Well..the HU is definately shot and with no 'official' customer service to help me out I fear it is doomed to the shelf in the garage.

Any suggestions?

Ed

What kind of problems / symptoms? There is car support through Rob, and (depending on the fix) there are some folks around who might be able to do repairs (i.e., Mark, Stu, etc.)

Thanks Paul,

Thre is something wrong with the output stage for i get horrible whine from the Player and unlistenable whine from the AUX..also, now that I took it out and hooked back up my CD HU the sound ins INCREDIBLY better...never knwo what I was missing.....sad to think that i cannot fix the Rio...must be some way to get it done!

Ed

Sounds like a loose connection somwhere to me. It could be in the unit itself... maybe a bad solder joint. Any how it should not be that hard to fix. When a problem is there and then goes away even a little bit by moving somthing it's a very good chance that it is a bad connection.

with no 'official' customer service to help me out I fear it is doomed to the shelf in the garage

Try emailing support again. I changed the address in the FAQ recently.

Does the sound improve when you ground the RCA shield?

Didn't try that Paul...but i did try to gound the unit every which way..the most interesting thing was:

-Common ground for both Head Units
-pig-tailed the common ground to the Sony
-started the car
-horrible whine
-pigtained the Rio to the ground
-whine was reduced to the level that it always was

BUT

-when pigtailed all together BEFORE starting car....
-the whine was HORIBLE and would not go away!!

honestly dont know where to go frome here..so took the rio out and just using Sony HU..which..beleive it or not...soundt immeasurably better than the RIO..

-had to turn down the gains on both amps because the music suddenly became much too loud!

...sub sound much better though!

Thanks Tony!!

Did take the unit apart...everything seems 'tight'.....couldnt imagine how to test all of the circutry!!!

However...did notice on the sled that there a a few exposed wired leading into the harness from the RCA cables!!!

Any thoughts this may be the culprit...they are ultimately attached to the socket, but are not wrapped with any insulation

Those exposed wires on the RCAs into the socket are the grounds for the RCAs. They are supposed to be exposed.

Then the unit is doomed!!!!

In that case, i'll give you $20 for it.

Nah, i'm sure it's repairable. Contact Rob and he'll set you up.

..kinda like the human body worth 78 cents or so!!!

well i e-mailed rob..waiting for a response..

but..here is my latest discovery:

With the car NOT RUNNING:

-i grounded my Rio and my Sony to a common ground....pigtailed it in actually

-had the line out from the Sony go into the AUX in on the RIO

-there was this horrible droning coming out of the speakers along with the source music from the Sony...either tuner or CD...didnt matter

-when I played the player on the RIO..there was no noise as the source was no longer the Sony

Now..definately sounds like a grounding problem to me..mind you THE CAR IS NOT EVEN RUNNING AT THIS POINT!!!!

I checked the wiring harness on the Rio and on the sled..all are tight and secure


...any suggestions

any BTW..thanks to all the contributors for their patience and perservence with this ongoing saga!!!


Thanks!!

Ed

Success at last!

No more ground loops..no more whine!!!!

Here is what I did:

Grounded the sled to a grounding point other than what the HU was grounded to! I had previously tried to ground the sled to the same point as the HU but the whine was the same.

This morning, after looking over all the wiring, on a whim, I jammed a wire between the sled and the player and pressed it against the cigarette lighter socket..and BEHOLD..whine disappeared! I felt like I discovered the Grail!!

Then...I tried to reinstall my Sony CD receiver so that I can use the tuner as well as play mp3 cd's. into the AUX input..but still had the damn noise..so again, on a whim, I installed an RCA noise reducer between the Sony and the Rio..and BEHOLD AGAIN! absolute silence!

Beleive it or not this took a FULL YEAR to trouble shoot and I couldnt be happier.

I have been on these boards for all that time looking for suggestions..which included grounding the sled...but who know that it needed a different gound point!

Well, anyways...that's my story and I am sticking to it!

Thanks for all the help guys!

Ed

Yay!!! Congrats.

Got to do my new install some time soon. The last one was a piece of p*ss so I'm all set for a difficult time!

...just got to figure out how to get that damn PAS reservoir off first....

Congrats Ed...enjoy!