Well, I just got back from getting my tuner installed. Everything seems to be working, but I have a few questions/comments:

1.) The volume seems to drop-out occassionally while listening to the radio. I assume this is some sort of compensation to prevent static/noise when the signal gets low, but it seems to be a little to sensitive, as it drops out even when the signal bar is at 100%. Is there any hope of adjusting the sensitivity (assuming that this indeed why it's happening)?

2.) The 'RDS' indicator has come on several times, eventhough there's no RDS being broadcast in my area. No RDS information is displayed, of course, and the indicator will go away as quickly as it shows up.

3.) Installing the tuner seems to have introduced dreaded alternator whine. Are there any common things to check for? I'm taking the car back to the installer, of course, but I'd like to minimize the time it has to stay in the shop.

-Oscar

The volume seems to drop-out occassionally while listening to the radio.

This does not happen to me. When a signal gets weak, I can tell it's happening before I lose the signal. It's not a question of a tradeoff between clean signal and silence. If you are hearing a reasonably clean station and it suddenly drops out, it's probably not because it's trying to mask static. I'd say there's something else wrong, like a wiring problem, or maybe you don't have any power applied to your car's built-in antenna booster or something like that.

The 'RDS' indicator has come on several times, eventhough there's no RDS being broadcast in my area.

Probably harmless. Occasionally grabbing onto some random noise and briefly mis-interpreting the signal as RDS. Probably normal, and probably doesn't hurt anything.

Then again, it might be related to your previous problem, I don't know...

Installing the tuner seems to have introduced dreaded alternator whine. Are there any common things to check for?

I had the exact same thing happen. I thought I'd finally licked all my noise problems, then the tuner installation brought it back.

I worked very hard for a while and finally nailed the problem. I did a whole bunch of different things and the combination of stuff I did finally cleared it up. Here's what I came up with:

- Each "component" that you add to a car stereo increases the chance for ground loops. Because each component is another path to ground. Every amp, crossover, head unit, etc., is just another way for a ground loop to rear its ugly head.

- So therefore, diagnose your problem by pulling components until the problem goes away. Then try routes around the problem.

- In the process of working on it, I found a cold/loose solder joint at one of my power wiring junctions. Fixing this helped.

- Re-routing the audio RCA cables so that they no longer ran next to the power wires helped.

- Re-dressing the audio RCA cables behind the sled helped.

- Re-patching the amplifiers helped. Originally, I had it wired like this:

Front output->Front channels of 4-channel amp.
Rear output->Rear channels of 4-channel amp.
Rear channel pass-through->Subwoofer amp.

When I re-routed it so that it went like this:

Front output->Front channels of 4-channel amp.
Front channel pass-through->Rear channels of 4-channel amp
Rear output->Subwoofer amp.

Then the last of my noise went away.

The re-wiring for the front/rear channels means that I no longer have a front/rear balance control, but that's OK as I had the balance perfectly set already by using the amps' input gains and the empeg was always set to "center". So by re-wiring it the way I just listed, I now use the fader as a subwoofer level control.

___________
Tony Fabris

In reply to:

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When a signal gets weak, I can tell it's happening before I lose the signal. It's not a question of a tradeoff between clean signal and silence.

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Well, it's not so much silence as a 50% drop in volume. Thanks for your notes though - I thought it might be a wiring problem, too. Given what you've said, I take it that the empeg does no "static masking" at all?

Thanks for all your notes on diagnosing alternator whine. Someone needs to invent a little "alternator whine diagnostic box"!

. Given what you've said, I take it that the empeg does no "static masking" at all?

No, I think it does do static masking. It's just that I've never heard it drop in volume unless there was an obvious signal loss problem. In other words, if you hear it drop in volume, it's obvious why it did so.

If you're hearing a clear radio station, and the signal strength indicator is at 100 percent like you said it was, it shouldn't be dropping in volume like that.

___________
Tony Fabris

The one station I've found so far that broadcasts in my area using RDS does the same thing to me. During the day it flashes in & out after about 30 seconds it shows the station call letters then later the clock shows up, still haven't seen any message at the bottom. At night I the RDS indicator on same station doesn't show up at all.
Interesting thing about the clock that shows up is it'll be wrong when it first appears but corrects itself after a few seconds.

#695-Mk2/Many pretty faceplate colors-12Gig/TUNER-anxiously awaits v2.x & VR

"No buyers regret"

Correct, it does do static masking; this is a feature of the dsp though, and shouldn't be kicking in with full signal strength... is the station very very strong? It could be something wrapping the signal strength value.

Hugo

I've used a Ground Loup Isolator in my old car set up. (not needed in my new car) and that cleared my problem up of engine noise. I got it at Radio Shack. It just removes the ground from the RCA cables going to the amps, but still transmitts the ground using a coil or something.

Has anyone else used this?

-CHiP

I've used a Ground Loup Isolator......at Radio Shack..........anyone else used this?

Yes I think I have the same thing your talking about & it worked great for me eliminating the noise.


#695-Mk2/8 colors-12Gig/TUNER-but awaits v2.x & VR

"No buyers regret"