Good Earth Point?

[ash sv6]

I have 3 amps running and haved earthed the amps all to the same point. I have used the nut & bolt that holds the latch that the centre part of the rear seat locks onto, I sanded away the paint.

I have run the power cables and RCA leads down seperate sides of the car.

Problem I still have is a pop when the engine is started, could it be the earth point? Any ideas, its a VZ sedan with the factory HU.

[azzfox]

im pretty sure iv read somewhere that your not ment to earth more than one amp to the exact same spot, theres ment to be a space between them (not on top of each-other). i could be wrong.

[253@7k]

im pretty sure iv read somewhere that your not ment to earth more than one amp to the exact same spot, theres ment to be a space between them (not on top of each-other). i could be wrong.

Should not matter.



Something to do with h/u maybe if it pops on startup?

[ash sv6]

Should not matter.



Something to do with h/u maybe if it pops on startup?

The earth or internally??

[253@7k]

The earth or internally??

Dont quite understand you there.

What I am trying to say is that if a pop is occuring on startup, then the interferance will have to be coming from a power cable assoicated with starting

the car. Unless the pop or another sound is present when the car is running?


If a power cable runs near your RCA adapter things then that could cause it as well. Forget what I said about the h/u, I just remembered stockies dont have preouts..

[garfa]

if you have your amps earthed to more than one point then there can be a "ground loop" created, eg a type of noise induced into the system.
i have heard of the problem happening when the amp is sweiched off, not on. but i have very limited experience.

[ascension24]

You want the H/U to turn on, then the amps.

If its the other way round, you normally get a pop.

Probably because your still running the stock h/u, after market one would prob fix the problem.

[ash sv6]

The pop only happens if the stereo is on and then I start the ignition, if I turn the stereo on while the car is running no pop?

[253@7k]

Is it a really bad pop?

[ash sv6]

Pops pretty bad, fairly loud and cant be good for speakers?

[azkwazere]

It sounds deff like a power spike when starting the engine. I suggest that you dont have your stero on when you start your car ie. Turn it off, start car, turn it on. If you dont have your amps on, it cant hurt your speakers.

aZk.

P.S. as a sound techies rule:

"Amps go on last, off first".

[StoneX]

When you start your car, the accessories normally shut off, the car starts, then the accessories come back on... Is the head unit turning off while the car starts?

[ash sv6]

It sounds deff like a power spike when starting the engine. I suggest that you dont have your stero on when you start your car ie. Turn it off, start car, turn it on. If you dont have your amps on, it cant hurt your speakers.

aZk.

P.S. as a sound techies rule:

"Amps go on last, off first".

I have been starting it with the stereo off but sometimes just forget... Is there any way of having the amps come on last/ off first? How do after market units get around this??

[ash sv6]

When you start your car, the accessories normally shut off, the car starts, then the accessories come back on... Is the head unit turning off while the car starts?

Yes it stuts off, could this be the problem? The amp is still on??

[cold_carve]

look into all areas of noise suppresion like again look over ya earthing make sure all contacts are clean then have a look at RCA signal leads neer the power leads, and as Stonex has stated pretty much have a look at the remote switching for your amp if its constantly powered you need to rectify this so it syncronises with your headunit with the powerdown/powerup during startup

[Brycestro]

hey dude how's it going? I've heard of the popping noise problem a few times now, mainly because i looked into it when my car was suffering from a hardcore version where as soon as i turned it on one of my speakers made a popping noise the equivalent if not louder than a balloon being popped in the car several time a second and wouldn't stop(small enclosed space noise reverberates like crazy). I was doing it at 5:30 in the morning installing my amp and when i test ran it it went from nice music to massive popping noises and scared the cr*p out of me. Suprised i didn't wake the parents. I've mostly fixed it now, but just today got a singular popping noise when driving - once again, very loud, scared the crap out of me. I localised it back to the rear left hand speaker, i'm going to be pulling it out again and running tape around all the speaker wire leading down towards the amp and make sure there's no contact with the parcel shelf metal as i believe this may have been the problem and taping around the speaker wires near the parcel shelf metal appeared to fix it the first time.

Anyway, for your situation however where it's just with the turn on it's not uncommon. I have it in my car too. It's to do with the order in which the headunit and amplifier power up. As others here have stated, the amplifier should power up AFTER the headunit and power down BEFORE the headunit. Some amplifiers have this feature built in. Take a look at the oldschool Soundstream Tarantula amplifiers. These have what they have named "Drive Delay 2" Technology to ensure the amp powers up after the headunit and powers down before the headunit. I've put a link below, look at page 5.

http://www.soundstream.com/manuals/AMP/tarantula.pdf

However, for those of us who can't afford an oldschool Tarantula (or just bought a Soundstream PCA3500D instead) there is another solution :P. I can't remember exactly how it's done but with a bit of searching on both here and www.caraudioaustralia.com you should be able to dig it up. I think it involves placing a low impedence resistor (i could be completely wrong, but i know it's some small electrical component) on your speaker lines or something similar which causes the slight delay to occur and stop the popping or something. To be honest, i don't remember exactly but i know the information is out there. If you still can't find it after a search on these two forums get back to me and i'll try and dig it up for you.

Cheers, Bryce.

[Tasmaniak]

if you really can't find any solutions to your amp popping noise then Jaycar sell a kit that does a "Soft" power on for amps. Your amp should already have one but this will just delay the start up a little longer. It's a band aid fix for a deeper issuethough

[ash sv6]

Thanks Brycestro, appreciate the detailed response. I have found something on some US forums about a device that delays the start up of the amp. Will get down to Jaycar during the week and have a look (thanks Voltking) as to what it does exactly and how it works, will post the results.

[lsprewell]

or the easiest way is to have a wire and switch running to your amp, than you can just switch it on when you need the amps, and leave it off when you dont..

as said above, your prob is order of powering on...


or get a new HU (they are cheap enough).., it will power your amp on a delay and all will be fine