I got a line driver for my 420!

[sincity]

Good point Neil, when I went to the alpine, I never went through the set up process again, I will have to do that,
Sin city

[talltigeguy]

I have the same hiss from my 4 Rev10's and WS420. It drives me crazy. Turning the gains down on the 2 JL MHD750/1's that power them doesn't help much. I'll try the line driver trick. I have a Tru Technologies SSLD6i laying around. It's a bit of overkill as it is a 6ch line driver that has several upgraded audiophile components. Max output of it is around 13V if I remember.

I might have time to pop it in tomorrow afternoon. I'll report back if I do. Did you lower the volume on the head unit afterwards? I normally run the volume of my factory Clarion HU at 28.

Glad to hear that it worked for you. I think that you will probably find a little better top end too, as I did.

Professional sound, recording and Hifi have been an integral part of my career for 10 years.

For an amplifier to perform its best it needs to receive the cleanest, highest gain signal to its input without clipping.

One thing I like about the Arc unit, is that it has an indicator that tells you when the signal is clipping. Not all of us are trained well enough to hear clipping with the naked ears. I am not sure how accurate it is, but it seemed to be super helpful to let me know how high to put the gain on the line driver.

[shawndoggy]

I love the DIY inginuity of this workaround, but man this has to be embarrassing for wetsounds.

***wetsounds owner, don't flame me.

[MRMoffat1]

I reported this same issue about a year and a half ago (thread below) (and noted it was reported earlier than that from someone who replied to the thread), and it still drives me crazy (somewhat), haven't found a fix yet, maybe until now.......

http://www.tigeowners.com/forum/showthread.php?t=12910

[sincity]

Well I went through the set up process again, and I still have a hiss, although my hiss is very faint and only heard on the hlcd's when the volume is all the way down, and does not bother me other than I know it's there. Cannot blame wet sounds for hiss, it's says right in there instructions that there will always be a hiss in the system, due to there is no true ground in a boat, interesting.
Sin city

[talltigeguy]

Don't think that I don't have any hiss now. But I only hear it now with my ears a foot or two from the speakers. I could hear it from the bow of the boat when I am in my garage before. Turning the gain down would impact my volume too much so my gain really couldn't go any lower.

I love wetsounds, and I love my 420...so I am not going to use the word embarrassing...'opportunity for growth' might be the best phrase?

[SPBFAN]

Guys sorry I am late to respond. I have been using the WetSounds systems for 5 years and I am a dealer of the product. I have total confidence in their products. They build the most affordable, loudest, and best boat speaker on the market. The WS420 used to have adjustable gains. WS had to remove them because they were actually getting a lot of guys that did not understand how to set them up. Even with this adjustments in the EQ you would still have the problem. I had a major hiss and had for certain done everything correct. I even had a thread on here about it. CHP and Phil had great input on that thread as well. I knew Hiss is created when you have to crank your amp gains on the amps to get the volume level you want. Gain is really and signal amplification into the amp as described by ARC Audio. As I started I did a lot of work because I refused to accept the fact the the WS420 could be the problem. I learned a lot about audio signal from this process.

In short I was back and forth with Brad and Chad at ARC Audio. Chad is no longer working at ARC. Chad had me bring my boat to Modesto so they could see what was going on. The response was the install was perfect. Not a single problem. They did the same thing I did with Talltigeguy and installed a ALD (Arc Line Driver) and showed me the problem was my Deck Voltage going into the EQ and the EQ. My Clarion Deck was putting out .5V from the deck. As soon as that votage was boosted The HISS was gone. The system was louder, and much cleaner than ever before. It LIT up my boat.

Now here is the Kicker. my local lake is 3 miles long and about a mile wide. Last year I put on the REV10's with an ARC 600.2 amp new from ARC last year. Now with my new speakers and wanting to advertise what the REV 10's can do, I was at the lake with the family playing the song The Eye Of The Tiger" while surfing. My friend calls me and says "Hey are you at the lake"? Answer: Yes Why. Because I am jamming out to the eye of the tiger. Oh really where are you. I am in the swim area the kids wanted to jump off the boat and swim. Oh well that is like 1.5 miles away. Yep and we can hear you loud and clear. Now I never would have done that with out the line driver.

Another customer calls me last summer and says I had some WetSounds put in on my boat by another dealer in Northern CA. Two Pro 80's and One Pro480 with a WS 420 and I can barley hear the system when skiing. So he brings it to me. First point of business was to get rid of the Rockford Fosgate Amps. Then I added six XS650's and took out the Polk Audio interior speakers. Added the Line Driver in front of the WS420 and it was like magic. He was like a 3 year old in a candy store and could not believe how nice the system sounded and ran. I see him at the lake quite often. He says he wished he would have found me before he spent all the money up north. I cleaned up the wiring and changed up the install quite a bit to get things right. But the Line driver made all the difference in the world.

Now this year same thing another guy purchased here in town a set of Rev 8 in December of last year. He did his own install and a very nice job of it. He can not get the Hiss out of them He is like everyone else does not see the need for the line driver. He goes to work in Houston quite offtne and took his WS420 to WS in person. The EQ checked out fine. He finally broke and put the ARC ALD in. Now he put it in Just as Tall did at first between the tower amp and the EQ same problem HISSSSSSSSSS!! I am getting his boat today to set it up correctly. I have no doubt what so ever that as soon as I change the RCA around he will be very happy.

A little $110.00 item can change your whole system. It is worth the $110.00. So if anyone wants one let me know. I will do a group buy for $110.00 each they are normally $119.00 and that will include the freight to your front door.

[Timmy!]

I normally run the volume of my factory Clarion HU at 28.

Same here, anything above that and the clarion is pumping out garbage.

[alexhunter]

A little $110.00 item can change your whole system. It is worth the $110.00. So if anyone wants one let me know. I will do a group buy for $110.00 each they are normally $119.00 and that will include the freight to your front door.

I would like one, but I'm in Canada. Will you ship one up here, and if so, how much?

[strohlde]

......

A little $110.00 item can change your whole system. It is worth the $110.00. So if anyone wants one let me know. I will do a group buy for $110.00 each they are normally $119.00 and that will include the freight to your front door.

i always had some hiss with the ws420 in my old boat. My cheap, disposable, pos clarion eqs746, none.

I'm not sure I want to drop $110 on a Line Driver and $300 on the WS420. Is it worth it to spend the extra $355 for that over the Clarion EQ? I don't care about the mic.

[sincity]

I will take one of those line driver, actually is will take two, do you sell them on your web site? I will completely disagree with you though about wet sounds being the most affordable and best speaker on the market, the rev 10's are probably the loudest, but in my opinion, exile's tower speaker quality is second to none and extremely loud. If I was on a budget, I would be using the bazooka's, I have a couple of friends that use them and they do a great job, I would like to here the kicker tower speakers on of these days too.
My personal opinion of course.
Sin city

[SPBFAN]

I will take one of those line driver, actually is will take two, do you sell them on your web site? I will completely disagree with you though about wet sounds being the most affordable and best speaker on the market, the rev 10's are probably the loudest, but in my opinion, exile's tower speaker quality is second to none and extremely loud. If I was on a budget, I would be using the bazooka's, I have a couple of friends that use them and they do a great job, I would like to here the kicker tower speakers on of these days too.
My personal opinion of course.
Sin city

Exile's are very nice as well. I can get those for you too. Your line drive is on the way. Going to FedEx now to drop it off.

[shawndoggy]

My sample size is really small. One 420 (hiss present) one eqs746 (no hiss). Is this issue peculiar to the 420 or a function of HLCD speakers or just a function of dumb luck?

I will say that I tried to use two different maxxbass 103 processors on my bullet tower speakers after the 420 and it really exacerbated the issue. I threw the maxxbass under the bus as the cause of the noise, but now I kinda wonder how it would've sounded if I had bypassed the 420. It made a world of difference on the warmth of the hollowpoints, but the hiss was unbearable.

[sincity]

Before my 420 I used two of the clarion EQS 746's, one for the tower and one for the boat, no hiss, they have a signal to noise ratio of 100db, and they sounde great, best of all, 49 bucks a piece.
Sin city

[talltigeguy]

My sample size is really small. One 420 (hiss present) one eqs746 (no hiss). Is this issue peculiar to the 420 or a function of HLCD speakers or just a function of dumb luck?

I will say that I tried to use two different maxxbass 103 processors on my bullet tower speakers after the 420 and it really exacerbated the issue. I threw the maxxbass under the bus as the cause of the noise, but now I kinda wonder how it would've sounded if I had bypassed the 420. It made a world of difference on the warmth of the hollowpoints, but the hiss was unbearable.

I think it is a combination. HLCD's will always have a little bit of hiss, but I beleive that the 420 sometimes is a culprit in greatly exaggerating it.