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Thread: Aftermarket Audio System Broke My Car?

  1. #21
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    Everything in the car is protected by a fuse. If you cause voltage to drop low enough you could have increased current enough to blow a fuse. Is there anything not working? Have you checked all the fuses?



  2. #22
    What about that yellow fuse holder in the dash fuse block that dealers often don’t push in all in the way during pdi? Or the ones on the positive post. I watched a shop replace a cvt in a lancer(did they even come with cvt’s?) a while ago cause it didn’t shift right. They put atf in it. Car still acted the same. Turned out one of the fuses at the battery was blown lol I don’t know if they ever told the customer .

    Edit never mind reading is hard
    Last edited by Fummins; 01-20-2021 at 12:45 AM.

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        click to view fuel log View my fuel log 2014 Mirage SE wussie cvt edition. 1.2 automatic: 37.7 mpg (US) ... 16.0 km/L ... 6.2 L/100 km ... 45.3 mpg (Imp)


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    Quote Originally Posted by BillAce View Post
    Everything in the car is protected by a fuse. If you cause voltage to drop low enough you could have increased current enough to blow a fuse. Is there anything not working? Have you checked all the fuses?
    I have not noticed any changes in the car besides the speaker feedback issue. I have checked the stereo fuse but nothing else. I have been putting this off because it's such a pain in the butt to remove the fuses. There is probably a special tool I could use but I have been using needle nose pliers and a gorilla grip. I guess I'll check them all one by one tmrw.....

    Edit: changed have to have not, oops

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    Quote Originally Posted by Fummins View Post
    What about that yellow fuse holder in the dash fuse block that dealers often don’t push in all in the way during pdi? Or the ones on the positive post. I watched a shop replace a cvt in a lancer(did they even come with cvt’s?) a while ago cause it didn’t shift right. They put atf in it. Car still acted the same. Turned out one of the fuses at the battery was blown lol I don’t know if they ever told the customer .

    Edit never mind reading is hard
    I smashed that stupid yellow fuse holder to pieces when I installed the receiver a couple years ago. That thing really pissed me off lol.

    I guess I have to suck it up and do the tedious work of going on by one by one by one by one by one by one by one by one by one, am I finished yet? no? by one by one by one.....

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    My speakers pull, each, 150w at their max. My sub pulls 400w at it's max. So that's 700w. and my amp is 500w. I was literally playing the music as loud as i possibly could. I have a feeling i was pulling 500w. However I'm admittedly uneducated when it comes to how exactly electricity works with all the volts, watts, amps, etc etc. So what I'm saying right now might just be pointless.

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    Speaker wattage isn't really a factor. A Speaker is a pad on the amp which determines how much power it will be asked to produce. An amplifier uses your cars electrical system to boost low level audio signal to provide that power. A 500w amp connected to a healthy electrical system should see around 13.8-14.4v. 500 / 14 = 36A. Do for your amp to make 500 watts your car should give it 36A.
    If the car has a 100A alternator your using a third of the available output for your stereo. That is the best case scenario for a few reasons.
    Music is dynamic and speaker load changes with frequency and music is mastered to boost frequencies too. It is possible to have an amp produce 10x it's rated power in an instant just like there are moments when it produces 1/10th.
    An alternator charge is rpm dependent and it will not produce 100A because the engine is running. There will be much less power replaced at idle or cruising speed.
    Amps are regulated and will try to make full power with as little as 10V. So if your electrical system is being overworked and dips to 12V it means 500 / 12 = 42A. 500 / 10 = 50A. It's easy to make a bad situation worse.
    Current demand goes up as voltage drops and that is true for every circuit in the car. That is why a fuse can blow, the current going through it is higher than what it is rated for and it melts.
    I've seen cars blow many fuses due to a problem supplying voltage. I've put separate 16v electrical systems in cars for large systems or upgraded to 300A alternator.
    You don't have an extreme system but push it to extremes that create issues for the car and your hearing.

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    I'm not an audio expert (but I am a computer engineer), so take this with a grain of salt, but:

    You are using an external amp which is receiving an analog input from the output of your head unit. It is then taking this analog signal (whatever it may be) and amplifying it significantly before sending it to the speakers. If your entire system was kept in the digital domain until after the amp, it probably wouldn't be an issue, but...

    By shifting over to the analog domain for that brief, low-power portion of your system, you are massively opening yourself up to electrical noise in your signal. The amount of noise can be represented as a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). The lower the SNR, the more easily you'll be able to actually hear it. There are many, many sources of electrical interference in a vehicle, and each of your short RCA cables is, in effect, acting as an antenna and working to pick up ALL of them.

    Additionally, in my experience, power quality has a HUGE impact on audio quality in an analog system. If you have a dirty/noisy power supply, that noise will inevitably make its way over to the analog side of the system and cause audible feedback. For example, on one of my laptops I can tell what the system is doing when I have headphones in based solely on the intensity/frequency of the small amount of noise that ends up pushing through. Fancy amps and head units should have isolating circuits specifically to avoid this, but it's at least something worth considering.

    If I were you, as a quick and easy way to debug, I would first try powering your amp/head unit from a separate, dedicated power source than the rest of the car. Not sure how easy/difficult that would be with the way you have things wired up, but it would certainly remove a lot of variables from the equation very quickly.
    Last edited by PityOnU; 01-20-2021 at 06:41 PM.

  9. #28
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    Quote Originally Posted by PityOnU View Post
    I'm not an audio expert (but I am a computer engineer), so take this with a grain of salt, but:

    You are using an external amp which is receiving an analog input from the output of your head unit. It is then taking this analog signal (whatever it may be) and amplifying it significantly before sending it to the speakers. If your entire system was kept in the digital domain until after the amp, it probably wouldn't be an issue, but...

    By shifting over to the analog domain for that brief, low-power portion of your system, you are massively opening yourself up to electrical noise in your signal. The amount of noise can be represented as a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). The lower the SNR, the more easily you'll be able to actually hear it. There are many, many sources of electrical interference in a vehicle, and each of your short RCA cables is, in effect, acting as an antenna and working to pick up ALL of them.

    Additionally, in my experience, power quality has a HUGE impact on audio quality in an analog system. If you have a dirty/noisy power supply, that noise will inevitably make its way over to the analog side of the system and cause audible feedback. For example, on one of my laptops I can tell what the system is doing when I have headphones in based solely on the intensity/frequency of the small amount of noise that ends up pushing through. Fancy amps and head units should have isolating circuits specifically to avoid this, but it's at least something worth considering.

    If I were you, as a quick and easy way to debug, I would first try powering your amp/head unit from a separate, dedicated power source than the rest of the car. Not sure how easy/difficult that would be with the way you have things wired up, but it would certainly remove a lot of variables from the equation very quickly.
    All good points from an electronocentric point of view with one exception - the noise started after his system went Pop. If interstage cabling was the cause it would have been present before the Pop.

    The amp is roached. Try a new amp. Maybe a bigger one this time lol.

        __________________________________________

        click to view fuel log View my fuel log 2015 Mirage ES 1.2 manual: 49.6 mpg (US) ... 21.1 km/L ... 4.7 L/100 km ... 59.5 mpg (Imp)


  10. #29
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    Quote Originally Posted by Eggman View Post
    The amp is roached. Try a new amp. Maybe a bigger one this time lol.
    The amp is fine. I brought it to the audio shop near me to be tested. It had no issues for them.

  11. #30
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    Quote Originally Posted by PityOnU View Post
    I'm not an audio expert (but I am a computer engineer), so take this with a grain of salt, but:

    You are using an external amp which is receiving an analog input from the output of your head unit. It is then taking this analog signal (whatever it may be) and amplifying it significantly before sending it to the speakers. If your entire system was kept in the digital domain until after the amp, it probably wouldn't be an issue, but...

    By shifting over to the analog domain for that brief, low-power portion of your system, you are massively opening yourself up to electrical noise in your signal. The amount of noise can be represented as a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). The lower the SNR, the more easily you'll be able to actually hear it. There are many, many sources of electrical interference in a vehicle, and each of your short RCA cables is, in effect, acting as an antenna and working to pick up ALL of them.

    Additionally, in my experience, power quality has a HUGE impact on audio quality in an analog system. If you have a dirty/noisy power supply, that noise will inevitably make its way over to the analog side of the system and cause audible feedback. For example, on one of my laptops I can tell what the system is doing when I have headphones in based solely on the intensity/frequency of the small amount of noise that ends up pushing through. Fancy amps and head units should have isolating circuits specifically to avoid this, but it's at least something worth considering.

    If I were you, as a quick and easy way to debug, I would first try powering your amp/head unit from a separate, dedicated power source than the rest of the car. Not sure how easy/difficult that would be with the way you have things wired up, but it would certainly remove a lot of variables from the equation very quickly.
    I have done quite a bit of troubleshooting. I've ruled out everything you have mentioned, but power source. I am confident that if I were to power the amp and receiver with a separate dedicated power source it would work fine with no issues. The issue is somewhere in the electronics in the Mirage. Something blew and because of that it's creating feedback noise. It wasn't doing this before said thing blew.



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