PDA

View Full Version : Fantastic Info, removing ground loops



astormsau
21-04-2008, 03:29 PM
Some good info here for people who have annoying ground loop noises in car setups using a power amplifier connected using RCA's.

Basic logic is that the sound sent from your headunit to you amp is AC power, the sound running around your car is DC power. - there is more complex logic and explanation but this keeps it relativly simple. I think i got them round the right way...

The other sound can be introduced for many numbers of reasons, quality of grounding, RCA's grounding out, ground leaks, heaps of other things.

Jaycar make a ground loop isolation transformer, it filters ouf the DC power from the signal going to your amps using a transformer, this removes the noise and only lets the audio through.

I had a normal stereo amplifier and I used to connect a notebook to it to listen to music at home, would always get an annoying whining sound in the background whilst listening to music. Putting in the ground loop isolator removed all the noise.

Search on Jaycar.com.au for Car Stereo Line Isolation Transformer or search for product AA3085.

Nice cheap fix, also good for DJ's who use notebooks and get that annoying hum or noise of hard disks spinning in notebooks and so forth.

ICACHA
21-04-2008, 06:43 PM
Some good info here for people who have annoying ground loop noises in car setups using a power amplifier connected using RCA's.

Basic logic is that the sound sent from your headunit to you amp is AC power, the sound running around your car is DC power. - there is more complex logic and explanation but this keeps it relativly simple. I think i got them round the right way...

Yep looks right...


The other sound can be introduced for many numbers of reasons, quality of grounding, RCA's grounding out, ground leaks, heaps of other things.

Quality of RCA's yes these can eliminate noise induced via the cable run.

RCA's grounding out? Please meter the RCA's on the back of your head unit to the chassis of the head unit and you will see that they are the same ground, the same ground that the head unit sees when you ground it to the chassis or OEM wiring loom...


Jaycar make a ground loop isolation transformer, it filters out the DC power from the signal going to your amps using a transformer, this removes the noise and only lets the audio through.

You don't need these if your system consists of quality gear...


I had a normal stereo amplifier and I used to connect a notebook to it to listen to music at home, would always get an annoying whining sound in the background whilst listening to music. Putting in the ground loop isolator removed all the noise.

Search on Jaycar.com.au for Car Stereo Line Isolation Transformer or search for product AA3085.

Nice cheap fix, also good for DJ's who use notebooks and get that annoying hum or noise of hard disks spinning in notebooks and so forth.

This is because there is no common ground on the equipment (floating ground) remove the ground from the RCA's and only run the centre conductor, this should eliminate the noise you are hearing, its a cheaper fix than the jaycar inline ground loop isolators :)

trism
22-04-2008, 08:15 PM
^^ he knows a thing or two this guy ;)

ICACHA
23-04-2008, 09:15 AM
thanks matt :p