SPEAKER FUZZ?

Hey everybody, I just installed a set of pioneer speakers all around my 2002 tacoma and noticed that it is making that annoying fuzzy sound out of one speaker. If I took the door panel off is there something I can do to fix it??

 

Can you give more detail?

Does the noise happen when music is not being played?
Does the fuzz get louder when volume is turned up?
Do you have an aftermarket amp or running them off the HU?
Have you checked the connections to make sure something isn't loose or connected wrong?

Worst case take the speaker out and swap it with the speaker from the other side. Does the fuzz noise move with the speaker or does it stay at the same location? Or did it go away all together?

 

^^ what he said. should be pretty easy to figure out if its just from the one speaker.

 

I’m having the same problem. Just installed kickers all around and a 4 channel amp, kept stock head unit and it makes an annoying fuzz volume 0-6 then it’s not that noticeable, of course. But it even makes the fuzz noise when the HU is completely off. Not as much as when it’s on, but it still fuzzes. Do you know what this could possibly be? A bad ground? To the amp or HU? Or could it possibly be that the HU is a line output where as the amp is a preamp output?
Please advise, much appreciated.

 

Sounds like your amp is staying on when it shouldn't be. Does it do it with the truck off? Or just with the radio off? Which amp? What are you using for an amp turn-on trigger?

 

Not when I turn the ignition off, but you know, I had trouble starting it the other day after it had been off for a while...had trouble turning over but finally got it, sounded like the battery was weak...
I honestly don’t know as far as a turn on trigger, I had a local shop here install it. Took it back to them and they acted like nothing was wrong, told me it was just amp noise. Yea, no shit, it shouldn’t be there, what a load of BS.
A buddy of mine thought it might be the high/low adapter and the kill wire behind the stock head unit...is the the turn on trigger you’re talking about??

 

...but power light on amp goes off when truck is completely off (ignition off).

 

I'm not sure what I'm talking about. I have no idea what your installer did to get your amp to turn on. Can you see your amp's lights? If so, maybe go out and have a peek and see if your amp is on right now. And which model amp are we talking about?

Amp noise huh? Well, it could be. If it's a cheap amp it definitely could be. It could also be a defective amp. It could be bad connections - bad grounds in particular can cause issues. But for your installer to say it's just amp noise, like it's something normal, is a little fukky.

I'd check to see if the amp is on first though. Not that it will fix this noise problem, but will save you from buying a new battery soon.

 

Aah, that was easy.

Yeah, could be a noisy adapter. Or perhaps the installer doesn't understand gain structure. Who did this install? Best Buy? Buddy? SpeakerWorks?

 

Amp light is off when ignition is off and key is out. Amp is a Kicker, never had any problems with them in the past.

 

Oh, so this just started happening after being installed for a while? No other changes at all around the time you noticed it?

 

It just started happening after install. Maybe 3 days ago. Got it installed at local mod shop that I’ve only heard good things about. Had problems with my remote start, took it to them and they were right on the money. I don’t know...

When you say noisy adapter what do you mean exactly? A bad adapter behind the head unit? You don’t think it’s got anything to do with the stock head unit being line output and the amp being preamp output? I’m not that audio savvy but that’s what the adapter is for right??

 

By the adapter thing, I mean that the installer may have used a line-level adapter which converts speaker level signals to a lower voltage...sounds like that's what they did. Yeah, I think we're on the same page there. If it's a cheesy one it could make noise, but maybe we should give the benefit of the doubt there for now. Your amp shouldn't be noticeably noisy on its own unless it's pretty quiet. However. There are 3 (or 4) gain controls at work here all in a chain. If someone set them arbitrarily (or just didn't know what they were doing and just turned it up till they could hear stuff) then that could introduce hiss on almost any equipment. I can point you in the right direction if you wanna try and get this right yourself...if it is actually the problem. Sounds like a high noise floor due to improperly set gains.

 

That could possibly be it...when I went back to the install shop and they said it was amp noise, they did say the gains were turned up really high. They suggested if I turn them down a hair it might help. I turned both gains down from about 70% to an even 50%, didn’t touch any other controls and the fuzz is still pretty noticeable, even when head unit is completely off. Even if it was the amp control settings, would that effect the presence of the fuzz when the head unit is off?
How about I shoot you a pic of my kicker amp controls?

 

Your amp does one job - it amplifies the signal it's sent. Can we go upstream a bit...to the adapter? It probably has 2 sets of gains - one input and one output. I suspect this is where the issue is.

But - something easy to try before digging that thing out. Unplug the RCAs from your amp and see what happens. This is a really easy way to rule out the amp...or identify it as the culprit. If it still makes noise, your amp is the problem. If it gets really quiet all of a sudden, then the problem is upstream.

 

Unplugged RCAs from amp and fuzz disappeared. So you think it’s an adapter problem? Before going any further let me ask you this...if I got an aftermarket head unit would that more or less solve all my problems? In that case, I wouldn’t have to use an adapter, and I’d actually have a remote wire spot in the back of the head unit, which would hopefully eliminate any buzz after unit was off (as opposed to stock head unit with no remote wire.) Does this sound about right??

 

Installing an aftermarket unit would let you lose the adapter, and I think yeah if you bought a decent head unit from a reputable manufacturer it would fix the hiss issue.

 

I think you’re right. Upon further examination, I saw since my stock HU has no remote wire, he just tied it into something in my fuse box, which explains why my amp is on when my truck is on.
The only other thing I can think of that it might be is a bad ground connection to the amp itself...I did see where it’s connected is on straight red paint. I think I’m going to chip that down to bare metal and see if it makes any difference.

 

Yeah, good idea. Your ground should be on bare metal - then re-coat that spot to make sure it doesn't corrode once you get your ground on. That usually helps more with whine and current issues, but sounds like it needs to be fixed anyway.

 

What do you suggest coating it with?