Pete's install log

[vladd 26]

no, but i had the whine with my 880/butler amps and now i've still got it with my 8053/BLA and belle combo. I think it might be time to invest in much nicer RCAs

[vladd 26]

haha just realized you were probably talkting to the original poster :-D

[Bigpete123 1]

Actually, yeah. That's a good idea. I have two amps I'm running in the trunk... I didn't think about that. The only problem is that I won't be able to test my tweeters cuz my second amp doesn't have the ability to do a high pass at around 2khz. But I can at least check to see if the mids get noise through both amps... good times.

[helotaxi 46]

no, but i had the whine with my 880/butler amps and now i've still got it with my 8053/BLA and belle combo. I think it might be time to invest in much nicer RCAs

Nicer RCAs aren't going to get rid of whine. Reground the HU and any processors that you have.

[vladd 26]

thats what i did yesterday, whine is barely there, but still there

[audio-neon 34]

no, but i had the whine with my 880/butler amps and now i've still got it with my 8053/BLA and belle combo. I think it might be time to invest in much nicer RCAs

Nicer RCAs aren't going to get rid of whine. Reground the HU and any processors that you have.

I have found that nicer rca's have better electrical sheilding and do reduce/prevent noise a lot better than cheap rca's.

[///M5 2,833]

no, but i had the whine with my 880/butler amps and now i've still got it with my 8053/BLA and belle combo. I think it might be time to invest in much nicer RCAs

Nicer RCAs aren't going to get rid of whine. Reground the HU and any processors that you have.

I have found that nicer rca's have better electrical sheilding and do reduce/prevent noise a lot better than cheap rca's.

By found you mean compared two cables in the same install or just general good luck with shielded?

[helotaxi 46]

Th noise isn't introduced in the RCA. Nothing done to it will have any effect on that noise. Alt whine is an electrical component problem, not a signal path problem. What you're suggesting is akin to replacing the transmision to fix a flat tire.

[vladd 26]

i thought i posted this already but is there any chance that my alt could be going bad and thats why i'm getting noise?

[audio-neon 34]

no, but i had the whine with my 880/butler amps and now i've still got it with my 8053/BLA and belle combo. I think it might be time to invest in much nicer RCAs

Nicer RCAs aren't going to get rid of whine. Reground the HU and any processors that you have.

I have found that nicer rca's have better electrical sheilding and do reduce/prevent noise a lot better than cheap rca's.

By found you mean compared two cables in the same install or just general good luck with shielded?

By found, yes i compared two different rca's in the same install. I had some cheap scoshe rca's or something like that and i got some knukoncepts karma rca's.

I didn't completely read his post about whine... Alt whine will not be affected by the signal side of a system, but the power *more likely ground* side of a system.

[Bigpete123 1]

Man, it's been a hell of a morning...

First, I noticed one of my tires was very low. I stopped by a gas station on my way out to my shop (to work on troubleshooting my system) and started filling it up... It wasn't anywhere near full when BANG!!! the thing damn near exploded on me. It was like a gun shot in my ear. I didn't over-inflate it at all, like I said, it still looked flat when I blew... So my ear has been ringing all morning from the sound. Luckily I have a full-size spare.

Then I get out to my shop and get to work. I tested my system in every way I could think of. regrounded the amps. Regrounded the HU. Noise was still there. Noise was there when the HU wasn't even plugged in. It was coming though all channels, including the sub.

I plugged my second amp into the front speaker cables and voila. no noise. My 500/5 is kaput.

The noise actually got much much worse the more I tested it today. It actually sounds like a pack of dophins talking to eachother (super-high pitched wave sounds- the frequency goes up and down fluidly).

the frustrating thing is, I had to send my 500/5 in for repairs about 8 months ago. I haven't had a chance to even test it since I got it back because my car has been torn apart this whole time. So basically, they didn't fix it because I was having similar noise problems when I sent it in the first time.

Now I have to wait like 2 months go send it to the east coast to get fixed... I'm extremely disappointed... after ALL THIS WORK, the amp that's been sitting on my shelf this whole time was bad. But at least it wasn't anything I have done wrong... :( I can't afford to replace the amp right now, so let's hope it's fixable.

[helotaxi 46]

Suck to hear that, man. Hopefully they'll be quick with it and actually fix it this time.

[///M5 2,833]

That sucks.

[Aaron Clinton 2,372]

Wow Pete, I am sorry to hear that. Who "repaired" the amp?

Also if you want I put up a few new pix that have my 300 in it in the auto section which by the way my drivers side rear tire is low on air also.

[Bigpete123 1]

nice! I'll have a look!

If I hadn't already dumped so much money into my car, I'd go looking for a '95 e300d bigtime... and convert to biodiesel.

Oh and JL Audio supposedly fixed it themselves... Very frustrating. I'm gonna call them today and see if there's anything they can do for me.

[Bigpete123 1]

Wow, I can't believe it has been 10 months since my last post. That's depressing, because I still haven't gotten around to sending my amp in to get fixed.

That means that I have been without my car stereo for almost 2 years now! ha ha I really can't believe that. I was like 10 steps from the finish line, sick of working on this project, only to find out the amp was bad. That took the wind out of my sails. Since then, we've probably only put like 5,000 miles on my car since we don't drive to work. So completing this install hasn't seemed urgent.

But now I'm at the point where I'd like to finish this install. And i'm at a crossroads. My amp is bad, I've already spent $150 getting it "fixed" by JL Audio (and they never actually fixed it). I don't feel like waiting another 2 months and spending another $150, only running the risk that they'll make the same mistake.

So I'm considering 2 options.

1) Buying the amp brand new from a reputable buyer on eBay. I can get it for $475 or so, shipped. The advantage here is that everything is wired up already for this amp so there wouldn't be any major trouble installing it.

2) Using this as an opportunity to improve my system further. As some may remember, I have Focal 3-ways up front. The 500/5 is set up to be used in "tri amp" mode where I use the rear channel to drive the front tweeters, the front channel to drive the mid and midbass drivers, and the sub channel to run the sub (obviously). What about if i were to bag the idea of a 500/5 and do a TRUE tri-amp setup where I buy 3 small amps for the front stage to drive each speaker? i would get 3 active crossovers. The problem of course would be that I would need to figure out a way split the front channels' RCA signal 3 ways. The 500/5 automatically split the signal between the mids and tweeter using 1 input. How would you guys recommend going about this? Without degrading the signal too much? Would I need to boost the signal from my HU to handle that?

Any gear you would recommend for the crossovers and for splitting the signal? I have a hard time finding an amp that would be suitable for the tweeters; all of them are WAY too powerful... Does anybody make a high fidelity low wattage 2 channel amp for something like this?

Thanks!

Peter

[Bigpete123 1]

Audiocontrol (whose products i'm quite fond of) makes a product called the DQX, but it's designed so that one of the outputs is always a subwoofer. So I'd do the tweet and mid on one channel, midbass on another, and the sub on the third channel. I guess that would work, but I'd rather have each driver on its own amp. So I guess that actually means I need 4 amps. Maybe this is complete overkill.

[Lord Baccus 1]

Un real how they look like they came in the car from the factory

Bigg Props Bro

[///M5 2,833]

Refresh us on your headunit?

[Adrian_D 520]

I think it's in his sig...

Nakamichi 400

[Bigpete123 1]

Yes indeed, it's the Nakamichi CD-400.

It looks like Audiocontrol makes an active crossover that will take a single front channel signal and split it three ways. The trick will be swapping out "jumpers" inside the unit to move up the frequency ranges (since I don't want to use a sub on the crossover setup).

But the more I think about it, the more I think this is WAY over the top. It would require some re-wiring and a lot of extra money since I would be replacing my 500/5 with 4 separate amps. I don't think the extra expense would be worth the improvement in SQ.

So I'm just gonna buy another 500/5 and get this show on the road.

[///M5 2,833]

*cough*

Memphis Belle

[Bigpete123 1]

lol, not sure I get it.

Ha btw, everytime I come on this forum when I'm at work and you have a post in a thread I'm viewing, I have my left hand on "ALT TAB" at all times! lol I don't want anyone to think I'm looking at porn at work

[vladd 26]

turn off sigs, then you don't have to worry about that.

[Aaron Clinton 2,372]

What do you need from your amps? As in channels and power..