High Pitch Noise in Speakers.

Well have a near perfect stereo system, came to an end this weekend. First trip in the water and everything was great. Second crank on the engine and she fired right up. Now for the stereo system. While we were getting the boat ready on the ramp, I wanted to test the system. Sounded awesome. exactly how i remembered it from last year. Now the problem. I went to start the boat, and a high pitch noise came from the speakers. I haven't even started the engine yet. I just turned the key to "ON" and heard this high pitch noise. Now with the engine running, I do not get alternator noise. It is a constant High Pitch sound. I can not figure it out. What do I need to check. I tor everything apart and checked my wiring. Everything looks good and solid. Not sure what I did over the winter months besides not touch anything. Can anyone suggest anything. I am willing to try it all.

perhaps a bad ground on one of the amps if your batteries were disconnected all winter??
didn't get a clean connection when hooked back up?

Gremlins..... they seemed to break my bilge pump outlet as well.;)

Little green boat gremlins that attack and corrode and loosen stuff . . .

or mice......

I've got the same noise with the basic setup. I just ground the stereo case directly to the groud batterie... It works.

Seriously, check the RCA cables to make sure they are seated properly and are clean without corrision. If you have a RCA connection that is only partially olugged in, or if you have corrosion, the RCA cable will end up acting more like an antenna, and it will pick up EVERYTHING that is emitting RF energy. The squeal when you turn the key on is likely the engine's computer, so I would check the suspect RCA cables first.


Phil
Kicker

I had a similiar problem with my JL setup when I first got it. First day out with it a high pitched whine coming from the speaks with the boat running. It seemed to me to be linked to the fuel pump bc it would do it when the key is engaged before startup. Took it back to the shop and they put in some kind of filter(maybe power lead filter? not sure) and took care of everything. No problems since. Good luck.

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Originally Posted by philwsailz

Seriously, check the RCA cables to make sure they are seated properly and are clean without corrision. If you have a RCA connection that is only partially olugged in, or if you have corrosion, the RCA cable will end up acting more like an antenna, and it will pick up EVERYTHING that is emitting RF energy. The squeal when you turn the key on is likely the engine's computer, so I would check the suspect RCA cables first.


Phil
Kicker

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I will check that. Never even though about the corrosion. Figured that part of the boat never gets wet. I have three set I need to check. I did check the ones at my kicker amps. They looked fine. I need to check at the HU. By the way Phil, my Kicker amps kick arse. I have them wired to Polk DB651 and a Boston acoustic sub. Love the way my boat sounds. As a matter of fact, everyone around me loves the sound. When I mean everyone, I mean everyone in the vicinity of the boat. Never had a problem before this. Now if the RCA show signs of rust, what should I do? Get new cables, get a new amp?
Tazz

Vibration can get to all things eventually in a boat.

Sometimes you have to evenly compress (as to maintain the original round shape) the RCA shield fitting on your cable so it seats snugly again. If the cable is strain releived the fix should be permanent without the need for a cable replacement. Or it could be a bad solder joint within the cable's termination.

And sometimes its a weak audio system ground, whether source unit to factory harness or amplifiers to battery. Isolate the noise amplifier by amplifier and speaker by speaker. If its not in all speakers then its a clue that its in your audio system componentry or wiring rather than the boat.

Occasionally its the boat. Supras and Moombas have a history of noise caused by engine management electronics. On one boat but not another. No noise one day and suddenly noise the next. If a vibration-induced ground disconnect (butt splice) occurs within a harness you'll never uncover its exact location even though you might be able to identify the problem. In this case you just re-ground the culprit and close the loop.

And rarely it requires a very, very large capacitor on the engine management module which is in the engine compartment. You can quickly borrow and swap the module with your dealer in case the module has gone bad.

That's the short list of most common issues.

David
Earmark Marine

Before I tore into the stereo, I turn the key on and heard the noise. It was only coming out of the tower speakers. I disconnected the tower and turned it on again. No noise. I checked all the connections and everything was tight. I also cleaned up the wiring behind my amp rack. When I hooked the tower amp back up, the noise was gone. I will see what happens when I hit the water again.

Last year, when I the system was perfect, I did have to remove my second battery from the boat. A Buddy of mine had a battery commit suicide while we were on the lake. I took mine out and gave it to him. When I got my battery back, and hooked everything back up, that is when I noticed the noise. Now we were on our last trip and that why I never noticed the noise until our first trip this year.

Tazz, you get a chance to water test your fix? I am have a very similar problem with my setup. I added/changed amps this year, and replaced the boat speakers, and now I have the whine. Only when running. When the PP display first comes on it's a different whine, but goes away once it's online (like 5 seconds).

The noise is in all speakers, and increases as I turn up the gain on the amps. I need to replace the RCA's as currently they are 15 feet long each, and need to run the power straight from the battery, but was just seeing if you found a good fix.

We are going to hit the water this weekend. So far the test I did worked. Cant really tell until I hit the water. I did move the wires around. I did have some of the RCA and Speaker wires around my power wires. In your case, I would check your ground wires from your amp. On my system, I removed the stereo ground from the harness and wired that and all the amps straight to the battery. I do believe by doing this, the noise you are speaking of will go away. I think that mine was feed back. Also, nothing to do with the noise, I removed the constant power wire, Yellow or Orange, from the harness and wired that to the positive side of the battery. That wire will keep all your setting on the radio. I hope this helps. I will post when I get back on Sunday night. I need to have this working for our big trip next week.

Tazz

Thanks Tazz. I've been meaning to try to yellow/orange power wire directly to the battery, but haven't done it yet. I guess I just wanted to be sure it wouldn't do my any harm if I cut that wire from going all the way to the dash, like the rest of them do from the factory harness.

I do need to swap out for new RCA's, but I'm hoping I can cure the noise relativly easy.

I'll report back also after this weekend!

Tazz, you get any good results from your fix?

I just got done putting in my dual battery system (blue sea), and have the constand power and ground running to the same battery as the amp. I still have a whine in the speakers. When the volume is at 0, there is no whine at all, and between CD tracks or switching sources on the headunit, there is no whine, but other than that it's there. It seems to be less than it was before, but it's still there.

You, or anyone else have any additional advice? I am planning to swap to new RCA cables as soon as I can land on some I like, but other than that, I'm not sure what other options I've got.

Thanks in advance guys!