There has gotta be a way to use the stock radio amp....

[Craigness]

OK, I did what everyone does at some point. I put in a new pioneer head unit to the stock harness and got the alternator noise.

There has GOT TO BE A WAY of using the stock amp even wiht the common ground high level inputs. Can you get a filter or cap to quiet that thing up? I want the sub installed with the amp and dont want to find a small monkey to get in there and start bypassing crap. It actually sounds great less the alternator whine. I know you can filter that stuff out, but how?

Craigness
96 Disco 5-speed.

 

[D Chapman]

Bypass the stock amps. They suck, period. I think the stocks amps are 15 watts....You new radio probably is over 20 watts...

The whining noise is from a bad ground, or from the power input source. Ground everything....The radio, the bracket that holds the head unit into place, the amps, etc....

 

[ptschram]

I have just gone through this same issue in my Discco.

First off, are you certain it's alternator whine? I ws until I notied two things. One, the noise appears with the key on, but engine off and it's there with the belt removed and no alternator output.

Thinking it was a bad shield on the factory wiring harness, I ran new RCA cables from the head unit to the amp, lopped off the RCA connectors at the amplifier and hardwired the cables to the amp. Still had the noise! So, I wrapped some braid around the tiny bit of unshielded cabling (at that amplitude, it shouldn't have been neccessary, but I was grasping at straws). No dice.

At this point, I called the wife and told her I was spending more money on the rig, but it was for the stereo she complains about

Being the OCB everybody here knows I am, I walked over to one of my parts trucks (doesn't every Rover owner have at least one?) and searched for an amplifier-plugged it in and voila, the clouds parted, the angels sang and my truck no longer whines as bad as Shopboy!

I have no explanation for why the one amp whined and the other doesn't, but it might just be your amplifier.

Peace,
PT

 

[craig]

I used to have the "whine" in my D2. When I was putting in my dual batteries I had the ground wire disconnected from the little bracket next the battery for a few days. Low and behold, the whine went away. I experimented with it... on it whined, off it didn't. Later once I had the new batteries installed along with new battery terminals, I hooked it back up again and it didn't whine any more.

That said, you gained a whine when you added a new headunit. I'd imagine that this is because your new headunit has a bad ground.

--Craig

 

[conquestor]

using the stock amp and running a aftermarket stereo

I have a 98 SE7 with a full set of stock speakers (minus rear door subs) and a set of 15's in the rear cargo area.

I put a new head unit in and hard wired the low level outputs of the new stereo to the stock amp under the drivers seat and it has worked fine for 4 years now, no whine, no filter, no rewiring..... simply locate the stock amp input wires under the seat and then locate the same wires up at the orginal head units wireing harness and splice them into a set of patch cords to the low levein outputs of the new stereo.

I then ran a set of patch cords from the stereo to the rear cargo area to run the aftermarket amp for my subs. All I did was remove the connections on the stock subs in the rear door so they don't work any more, that way they don't interfere with the sound of the 15's. I have done about 5 stereo's in my lifetime and to put the head unit in was about an hour and a half (remember you have to cut the plastic clips off the wiring harness and hard wire the 12 volt positive, Ground, Remote and then set up the low level outputs to the stock amp and your done, all the speakers connect to the amp under the seat). Then to run the power, ground, remote and patch cords to the rear cargo area was about another 2 hours, but when I was all said and done the system is by far the best stock car with subs I have ever heard.