Motor sound coming through speakers???

[chrismi25]

Hey guys.

Need a little help here. I have recently put in a new stereo in my boat and we thought everything was great until we put it in the water. Fired up the motor and now have the motor whistle coming through the speakers. The faster you go the louder the whistle get.

The stereo works great and sound comes out of the speakers...just an annoying whistle coming out as well when running. I am thinking it has something to do with the ground but not 100% sure.

Here are the specks:

• 1994 Prostar 205
• 4 speakers in the boat - added two up front
• Pyle 400 4 channel amp - all speakers are ran through the amp. One on each channel (no bridging)
• **amp power and ground are on the battery - Is their a better ground on boats than the battery? In cars I used to ground to the frame.
• Only have one battery but planning on adding a second at some point

Before I added these new speakers and amp the two old speakers were ran straight through the radio head unit.

Have ay of you ran into this problem? Any trouble shooting tips?

I have put in many car stereos back in my high school years but this is the first time to tackle a boat setup. I know back then I had some trouble with grounding from time to time so that is why I am thinking this might be the case.

I'm going out to the boat this weekend so I will shot a video and some pics. Any advice is greatly appreciated.

Thanks guys.
- Chris

[Tsumi]

Make sure your head unit's ground is on the battery as well. Usually the whine is caused by the head unit and the amps having different ground locations.

If necessary, just splice in a wire from the dash unit to the battery.

[cbryan70]

Make sure your head unit's ground is on the battery as well. Usually the whine is caused by the head unit and the amps having different ground locations.

If necessary, just splice in a wire from the dash unit to the battery.

Beat me to it. make sure both grounds are going to the same place.

[chrismi25]

Interesting...

Behind the dash their us a wire harness that comes down that has a two wires grouped
together for the radio: Red wire is tagged with "Radio" and the black wire is tagged "Ground."

So this ground is not a strong ground for the radio? Or it just both of them on different ground?

Where is a good ground in these boats? Or is the battery the best ground?

[el Dax]

Interesting...

Behind the dash their us a wire harness that comes down that has a two wires grouped
together for the radio: Red wire is tagged with "Radio" and the black wire is tagged "Ground."

So this ground is not a strong ground for the radio? Or it just both of them on different ground?

Where is a good ground in these boats? Or is the battery the best ground?

Best ground is battery. It's not that you have a bad ground, it's that your ground is likely being shared with other gizmos, tachometer if I had my guess. Take the radio ground wire, extend it, by itself to battery.

If this doesn't solve it, it might be cheap RCA wires collecting interference somewhere.

[Tsumi]

It doesn't really matter. Just make sure they're on the same place.

The radio is generally grounded at the dash. So just run a direct wire to the battery.

[chrismi25]

That makes sense.

Never would have thought of this. Thanks guys for the quick help really appreciate it.

One last question: The speakers is bought have led lights built into them. These wires are wires are separate than the speakers wires (http://www.kicker.com/41KM84LCW). We wired the lights to the ACC1 switch. The ACC1 has the same wire harness as the radio (red -AAC1, black- ground).

If these lights are wired up directly this wouldn't pull sound through once ground the head unit to the battery? Or should I ground these lights to the battery as well?

Thanks guys.

[el Dax]

That makes sense.

Never would have thought of this. Thanks guys for the quick help really appreciate it.

One last question: The speakers is bought have led lights built into them. These wires are wires are separate than the speakers wires (http://www.kicker.com/41KM84LCW). We wired the lights to the ACC1 switch. The ACC1 has the same wire harness as the radio (red -AAC1, black- ground).

If these lights are wired up directly this wouldn't pull sound through once ground the head unit to the battery? Or should I ground these lights to the battery as well?

Thanks guys.

I would think the lights can be wired anywhere and anyway you please. Even though they are technically attached to the speaker, they are a separate animal and can be treated as such.

[chrismi25]

Perfect. Thanks again everyone.

I will let you know the outcome this weekend and post some pic/videos.

[David Analog]

chrismi25,
Just curious, but with that system, rated from 1 to 10, 10 being the best, how accurately does it reproduce the motor whine?

[east tx skier]

I didn't see this mentioned, but also make sure your RCA Cables and speaker cables aren't run in line right next to your power cables.

[chrismi25]

From 1-10 I would give it a 5. You can hear the whine of the engine pretty clear. Its not super loud but when you speed up it gets louder.

I can turn up the music to drown out he whine but when you turn the volume down it is a constant annoying wine

[chrismi25]

chrismi25,
Just curious, but with that system, rated from 1 to 10, 10 being the best, how accurately does it reproduce the motor whine?

From 1-10 I would give it a 5. You can hear the whine of the engine pretty clear. Its not super loud but when you speed up it gets louder.

I can turn up the music to drown out he whine but when you turn the volume down it is a constant annoying wine

[06MCX15]

Run your head unit ground to your amp if you have one. If not, run head unit ground to battery. Should take much of the noise out.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Logan91077]

chrismi25,

Just curious, but with that system, rated from 1 to 10, 10 being the best, how accurately does it reproduce the motor whine?

Good one David😜


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk