Noise on elite.5

[Wayniac]

I've been experiencing a swizzling type of noise from the front channels of the amp (only, the other channels are fine) when the car is start and the noise remains with the car off.

I first thought it was a wiring/ground loop problem, but I've troubleshooted till I pulled out my hair.

Anyone else experience this problem with the amp?
I'm open to any solutions in case I missed something. Please help as I'm pretty disappointed to experience this from a high end amp.

Ps. I sent an email to Aamp support months ago and had no response.

[ttocs]

there has been at least one case of an Elite with some light noise issues.

What kind of car? What are type of gear and how is it wired up? It could be a lot of options.

[wooferdog]

I had hiss and turn off pop on a Elite.4. It went back for a warranty repair to Zed audio and they got it all reworked.

[Wayniac]

The amp is set up in a manual 2011 Renault clio. Rest of the system consists of pioneer p80 (Previously used an alpine 9887 and the noise was still there), morel supremo 6 fronts and a groundzero gzuw 300SQ sub.

Rcas and speaker cables are running via the sides of the car and power cable through the centre of the car.

I tested the system with the rcas disconnected and the noise is still present.

The amp is out of warranty due to me taking a long time to get it installed and finally pin pointing that it is most likely the amp that is the problem.

I'm based in South Africa so sending the amp to Zed can end up been a costly affair, thus I'm hoping I can come across some other options (e.g getting it repaired locally, even if I had to import parts).

My local repair guy couldn't identify the problem when benchtesting the amp as the noise dissapates over time when the car is off or if the amp is disconnected from the car.

[ttocs]

no chance is a bad cable?

[kg1961]

Did to take the amp out of the car and use a deck cable ect.
I see you said a local tech looked at it
But?
If you want to sell it dirt cheap pm me

[Wayniac]

I've tried different cables...even routed the cables outside of the car. Tried relocating the amp incase the noise waa been induced by my boot release mechanism. Tried grounding the deck chassis to the amp. Even tried switching drivers, disconnecting the deck from the oem harness and ran new cables.

Because the noise is present with the rcas disconnected with the car on and remains with the car off for a certain time period, I'm suspecting that the amp is holding "charge" of the induced noise from the alternator (assuming due to ac current) in a component (assuming a cap).

He tested the amp out of the car with an oscope amd everything seemed Ok.... Thing is that is a "perfect" environment and I forgot to mention that he is about 600km from me so I suspect the amp had plenty time to discharge this induced noise.

But maybe I'm wrong and missing something so still very much open to suggestions.

Ps I'm not willing to sell the amp, it sounds brilliant... It's just that the noise is messing up my soft listening experience. At high volumes I can't hear it or just forget that it's there

[ttocs]

I have heard you try just about everything except a different source and that is still where I am betting my money

[Wayniac]

I did. Initially I was using an alpine 9887 head unit and the noise was present. The I changed over to a pioneer p80 and the noise is still present. I.e. I don't seem to be experiencing pioneer's notorious pico fuse problem.

I forgot to mention that I even tried running a direct ground wire from the amp to the battery.

[ttocs]

then its either a cable or your prcessor.

[Wayniac]

Not using a processor, only the HU.

Which cable? I tested the front channels with the midbass and midbass cables which didn't give a noise on the rear channels, but when switched to the front channels it gave a noise. i.e. I eliminated speaker cables and drivers to be the problem. I changed RCA's and even disconnected the RCA's from the amp and the noise was present i.e. eliminated RCA's to be the cause.
The only cables I haven't changed to something else are the power and remote cables... could this possibly cause noise issues if faulty?

Just to clarify, the noise is only present on the front channels of the amp, the rear and sub channels are perfect.

[Wayniac]

I apologise if I come across as been defensive, but I'm just trying to explain all the avenues that I've attempted to help pin point the problem.

[ttocs]

no you cool I just got you confused with someone else. What happens when you take the rca's from channel 1/2 and put them in 3/4? And then seperatly what happens when you swap the speaker outputs like I did the rcas?

[Wayniac]

Did it and noise still present on front channels.

I'm just thinking now, and the one thing I haven't tried is test the amp in another car that I know has no noise in the system... I guess that is one sure way to determine if the amp is the problem, even though my gut is telling me that a cap in the amp is causing this, but I know just about nothing about amp design, so can't strongly conclude that. But if it is the amp, I just want to get it fixed.

My other theory is if there is a faulty diode on my alty, but then I wonder why the other channels on the amp are fine, so I never followed up on it.

I'm considering trying to install a cap inline with the tweeters, but I feel that is just going to be a band aid and not a solution and it may mess with my crossover point depending what frequency range the noise is.

If all else fails I may need to get a second amp (and it definitely won't be PG this time lol) to run the tweeters or midbass, but I really really really don't want to do that as I like keeping my install chain simple, I'm about 95% complete with my install so I'm not too pleased to make drastic changes at this stage and I'm pretty limited on space.

[ttocs]

your best bet to test it now is on a bench. With the motor off, swapping rca's, its the amp but put it on the bench to see what it happens. IF you don't have a bench just grap some friends and go to teh front of the car with enough power wire to hook up to the battery and then get a speaker and a signal generator and try it out.

Sorry man if it is the amp

[Wayniac]

Just some feedback. Aamp Support has responded to my recent email and is assisting with the issue. I'll only be able to give further feedback later in March as my "local" trustworthy tech is located about 700km away.