hi, a week ago i decided try to make my Polk MM6501 active. all was going well until i went for a drive around the block and i noticed alternator whine. i am using my alpine 9887 for the processing and my sax100.4 for the amp. and then i have Monster 402 series RCA connecting the two. Now i am having trouble finding out the Cause. i re grounded the head unit to a better spot. I tightened my ground for the amp as tight as i could. i replaced the RCA's with some 8 dollar ones from walmart. and i still have it. and it is only my rear/Highs that have the whine. and i don't really want to have to add a filter because i heard that it affects the quality of the signal. i haven't tried to get rid of the pop noise since the alt whine is more annoying. and i am pretty much out of ideas. Thank you

What head unit do you have?

edit- nvm I apparently forgot you said Alpine.

Try running a ground from the amps straight to the battery. Just a loose one outside of the car to test will work.

What head unit do you have?

edit- nvm I apparently forgot you said Alpine.

Try running a ground from the amps straight to the battery. Just a loose one outside of the car to test will work.

i dont have enough extra wire to try that.

What head unit do you have?

edit- nvm I apparently forgot you said Alpine.

Try running a ground from the amps straight to the battery. Just a loose one outside of the car to test will work.

i dont have enough extra wire to try that.

check your speaker wires, rcas for cuts or damages in them were they could be grouding out. I redid my factory grounds and upgraded them to 1/0awg wire(sanded where Saturn didnt), I also covered all wires (positive and negative) in engine bay and ones for amps and my whinig went away after having it for close to three years.

What head unit do you have?

edit- nvm I apparently forgot you said Alpine.

Try running a ground from the amps straight to the battery. Just a loose one outside of the car to test will work.

i dont have enough extra wire to try that.

check your speaker wires, rcas for cuts or damages in them were they could be grouding out. I redid my factory grounds and upgraded them to 1/0awg wire(sanded where Saturn didnt), I also covered all wires (positive and negative) in engine bay and ones for amps and my whinig went away after having it for close to three years.

i think its my amp. it is only doing it in one channel , after dinner i am going to hook up my mp3 directly to the amp and if it whines that will confrim that its the amp.

iit's my head unit. just now i just remembered i had a smiler problem with my old car. that i used the 9887 in to. But i thought it was the amp(pdx4100) so i bought a sax100.2 and just use the front RCa's to run all 4 speakers at 2 ohm. So who repairs head units? or is there any way i can rig it to work. like i saw what some people do to pioneers grounding problem on there headunit.. would something like that work?

Edited August 15, 200916 yr by SouthPole1989

You only have to ground the RCA's on Pioneer head units when you blow the pico fuse. Even then that can be prevented, and you could to a better job grounding them...^^that's awful.

iit's my head unit. just now i just remembered i had a smiler problem with my old car. that i used the 9887 in to. But i thought it was the amp(pdx4100) so i bought a sax100.2 and just use the front RCa's to run all 4 speakers at 2 ohm. So who repairs head units? or is there any way i can rig it to work. like i saw what some people do to pioneers grounding problem on there headunit.. would something like that work?

Thats just a temporary fix, you need to find out what the problem is so you can fix it and not have the problem come about again. You need to redo all your grounds and check all rca's with ones ran throughout the car to see if were your running them is a problem. I had one amp where the rca jacks were being bent due to the install and angle it was, show us a picture of how yours is installed. I really think you need to redo your grounds all of them, but thats just my .02 (I've probably had the worst alternator whine for the longest than anbody probably in car audio history). After I redid my big 3 grounds with 1/0 awg I still had a slight noise only noticeable at small volumes shen bass wasnt hiting, once I covered up the ground wire for my radiator fan which was my last fix that took the problem completely away. When I first got in the car at night(sometimes during the day) a week after the fix, I drive around with no music for a minute just to make sure that the whine is gone and it is.

i tired what is in the picture but i did mine better and it only made it less. the vehicle is an 2002 frontier if that helps. and i know it is my head unit because my old set up in my old car had the same problem with the rear/highs. and i transferred that head unit to my truck and only ran the front rca's. so it makes since that it is my cd player. as a temp fix i'm thinking of feeding the front rca's to the sax100.4 and then using the output on the sax100.4 to channel 3 and 4 so i can still go active. and i am only doing this becuase my truck needs a new knock sensor. and i am quoted 800 bucks to get that done for the truck so money is tight. and i would just go passive again with the x-covers that came with the set but i like active much more.

i tired what is in the picture but i did mine better and it only made it less. the vehicle is an 2002 frontier if that helps. and i know it is my head unit because my old set up in my old car had the same problem with the rear/highs. and i transferred that head unit to my truck and only ran the front rca's. so it makes since that it is my cd player. as a temp fix i'm thinking of feeding the front rca's to the sax100.4 and then using the output on the sax100.4 to channel 3 and 4 so i can still go active. and i am only doing this becuase my truck needs a new knock sensor. and i am quoted 800 bucks to get that done for the truck so money is tight. and i would just go passive again with the x-covers that came with the set but i like active much more.

I know that it may seem like its a head unit problem and it may be but with these new cars not being made as the cars in the 80's and 90's mostly steel bodies and exterior panels grounding is becoming more of an issue. Just try and redo the grounds (im giving you good info and your bypassing it), I have over three head units, six different amps thinking they were all the problem when in actuallity it was the car itself and the factory grounds plus some wires needed plastic covering to eliminate any noises they could put out. Find another head unit or use a friends and switch them out to see if its still there and im sure if it is then you will thank me by saving you money from buying a new head unit (try the cheap permanent options first instead of buying a new head unit) just my .02

i think its my amp. it is only doing it in one channel , after dinner i am going to hook up my mp3 directly to the amp and if it whines that will confrim that its the amp.

What happened when u did this???

I had a similar problem jus to find out the the speaker wire was being destroyed by the set screw in the terminal. So i went and bought flat straight pins and the sound dissappered.

Edited August 15, 200916 yr by sqjeep

i think its my amp. it is only doing it in one channel , after dinner i am going to hook up my mp3 directly to the amp and if it whines that will confrim that its the amp.

What happened when u did this???

I had a similar problem jus to find out the the speaker wire was being destroyed by the set screw in the terminal. So i went and bought flat straight pins and the sound dissappered.

it stopped making the noise i left the remote turn on connected to the amp and hu so it can turn on with that and it didnt make any noise. and i took the amp off of where i had it mounted so i can diagnose it easier ( it's in the jump seat aera) once i put it back up i will have pics of it. and i did clean up all my grounds and everything. and all my freinds have stock radios so i cant just swap them out. plus i wont be paying for the h u it will be for xmas. and i got all the noises to stop. no turn off pop and no alt whine with the way i have it wired. so my rear output is shot.

i think its my amp. it is only doing it in one channel , after dinner i am going to hook up my mp3 directly to the amp and if it whines that will confrim that its the amp.

What happened when u did this???

I had a similar problem jus to find out the the speaker wire was being destroyed by the set screw in the terminal. So i went and bought flat straight pins and the sound dissappered.

it stopped making the noise i left the remote turn on connected to the amp and hu so it can turn on with that and it didnt make any noise. and i took the amp off of where i had it mounted so i can diagnose it easier ( it's in the jump seat aera) once i put it back up i will have pics of it. and i did clean up all my grounds and everything. and all my freinds have stock radios so i cant just swap them out. plus i wont be paying for the h u it will be for xmas. and i got all the noises to stop. no turn off pop and no alt whine with the way i have it wired. so my rear output is shot.

Keep the amp where you had it when you did the mp3 and rehook up the hu and see if the noise stops.

Edited August 15, 200916 yr by sqjeep

i think its my amp. it is only doing it in one channel , after dinner i am going to hook up my mp3 directly to the amp and if it whines that will confrim that its the amp.

What happened when u did this???

I had a similar problem jus to find out the the speaker wire was being destroyed by the set screw in the terminal. So i went and bought flat straight pins and the sound dissappered.

it stopped making the noise i left the remote turn on connected to the amp and hu so it can turn on with that and it didnt make any noise. and i took the amp off of where i had it mounted so i can diagnose it easier ( it's in the jump seat aera) once i put it back up i will have pics of it. and i did clean up all my grounds and everything. and all my freinds have stock radios so i cant just swap them out. plus i wont be paying for the h u it will be for xmas. and i got all the noises to stop. no turn off pop and no alt whine with the way i have it wired. so my rear output is shot.

Keep the amp where you had it when you did the mp3 and rehook up the hu and see if the noise stops.

tired it already no difference. oncei connect the hu it gets bad turn of pop and bad alt whine. and i even tried using coupler with the mp3 playe to c if it is the rca's and i get no noise so it has to be the hu. basically it has to be the hu becouse once it gets introduced back into it i get the noises . but after just bypassing the rear/high rca (the bad ones) i do notice i have a faint turning off pop noise but not as bad as it was before and no alt whine at all.

i am curious though. what if i used the speaker outlets and use a loc to have active thru the hu instead of the sax100.4?

Edited August 15, 200916 yr by SouthPole1989

i think its my amp. it is only doing it in one channel , after dinner i am going to hook up my mp3 directly to the amp and if it whines that will confrim that its the amp.

What happened when u did this???

I had a similar problem jus to find out the the speaker wire was being destroyed by the set screw in the terminal. So i went and bought flat straight pins and the sound dissappered.

it stopped making the noise i left the remote turn on connected to the amp and hu so it can turn on with that and it didnt make any noise. and i took the amp off of where i had it mounted so i can diagnose it easier ( it's in the jump seat aera) once i put it back up i will have pics of it. and i did clean up all my grounds and everything. and all my freinds have stock radios so i cant just swap them out. plus i wont be paying for the h u it will be for xmas. and i got all the noises to stop. no turn off pop and no alt whine with the way i have it wired. so my rear output is shot.

Keep the amp where you had it when you did the mp3 and rehook up the hu and see if the noise stops.

tired it already no difference. oncei connect the hu it gets bad turn of pop and bad alt whine. and i even tried using coupler with the mp3 playe to c if it is the rca's and i get no noise so it has to be the hu. basically it has to be the hu becouse once it gets introduced back into it i get the noises . but after just bypassing the rear/high rca (the bad ones) i do notice i have a faint turning off pop noise but not as bad as it was before and no alt whine at all.

i am curious though. what if i used the speaker outlets and use a loc to have active thru the hu instead of the sax100.4?

This is what i would do for now till you are able to get a new headunit....

Since the SAX-100.4 has active crossovers on it, take the rcas from the working outputs of the headunit and get two sets of y cables so you can use all channels of the amplifiers. But here is the catch you would have to set the headunit xovers the through and use the xover on the amp to run the speakers active.

yea i am basicaly do that but with out the y splitters. i am using the output on the amp to feed channels 3 4. and i am not using the 9887 for anything but equalizing and readinf music. i got the low pass and the subsonic doing bandpass for the mid range and the high pass for tweeters. and i am happy with it like that and i read somewhere that pioneer overrates there preout volts. is that true? and i am looking at a 9886 or the pioneer equivalent.