[Gorgle]

Has anyone else battled noise issues with an aftermarket system in their 300? I have an annoying tick at low volume levels.

And by the way, it will tick with the engine off (key in Acc position). Heck, it will even tick with the head unit off (as long as the LC8 and AMPs are still powered, of course.)

And I don't think my install is subject to "the usual suspects". Best cables money can buy, good power and ground connections. Cables & crossovers have all been pulled to check for proximity issues. Ground loop isolaters were added -- still ticks. Maybe I should try a flee collar ;-)

I've timed the tick:
tick - tick - tick - tick - tick
Very consistent, 30 ticks every 10 seconds = 3 Hertz.

What on this car runs at 3 Hz??

Thanks in advance for your help with this one. It's driving me nuts.

 

[djjasond]

I have the same ticking. Had to back off the gain on my LC6 (line output converter). Wish I knew how to get rid of it though.

 

[el_duderino]

I heard this noise in the 300C we did when we had the Soundgate /Navone LOCHVA LOCs on the OEM amp outputs. When we replaced those with an LC6 the problem went away (with some massaging of the input and output level settings on the LC6 and the input gains on the amps).

As far as "best" cables money can buy... the noise is probably not inducted onto the signal wire. But it could be.

Where is the LC mounted, and where is it grounded?

What amps are you using, and where are their input gains? And where are they located?

Is the noise still present if you unplug the speaker level input connectors on the LC?

Has anyone else battled noise issues with an aftermarket system in their 300? I have an annoying tick at low volume levels.

And by the way, it will tick with the engine off (key in Acc position). Heck, it will even tick with the head unit off (as long as the LC8 and AMPs are still powered, of course.)

And I don't think my install is subject to "the usual suspects". Best cables money can buy, good power and ground connections. Cables & crossovers have all been pulled to check for proximity issues. Ground loop isolaters were added -- still ticks. Maybe I should try a flee collar ;-)

I've timed the tick:
tick - tick - tick - tick - tick
Very consistent, 30 ticks every 10 seconds = 3 Hertz.

What on this car runs at 3 Hz??

Thanks in advance for your help with this one. It's driving me nuts.

 

[Gorgle]

Ticking (Continued)

Where is the LC mounted, and where is it grounded?

What amps are you using, and where are their input gains? And where are they located?

Is the noise still present if you unplug the speaker level input connectors on the LC?

The LC8 is mounted in the trunk and is grounded to the frame as are the JL 300/4 & 500/1 amps (sanded to bare metal w/ serrated washers). The battery ground was similarly beefed up.

The Input Voltage Range selector on the amps is set to High and the Sensitivity Adjustment is approximately mid position. If I unplug the speaker level input connectors on the LC8, the noise goes away. When I tried this, I noticed most of the noise was tied to the rear deck inputs (interesting?).

Asking the question about amp settings got me thinking: Are you suggesting I turn down the LC8 gains in favour of turning up the Amp gains (where there is still a lot of room)? I think I tried this quickly early on in my testing, but the resulting Amp hiss sounded pretty amateur. Maybe I should revisit this and see if I can find some middle ground. Ideally, though, I'd rather solve the problem at it's source (wherever that is).

Thanks,

 

[el_duderino]

Since the noise problem is an interaction thing, it's not quite that simple.

In our installation, I did not use both the front and the rear inputs. I used the rears only. Don't know if that affects things or not. I also think we ran a ground wire from the OEM amp ground to the LC6 ground.

The input voltage range switch on the amps should be set to low (high is for speaker level in). The amp input sensitivity setting shoudl start at minimum. Try that, and turn up the LC output gains as far as you want, and see how it sounds.

 

[Gorgle]

Since the noise problem is an interaction thing, it's not quite that simple.

In our installation, I did not use both the front and the rear inputs. I used the rears only. Don't know if that affects things or not. I also think we ran a ground wire from the OEM amp ground to the LC6 ground.

The input voltage range switch on the amps should be set to low (high is for speaker level in). The amp input sensitivity setting shoudl start at minimum. Try that, and turn up the LC output gains as far as you want, and see how it sounds.

Thanks for the suggestions. Won't be able to play around with it for a little while, but next chance I get, I'll post my results ...