Where did you guys ground your amps to? I had it grounded to the battery, but it was making an annoying buzz.. I need to find a better location. Amp is currently mounted upside down to the rear deck. I can't find a good ground for the life of me!

- reid
95 M3

I've got an E36 M3, I drilled a hole in the spare tire well and grounded with a bolt (after scraping away paint till I got to clear metal).

I too mounted my amp upside down under the rear deck.

At first I had noise, when my amp was mounted directly to the metal

Then I switched amps (Phoenix Gold --> Xtant) and mounted the amp on a board which mounted under the rear deck. The noise went away.

I frequented the CarSound discussion boards and made some muting plugs (cut an RCA cable, and twist both the conductors together...essentially shorting out the plug). I then put the plugs in the connectors on the amp. If you still have noise the noise is either coming from the amp or the speaker cables. If you have no noise your amp (and your ground) is clean.

Then plug the shorting plugs into the RCA cables in the front of your car (with some male-male adaptors) and if you have noise there but no noise from the previous test it is your RCA's that are bringing in the noise.

The best RCA cables made (quietest) are the new ones from Monster Cable called XLN-Pro, designed by David Navone and Richard Clark. If you want a set cheap, call David Navone (www.davidnavone.com) and beg a plead for a set.

Good luck!!!

I have an E36 M3 and I mounted my A/D/S/ amp upside down in the trunk too. I had it professionally installed and they grounded it about 3 inches away to the metal of the under side of the rear deck to the metal the amp is mounted to. My Empeg is grounded to the same place. They brought the ground to the rear to have it at the same place. Works great!.

Oh, and NEVER ground your amp or anything to the battery. MUST be earthed to a metal point on the car preferablly connected to the frame in one way or another.

-j

look where the battery is, now look to the left of it.. where teh plastic cover is next to it. I grounded mine under there, scraping the metal first to make a good contact.. i had about 600 watts going through it, and it worked great.

I also heard from a few sources that if you run your speaker wires along with your power wires you can get noise too.

yaht hat can give you some noise, but he described a whine, which to me means improper amp ground, the whine is coming fom teh alternator.

maybe thats my prob too? I had a bad whine, everytime I accelerated you could hear the engine in the left rear speaker... only that speaker (specifically that channel coming out of the amp), ground loop isolater from rat shack fixed it... but It looks like crap hangin off my amp. If it were a ground loop wouldn't I hear it on all channels?

you could hear it worse through some channels, but typically you will hear it through all. However, since it is an easy thing to check, i would think that would be a good plce to start.

i am currently having a static problem, in my new car.. i think it is caused by a crappy ground on teh head unit.. i just need to get out there and fix it.