Getting rid of amp turn-on thump

[i_a_n112784]

Other than getting a new amp, is there a way to eliminate the thump/pop sound that occours when it turns on and off? I have moved the ground, and the wire is no more than 6" long. The amp has been in 2 different cars, and it has done this in both of them.

Does some sort of device exist that I can plug into the line which will stop this?

[Phat_Jax]

You have two choices...

You can either turn your gain down (this WILL eliminate the pop)

The other way to do it, I have never seen anyone market the solution... You need to make the amp either turn off before or after it is no longer seeing signal, let me see if I can make you a diagram for this, as there are a few different ways to do this depending upon how complex your system is.

I had to do this in my Trans Am, as going through 4 eq's, 2 crossovers, 2 signal processors, and powering on a cd player and 12 amplifiers as well, there were a few issues of eq's adding pop to the subs on turn-off and on.

My solution was simple though, it was the processing units turning off early causing the pop while the amps were turning off later. I simply had to add capacitors in the remote lines to the eq's and DSP's to make them shut off in the proper order and AFTER the amps had already shut down. They stayed on after the voltage was cut as they were feeding off of the caps i put in line.

If it's your deck though, and it is causing it because it shuts down hard, that's a little more complex.

Let me see what I can dig up from my notebook here...hth somewhat though...

[Phat_Jax]

Oh, I just thought of a way that 'should' work to fix your pop if you're only running a normal deck and amps. Here goes...

Instead of having your remote wire turn on and off your amps, run them directly off of the ignition wire in your radio harness. Just tap into the line before it goes into the head unit. Then, as the ignition line goes into the back of the deck, wire in a small capacitor there...

This will allow the amps to turn on before the cd player while the deck is waiting for the cap to charge first...and the amps will shut off immediately while the cap discharges before shutting down the deck.


I hope that helps, I think I remember there being a little better way to do this (theoretically), however if you find the best compromise in the capacitor size, then it should work very well...

Hope that helps...maybe someone else will chime in with another way...I'm pretty sure there are other ways...

[i_a_n112784]

I just have a Kenwood cd player, it's last year's 220-something model, no eq's, or any of that stuff.

I will try putting a capacitor in the line, but do you know about what size I should try, or how I should go about determining what size I need?

[Phat_Jax]

I would just try a bunch of different sizes.

You don't need anything big...just a fraction of a farad if that.
Just try a few different sizes...it's been a while since I wired the TA so I can't remember for sure.

Maybe start off with a microfarad or so? I can't remember. You won't need anything big though.

[i_a_n112784]

Ok, thanks