Noise (Humm) in Wet Sounds System

[treeskier]

I have a new to me 2019 275SE with a full wet sounds system 8 speakers, a sub and 2 tower speakers all professionally installed. It sounds good when it playing but when its not playing but on there is a hum that only goes away if I turn off the source on the contex screen.

Any ideas on where to start on remedying this, I'm not much of a sound guy and feel a bit lost on such an elaborate system.

Thanks

 

[MrBubbaGump]

Something is not grounded properly, could be bad RCA to the amp, could be something with the head unit. You can start by unplugging the source wires between the head unit and the amp 1 at a time with the system on and see if it goes away.

 

[sastocky]

Agree with the bad grounding.

 

[treeskier]

Thank you I’ll give that a look and see if I can locate a bad ground

 

[ripler]

If it were me I'd take it back to the professional and have them fix it. My vote is the gains are set too high. Does the noise change pitch when you increase engine RPMs? You can try an RCA
ground loop isolator, the are cheap and easy to install.

 

[treeskier]

If it were me I'd take it back to the professional and have them fix it. My vote is the gains are set too high. Does the noise change pitch when you increase engine RPMs? You can try an RCA
ground loop isolator, the are cheap and easy to install.

Thanks for the reply...
It doesn't change pitch and you only really hear it when the sound system is on at the source but nothing is playing ... in between songs as an example. It doesn't appear to have any harmonics with the engines that I can hear. Is the ground loop isolator what someone might call a "noise filter"? The dealer mentioned this as an option.

The main issue is that this boat is far larger and heavier than our previous 242 and the 275's are not typically sold with a trailer and really require a larger 2 1/2 ton truck to tow properly. So the end result is this is the first boat I've owned that I do not have a trailer for...at $8k for the trailer and I had just purchased a Ram 1500 I opted to not have a trailer and have it pulled and stored each season so taking it in is a pretty big deal.

I plan to have my marine electronics guy look at it when he comes to reinstall the FLIR and Garmin we pulled of the 242 before we sold it...maybe he can chase it down. I'm really thinking I'm not comfortable poking around looking for a bad ground.

 

[ripler]

Yes some people call them noise isolator. They are a simple device that has an RCA in and out.

 

[treeskier]

Thanks I'll take a look if it seems like a simple plug and play I may give it a shot on my own...where in the system does it go? Honestly I really haven't even looked at the head unit yet. I have a message into my electronics guy but I am not sure he does audio.

 

[Levi Weatherford]

Thanks I'll take a look if it seems like a simple plug and play I may give it a shot on my own...where in the system does it go? Honestly I really haven't even looked at the head unit yet. I have a message into my electronics guy but I am not sure he does audio.

I had the same issue with a Wetsounds ten speaker sound bar. turns out the noise/humming was caused by the screen dimming option in Connect. If I remember correctly, I always kept my screen as dim as possible in night mode and would cause bad humming, I could turn the dimmer all the way up and the humming would basically go away. I have since removed the Wetsounds bar so I no longer have the humming problem.

 

[treeskier]

I had the same issue with a Wetsounds ten speaker sound bar. turns out the noise/humming was caused by the screen dimming option in Connect. If I remember correctly, I always kept my screen as dim as possible in night mode and would cause bad humming, I could turn the dimmer all the way up and the humming would basically go away. I have since removed the Wetsounds bar so I no longer have the humming problem.

I’ll take a look at that this weekend that’s a strange situation I’m not certain what brightness setting it’s on. I ordered the ground loop isolator and the marine electronics guy is coming Monday to reinstall my Garmin and FLIR and he’s going to go through it as well. It’s not terrible but it bugs me.

 

[Levi Weatherford]

I’ll take a look at that this weekend that’s a strange situation I’m not certain what brightness setting it’s on. I ordered the ground loop isolator and the marine electronics guy is coming Monday to reinstall my Garmin and FLIR and he’s going to go through it as well. It’s not terrible but it bugs me.

No, it wasn't terrible but it bugged the crap out of me. I grounded, ungrounded and splits grounds til I was sick of it. I even used an isolator just like someone posted but still would hear the hum. Finally just removed the bar and put it on my golf cart before I sold it. Good luck.

 

[treeskier]

I tried adjusting the screen the brightness level which unfortunately no change. I’ll know more tomorrow when the marine electronics guy comes to install the FLIR….he’s s going to look at it for me.

 

[DonnyC]

Interested in what you found out from the marine electronics guy. This same issue started with mine two weeks ago and is really annoying!

Thanks in advance

 

[treeskier]

Interested in what you found out from the marine electronics guy. This same issue started with mine two weeks ago and is really annoying!

Thanks in advance

He came out but Garmin sent him the wrong cable for the installation of my FLIR unit and screen. When he comes back this week with the correct cable he’s going to look at the Wet Sounds system. I ordered a ground loop isolator from Amazon that he’ll also install. I’ll keep you posted. It’s crazy the system sounds very good even at high volume but hums when the music stops between songs.

 

[treeskier]

He came out but Garmin sent him the wrong cable for the installation of my FLIR unit and screen. When he comes back this week with the correct cable he’s going to look at the Wet Sounds system. I ordered a ground loop isolator from Amazon that he’ll also install. I’ll keep you posted. It’s crazy the system sounds very good even at high volume but hums when the music stops between songs.

The electronics tech came out today and fixed the hum issue in the wet sounds system. He didn’t use the ground loop filter so that’s going back to Amazon.

The solution ended up being cleaning some minor corrosion from a few of the connections and reseating everything. Problem solved.

 

[Zackdadams]

A small amount of "hum" or noise is common in Marine & car audio.

Signal to noise ratios, bad grounding, amplifiers gain too high, signal cables too close to other power wires, poor quality or corroded wiring, poor quality audio equipment, and ultimately bad internal parts can all cause it.

If it's minimal, just learn to live with it.
You'll spend a lifetime trying to make it completely go away.

If it's major, return, replace, or repair your amplifiers.
Buy your equipment right at the time of install, so you can return it if needed.
Use dielectric grease.
---------
Example:
I just installed an entire new Kicker system on a friend's FSH 210.
Once completed we had a nasty hum.
After days of investigation, I contacted the amplifier manufacturer, and they replaced it.
They said something about a damaged capacitor inside the amplifiers that are known to go bad.
Problem fixed.

 

[treeskier]

My issue was apparently minor corrosion and or improperly seated connections. If there is still any humm it’s so little that I question whether it’s even there. At this point I’m calling it solved.

 

[DonnyC]

The electronics tech came out today and fixed the hum issue in the wet sounds system. He didn’t use the ground loop filter so that’s going back to Amazon.

The solution ended up being cleaning some minor corrosion from a few of the connections and reseating everything. Problem solved.

Thanks for the follow-up!