Strange noises from the stereo?

[TBRich]

Originally Posted by norsea

I was happy to find this thread mainly because ...serious snip...

Hope this may be of use to others.

Jim

Thanks for all this info, norsea...I am going to save it for future reference... when my head stops hurting from having read through it! You are braver than I am, tearing into all that spaghetti wiring!

We have the low purring sound only when we play a DVD and it is not present with all DVDs either... It doesn't bother me much...it's actually sort of endearing. We have a Sirus radio hook-up (factory) but no Sirus account, so we don't use it...wonder if that has something to do with it all...

Haunted by purrs...
TB

[herrgirdner]

WARNING: Negative thoughts follow.
I must have somehow missed the start of this thread. Our Interstate has a JVC DVD/Radio/CD player and strange noises, but I always thought it was the program source.
The subwoofer is hidden under a thick cushion, with no direct radiation out into the listening space. After reading this thread, I'm almost convinced that the Airstream factory subcontracts out the installation of audio systems to a school for the deaf. (sorry)
I looked to see if the wiring was as screwed up as reported, and must report that it is. It's going to be FUN to try to fix this, someday.
So my question is: "Why did they bother to do this, anyway?" The Sprinter van has a pretty good radio system. Why spend the bucks and effort to do a shoddy job?

[pmclemore]

Wait Wait - I remember something about this from the '60s. Does it sound like "Paul is dead"?

Pat

[norsea]

Originally Posted by TBRich

Thanks for all this info, norsea...I am going to save it for future reference... when my head stops hurting from having read through it! You are braver than I am, tearing into all that spaghetti wiring!

We have the low purring sound only when we play a DVD and it is not present with all DVDs either... It doesn't bother me much...it's actually sort of endearing. We have a Sirus radio hook-up (factory) but no Sirus account, so we don't use it...wonder if that has something to do with it all...

Haunted by purrs...
TB

TBRich - I am glad you found it of use.

I too was once terrified of all things electrical. Once I realized that all I need to know in order to read a simple wiring diagram was, "Battery seeks ground.", my life became much simpler. Without the wiring diagram at hand making determinations about how things should be is often times more than difficult.

I have one further problem that I forgot to mention in my somewhat long post, above. When we turn on either of the two spot lights mounted under the cabinet in which the radio is housed we get a humming noise through the speakers that varies in intensity based on the adjustment for the brightness of these lights when the radio is on and any of it capabilities are in use. Today I ordered a noise filter that I will install that should solve this problem. Both of the lights and the stereo are connected to the same wire that feeds the -12V DC from the circuit breaker panel; the filter will be installed in this line in line with the power connection for the radio. The one I have ordered I have used before in motorcycle applications so I know it will be able to withstand the rigors of being in a moving/bouncing vehicle.

I could not agree more with herrgirdner's question as to what the factory was thinking at the time of installation - "Why did they bother to do this, anyway?" Given the price of an Airstream these days sending something out with the sound system as poorly installed as ours is something that Airstream should be ashamed of. Just my not so humble opinion. Anyone in Jackson Center listening? Or, more importantly, care?

Jim

[TBRich]

Thanks for the additional notes, norsea...

An additional observation from this end...I find it interesting that no two people who have posted about the noise from the subwoofer (or where ever) have noted identical senarios or identical noises or sources of noises...which makes me think that there may not be any consistency behind the bad wiring job, and worst, each AS is probbaly miswired in a different way! YIKES! Imagine the permutations of bad wiring possiblities!

TB

[wheel interested]

At the very least nice access panels and a diagram included with the upgrade would be helpful. Maybe that would justify the high audio/video upgrade expense. We have heard the hum/buzz listening with low volume and between discs although we have not taken the time to isolate the variables or try to troubleshoot yet. Had we wanted to do it ourselves we wouldn't have had to pay for the upgrade which we justified by thinking just have it done and done right and not have to monkey with it and save ourselves the hassles. My friend's new AS with external speakers never worked nor could be fixed by the dealer on her last unit. On her current unit I believe there were DVD/audio issues that the dealer was able to fix. On our last AS the LCD transformer box hung loose after the duct taping let loose and completely disconnected from the wires from the weight of it and the fridge had to be pulled out to allow access and the dealer secured the box with a better fix than tape and also moved it so we could reach it by running an arm up between the fridge and wall from the outside fridge door.

Just have to remind our vintage friends here that just because an AS comes from a showroom doesn't mean it isn't a project.

[norsea]

Originally Posted by TBRich

Thanks for the additional notes, norsea...

An additional observation from this end...I find it interesting that no two people who have posted about the noise from the subwoofer (or where ever) have noted identical senarios or identical noises or sources of noises...which makes me think that there may not be any consistency behind the bad wiring job, and worst, each AS is probbaly miswired in a different way! YIKES! Imagine the permutations of bad wiring possiblities!

TB

Ya, but I'm not to convinced that the problems associated with the recent models are not the same.

I have done some more diagnostic work and discovered that the humming noise I am getting when the spot lights under the forward cabinet over the front sofa are turned on is coming only from the sub woofer; none of this noise is coming out of the wall mounted speakers.

This does not surprise me and I have to kick myself in the backside for not really realizing this in the first place. Why you might ask?

Well, the sub woofer is powered independently from the radio.

The Sony radio is fairly high end automotive item and I suspect that they have built in some sort of ignition/noise suppression; while the sub woofer is, IMNSHO, one of the cheapest things that can be found on the market.

When I disconnect the power to the sub woofer no more hum from anything.

I am very excited about hooking up the ignition/noise filter I have somewhere working its way slowly to our mail service. As soon as I can get it installed I will post my findings.

Jim

[norsea]

Originally Posted by wheel interested

At the very least nice access panels and a diagram included with the upgrade would be helpful. Maybe that would justify the high audio/video upgrade expense. We have heard the hum/buzz listening with low volume and between discs although we have not taken the time to isolate the variables or try to troubleshoot yet. Had we wanted to do it ourselves we wouldn't have had to pay for the upgrade which we justified by thinking just have it done and done right and not have to monkey with it and save ourselves the hassles.

<SNIPPY>

Carol in Michigan photos

From Home to home, and heart to heart, from one place to another, the celebration of a joyous new year, brings us closer to each other.

Yes, the wiring diagram SHOULD be included. Once I get this all sorted and documented I plan on contacting the Airstream home office and trying to find someone to speak with about this. IMNHO it is absolutely inexcusable for a product that is marketed as THE top of the line travel trailer to be sent out of the factory with a sound system in the condition ours (and others based on this thread) was.

Can you imagine a Prevost coach having this kind of issue?

And, the quality of the speakers installed with this unit are very, very poor.

Today I finished with the majority of the work with the installation of my Cambridge Soundworks sound system. I have had this unit for 10+ years. It started out life in my office so I could play CD;s on my computer. When we were working in Europe it was in my garage and connected a portable CD player. Now it is in our Airstream.

It has two small (4" x 4") speakers and a sub woofer. The sub woofer has the option of being powered by 110V AC or 12V DC. At the minute I have it powered by AC. Wonderful sound from the radio on all items: Radio, CD, DVD, TV, input from my MP3 player, input from my computer via a USB cable to the Aux-In master unit. No hmming/buzzing at all. And the sound is soooo much clearer.

Why oh why is Airstream not installing this type of system in the trailers? Cost? Hardly; this is a low end $100 unit. With inflation that might make it $150 today.

Once I receive the ignition/noise filter that I mentioned in previous posts I will use it to filter the power to this equipment and the cheap sub woofer Airstream installed. I expect that that will be the end of my noise problems. The filter, for what it's worth, is a whopping $15.00 item. Why doesn't Airstream install something like this?

It is probably too much to expect that anyone at the factory actually monitors this forum, to say nothing of reading this post, but I am the eternal optimist.

Jim

[thecatsandi]

Originally Posted by norsea

Well, the sub woofer is powered independently from the radio.

The Sony radio is fairly high end automotive item and I suspect that they have built in some sort of ignition/noise suppression; while the sub woofer is, IMNSHO, one of the cheapest things that can be found on the market.

When I disconnect the power to the sub woofer no more hum from anything.
Jim

Jim,
I have found that the noise in the stereo gets worse when the Converter kicks in. I wanted to put a choke on the Leads from the converter to stop all the noise in the trailer. The clip on models will probably not work. A Large Capacitor may work. I think the best solotion is putting a choke on the power lead of the stereo and sub woofer. That MAY take care of the problem. If the speaker wires were run with the other DC and AC wires there may be coupling in side the walls.

[norsea]

Originally Posted by thecatsandi

Jim,
I have found that the noise in the stereo gets worse when the Converter kicks in. I wanted to put a choke on the Leads from the converter to stop all the noise in the trailer. The clip on models will probably not work. A Large Capacitor may work. I think the best solotion is putting a choke on the power lead of the stereo and sub woofer. That MAY take care of the problem. If the speaker wires were run with the other DC and AC wires there may be coupling in side the walls.

Right you are about the possibility of induction re; the speaker wires.

I am going to try the filter first at the power lead to the sub woofer. Why? I have now completed the install of my 110AC powered sub woofer and speakers. No more noise in anything. If the radio was the culprit I suspect that I would be getting some noise with this set up.

I hope to have the 12V DC power for this speaker set up (it runs on either 110AC or 12V DC) connected in a day or two. I suspect that I will get some distortion with this but will remain optimistic.

I should have the filter by mid week.

Jim

[hshovic]

When starting this thread, I was not expecting such a number of similar complaints!

Based on your comments and actions, I have investigated the spaghetti and generally now understand where everything goes. There are a couple of diagrams in the stereo documentation that helped out.

I put in two Radio Shack noise filters, making the spaghetti worse But it made no difference.

However, after hours of unplugging/plugging, tracing, ground-checking, etc., some preliminary conclusions are:

* Noise from subwoofer is related to the motors in the CD/DVD players. I can stop the noise by turning the system off, then going to FM tuner. However, if I play a CD (either in the 10 CD player or the stereo head) in it starts. Then it continues even when going back to tuner. I can also stop it by unplugging the control cable to the 10 CD player. No difference if I unplug inputs or outputs.

* Noise from stereo (high pitched whine) sounds like a motor noise from inside the stereo head feeding through the amplifier. This only occurs once in a while, but is pervasive when it does. It is related to the internal CD player.

My preliminary conclusion is that it is in the stereo head, not the subwoofer, and not in the wiring. Other than having the subwoofer in the wrong input, the wiring looks ok. (Changin those inputs made no difference). There is a solid ground.

So based on this:

* noise from both players through control cable
* noise can be stopped by leaving players off
* additional motor noise from stereo head

Its back to calling the dealer to investigate the stereo head and its power/ground connections. I hope to get authorization to take it to a
local stereo shop.

But again, I know only a moderate amount about stereo's, so could be
wrong again... But it was fun hanging out in the unit, taking a nap.... Even though it is covered with snow...

[thecatsandi]

A little update from one of my other threads. My converter died andwas replace with an intelipower 9600 series. The noise is substancially less.
The converter was most of the problem.

[garry]

Very interstring problem.
Somewhere somehow I suspect there is a bad ground connection that is radiating it may be from anything electrical and the RF noise is being transmitted and picked up in the wiring. Auto radios have a lot of protection from this type of interferance but outside the radio little protection.
I have had to resolve many of these issues and they can be very time consuming with most ending up being a poor ground or poor sheilding at a power source.
Sounds like you are on the right track but if all else fails.

The outside the box question. Are these AS 30 amp or 50 amp? I have traced problems to "noisy" circuit breakers & panels and since the problem is on so many units it could be a factory wiring poblem at the breaker?

I wish you luck.

Garry

[Gunnyusmc]

I just replaced the original with a JL model 6w3v34 6" woofer and a Kicker model 06ZX1502 amp.
I can now rock the world and no noise when playing DVD / CD or radio.
Next step is too put the Flat Screen thru the amp/radio. This I will have done by Custon Sound in Austin, TX. but it will have too wait till deer season is over.


Gunny