How to Six Ways to A Smoother-Sounding Car Audio

Here are eight ways how to have interference- and noise-free car audio.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

1. Don't introduce ground loops. In electrical engineering and electronics, a ground loop means an unexpected electrical current that flows in a conductor connecting two points supposedly at the same potential, for example ground potential, but are actually at different potentials. Be careful when laying out the electricity flow; in fact, the only place the audio ground should be connected to the chassis ground is at the source unit.
2. Signal wires side by side with power cables are no-no. If audio cables are placed quite close to the power cable's radiated electromagnetic field, noise could creep into the system.
3. A 100% shielded audio cable is good defense against sources of interference.
4. Brevity is not only applicable to reports, it also covers amplifier power ground wires. When a current flows through a high-resistance wire, the ground reference at the amplifier's circuit board does not match that at the chassis of the vehicle. This discrepancy means noise and erratic amp operation.
5. There is no need to wire all of your amplifier ground wires under one bolt. This is definitely one thing you can do without if the rest of the system is assembled correctly. Be warned that connecting more than one power ground wire under a single bolt invites the danger of amplifier ground modulation. The worst possible effect is a squeaking noise from the tweeters teaming up with the bass notes.
6. Keep an eye on level setting. </b>Doing this correctly means getting a maximum system signal to noise ratio. And remember that to do so, it starts by keeping the gain of the amplifiers as low as possible. Then keep the volume on the source unit at four-fifths of the maximum. Lastly, fix the input sensitivity of the amplifiers upward until you get the maximum loudness you want.