Loud hissing sound when no music being played, is this normal?

[Florida_Audio 55]

So i believe my headunit can go up to number 35 for volume. When playing music, around 12 is pretty decent loudness, but up to around 16 is pretty loud. and i dont think i would ever turn it above 20.

when there is no music playing, my speakers hiss quite loud. the same volume of hiss can be heard when the headunit volume is set from 1 to around 10. any volume above 10 on the headunit, then the speakers his increases with each volume increase.

i dont really notice the hiss when theres music playing.

just wondering, is this normal? is it a bad sign? how might i go about fixing it?

Edited April 9, 2016 by Florida_Audio

[lithium 358]

ground issue most likely. What does your total system consist of? 

[Florida_Audio 55]

1 hour ago, lithium said:

ground issue most likely. What does your total system consist of? 

do u mean the parts? brand and model

[StreetLegal 119]

As stated above, most likely a ground issue, check that all ground is secured properly and clean, also what brand is your hu?

[jcarter1885 994]

Who is installing your equipment, if its a shop then you may need a new one.

[Florida_Audio 55]

8 hours ago, StreetLegal said:

As stated above, most likely a ground issue, check that all ground is secured properly and clean, also what brand is your hu?

alpine 164 bt ,  i made sure to get at least a 4 v preamp. not sure if this is why you are asking though?

1 hour ago, jcarter1885 said:

Who is installing your equipment, if its a shop then you may need a new one.

yea..... a local shop. they sort of pissed me off. initially told me would take 3 hours over the phone. i knew this was way too short of an estimate. but then when i got to the shop, they said 3 to 4 hours. then when i was waiting it took 5 hours. i sat in waiting room. the store sells only car audio equipment and does some window tinting on the side.

i spoke with the installer briefly about certain things. such as dont use wooden spacers unless u treat them to be waterproof. he said yea we will use plastic ABS then. he ends up saying he cut out birch wood. well i thought it was fine. but apparently any wood needs to be treated. and i have this hissing noise.

i even tipped the dude 20 bucks. not alot. but still. i figured since he took 5 whole hours to do it, he deserved something. ill call the manager on tuesday, when the installer should be in again and tell them about the hissing. they better at least take a look for free.

 

how much of a trouble is it to check the ground? how long might this take to do? 20 min? 1 hour? its just the ground for the amplifier right?

and is it possible its just that the gains are set too high on the amp?

the dude secured the amp in my trunk, attached behind my backs seat. its a bit in a corner. and i think the gain controls are in a very tight spot. i would need to take the amp off the back seat to see the gain controls. i wonder how he even attached the amp to the back seat? and how would i re attach it, if it is the gains?

 

ive heard people mention, if the hissing stays the same volume at all volumes. or if the hissing increases as the volume increases. my hissing does increase alot as the volume increases. but like i said u cannot hear the hissing when music is playing. although when the music stops, the hissing is there and it sounds pretty bad.

Edited April 9, 2016 by Florida_Audio

[lithium 358]

we have a trouble shooting guide on the forum somewhere. but what you can do is determine if the hissing noise is coming from the hu or amp by bypassing the hu signal and connecting some headphone to rca cables straight to the amp input  in place of the rcas from the hu. connect the headphone jack to your phone and play some music. if there is still hissing then its the amp. 

Its pretty ridiculous that they didn't listen to the install or felt that the noise was acceptable on their end. shitty shop  

Edited April 9, 2016 by lithium

[frogcase2002 393]

This is why we tried to get you to do it your self

[Florida_Audio 55]

3 hours ago, lithium said:

we have a trouble shooting guide on the forum somewhere. but what you can do is determine if the hissing noise is coming from the hu or amp by bypassing the hu signal and connecting some headphone to rca cables straight to the amp input  in place of the rcas from the hu. connect the headphone jack to your phone and play some music. if there is still hissing then its the amp. 

Its pretty ridiculous that they didn't listen to the install or felt that the noise was acceptable on their end. shitty shop  

ok thanks. ill call them up soon and make sure they are aware of whats happening. even if its something simple as an amp gain i guess ill tell them to look at it before i touch it, so they cant say  its my fault.

if they dont fix it for free. i will not go back there ever again. nor will i suggest it to any1. its really horrible how this place was. they seemed like nice people. but the business aspect was horrible. they told me it would be $235 to install everything a few weeks ago when i was calling around asking for prices. then when i called 1 week ago they said around $250. then when i went in person they said $250 to $300. then after the install he told me it was $375... because $20 for RCA, and $15 for each speaker spacer, made out of material that i told them not to use. and tax. and some stupid $10 miscellaneous charge....

i will have to learn about this stuff and mess with it if they dont own up to their mistake. unless theres anything else i can do?

1 hour ago, frogcase2002 said:

This is why we tried to get you to do it your self

this is why i did not want to do it myself lol. cause i wanted to have it done well. and not have to worry about any issues that i would need to fix. i thought they were professionals.

[lithium 358]

honestly you can read around a decent forum and then pull off a better install then most shops on your own. 

[Florida_Audio 55]

1 hour ago, lithium said:

honestly you can read around a decent forum and then pull off a better install then most shops on your own. 

true. im just afraid to break something. i somewhat figured since they do it all the time and many years experience it would be a safer way to do things. and if they did notice an obvious mistake then they would fix it.

they took 5 hours to do 2 front component speakers, a 4 channel amp, only 2 of these channels went to front speakers. and a new head unit.

the amount of time it took makes me think they should have done a thorough job, maybe, maybe not

[lithium 358]

thats not too bad time wise. but let them address the noise issue when u talk to them. 

Edited April 9, 2016 by lithium

[Florida_Audio 55]

1 hour ago, lithium said:

thats not too bad time wise. but let them address the noise issue when u talk to them. 

yes i will, thank you. is it unreasonable to expect them to fix the noise issue for free? or at the very least look at it for free?

this manager seems very shady with pricing. extremely misleading. more or less a bait and switch tactic

[///M5 2,833]

Turn the gain down and see it goes away.  Thermal noise is hiss and a sign the gain is too high....or the amp is a pos.  Easy to test.

[SS Teacher 177]

On 4/9/2016 at 6:28 PM, Florida_Audio said:

yes i will, thank you. is it unreasonable to expect them to fix the noise issue for free? or at the very least look at it for free?

this manager seems very shady with pricing. extremely misleading. more or less a bait and switch tactic

You paid them for a competent install not a half assed job.  They most certainly shouldn't charge you any money at all because they never did the job right in the first place.

 

I know you're scared, we all were at one point, but honestly, you CAN do this...

[Florida_Audio 55]

4 hours ago, SS Teacher said:

You paid them for a competent install not a half assed job.  They most certainly shouldn't charge you any money at all because they never did the job right in the first place.

 

I know you're scared, we all were at one point, but honestly, you CAN do this...

thanks. yea im going to them tomorrow. made appointment. when i told him theres hissing in the speakers. he said, "well you remember you asked us to raise the gain twice to make it louder for you". i told him immediately that we never even discussed the gains when i was there... super shady. immediately defensive over it and its a lie.

ill see when i go there....

[jcarter1885 994]

Even though you paid money and didnt get everything you wanted, just by their recent comments I would just take it to another shop. Tell them whats installed and what's wrong then go from there. Just my.02

[Florida_Audio 55]

On 4/9/2016 at 1:41 PM, lithium said:

we have a trouble shooting guide on the forum somewhere. but what you can do is determine if the hissing noise is coming from the hu or amp by bypassing the hu signal and connecting some headphone to rca cables straight to the amp input  in place of the rcas from the hu. connect the headphone jack to your phone and play some music. if there is still hissing then its the amp. 

Its pretty ridiculous that they didn't listen to the install or felt that the noise was acceptable on their end. shitty shop  

ok.... i might try this now, if i understand how to do this correctly. but i think i found the issue. ive been looking things up, and it seems that they did not scrape off the paint when grounding my amplifier.... im assuming this can cause the humming buzz sound when raising the volume.

AND when i press buttons on the headunit, the back button to exit the settings, my right speaker crackles loudly.... is this dangerous? its very annoying. also assuming its because of same ground issue....

can leaving the paint on the grounded area cause this issue, such as hissing from speakers and crackling noises when using headunit?

so how would i go about removing the pain and then re attaching the ground? i can use a flat head screwdriver to remove the paint. but i dont have any tools really to work with to reattach the screw? do i need a power drill? or can i use a regular screwdriver to place the screws back in the same hole?

how long would this take a normal person.... i dont want to deal with the same local shop again... but if it can take only 15 min they should just do it.... i would hope.

 

 

extra info, in case m5 doesnt want to read my book....

so initially with the RCA left and right properly hooked up, the left speaker sounds much lower and has much less bass than the right speaker. so i swapped the RCAs left to right, to see what would happen. It seems this fixes the problem.... super weird? it seems that both speakers sound pretty okay now.... except, when i raise the volume on headunit without any song playing, there is hissing noise from speakers. and when i balance the sound i can clearly tell that the right speaker has a louder hissing sound. so one speaker hisses much louder than the other.... and i think when i swapped the RCAs, the right speaker is slightly worse sound quality than the left, although its a bit harder to notice.

heres a picture, from what i can tell, they didnt sand or scrape off any paint at all...

can this be

[Thumpper 266]

1 hour ago, Florida_Audio said:

ok.... i might try this now, if i understand how to do this correctly. but i think i found the issue. ive been looking things up, and it seems that they did not scrape off the paint when grounding my amplifier.... im assuming this can cause the humming buzz sound when raising the volume.

AND when i press buttons on the headunit, the back button to exit the settings, my right speaker crackles loudly.... is this dangerous? its very annoying. also assuming its because of same ground issue....

can leaving the paint on the grounded area cause this issue, such as hissing from speakers and crackling noises when using headunit?

so how would i go about removing the pain and then re attaching the ground? i can use a flat head screwdriver to remove the paint. but i dont have any tools really to work with to reattach the screw? do i need a power drill? or can i use a regular screwdriver to place the screws back in the same hole?

how long would this take a normal person.... i dont want to deal with the same local shop again... but if it can take only 15 min they should just do it.... i would hope.

 

 

extra info, in case m5 doesnt want to read my book....

so initially with the RCA left and right properly hooked up, the left speaker sounds much lower and has much less bass than the right speaker. so i swapped the RCAs left to right, to see what would happen. It seems this fixes the problem.... super weird? it seems that both speakers sound pretty okay now.... except, when i raise the volume on headunit without any song playing, there is hissing noise from speakers. and when i balance the sound i can clearly tell that the right speaker has a louder hissing sound. so one speaker hisses much louder than the other.... and i think when i swapped the RCAs, the right speaker is slightly worse sound quality than the left, although its a bit harder to notice.

heres a picture, from what i can tell, they didnt sand or scrape off any paint at all...

can this be

that's a SHITTY ground......get rid of those screws....... scrape off the paint

use a nut , bolt and star washers so you can tighten it up properly

 

if a shop did this tell them I said they suck ass and should be ashamed of themselves......

that is a red neck short cut and a half and should be fixed

[Florida_Audio 55]

2 hours ago, Thumpper said:

that's a SHITTY ground......get rid of those screws....... scrape off the paint

use a nut , bolt and star washers so you can tighten it up properly

 

if a shop did this tell them I said they suck ass and should be ashamed of themselves......

that is a red neck short cut and a half and should be fixed

yea it was a local shop. im quite upset with how the owner does business, very shady and not very honest.

the owner and the work being done are sort of different, because i could tell right away the owner doesnt know much at all about this stuff, he relies on his employees to tell him how long anything should take, and the price of things.

but yea, the employee did the work so thats this....

i honestly dont know where to start with fixing this ground?

what type of parts are you talking about?

[Thumpper 266]

it's so easy a cave man could do it

 

 

 

 

these are Star Washers.... get good heavy duty ones that dig into the metal with out flattening

 

 

 

[Florida_Audio 55]

1 hour ago, Thumpper said:

it's so easy a cave man could do it

 

 

 

 

these are Star Washers.... get good heavy duty ones that dig into the metal with out flattening

 

 

 

ok thanks!

i assume, i unscrew the 2 screws already in the car.

scrape off the paint with a flathead screwdriver

then use those materials and screw those back in the same hole? or a new hole?

and do i need a power drill?

[Thumpper 266]

you need to drill a hole in a place where you can get a nut and washer on the other side...

before you drill make shure it is a clean spot away from wiring , fuel lines exc....

 

personally I would make the shop fix it....... they should have done that in the first place

 

with that abortion of a ground and the hissing noise you are talking about I would also be worried about the

quality of the rest of the install and how it is set up.......

 

[Florida_Audio 55]

4 hours ago, Thumpper said:

you need to drill a hole in a place where you can get a nut and washer on the other side...

before you drill make shure it is a clean spot away from wiring , fuel lines exc....

 

personally I would make the shop fix it....... they should have done that in the first place

 

with that abortion of a ground and the hissing noise you are talking about I would also be worried about the

quality of the rest of the install and how it is set up.......

 

thanks for explaining what to do.

i did go back asking about the hissing sound. but the guy explained it was only from aux source. when i tried bluetooth or usb it doesnt hiss, until you play a song, and only during quiet parts can u hear it then. but on aux source it always hisses, even if the music is paused. at first when i was there, i ddint notice it hissing until the songs played during bluetooth, so i agreed with him when he said it was only the aux... but its wrong

and now i realize that the right speaker crackles and distorts, when u press any button on the headunit. the speaker crackles slightly if u lightly touch a button, and much louder crackle when u press the button firmly. so its some electrical issue.

i went to the shop around 6 weeks ago for install. and then 1 week later for the hissing i noticed. but they didnt fix hissing like i mentioned.

so im a bit hesitant to go back and ask again.... they should fix it, but i feel the owner will try to charge me cause hes greedy.

he already jumped the price of install up after i got there. and when i called the 1 week after install about the hissing, he tried to blame me saying i kept asking them to raise the gains... but i never once, not once! never spoke to the owner about the gains at all. he tried telling me this when i called him on phone about it, and a second time when i got to the shop in person. both times, i immediately told him, he was wrong and it didnt happen

the owner is sort of a jerk

and the installer seemed very nice, and helpful when i asked a few questions. he seemed to be knowledgeable, and even mentioned how he has a setup in his vehicle worth over $8,000. so i assumed he knew much more than myself. which he does. but theres still issues. just cause he has an expensive setup doesnt mean he knows much, but i would hope it would count for something more

Edited May 1, 2016 by Florida_Audio

[Thumpper 266]

Quote

the right speaker crackles and distorts, when u press any button on the headunit. the speaker crackles slightly if u lightly touch a button, and much louder crackle when u press the button firmly

I would try another head unit