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The amp.

^x2 the amp itself outside of the ground or rca's

ok, so, my car was at the garage getting inspected, didn't have time to test the ground to the amp again. I just tested it. I know my meter is bad, but even though it is over-sensitive, it does still register voltage differences in different components, like the dome light, cigarette lighter. Also, it can detect a bad ground. If i assume 18v is really supposed to be 12v, if i test a grounding spot and find 18v, it should be good, right? well, I touched positive to the amp positive, and negative to the amp ground, and the meter read 18v. What's great too, is now I'm hearing alternator noise when the car is on. Before i had the car in the garage, it was only the static noise, now, i've got both. The alt whine is less audible, much less, but there at zero volume. I'm not sure what to do now..since I've basically reduced the causes of the original noise to the amp and ground, should I assume it's the amp?

the alt noise is probably because of a bad ground, the amp, RCA's or even the head unit. i think mine was just some wiring errors and also a problem with the way i had some stuff wired.

ok, i'll have to check some things for the alt noise, but, that aside, how can i get rid of the white noise that is always present at zero volume?? keep in mind, I've checked my ground, and I still get the noise if the rca's are disconnected at both the HU and amp.

ryboto wrote:ok, i'll have to check some things for the alt noise, but, that aside, how can i get rid of the white noise that is always present at zero volume?? keep in mind, I've checked my ground, and I still get the noise if the rca's are disconnected at both the HU and amp.

Ok if I'm hearing you right you have the noise still with the amp completely disconnected?
If this is the case, then it could very well be a bad ground for the head unit or maybe a short in a wire (leading to the HU +pos. or -neg.).

Oh, I just thought of one thing. If your signal wires are near a crossover or certain in-car components that may introduce noise. Try moving around your signal wires and see if it makes a difference.

^Good call!

cargodz wrote:Ok if I'm hearing you right you have the noise still with the amp completely disconnected?
If this is the case, then it could very well be a bad ground for the head unit or maybe a short in a wire (leading to the HU +pos. or -neg.).

i think you misunderstand. I disconnected the rca's at both ends, so that only the remote wire was connecting the HU to the amp. The speakers are still connected to the amp, so when I turn on my HU, the speakers will be given whatever idle power the amp is putting out. There will be no audio signal coming from the HU. When it's setup like this, the noise is still present.

^^^Bad ground