welll very strange..im telling ya..this install should be a poster child for futility...

i opened the case and checked all of the wires and all seem pretty sturdy...checked the contact on the harness and seems just as solid

but...

last night i did notice that this only happens after the player has been on for a while and the unit has a chance to heat up..and as the dash of the miata is quite tight...and it is sitting right on top of my clarion head unit..it is QUITE hot to the touch

at this point in time i am able to shimmy the unit in the sled until i pin point the sweet spot where all is quiet

but thee is more!

as this is all happening i noticed that one of the channels dies out on me..so i kinda jostle the unit in the sled (finding it difficult to find proper adjectives)and the dead channel kicks in, independant of the presence of noise or what...

for the record..i had the header cable replaced to the HD's and had the contacts resoldered by Stu at Eutronics (very satisfying process by the way)

so there you have it

it seems the best way to trouble shoot this is to finde somebody with another empeg (read:Paul G!) and see if the problem resurfaces.

other than that an i-pod seems to be the safest solution...

any suggestions?

thanks,

Ed