated, you know that the amp is powered on.

Just a side note, I have an alpine amp with that feature in my newer GM truck, that is turned on in that way. When I shut off the truck, the amp stays on for about 20 seconds. If I listen carefully, I can hear some slight static until it shuts down. Annoying at first, but I've learned to ignore it. The amp stays off when it's parked, so it does not affect the battery enough to cause a problem.

Rokkaholik

The amp powers on within 10 seconds of the radio coming on. When I initially got a new deck for this car, it was a Kenwood 568BT. The menu system was all sorts of effered up and I hated it, unlike all my previous Kenwoods. It also sent up the power antenna right away regardless of what Source mode it was in. Previous Kenwoods and the stock Monsoon only sent up the power antenna when I switched into Tuner mode. I called Kenwood and they said it was normal. So I ended up putting the signal wire for the power antenna on a Rocker Switch.


I may have to put the power cont wire on a rocker switch now too. That low pitch white noise sucks now that I know it's there, but I like having my display on.


My last option is sending back this Kenwood and opting for another brand that may not have this "feature"....


Sadly, I have been a Kenwood loyal guy for over 20 years. These newer ones are making me second guess them.

Rokkaholik

I finally got a clear answer from Crutchfield.... 95% of new double din radios will have that noise in their respective STANDBY modes because all it basically does is PAUSE the functionality of the radio. It's due to their touch screens having a longer time to power ON, so Standby pauses them instead of becoming an OFF like older models. The only reason I'm hearing it now is due to the much higher output amp. I never heard that noise before on the Monsoon amp.The other complaint I had was how slow the radio is to navigate between things. The tech claimed he never seemed to get complaints about them being too slow. I asked him if he had read any of the reviews on their own website....lol. I did watch a bunch of tutorials on my model as well as higher models and those videos look like navigation is MUCH quicker in the videos. I may have a slightly sluggish one. Apparently I am a little past the return window, but he said that I had called in a few times already with concerns about my purchase already before that window was up, so they would be able to work with me if I wanted to return it for a replacement or "upgrade" to a higher model, or even different brand, so that was pretty cool of them. On a side note, Crutchfield has been VERY helpful with this car as well as past times I've bought stuff from them, so Kudos to them.

1999nbmZ

Not sure how loud it is, or if its something that you can tolerate. I personally would try bringing the gains down on your amp a little, and see if it goes away.

Glad to hear that you got a straight answer though, and in a way it makes sense.

Rokkaholik

Changing the gains did nothing. The sound was the same no matter the volume, or gain while on Standby. I may just put the control wire on a rocker switch like I did my power antenna

Rokkaholik

Well.... I redid my amp ground yet again and routed it to the rear seatbelt bolt on the drivers side of the car and still no change to the faint white noise. Just for ***** and giggles, I ran a temporary power control wire from the radio over the seat to the amp and it didn't change the noise either.Kenwood says it's the amp. Crutchfield says most double din radios make that noise in their standby modes. Best Buy and another Car audio installer shop says I should not have that noise.I give up..... The Amp power control wire is going on a rocker switch and I'll turn it on manually