Install Ground Loop Isolator Car Audio
If a whining noise from your car stereo has you covering your ears, a ground loop may be to blame. It’s impossible to say for sure without looking at your specific car audio setup, but your audio system may be suffering from a classic ground loop problem.Ground loops occur when two components are grounded in locations with different ground potentials.
- Install Ground Loop Isolator Car Audio Box
- Install Ground Loop Isolator Car Audio Adapter
- Install Ground Loop Isolator Car Audio
I recently had to replace the amp in my subwoofer and the new setup produced a loud HUM, where it did not before. The HUM went away when I pulled the RCA lead from the receiver (Onkyo tx-nr8009) so I figured the subwoofer was good. The sub is produced by a local speaker repair shop.
I put a Radio Shack Ground Loop Isolator, $17.50, into the line between receiver and subwoofer and it seems to solve the problem HUMMMMMMMM.
Question: Does anyone know what that Ground Loop Isolator did to the frequency response of my subwoofer? Do you think it passes the signal through pretty clean, or is it chopped up? Kind of hard to A/B when you need to switch cords.
Thanks very much for any ideas.
A little bit of knowledge is a dangerous thing -- that's what your old Grandpa used to say. Car audio systems seem like about the simplest proposition in the world; use your brain, follow the cables, and connect stuff where it's supposed to go. What's hard about that? But audio systems are just like any other electrical system, and a lot can go wrong in the details. Once of them is the nefarious 'ground loop,' which is a phenomena that induces a maddening hum in the speakers. A 'ground loop isolator' is a good temporary fix, but this might be a good time to talk to a pro about finding a more permanent solution.
Step 1
Turn the system off. Superbus wow download client. Open the trunk or hatch and locate the amplifier, or locate the amp and its RCA jacks wherever they are in the car.
Install Ground Loop Isolator Car Audio Box
Step 2
Unplug the RCA cables from the amplifier. Plug the red and white RCA connectors into their respective -- usually color-coded -- jacks on the ground loop isolator.
Step 3
Install Ground Loop Isolator Car Audio Adapter
Plug the red and white RCA cables extending from the ground loop isolator into the amplifier.
Ground the ground loop isolator by screwing the terminal into a bare metal spot of the car or by plugging it in to the negative terminal of the amp. Some ground loop isolators are self-grounded while others require this step. If the ground loop isolator has additional wires -- beside the RCA cables-- they are for grounding.
Install Ground Loop Isolator Car Audio
Tip
- Ground loop isolators are considered a band-aid, as they suppress a problem that was created during installation. The only true way to fix the problem is to find the cause of the noise and eliminate it. Sometimes running the power wire down one side of the car and the RCA cables down the other will fix the problem. One common cause is using power wire that is too small for the audio system. Both induce a magnetic field in the signal wire, which is likely the cause of your noise.
- rca cables isolated image by JoLin from Fotolia.com