[GBMINI]

Finally got my MCS back from Tweeter and most of a refund. What a nightmare that was (see my blog for details).
In short:
When Tweeter replaced the Harmon Kardon amp and speakers, driving from RCA signals from a Kenwood HU, they got significantly worse sound and lots of engine rev noise.
The sound had much less bass than the HK, and a lack of clarity (hard to pick out vocals in music).

Tweeter had the car for over three weeks and failed to get rid of the engine noise - contrary to their claims they did not even manage to reduce it! So I had them pull out everything.
Tweeters last position was that the engine noise might be caused by the Lojack system in the car.


So:
Who out there has a successful aftermarket stereo install on an MCS, using RCA connections from HU to amp?
Especially if you have Lojack in your car.
Especially if your installer had engine noise but was skilled enough to eliminate it.
And especially if you are in the North East!

What are the secrets?!

[minhi]

to answer your questions.

yes, i have an aftermarket head-unit with rca's to two amps. one for a subwoofer, one for the highs. even with the sub turned off and the head-unit set to flat i get strong bass from the speakers at the cost of some clarity hence the subwoofer.

sorry no lo-jack

had pretty serious whine to begin. started with an Ultimate 4280 amp, eliminated the whine by moving the amp around the boot.
eventually sold that amp and switched to a Hifonics Z6400, still got whine, but again went away when i repositioned in the boot. added a Kicker 400.1 to power my subwoofer and no whine but i never got whine in the low frequencies it was mostly high frequencies. currently hifonics (highs amp) on the passenger side, kicker amp on the drivers side. rotating the hifonics amp 180 degrees also made a difference.

also one suprising 'fix' i found was routing the RCA cables down the passenger side and instead of running it through the rear quarter panel (which I did at one point), I ran it under the rear cushion. not sure why, but i think I was picking up noise from something in that area.

no secrets really, you just have to find an installer that has experience debugging such problems. i would find a dealer and ask them if they know how to work on difficult installs. This car is a little more difficult to work on in this regard, but this back-yard installer licked the problem so a professional should be able to as well! It's wierd how many people are having different problems, but Mikey claims no problems so far so go figure!

install details
head unit using factory ground (been meaning to change this...)
head unit powered off the battery

both amps off common ground (same chassis ground as the battery)

both amps powered off a distribution block (as is the head-unit)

rca's down the passenger side. i used $7 rockford fosgate auto specific cables. fronts,rears,sub

power for head down drivers side, as well as remote turn on.

front speaker run from amps to back of head-unit on the passengers side (yes right next to the RCAs)

rear speaker run goes direct to the rear speakers from the amp.

[GBMINI]

Thanks ...
You have low cost RCAs compared to the $100 Monster cables that mine used. And my HU gets power from the factory harness, but that seems unlikely to be an issue ...

Maybe like you say I just need an installer that I can trust!