Beeping sound when volume is low

[Alfaholic]

I got a low pitch constant beeping tone when i turn the volume to 0, i have run the power cords in one side and RCA on the other i have tryed not to let rca cabel in contact with power cables.
I also tryed to put a 4gauge wire from ground on battery to the engine i got a litle lower but its stll there, i will ground the headunit chassis tommorow.
The beeping is not changing when i rev the engine, the ground spot to the amplifiers are clean what else can i do to get that flipping beeping to stop?
Its not beeping in my active subwoofer its just the PG SD500,4, is there something inside the amplifier that can cause this?

[Weaklink]

What head unit are you running? It might be in the sub amp as well but the crossover is getting rid of it. Pioneers are notorious for little noises.

[ttocs]

that is strange. Does it keep going with the rca's unplugged?

[Alfaholic]

Its a pioneer headunit, i will try to unplugg the rca later and see if its stll makes the sound.

[ttocs]

Eh that was for a ground issue that caused alternator noise. Not sure we have the same thig here. A video of it would be helpfulll

[dwnrodeo]

What year of manufacture is your SD amplifier? Phoenix Gold has issued the following technical bulletin in regards to SD amplifiers and noise: http://www.phoenixgold.com/images/manua ... lletin.pdf

[Alfaholic]

What year of manufacture is your SD amplifier? Phoenix Gold has issued the following technical bulletin in regards to SD amplifiers and noise: http://www.phoenixgold.com/images/manua ... lletin.pdf

Where do i find the production date?, i did not get any papers with my amplifier but are PG keeping a backup of the birth sheet on the new amplifiers and is it possible to get a copy if i send them my serial nr?.
I will try and ground my pioneer headunit with a thick wire later i hope this help, im not using expensive rca so it can be a problem there to but then i would expect the sound to get higher when i press my throttle.

[Alfaholic]

I see a guy on you tube tha ground his rca to the headunit chassis can this damage the system in any way?, im thinking of grounding the headunit to car chassis and then to the rca if its safe to do so.
Thanks for all your help

[Alfaholic]

I see a guy on you tube tha ground his rca to the headunit chassis can this damage the system in any way?, im thinking of grounding the headunit to car chassis and then to the rca if its safe to do so.
Thanks for all your help
Link:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6at6sRnkMRg

[Alfaholic]

Eh that was for a ground issue that caused alternator noise. Not sure we have the same thig here. A video of it would be helpfulll

I can try and make a video of it if the grounding of headunit dont do the trick, the sound is weak so i dont know if you will hear it on a video.
Im going to put a thicker wire from the + on the alternator to the battery and a new wire from the negative terminal on the battery to chassis i have orderd the power wire today.
I have had this noise before on other cars but then it has changed with the rpm, its not changing and that makes me think of headunit or amplifier i hope its not the amplifier that would suck but since its only the SD amp that makes the noise and not the active subwoofer that would seem to be the case.
What is my options if its the amplifier is there some way to repair it or do i have to buy a new one, i love the sound in my car now its soo much better then it was.
Im also waiting on a audio control DQX would that help on the noise?

[kg1961]

Eh that was for a ground issue that caused alternator noise. Not sure we have the same thig here. A video of it would be helpfulll

I can try and make a video of it if the grounding of headunit dont do the trick, the sound is weak so i dont know if you will hear it on a video.
Im going to put a thicker wire from the + on the alternator to the battery and a new wire from the negative terminal on the battery to chassis i have orderd the power wire today.
I have had this noise before on other cars but then it has changed with the rpm, its not changing and that makes me think of headunit or amplifier i hope its not the amplifier that would suck but since its only the SD amp that makes the noise and not the active subwoofer that would seem to be the case.
What is my options if its the amplifier is there some way to repair it or do i have to buy a new one, i love the sound in my car now its soo much better then it was.
Im also waiting on a audio control DQX would that help on the noise?

the dqx will increase the volts to the amp so it can be turned down
I think to ground the rca you just ground the outside of the female to the car. I think its a piss poor design to use what ever they did on the 2011-2012 amps and hope you don't owen a vw or audio or bmw... just crazy pg should replace these units for the customer
they are not organised to have most things on file let alone a birth sheet

I now see why so many dealer have dropped them when the amp that come out have these problems plus the bass knob noise and other items stop being so cheap and spend the extra $10.00 and make the amp right the first time- don't blame china on this one it pg fault and if you didn't test the product to make sure you will not have problems spend more time to test vs sending these units out
I now see why I had a refurbished elite.2
I would guess the problem on the 2011 and 2012 were just as bad as the xenons but they have kept it off the radar till now


now can PG or someone that works on amps tell me what does it matter if the car is producing 12-16volts most people in spl try for higher volts to get more out of the amps also I find it hard to believe a normal person without doing the big 3 will be able to keep there stock battery and charging system with a amp or amps that high?? very odd sound like a bs line to me

[Alfaholic]

Well in my case its the amplifier i have tried everything, i think i will look for another amp and use this for now.
Im having problems with placeing the different PG amps after what class they are in, like the RSD,Xenon,RX,R and QX there are so many.
I love the look and sound on my SD and i want something as good or better, i realy want a ZX or a old ZX,TI but with the caps replaced i remeber my old white ZX450 i loved that amp but i only need 2 channels my problem is my budget is blown already lol

[kg1961]

Well in my case its the amplifier i have tried everything, i think i will look for another amp and use this for now.
Im having problems with placeing the different PG amps after what class they are in, like the RSD,Xenon,RX,R and QX there are so many.
I love the look and sound on my SD and i want something as good or better, i realy want a ZX or a old ZX,TI but with the caps replaced i remeber my old white ZX450 i loved that amp but i only need 2 channels my problem is my budget is blown already lol

you should be able to sell that amp there
ti or ti2 will be nice or I would change brands. I did
I was all pg and got rid of it all I picked up the jl HD1200.1 and HD600.4
im done with pg and more so after the problem members had with there subs amps ect. I think they have really gone down hill since aamp
and I don't see them changing it just numbers now no customer support at all.

[Alfaholic]

I think i will still go for PG but i think i will go for something older, i like the McIntosh amps but they are expensive.
Audison got some real nice amps to but they are out of my price range, there are a lot of good amps but i think im still in love with the PG

[kg1961]

If your not in a rush there are alot of good deals here like drock rsd amps etc

[ttocs]

you said t sounds like a beeping, its not a alternator noise is it?

what tests have you done to be sure that it is the amp? Grounding the rca shield on pioneer decks to reduce alt noise was an old band aid that would often work. I was told it was caused because of a pico fuse that would blow if the deck was powered up and then the center tap on the rca was grounded(even with the deck off). Have you tried a different audio source or cables?

[Alfaholic]

I have tested the rca ground but it does not affect the beeping i have also grounded the pioneer headunit with thick wire, the active subwoofer has the same amp wire kit as the SD500,4 and the active is not making a sound thats why i do not think its the wire that does this.

When i take the rca off the sd500 the beeping stops, its also beeping when the car is off but i have to turn the volume to 0 to hear it when i move the volume to 1 it will still make a litle sound but its very litle.

I have grounded the battery to the engine and chassis but there is no difference, i will hook up a new wire to the + on the alternator but im waiting on a new wire and fuse.
Im using one 4gauge to the sd500 and one 4gauge to the active, i got 13,9V on idle and 14.3 on 2500rpm the alternator is 90amp and a year old.

[dwnrodeo]

I have tested the rca ground but it does not affect the beeping i have also grounded the pioneer headunit with thick wire, the active subwoofer has the same amp wire kit as the SD500,4 and the active is not making a sound thats why i do not think its the wire that does this.

When i take the rca off the sd500 the beeping stops, its also beeping when the car is off but i have to turn the volume to 0 to hear it when i move the volume to 1 it will still make a litle sound but its very litle.

I have grounded the battery to the engine and chassis but there is no difference, i will hook up a new wire to the + on the alternator but im waiting on a new wire and fuse.
Im using one 4gauge to the sd500 and one 4gauge to the active, i got 13,9V on idle and 14.3 on 2500rpm the alternator is 90amp and a year old.

Too strange. Maybe the active subwoofer has its lowpass crossover filter out the beeping noise so you can't hear it through the subwoofer. Try connecting an alternative source such as an iPod or laptop to the RCA inputs and try to play music through the SD500.4. Let me know your results.

[ttocs]

you just repeated what you told me above but shortened it a bit. You have done some basic diagnostic tests but you have not gone far enough to say its the amp for sures Disconnecting the rca cable at the amp and the noise stopping to me means that the amp isn't causing the noise but something up stream. If the amp caused the noise it would keep going with the rca disconnected, unless you have a bad cable. You are not testing the rca ground by grounding the outer shield, you are testing the pioneers rca ground output.

"I have tested the rca ground but it does not affect the beeping i have also grounded the pioneer headunit with thick wire, the active subwoofer has the same amp wire kit as the SD500,4 and the active is not making a sound thats why i do not think its the wire that does this." - this isn't true because of the cross over I am willing to bet the sub has on it? I would assume by "beep" you mean a high pitched noise which would mean that the subs cross over would take that out.

You could still have a bad cable and the only way to test that is with an ohm meter(set to ohms with on lead on the ground one on the center tap)or by simply running a temporary rca cable from the deck to the amp but above the carpet to keep the hook up simple. If you plug in the temp cable and it goes away, you have either a bad cable or you are running your rca near something that is picking up noise that the amp amplifies. Now honestly I don't think a bad cable can cause a beep, but I also am not sure how an amp does it.

You still need to test your source/head unit again because of the way the beep stops when the cable is unplugged. Its a simple 2 min test with a headphone to rca cable adaptor and turn the key on and use that as your source and see if you have noise. If the beeping stops there then your deck is adding the noise.

[Alfaholic]

I will test it tommorow and tell u what happens

[Alfaholic]

I forgot to mention i used the rca on the active subwoofer in to the sd500 it was the same problem, all cables are new and the rca does not touch any power wire.
I was thinking about putting my ground zero GHZA4120X in and see if this also beeps.

[ttocs]

new cables can be bad or something can happen on install. But by swapping cables and it kept the noise that tells me your cable its good and the problem is still upstream. Check your source now with the headphone to rca cable and if it goes away then its your deck. If it doesn't, its your amp.

Curious what is the gain on the amp set at and does it go down if you adjust it down a bit?

[Alfaholic]

new cables can be bad or something can happen on install. But by swapping cables and it kept the noise that tells me your cable its good and the problem is still upstream. Check your source now with the headphone to rca cable and if it goes away then its your deck. If it doesn't, its your amp.

Curious what is the gain on the amp set at and does it go down if you adjust it down a bit?

I had it on 3/4 but its a litle over half now it got a bit lower but not much, i will try and turn it all the way down and see what happens i will also ohm the rca.
I have used this headunit on my old vw golf mkiv and it never made a sound on the amplifiers i used it on, its only 8monts old its an Pioneer DEH-X6600DAB
Thanks for your help guys

[ttocs]

when I was working as installer if the customer brought a used piece of equipment the first thing I would do before even filling out any paperwork on the car would be to bench test the gear. Of course it always came out of a car working or they would not have saved it but it was not uncommon to find it was bad now and saved a lot of time in the long run.

This beeping noise your hearing does it change at all at the moment you are adjusting the volume? I have had some decks that just had a high noise floor that wasn't really audible unless you really wanted to listen to it. Some decks have a filter called a noise gate that turns the decks amp off completely when it is at 0(so no noise out) and others the amp will stay on, and just have the noise to put out. Once you get it into moderate listening you do not hear it but until then often there is not much to do.

[Alfaholic]

when I was working as installer if the customer brought a used piece of equipment the first thing I would do before even filling out any paperwork on the car would be to bench test the gear. Of course it always came out of a car working or they would not have saved it but it was not uncommon to find it was bad now and saved a lot of time in the long run.

This beeping noise your hearing does it change at all at the moment you are adjusting the volume? I have had some decks that just had a high noise floor that wasn't really audible unless you really wanted to listen to it. Some decks have a filter called a noise gate that turns the decks amp off completely when it is at 0(so no noise out) and others the amp will stay on, and just have the noise to put out. Once you get it into moderate listening you do not hear it but until then often there is not much to do.

It gets lower as volume gets higher but i think thats because the sound of music cancel out the beeping sound, if i have the headunit on 0 volume and turn the volume to 1-2 it changes its worst when the volume is turned all the way down.
I do some checking today and see what i find out