stereo upgrade....

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wowa75

wowa75

Member
Posts
91
Location
Vancouver Island
To go with the rest of my vehicle overhaul, thought it would be nice to hear the stereo! Some serious sound proofing later my easy ICE install doesn't work! Replaced original head unit and front under-dash speakers. Upgraded speaker wire and soldered connections. Problem: OK at low volume (but only heard when engine not running!). As soon as volume turned up (and I don't mean loud), I get what is like an electrical distortion (fine crackle) which is base related, but not the typical harsh base distortion.

I get it regardless of the source. I changed the head unit to new Alpine- same thing. I briefly connected a rear pair of speakers to the wires ready for the back- same.

So, doesn't seem to be head unit, doesn't seem to be the speakers. I have no amp or complications so what is the issue? Is nothing straight forward with these things (I am actually loving it really).

Thanks
 
To me it sounds like bad wiring to the stereo. Maybe a bad earth. Try running the earth straight from the battery to the stereo and see if it is any better. Are you sure that you have both positive and negatives connected right on both speakers??

Adam
 
Just read it again and would probably try running both positive and negative straight from the battery and see if it solves it, and also make sure that your stereo is not touching nothing metal where you have it mounted in the dash.
 
Sounds like (no pun intended!) the +ive and -ive to the speakers may be the wrong way round, have made that mistake before and had the same symptoms. Have you connected the stereo to the wires separately or through something like an ISO connection? As the others have said, check the stereo is earthed and maybe check instuction manual to make sure that it runs on negative earth (which most should do). Only other thing is to check that any of the new connections you made or the driver units at the back of the speakers are not touching any metal or bodywork. Hope you get it sorted, nothing worse than a lack of tunes in the Landy!

Dave
 
OK, I feel like a knob but problem sorted. I had wired up the head unit and run the speaker cable, front and rear. I have no amp. Last night I only got around to connecting the front speakers. They distorted as above. Tonite I hooked up the rear speakers and hey presto, it all works. I actually have no experience of ICE at all and don't have any sound understanding of the problem. I suppose the head unit got confused wondering where these extra speakers are that its supposed to be connected to.
Thanks for all your responses.
 
Accepted practice for ICE wiring is to run separate earth and power connections to each component from single points a bit like a star pattern. The normal common points are either the battery(s) or the large smoothing capacitors if you have them. If you chain the components you can get small circular or eddy currents which can affect some systems.
 
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