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Car Forum / Driving, Maintenance, Tuning / Car Audio / September 2004Grounding Stereo System
I have a two amps a head unit and a Sirius unit that need to be grounded. I want a trouble free ground to eliminate noise. The amps are in the back of the truck and the head unit is in the dash. Anyway, am I better off grounding the amps to the chassis and then bringing a ground from the head unit to the amp's ground or should I ground the head unit to the dash and then bring the amp's ground to the dash. I'm thinking that the dash has more bare metal to ground to. Or is there a better method. I have a Nissan Pathfinder. Thanks in advance One last question. Do I need a fuse on the remote wire, from the deck to the amp, which turns the amp on? How low is this voltage? I have a Kenwood Excelon head unit. Thanks again. > I have a two amps a head unit and a Sirius unit that need to be grounded. I > want a trouble free ground to eliminate noise. The amps are in the back of [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > more bare metal to ground to. Or is there a better method. I have a Nissan > Pathfinder. Thanks in advance > One last question. Do I need a fuse on the remote wire, from the deck to > the amp, which turns the amp on? It's not a bad idea. If the wire grounds out, it would blow your remote output on your head unit. Some head units already have fuses on their remote outputs. > How low is this voltage? I have a Kenwood > Excelon head unit. 12v. Low current. On the order of hundreds of milliamps. A 1A fuse would work fine. >> One last question. Do I need a fuse on the remote wire, from the deck to >> the amp, which turns the amp on? [quoted text clipped - 9 lines] > would > work fine. A 1A draw would probably nuke the turn on transistor. I have yet to see a HU with a TO220 case fet or darlington here. 500MA would be a better bet but never shorting the turn on would be better yet. Most HU's these days have over current protection for the turn on lead. I expierienced this when my power antenna filled with ice :( Damn it took a long time to thaw, I cut the lead! > A 1A draw would probably nuke the turn on transistor. I have yet to see a > HU with a TO220 case fet or darlington here. 500MA would be a better bet [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > I expierienced this when my power antenna filled with ice :( Damn it took a > long time to thaw, I cut the lead! Right, usually remote outputs have trouble supplying current to, say, 5 amps which would be roughly 250mA. 1A was probably too high a suggestion. Thanks. Do you think 14 ga. wire is overkill? I want to twin the remote power wire to two amps? Thanks > > A 1A draw would probably nuke the turn on transistor. I have yet to see a > > HU with a TO220 case fet or darlington here. 500MA would be a better bet [quoted text clipped - 8 lines] > which would be roughly 250mA. 1A was probably too high a suggestion. > Thanks. > Do you think 14 ga. wire is overkill? I want to twin the remote power > wire > to two amps? > > Thanks If that's what you have on hand, then use it. the wire carries so little current it could be 22ga. 22ga. is a lot easier to snake through the car. One last question. Should I fuse both sides of the remote on wire or is one fuse by the head unit ok? Thanks again. > > Do you think 14 ga. wire is overkill? I want to twin the remote power > > wire [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > If that's what you have on hand, then use it. the wire carries so little > current it could be 22ga. > 22ga. is a lot easier to snake through the car. One last question. Should > I fuse both sides of the remote on wire or is one fuse by the head unit ok? Theres no point in putting one on the amp side. Thanks. I was able to get my Polk speakers to fit so I'm quite happy. Once I installed one speaker I decided that I wanted to upgrade. I bought a new pair of Polk Momo's, 6 x 9's, for 95.00 on Ebay. I had an older EX Polk that I picked up open box for 15.00 without grills. I'll put these in the rear doors. It's been 10 years since I did an install. It sure is fun. I built my sub over the weekend. I'm using a Titanic 10" driver. My head unit has HD radio built in. There are over 300 stations who are licensed for this technology and several in NY who are broadcasting in digital. This was the deciding factor in buying Kenwood. I also picked up a Kenwood Excelon amp. I wanted to go with Sound Stream but there were too many bells and whistles that you get by using a Kenwood amp with a Kenwood HU. I'm thinking of crossing over my door speakers at 100-150hz. My home system is crossed at 80hz. I guess I'll need to play with it. What kind of system do you have? > > 22ga. is a lot easier to snake through the car. One last question. > Should > > I fuse both sides of the remote on wire or is one fuse by the head unit > ok? > > Theres no point in putting one on the amp side. > Thanks. I was able to get my Polk speakers to fit so I'm quite happy. > Once [quoted text clipped - 17 lines] > 80hz. I guess I'll need to play with it. What kind of system do you > have? Let us know what you think of the sub, I like the specs and am thinking about building a non car sub with a couple of the 12's. Is the fit and finish as good as they say, build quality seem nice? I'm down to that or the peerless XLS series in an integrator system, with a metric assload of power. Chad Chad: I have a 10" Titanic 1000. It is a little different then the newer Titanics. I have also played with the newer 12" Titanic and it is one awesome driver. It's built like a tank and will thump the paint off your car and Parts Express is a first class online retailer. One 12" driver is all you need in any car. I've already tested my 10" driver on my home system and it sounds great. Punchy and very musical. It doesn't have the slam that my 15" DIY sub has but it's also a much smaller driver. It should work great in my Pathfinder. Can't wait to get my Momo speakers from Polk. > > Thanks. I was able to get my Polk speakers to fit so I'm quite happy. > > Once [quoted text clipped - 26 lines] > > Chad > 22ga. is a lot easier to snake through the car. One last question. > Should > I fuse both sides of the remote on wire or is one fuse by the head unit > ok? > > Thanks again. My remote wire isn't even fused. I ran 18 ga wire, it runs to a relay and the relay runs 12V to everything that needs the remote wire. I used to run a fan through the relay but since then I've removed the fan. If it weren't for that fan, I wouldn't even have the relay though it's a good idea to isolate the headunit from any shorts that might happen. > Do you think 14 ga. wire is overkill? I want to twin the remote power > wire [quoted text clipped - 19 lines] >> which would be roughly 250mA. 1A was probably too high a suggestion. >> Thanks. Yep it's overkill but it never hurts, I use 16Ga as a rule because the thinner wire 20GA and under tends to break after time. I like to do it once:) Chad > I have a two amps a head unit and a Sirius unit that need to be grounded. I > want a trouble free ground to eliminate noise. The amps are in the back of [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > more bare metal to ground to. Or is there a better method. I have a Nissan > Pathfinder. Thanks in advance Neither. Ground the amps to a point closest to the amps and the head unit to a point closest to the head unit. You need to keep in mind that the metal chassis is a better conductor than the wire you would have to run from the amp to the dash or from the head unit to the trunk. Just be sure that the grounding points you use are truly good grounds and are bare metal. > I have a two amps a head unit and a Sirius unit that need to be grounded. I > want a trouble free ground to eliminate noise. The amps are in the back of [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > more bare metal to ground to. Or is there a better method. I have a Nissan > Pathfinder. Thanks in advance Connect the negative power lines to the chassis. The inputs on each amp should be floating (differential input) so you don't have ground loop problems. Do not attach anything extra to the RCA shields. The HU alone connects the RCA shields to its internal signal ground. If the amp inputs are grounded, toss out the piece of junk and get a new one. Resistance measured with an ohmmeter between the amp's input RCA shield and the amp's negative power connector should be 100 Ohms or more. |
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