Recently had my 380 stereo overhauled and found a crackle sound in my left rear 6x9. After realising my soundstreams sound like poo against my nice new kicker RS up front, I decided to disconnect the RCA's from the amp and leave them off.

However last night coming home, it started crackling again!

The easiest way to describe the sound, is like an old CRT tv on aerial when there is no picture and all snowy. The crackle doesn't seem to be affected by volume (obviously as there is no rca plug in lol).

What could cause a speaker to do this, even with no sound going into it? (amp output is still connected via speaker wires). Could this be an issue with the amp's internal amplifier circuit, or could the speaker/magnets be shorting out or something? Like a voice coil etc.

I was thinking of swapping around the inputs on the speakers and seeing if the issue moved, but was hoping someone here know what might cause this issue, it is very weird.

Pretty sure something is grounding out, check all your connections and make sure all wires are insulated pretty much

Pretty sure something is grounding out, check all your connections and make sure all wires are insulated pretty much

Yeah I'm just trying to understand where the interference/grounding out could possibly be. The speaker outputs look OK, the terminals on the speaker itself look fine.
I'm only getting the crackle in 1 rear speaker, and nothing in the front (same amp).

My wife's TL had a her speakers fail all of them on a TL VRX. It was when she had put stuff in the boot and shorted out the left rear speaker. But tour issue sound different.

If your systems all 4/5 speakers are amped - off hi levels or RCA's. Basically setting your gains to the absolute mimimum requirement will help reduce induced noise, from Hilevel converters or induced noise.
You could try this, especially if you get noise at zero volume or you cant take the volume above 80% because distortion sets in.
1. Note where your gains are set - photo or pen and paper. You may set them back later if it doesnt work.
2. Get in your and see if the noise is apperant with the stereo on - and volume on zero.
3.. pull your gains all the down.
4. set volume to 80%
5. Gradually increase gains where sound is still very clear - and a comfortable maximum volume is attained - Check noise has gone ( hopefully).
6. If this does not help, reset the gains to your records.

* If you run off RCA's use 90% instead of 80%.
* make sure the rca's feeding the amps are clear of any AC currents i.e. Speaker wires, comm wires, etc....DC current doesn't doesn't alternate and induces very little interferance if Any...
* Of course you'll need to do them in pairs, once the front is set, note the setting on the gain knob, and wind it down while you do the back, once finished set it to your new recorded setting...

I did this to Knotched's car off high levels and cleaned it up a treat....

Getting little interference to the actual sound, and yes it does still happen when the volume is at zero.

I thought it might have been the converter too, but the interference/pop/crackle sound is coming out of a speaker that isn't even connected via RCA's.

I'm thinking it might be easier to just d/c them completely from the amp, but i'd like to know whether its the amp itself or the speakers, If it's the speakers i'll go grab some nice RS 6x9's.

I had speaker static for a while, even when the radio was off (car running obviously).
Did a reroute, all fixed...

Noise through the Hi Level converter.

Try to insulate the Power, Remote, Ground and RCAs seperately.

Unlikely to be the speakers itself, the speakers are only reproducing what you're feeding them..

Feed em sh*t.. They give you sh*t..
Feed em a pure clean signal.. They give you a pure clean sound

SuFz :ninja:

The only thing feeding them at the moment though is power. There is no signal going into those channels.

If it's not the speakers i'm worried its the output channel itself getting interference internally in the amp :(.

The only thing feeding them at the moment though is power. There is no signal going into those channels.

If it's not the speakers i'm worried its the output channel itself getting interference internally in the amp :(.

Basically.. Something is feeding sh*t in the system..

Possibly a minor short on the ground, unshielded power and ground wire crossing the speaker wires - Could be a multitude of things.

Try shielding or even moving your wires to seperate sides of the car.

eg.

POWER --------- SPEAKER CABLES -------- GROUND


A run like that may clean things up a little.. plus check your grounding points as well - Sand them down and if you're worried about rust, grease them (Use a metal based grease to avoid corrosion and still make contact)

You could always look at installing a noise supressor on the line too..

SuFz :ninja:

OK found the culprit, don't taze me but it was 1 of the speaker wires not on the terminal tight at the speaker. I didn't even think to check whether the wires were connected properly until after checking the speaker wires for grounding.

Thanks for all the help guys.

I've now got another issue where the installer has got the subs running off the rears, which sucks because if i want bigger bass, it means i have to fade to the rear speakers more. Guess I can just turn the gains down on the amp, it never ends with car audio :P.