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Installing new stereo - constant buzzing from speakers


Kryptek49

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10 minutes ago, Umster said:

I'm actually happy to hear this is all sorted. If you ever sell your car, make sure you link this thread in your post! 

 

Respect your determination. 

Thanks :) At least the car is fully wired now for a proper sound system.  Have to wait till I get the new battery in to see if everything's working properly though.


Fortunately the passenger wing mirror works now - I bent a few pins when putting the plugs back together, straightened them out and it's now working perfectly.

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16 hours ago, Kryptek49 said:

Pretty sure I've just blown all of the speakers in my car :angry: :lol:

If they were still the factory ones, no great loss :p Got an excuse to upgrade now. IMO the back ones aren't worth it - all the sound they make is just absorbed by the seats, anyway.

15 hours ago, Kryptek49 said:

Oh wait no, just checked my battery voltage and its 7 volts...  Looks like I can add a new one to my shopping list

...Why did no one mention to check that earlier? Talk about the bleeding obvious...

 

Good job getting to the end of it all :thumbs:

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35 minutes ago, Ben–350Z said:

If they were still the factory ones, no great loss :p Got an excuse to upgrade now. IMO the back ones aren't worth it - all the sound they make is just absorbed by the seats, anyway.

...Why did no one mention to check that earlier? Talk about the bleeding obvious...

 

Good job getting to the end of it all :thumbs:

I plan on putting some cheap coaxial's in at the back ,and a set of quality components up front.  Not 100% sure if they're blown yet tbh, need to wait for the new battery to verify it.

 

The battery wasn't the problem, but 5 days of me messing about testing electrics and playing music out the speakers without turning the car on completely killed it.  

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17 hours ago, Kryptek49 said:

Success! (sort of...)

 

The cause was the gain on the Sub.  I didnt realise that the front and rear had a seperate gain adjustment, so when testing after installing the new amp the hissing was still coming from the front due to the high gain.  After lowering it down to the min there is now no noise at all!  

 

On to the sort of...


I was testing the speakers, and slowly turned up the sound until it was at max volume, then 'pop' followed by an electrical burning smell...

 

Pretty sure I've just blown all of the speakers in my car :angry: :lol:

 

Now when I play any music its just the speakers making a single popping noise every 2 seconds, and that's all I get...

 

I only bought a cheap amp off FB to keep me going for a while, I'm glad all the wiring is done at least!

 

 

Do the windings on speakers actually burn out? I would have thought more likely to be your amp that has gone??

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1 hour ago, Ponsonby said:

Do the windings on speakers actually burn out? I would have thought more likely to be your amp that has gone??

Waiting on the new battery to verify anything.  To be honest I know very little about audio installations, so don't really know what/how to check.


I think I may have shorted the amp out by accident, which could well have blown it.

 

 

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20 hours ago, Ponsonby said:

Do the windings on speakers actually burn out? I would have thought more likely to be your amp that has gone??

They can... Had some speakers back at uni that were (inappropriately) used as monitors for the DJ all night; coils got hot, set fire to the cones, then melted. But, true, it could also be the amp. Maybe more likely if it was running a low voltage.

18 hours ago, Kryptek49 said:

I think I may have shorted the amp out by accident, which could well have blown it.

Yep, that would do it :wacko:

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9 minutes ago, Ben–350Z said:

Yep, that would do it 

Well @*!#...

 

Any recommendations on a replacement amp? Don't need something super powerful - just a 4 channel amp with enough power to drive a decent pair of speakers.


Preferably under £100, I don't mind buying used

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I have one of these: http://www.caraudiodirect.co.uk/amplifiers/four-channel-amplifiers/pioneer-gm-d8604-4-channel-1200w-class-d-car-amplifier

Seems pretty solid. Does hiss a bit, but once the engine's running & add a bit of road noise it's not a problem. Bit more than you want to spend, though...

 

Worth checking that the one you have *has* gone first. Any chance you have an old hi-fi / surround sound speaker lying around you could hook up? I do have a couple, and am just across the border in Cambs. Unfortunately have no free weekends until some time in May...

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15 minutes ago, Ben–350Z said:

I have one of these: http://www.caraudiodirect.co.uk/amplifiers/four-channel-amplifiers/pioneer-gm-d8604-4-channel-1200w-class-d-car-amplifier

Seems pretty solid. Does hiss a bit, but once the engine's running & add a bit of road noise it's not a problem. Bit more than you want to spend, though...

 

Worth checking that the one you have *has* gone first. Any chance you have an old hi-fi / surround sound speaker lying around you could hook up? I do have a couple, and am just across the border in Cambs. Unfortunately have no free weekends until some time in May...

Looks like a good unit, thanks.

 

I never plugged in the sub, so I'll check if that works later.

 

I'm pretty certain I shorted the sub though, after installing it I twisted it round so I could get to the gain adjustment dials and must have put to much pressure on the live/ground wires in the back as when I turned it back round they were loose...  I'm assuming they touched each other, but don't know for definite yet.  Amp fuses weren't blown, and the inline fuse next to the battery is fine as well.

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Ah, I thought you meant shorted one of the outputs to the speakers - that would kill the innards of the amp. If it was power, you'd know if you did it. Crackles, sparks the lot. Ever touch the battery retainer bolt with a spanner, whilst trying to undo the positive terminal? Don't do that. It's scary.

(Yes, I know you should take the negative off first to avoid that, but was trying to only remove power from the amp...)

 

IIRC, the factory sub is silly low impedance, so don't turn it up too loud when testing.

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57 minutes ago, Ben–350Z said:

Ah, I thought you meant shorted one of the outputs to the speakers - that would kill the innards of the amp. If it was power, you'd know if you did it. Crackles, sparks the lot. Ever touch the battery retainer bolt with a spanner, whilst trying to undo the positive terminal? Don't do that. It's scary.

The power wire came loose so could have touched anything tbh, I really should have been more careful. 

 

So if it had touched one of the speaker wires this would have killed the amp? But if it had touched ground I might be okay?

 

There was a distinct burning smell, I didn't hear any crackling (speakers were popping though so could have missed it I suppose). 

 

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So if you were to just stick a wire between the + and - of the amp's output, and smash the volume up, that would likely kill the transistors inside it due to the current that would pull through them. (Discarding any circuit protection it might have to stop that happening)  That's what I thought you were saying might have happened, with a loose wire touching both sides of an output.

 

If the power came out and hit one of the speaker outputs... I'm not entirely sure what would happen. Potentially relatively large DC through the speaker coils, which wouldn't do them any favours. Doubt the amp will have liked it either.

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Okay didn't get much time  to test everything tonight, but the new battery is in.

 

Weird screechy noises coming from the speakers when the cars on, and when turning it off it does it as well.

 

The 15A fuse for the permanent live to the radio has blown. Replaced it and turned the radio on and it blew again.  
 

I'll disconnect the amp to see if this is the cause tomorrow

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New amp in, head unit fuse is no longer blowing so all good there! 

 

I had left the original wiring attached to the door speakers, which was causing some kind of interference despite the bose amp not getting any power.  I've now removed these and everything is working perfectly


Next up - a sub install + fitting some new Alpine coaxial speakers up front on Tuesday.  I'll replace these with components in future, and possibly move the coaxials to the rear speakers.

 

All sorted now though, so I'm happy!

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16 minutes ago, Ben–350Z said:

What are you going for by way of a sub?

Nothing to heavy, my amp only puts out 200W RMS bridged @ 4ohms, so that limits my Sub choices fairly heavily.  But the Zed is a pretty compact car so I don't really need anything large to get a lot of bass .

 

Looking at this at the moment: https://www.amazon.co.uk/JL-Audio-10W0v2-4-Car-Subwoofer/dp/B002PY5EBY/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=10"+subwoofer&qid=1554720920&s=gateway&sr=8-3

 

Thoughts?

 

I also want to mount it in the stock sub location, I'll fabricate a box for this but I'm currently unsure on how to secure it properly.

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It's not really a thing I have much experience with, but a quick look over the specs it seems in line with the ones I was looking at when considering that route. In the end I just got an "under seat" sub, as it avoided the faff of building a box, and I wasn't looking for internal organ destroying bass :p

 

JL Audio website recommends a 48x28x23 sealed box for that sub, which I think would fit in the factory sub location, though it might be a bit tight actually getting it in. As for fixing it, there's a load of bolts that hold the mouthing plate for the factory sub, and the brackets that would hold the back of the glove box in a LHD one. I use those to secure the shelf with my amp and sub on it.

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Now making the speaker spacers:IMG_20190409_191810.jpg.a926bd323aa8a5c51d21ee090b4e4cce.jpg

 

I bought 18mm MDF, but you need at least an inch thick to clear the window (depending on speaker depth).  


I plan on gluing the 2 together, and hoping 36mm isnt too thick it hits the door card

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