Rep Power: 329

ok, today i got my new amp. i went straight to my car to replace the current amp with this new one. btw, this amp is for my subwoofer. anyways, all connections are made to the new one, i turn the car on to bask in the glorious sounds when i get bombarded with really loud static. lots of hissing, and it isn't affected by the volume **** or anything. cd, radio, off, still same loud noise. so i went back to the trunk, moving wires around (not disconnecting, just trying to make the noise change volumes so i could isolate the noise causing element) and the noise remained.

note: the radio still plays through all speakers (fronts are the ones with the noise, they have a seperate amp in the trunk). noise actually is only coming from the fronts.

i then shut the car off, switched rca outputs around and tried again. no change. i tweeked settings on the amp to see if maybe something was improperly set. no luck.

at this point i'm thinking messed up crossover, somehow, because this was about all i could think of left.

i removed the remote wire from the sub amp, thus turning it off and poof, all the noise was gone. i thought ok, i have isolated some problem. thinking maybe this new amp taxed the HU's remote turn on lead, i rewired it to the cigarette lighter. turned it all on. noise is back.

i then tried leaving the amp on and just having no input to it (RCA's) this too cut the noise out. so both amps are on, but the sub amp has no I/O. thinking it was possible that the RCA ouput was now bad, i tried running the sub amp from the rear output (instead of NF output) still noise. i tried running the fronts off the rear output, subs NF. still noise.

sorry for the long post, but i've tried a whole lotta crap. and the thing is all worked fine on the old amp.

NOW, the one thing i can think of that may not be right is the input levels on my new amp. it's an arc audio 1500dr. the input level is 2.5V to like .3V. my HU outputs are 5V. i have the gain all the way down on the sub amp (i tried changing gain levels on both amps too, no change in noise) but would my too high outputs really mess things up? if so what can i do to lower the output? any input on what i can try to get rid of this problem will be GREATLY appreciated, i'm at wits end.

 
Rep Power: 327

simple test would be swap back to old amp if noise is gone then you know everything upstream of the amp is good. just a guess, but assuming the noise isnt the amp i would look at tthe RCA cables closely.

Did the sound follow the rca cables ? As in did the sound now move to the rear speakers after you swapped the rca cables ? And where did you swap them at directly where it goes intot eh amp or prior at a x-over or something else?

 
Rep Power: 329

my fronts are amped, rears off the deck. rears have no noise problem.

i switched the RCA wires behind the HU, just plugging the wire into a different output.

if i plugged in the right NF output, then i got noise on the right front speaker. same for left.

this is loud noise too. probably about as loud as music would be turned 1/2 way up. i can't find another cable to check if it's the RCA, but i have some splitters i may try to use. grr....

 
Rep Power: 327

did you say you had a crossover between the deck and amp? if so, try bypassing the crossover to see if noise goes away. From what your desrcibing it sounds like an RCA connection or cable is causing the problem. Bring your car by my house ill help ya figure it out, errrrr nm your in cleveland! haha I used to live in westlake , does that help?

 
Rep Power: 812

My deck has 6V preouts and I'm running relatively cheap amps. No noise probs to answer that question. This might be stupid, but hpefully you didn't run power and rca on the same side of the car. Only other thing is the crossover. I'm running regular speakers off the amps. Tweets have their own x-over, but they're running on deck power. Otherwise, I don't know.

 
Rep Power: 329

i have MB quart components, that's the crossover i was talking about.like i said, when the sub amp is off, the front speakers sound as great as they did before. when the sub amp is on, i get massive static BUT i can still hear the front speakers (and the sub is working too)

power and RCA's are on opposite sides. i now don't think crossover since it works fine w/out the sub amp.

i played around with RCA's some more. i split the connection that goes to the front amp, hooked up to both and got noise. i ran a wire down the middle of the car (different wire, i found a working RCA) and still got noise. i'm starting to think more and more that it's something with the amp, there can't be much i haven't tried...

i run both power and ground through distibution blocks. they ground at the same place.

westlake huh tfnaaf? i actually am in lakewood. small world

 
Rep Power: 327

I guess i would refer back to my post on swapping the old amp back in fast to test it and if it goes away its gotta be the new amp or something with the set up or how its hooked up or something along those lines.

Yeah its been a few years since i lived there. But i loved the town myself

 
Rep Power: 329

too damn cold now... i'll swap the amp back in tomorrow maybe and see how it is.

pisses me off though. i bought the amp used and just don't want to deal with **** if it is broken now. i'd been looking for an arc amp for sooo long and now that i found one i'm gonna have to bitch at the guy i bought it from to get him to give me my money back if it's busted. or get it fixed. either way is gonna suck.

 
Rep Power: 329

finally swapped the audiobahn back in for the ARC 1500-DR. problem gone.

really i don't see how my sub amp could have caused feedback in my front speakers like that. so strange. anyone ever heard of something like this?

oh, and anyone who doesn't have amped front speakers and needs a sub amp, i assure you this amp works great and looks great. puts out around 1000 underrated watts at 2 and 4 ohm, even has a 1 ohm mode on it. very sweet amp, i'll hook it up if anyone's interested i just want my money back out of it now

 
Rep Power: 328

my personal amp has three sets of pre-amps. one for the fronts one for the rears, and one for subs. i have two sets of rca's in my car. one for the amp that runs the fronts and rears (connected to front outputs), and one for the sub (connected to sub output). that may work in your case. it seems like overkill, but i have no noise problems. the sub rca's are run down the center of the vehicle, the front/rear rca's are down the driv. side. and the power/remote is down the driver's side. this might be an option to consider as well, although it a hassle to do, it may solve your problem.

 
Rep Power: 329

i have 3 sets of outputs too, though. the fronts are used and the sub output is used. i tried even just usng one output by splitting the signal, still noise. i tried running the cable down the middle of my car, still noise. i put the old amp in and there are no noise issues again. really confuses me, but it has to be the amp.

 
Rep Power: 812

Do you have separate power wires going to each amp? I donno, just tossing out ideas.

 
Rep Power: 329

i have one power wire, split at a distibution block. same kinda set up for ground wires