Please 'Boom' Responsibly As most of you have noticed, the noise ordinances have become much tougher lately. Most of this is due to idiots, yes IDIOTS, who drive through residential areas with their windows down while their system is playing at full power. To make things worse, the music they listen to has all sorts of foul language that's not suitable for small children, (who may be playing outside). There are even a few people, who are even beyond idiot status, that play their systems at full power through residential areas after 10:00 PM (when many people go to bed). I don't believe that this type of behavior is good for the industry. If the fines get too stiff, people will stop buying large systems. If this happens, more people will get out of car audio (who wants a mediocre system). People get interested in things because they're exciting. A deck and four 6.5" speakers are not going to interest many of the younger car audio enthusiasts. If car audio enthusiasts keep annoying more and more people, the fines will keep getting tougher. All of this will only reduce interest in the equipment that fuels the industry. If you want to listen to your system at full volume, get out on the highway where there's little chance of bothering anyone. When you get to a red light, turn it down. If the only thing attractive about you is your 'system', you have some work to do. Bottom line... Think about what you're doing. Think about other people. It's not the end of the world if you have to turn the volume down for a little while. |
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Checking RCA cables:
When there is a question of whether a piece of electronic
equipment or a set of RCA cables is bad, you should do
the following. Unplug BOTH of the connectors on BOTH ends
of the cable. It is now completely disconnected from
everything. Take ONE side of the jacks (left OR right)
and use it to do this test. We will start with the right
side of the RCA cable. Plug the right side of the cable
into the right side of both pieces of equipment (the
crossover and the amp in this situation). If the right
side of the amplifier starts to play, then you know the
right side of the RCA cable is good. Move the cable
around a little on both ends to make sure that the cable
is not intermittently defective. If the sound doesn't cut
out, we will assume that the right side of the cable is
indeed OK. If the sound cuts out or does not come
through, try using the other channel of the RCA cables.
Now move the RCA cable connector from the right channel
of the amplifier to the left channel of the amplifier. If
the left channel of the amplifier now plays, you know
that both channels of the amplifier are OK. Now move the
RCA cable connector from the right channel of the
crossover to the left channel of the crossover. If the
audio plays through again, we know that both channels of
the amplifier and both channels of the crossover are OK.
If the audio does not play through, the left channel of
the crossover or something in the left channel's signal
line before the crossover is defective. Now repeat the
process with the left side of the RCA cable. If the left
channel of the cable is bad, it will not pass all of the
tests as it did with the right side. Of course you could
also check the RCA cable with an ohm meter if you have
one available. Meter readings: The demo below shows how the meter will read with the leads shorted (touching) or open (not touching). Drag your mouse over the diagram below. If the shield connection of the cable is good, the meter will read the same as if the meter leads were held together. If the shield connection is defective, the meter will read the same as when the leads are open (not touching to anything). Do the same thing for the center conductor. You will also have to check the other channel of the RCA cable. If you check from the shield to the center conductor, the meter should show open. ENGINE NOISE These are general rules or tips which will prevent or reduce the problems with engine noise.
NOTE: DO NOT make any connection (RCA or otherwise) with the system switched on. Doing so may cause damage to speakers or amplifiers. The image below is a normal system with a head unit, equalizer, crossover and 2 amplifers. The first step is to bypass all components and connect the head unit directly to the high frequency amplifier. The high frequency amplifier should be used because the tweeters connected to the amplifier will best reproduce the frequencies that are associated with alternator whine. If the noise goes away with only the HU and high frequency amplifier connected, it is a fairly safe assumption that these two components are OK. You can also connect the head unit directly to the low frequency amplifier to see if the noise returns (although the noise may be hard to hear since woofers don't reproduce the higher frequencies very well). If there is noise with only one of the amplifiers, the problem probably lies within the noisy amplifier. If the noise is present with both amplifiers, there may be something wrong with the head unit.
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