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Ok guys, I'm befuddled, so I'm hoping someone here can enlighten me. (without flaming me too much)

I am in the market for a simple headunit. I am currently rebuilding my system and have plenty understanding of what I need and how to install it. What I am looking for, is a couple of technical fill-ins, to add the WHY to my WHAT & HOW.

My system now has god-awful alt noise. I inherited it, so I just learned to turn the HU volume waaay down, and my aux input volume waaaay up, which sorta solved the problem lol. I refuse to go through a painstaking install to encounter this same problem, so I'm investing in an EQ to boost my input signal voltage (I think? I could look like an idiot right now) as I understand this will reduce noise. On to my questions.

1. Do ALL EQ's come with a line driver? The one I'm looking at (Clarion EQS746) says 7V RMS as "max output level." I have no clue what that means.

2. When using a line driver, what happens to the signal output of my headunit? Would a 4v HU with a 9V line driver have less noise than a 2v HU with the same line driver?

3. I know power has to come from somewhere. How much added current does a EQ or line driver draw? Is it even a factor?

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so I'm investing in an EQ to boost my input signal voltage (I think? I could look like an idiot right now) as I understand this will reduce noise.

This in all likelihood NOT the correct way to fix your problem. In fact, it could possibly make the problem worse, or at least more difficult to get rid of. But, we'll come back to this.

1. Do ALL EQ's come with a line driver?

No.

2. When using a line driver, what happens to the signal output of my headunit?

It doesn't change the HU's signal output.

Would a 4v HU with a 9V line driver have less noise than a 2v HU with the same line driver?

No. Results would likely not differ between the two.

3. I know power has to come from somewhere. How much added current does a EQ or line driver draw? Is it even a factor?

Not enough to matter.

Now, with that out of the way....why do you think a line driver will solve your noise issue? What type of noise issues are you having? Do you know what the source of your noise is? What is the problem that is causing you to have noise in the system?

Given your post, I'm going to go out on a limb and say that you don't know what the cause is, someone just told you that a line driver will help (or you read it online somewhere). Unfortunately, that's not the correct answer. Chances are good the outcome will be that you unnecessarily wasted money on a line driver and still have pretty much the same problem.

The very FIRST thing you need to do is determine the cause and source of your noise. You can not correct a problem until you know the cause. There are several different sources and causes of noise in a system, and most of them a line driver will do nothing to fix (and in the case of ground loops, may just compound the problem). There is a Noise Troubleshooting Guide stickied at the top of this subforum. Read it, and follow the process until you find the source of the noise. The primary cause is poor grounds causing a ground loop. The fix here isn't a line driver, but to simply create a proper ground. Another issue may be that the RCA wires are routed near a noisy area in the vehicle. Again, the fix would be to simply reroute the RCA wires rather than add a line driver. There are a dozen other reasons you could be having noise, none of which are solved by adding a line driver.

So, my suggestion is to follow the guide linked above and locate the source of your noise. Once you have located the source we can go about attempting to help you actually correct the problem.

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Thanks for the fast and INFORMATIVE reply. One of the reasons I love it here and hate Ca.com

Ok, not sure if this'll be clear, I'm pretty new to this, but here goes.

I currently have an OEM headunit with an EQ acting as the headunit. (I guess. the remote wire starts at the EQ. Laugh if you want, but we were on a budget) I love the eq, it does everything I need it to and I really don't wanna replace it. But on to the noise issue.

The EQ has a front aux input and I have a tape deck aux adapter on my OEM headunit. I lost my 3.5 cord which I was using problem free, NO noise. (Alt or ground loop) When the headunit is turned on (with or without a cd/aux input playing) god awful alt whine shows up and increases with the volume knob on both the eq and the headunit. (but NOT if I turn up my ipod while using the aux input) My grounds are solid, and I have gone through several "Locate your noise" processes with them all ending at the HU. I have no clue if simply replacing the HU will make this go away, but I'm still in the planning stages of my rebuild and am trying to factor in all possible costs. I read somewhere (I think it was here) that line drivers increase signal voltage, therefor decreasing the "noise floor?" Basically I just want what we all want. NO NOISE.

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Well you can always get a new head unit or borrow one quickly wire it and see if the noise goes away if it doesn't. You can return the head unit to your buddy or back to the store and start over to find the noise again.

I know with me I tried count less times to get rid of noise and then one day I purchased a brand new head unit and like magic my system is noise free

And yes I even tried a RCA ground loop thing and a line driver none of them worked root issue was my head unit no way around it.

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Ok. Well I'm hoping my luck is as good as yours. I DO want an EQ though, I've grown super used to mine and love the ability to turn my sub/mids/highs up and down without having to browse through menus. Some songs are bass heavy and instead of fiddling with the gain and attempting to have a "universal EQ set" that works for everything, I'd rather just turn a knob lol

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