Sudden loud hissing from the front two speakers

[BurnMac42]

So there has always been a small amount of hissing in my speakers since hooking up to the amps but all of a sudden yesterday it became much louder in the bow speakers....in what order would you guys trace the hiss? From speaker back to amp, to battery? The bow speakers are the stock WS speakers on an R21. Now, the boat was in the shop getting some warranty work done and my mechanic did mention that they had to trace all ground wires back to diagnose a separate issue....could they have loosened something maybe and now its a ground by the battery?

Setup:

- 6 WS in-boats powered by WS HTX-6
- 12" REVO FA powered by HTX-1
Dual batteries with battery switch.

What's the best way to minimize hiss in a speaker setup? Hook up the amp(s) power cable to the least busiest battery?

Thanks!!

[chpthril]

A little hiss before could be gain hiss. Could be the head unit still wired to the factory harness.

How many RCA to the htx6? Unplug the pair supplying the bow chnls and power system up. Less more same?

[BurnMac42]

A little hiss before could be gain hiss. Could be the head unit still wired to the factory harness.

How many RCA to the htx6? Unplug the pair supplying the bow chnls and power system up. Less more same?

So it's not the ideal setup coming out of the HU...it's the stock HU and if you remember Chp I got a Kicker RCA splitter from ya so we could get RCA's to both amps. Whats weird to me is it was all of a sudden while we were out yesterday...I always had a little gain hiss (which is that normal for everyone) but this is noticably something else cause I heard it go from gain hiss to something louder....

Eventually I plan to upgrade the HU to the WS one so hopefully that will help a bit...

[BurnMac42]

I just wanted to clarify this is definitely more than a hiss....it sounds more like static hissing/cackling....it happened all of a sudden while we were playing music very low (baby was sleeping on the boat low)....its worse with bluetooth vs auxiliary....could the speakers have gone out? They are only 2 years old and we don't push their potential by any means?

[chpthril]

A speaker only reproduces what its sent.

[dj2]

Have you tested by unplugging the RCA’s as he suggested, this will start to isolate the source of the issue

[BurnMac42]

I only have 2 pair of RCAs...one for the HTX6 which drives all 6 I boat pairs and one pair that drives the HTX1...I can unplug the pair that goes to the HTX6 but then none of the inboats would play at all....I don't have a way to isolate the bow speakers via RCAs unless I'm missing something?

[chpthril]

As I stated, unplug the RCAs, then power up the system and see if there is still a hiss from the speakers that hissed before.

[BurnMac42]

As I stated, unplug the RCAs, then power up the system and see if there is still a hiss from the speakers that hissed before.

Will do! It wont until the weekend but I'll try that and then report back..thanks!

[BurnMac42]

I responded to Chp via PM but for educational purposes here is where we are:

1. Unplugged the RCA's like Chp said and no sound from any speakers.

Today was the first chance I got to really crawl around and listen to the speakers and I realized that the hissing was coming from 3/6 speakers. This led me to unplug one RCA at a time and voila, once I unplugged the red RCA cable (picture below) the hiss was gone and the remaining 3 speakers and sub sounded great. I swapped the white for the red RCA and the hiss did not follow the red RCA so it's not the RCA cable itself. Put the RCA's back to their original position on the amp and went upstream.

Next item up was the Kicker RCA splitter. Like the amp, I unplugged the Red RCA cable only and same thing, all hissing stopped and the remaining 3 inboats sounded great. I then swapped the red/white cables on the Kicker splitter and the hissing followed whatever cable was plugged into the left side of the Kicker splitter. Just to be safe I double checked all 4 wire connections coming from the Head Unit of the boat to the Kicker splitter and those are all still good so I think I have narrowed it down to the left side of the kicker splitter.

If I need to replace the KISLOC is there a difference between the KISLOC and the KISL? I feel like with the KISL it eliminates the black box that I have to try and and hide but wanted Chp or another audio expert's opinion before ordering

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[chpthril]

The KISLOC has an adjustable line level, so make sure the suspect side is not turned up too high.

Next, try a different pair of speaker leads into the KISLOC on that suspect side. For example, if the chnl with the hiss is fed by the head unit left front, try the left rear. If needed, try the right rear as a test as well.

Take the RCA off the KISLOC and plug them into the outputs that your tower amp is using and put the tower amp RCA on the KISLOC. Problem should move to one chnl/side of the tower amp.

[BurnMac42]

The KISLOC has an adjustable line level, so make sure the suspect side is not turned up too high.

Next, try a different pair of speaker leads into the KISLOC on that suspect side. For example, if the chnl with the hiss is fed by the head unit left front, try the left rear. If needed, try the right rear as a test as well.

Take the RCA off the KISLOC and plug them into the outputs that your tower amp is using and put the tower amp RCA on the KISLOC. Problem should move to one chnl/side of the tower amp.

Yep did all that and it followed both RCA and speaker leads to whatever was plugged into the left side of the KISLOC. I could get the hissing to go away (along with all sound completely) when I turned the adjustable line level completely down. I'm leaving for a trip on Wednesday and I was able to get the KISLOC overnight from Amazing for $23... for me $23 was worth just scrapping the existing KISLOC vs troubleshooting a $23 part. Now if this happens with the new KISLOC I'll definitely be reaching back out because I've run out of things to check other than the head unit itself.

On that note, the wife still bulked at the price of the Wetsounds HU (probably because we are dropping $25k right now to expand the garage...for the boat lol) so as a cheaper alternative to hold me over for a few years I was wondering if you had any experience with the Rockford Fosgate PMX-0? Seemed like a straightforward media player but what caught my attention was the 6 RCA outs including a dedicated sub-out for $150....Would changing my existing Marine Audio MA300 to this Rockford Fosgate produce a noticable difference in both the inboats and particularily in the sub with a sub pre out?

[dj2]

I can’t speak for the PMX-0, but spring 2017 I put a PMX-2 where the helm remote was for the factory system and a PMX-1r remote where the rear remote was on the rear deck. I am very happy with both of them though I only use the rear outputs into my wetsounds EQ.

[BurnMac42]

Well, got the new Kicker KISLOC installed and it did not fix the problem. The only thing I can think of is the HU itself went kaput....has this ever happened to anyone else? Assuming the HU is kaput suggestions on head units? I'll be honest I can get the WS head unit from my dealer for a great price (if you buy a brand new boat from him he gives you steep discounts on any aftermarket stuff)......I can't decide if paying a few hundred extra dollars for the WS unit would be worth it and be done or just get an interim unit like a PMX-0/2 until I get a third amp plus tower speakers (not for several years still)..... Say $300 or less is my budget....any HU's that have 2+ RCA outs (preferably a sub out) a hit with anyone?

Thanks!

- Matt

[chpthril]

For that budget, why not go with a WS-420? Theres your 3 dedicated output + zone control. Leave the MA unit as is.