Jump to content

Welcome to TheMalibuCrew!

As a guest, you are welcome to poke around and view the majority of the content that we have to offer, but in order to post, search, contact members, and get full use out of the website you will need to Register for an Account. It's free and it's easy, so don't hesitate to join the TheMalibuCrew Family today!

Whine/Squeel from Interior speakers when engine off


rat01

Recommended Posts

This is a bit of a long one but I want to be thorough.

My Boat has an Alpine PDX-V9 for the 4 interiors + sub, an Exile Javelin for the towers. All of this was powered by the original Sony head unit, everything worked fine and I had no abnormal noise.

I stored the boat for winter and while getting it ready for summer I started to redo some of the stereo. I removed the head unit completely and installed an Exile ZLD Mk II, now all the sudden the interiors have this whine/squeel to them. Honestly, it sounds like when they drop a bomb from the sky in a looney toons cartoon - seriously. The sound is abnormal and changes, its not some one frequency that changes pitch, it's truly all over the place. This is with the boat off, key off - I am using the ACC switch on the dash for the turn on for the amps and ZLD.

I figured that since routed the RCAs from the original location to the spot under the dash where the ZLD is that maybe I ran them near some power wire that was causing interferance. So I snipped all my cable ties and made sure the RCAs were free from anything and still the problem persists. Boat Set-up as follows:

 

  • Exile ZLD, 12+ and Gnd both run straight to amp distribution blocks
  • Exile BT4, has its own 12+ and GND too runing to the distribution blocks.
  • RCAs ran through the helm
  • Alpine PDX-V9 for interior + Sub
  • Exile Javelin for Towers

I've tried the following:

  • Using a 12+ from dist. block for the remote trigger instead of ACC switch
  • pulling RCAs out of helm and running out of the compartment hatch over the floor to test
  • new (albiet cheapo) RCAs
  • Played with RCA routing to minimize contact to any battery cables
  • Decreased input gains on ZLD (they were max from factory?)
  • Amp gains to zero, ZLD to zero

The crazy thing is, I wired the Sony back to the RCAs and I had this noise - it came from nowhere and I cant get rid of it!?

One odd thing I noticed is that if I unplug 1 lead for the Alpine (IE: unplug the right RCA) I have no noise, I can do vice versa and have no noise. Both RCAs plugged in = noise.

I ordered some 25ft twisted, shielded RCAs to run around the bow but I don't think that will help. I have pulled the cup holder out from the bow on the passenger side and ran the RCA up out through the cupholder and over the windshield then down to the ZLD and I get the noise.

I am going to try and plug an iphone directly into the amp with a headphone to RCA cable to see if I find the noise again and maybe I can rule the amp out. The thing that is driving me crazy is that even when I just plugged the old head unit back in and bypassed the ZLD I got noise. It's like something dramatically changed in the boat over winter?

 

What are my other options/tests? Can an RCA or Amp get interferance just by being near the batteries? Perhaps this could be from a battery going bad? The ACC switch uses a ground from the harness and 12 V from the harness - perhaps it needs its dedicated power run (but a remote wire shouldn't introduce noise into an amp?).

 

 

Link to comment

Another thing is that the noise will get worse if I turn the key to ACC - some people have said the depthfinder can be a cause. THis would make sense because I am on the trailer, however the depth finder isn't on when the key is off.

 

Link to comment
10 hours ago, rat01 said:

My Boat has an Alpine PDX-V9 for the 4 interiors

With the system off, unplug the RCA from the amp, power on. Noise Y or N?

If no, power down, reconnect rca to amp. Go to back of EQ/zone and swap tower and in-boat ( or front and rear as they used to be labeled) RCA and power and see if noise stays with the in-boats or moves to the tower

Link to comment
6 minutes ago, MLA said:

With the system off, unplug the RCA from the amp, power on. Noise Y or N?

If no, power down, reconnect rca to amp. Go to back of EQ/zone and swap tower and in-boat ( or front and rear as they used to be labeled) RCA and power and see if noise stays with the in-boats or moves to the tower

Unplug the RCA's and no noise. I can also unplug the RCA's and wave them around high power areas and not pick up any noise - so this is given me doubts that I am having a bad RCA issue.

I can swap the in-boat RCAs to the tower output of the ZLD and get the same results. I cannot replicate the same sound I am getting from the interior speakers on the tower speakers. 

Granted. The Tower speakers when no music is playing have a VERY slight static, I think this is likely due to high gain with no music playing.

 

I haven't tried swapping power cables to the amps. Unfortunately everything is bolted together so stiffly that I can't move much with the power cables, but I might try.

 

Is it possible that one of my batteries went bad and it could cause this? 

Link to comment
56 minutes ago, rat01 said:

I can also unplug the RCA's and wave them around high power areas and not pick up any noise

Unplug from what? if you unplug from the amp and wave around, you certainly would not be inducing noise into anything. 

57 minutes ago, rat01 said:

I can swap the in-boat RCAs to the tower output of the ZLD and get the same results.

So the noise stays with the in-boat amp, even though the source changed? IS this correct? 

58 minutes ago, rat01 said:

I haven't tried swapping power cables to the amps

Dont bother 

Link to comment

Unplug from ZLD so they are still plugged into amp, wave the free plug around the power cables and stuff and it doesn't pick up sound. I've read that I could also loop the RCA where I take say the left RCA and plug it into the left input and right input on the amp to check for RCA noise?

 

The noise stays the same if I change the zone on the ZLD - The ZLD has 3 RCA input pairs, one for a tower zone, cabin and sub. I get the same noise if I plug this amp into the tower zone or the cabin zone. 

Thank you for your input + time! 

Edited by rat01
Link to comment

Well after going through all the motions, I have confirmed it is the ZLD. I will be sending it back for repairs.

 

Fortunately this experience has caused me to upgrade most of my stereo wiring and clean up under the dash, so at least theres a silver lining.

Link to comment

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...