Is static noise from amped-up car speakers normal?

Question

i just had a 4-channel amp installed to power 4 of my after-market speakers, and the sound and volume had dramatically improved. However, at low to no volume, there's a constant static/slight humming sound coming from the speakers (louder if engine is on, softer if engine is off). Both my local installer and the tech support at Crutchfield said that this noise is normal, and wouldn't be detrimental to anything in my car. Besides being annoying, is this noise something to worry about? And, what would be a good way to get rid of this noise?

(The installation was double-checked by the shop, and they confirmed that all the groundings and wirings were done correctly.)

No, if the radio is off, then there's no noise whatsoever.

Also, i did watch them go through the process of re-checking the wirings, and it seemed like they did all that they could...maybe, they're just not good enough?

i'm definitely bringing it to another shop to have it looked at....but dammit, i gotta shell out more ducats just to have this problem re-diagnosed !!!

No, i don't have ground loop isolators yet....although i've heard that they will reduce the noise somewhat, but will not make it totally go away.

Answer 1

the speakers and amplifyer may not be recieving a good signal from the head unit. this may be that they used low-end wiring(note:cheap, generally used for smaller amps) or that there's a break somewhere in the wire or the head unit is malfunctioning somehow. it can be fixed but if it's a professional job you should let the people who installed the stereo and the speakers troubleshoot it and figure out what is wrong, as their services should be covered by a warranty or something and would be free.

and to the guy who said to torch your car, he needs to remove his head from his sphincter and go somewhere else because he's a redneck loser(from the name)and he needs to let other people be themselves. you aren't hurting him with your speakers(he can go somewhere else and not hear them, right) and he needs to get a life.

Answer 2

although annoying, the noise is something that a lot of people deal with. it is caused by the power that is being sent to your speakers from your amp. the tech could have turned the amp up too high causing the noise.
check to see if the humming is still present with the radio shut off completely. you may have a problem with the radio itself, not turning off the amp.
you may want to have someone else bouble check the wire used to install the amp. the ground wire should be at least the same gauge as the power.

Answer 3

I would say its a ground issue, its not normal that is a BS response so the dont have to deal with you. Make sure they used proper sized wiring for that amp. Your grounding problem is probably coming from your head unit signal, you could install some filter to try and reduce the noise, but again this isnt normal.

Answer 4

What make is your car? i have a toyota camry which is an asian vehicle and i used an american universal wiring harness to connect my dash radio to my car. american wiring harnesses usually color code everything by what connects (ex : lets say 4 white wires power the left front speakers -- universal harnesses would stripe 2 white wires to let you know that the 2 solid white wires go together and the 2 striped white wires go together.) --- i noticed that toyota's and prolly other foreign made cars do it a little bit different... they give you 4 wires.. 2 white and 2 white/black striped.. instead of saying... connect the solids to the solids and the stripes to the stripes.. they say -- stripes mean negative and solids mean positive... so if you just figured stripes go with stripes and solids go with solids -- you would get the speakers to work right, but you would get a stupid little static noise. connecting the wires this way would mean you have no polarity, because you attached a solid (positive) to another solid and a striped (negative) to striped. To fix this and get polarity... take the striped wire (negative) and attach it to the corresponding solid wire (positive) and do the same for the last 2 wires.

----------(+)-----------------====--------------(-)-------------
^positive wire ^connection ^negative wire

So all in all... go to a pro and ask him to check the polarities on all of the wires...
If not that... try using 12gauge wiring or 8gauge wiring depending on what wattage your speakers are... (higher the wattage.. lower the gauge wiring) --(for your amp not your dash radio)

Answer 5

i know pioneer does that when the rca are bad the ground in the radio shorts out to see if this is the problem that the radio out unplug your rca and take a wire just the outside of the rca needs to touch it then ground that wire if it goes away your jacks are going out it can go right away your it can go on for a while

Answer 6

Go to a car audio shop and ask for a Ground Loop Isloator then plug your RCA into it and the RCAs on the loop isloator to you amp.

Answer 7

This is what you need to do and it will fix that problem, I promise you it will. That that car bring it to a dead end road, poor 6 gallons of GAS on it and set it on fire??? One more BOOM,BOOM car off the road.

Answer 8

Do you have ground loop isolators installed. They should help.