# can i ground an rca cable directly to my amp?



## timaishu (Dec 14, 2008)

My other thread has had no responses. Basically my Memphis belle 16-mch1300 is missing one of the gold rca caps on the rear channels and if I use that particular channel, I get an annoying hiss in that particular speaker. From my research it looks like the rca sheathing/shield has no part in the signal transfer and just acts as a ground. I figure the hiss is due to it not being grounded. 

I thought of a ghetto solution and let me know if I am being foolish or if it will work.. I was thinking of soldering a small speaker wire to the rca cable's shield and connect it to my amps negative input.

Is this a stupid idea or will it work? I am out of ideas as it seems next to impossible to properly fix my amp as I have no idea where to get the part I need. I already contacted Memphis and they were no help.


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## iamstubb (Sep 6, 2013)

It is not such a crazy idea. In a properly grounded system, the negative/shield of an unbalanced RCA connector should be common with the ground anyway.
This article might help explain things, but if your ground/shield is really unbalanced, the negative is basically a shield connection anyway. If your HU and amp grounds show a voltage difference, then this may actually help with reducing noise. Look at cases 23 and 24 in this article. 
Sound System Interconnection


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## ATOMICTECH62 (Jan 24, 2009)

You have to get the RCA ground connection from the HU to the ground connection on the circuit board in the amp.That is the only way it will work.
If you try to run a jumper from the negative power terminal to any RCA odds are there will be noise.Ive tried this before with amps where the HU was missing a ground like the Pioneer pico fuse issue.Never works.Jumping from the back of the HU works much better.But when using the amp ground the internal switching power supply frequency bleeds through the audio.


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## timaishu (Dec 14, 2008)

Hmmm. Two different opinions. Well I need to put the amp back in the car anyways. So Im gonna give it a try and if it doesn't work, well Ill just live with the fact that the rear channels are unusable.


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## ImK'ed (Aug 12, 2013)

The amp channel that has the gold rca ground missing needs to be grounded or connected to the rca ground channel on the other channel, ie if this is the right channel use the left ground. As far as i understand your thinking of grounding the rca lead ground and thats not feeding the amp its connected on the hu. Is it not possible to open amp and connect a ground wire to where its brone off?


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## RandomBeat (Aug 23, 2014)

thats what i was thinking, either the other rca, or the remaining metal, or directly to the board... could posssibly do a wire wrap, like the pico fuse fix on the back of pio head units...???


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## gijoe (Mar 25, 2008)

This is a pretty easy fix, as far as amplifier repairs go. You can probably get the parts at your local radioshack and have it fixed in no time.


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## SPLEclipse (Aug 17, 2012)

ImK'ed said:


> The amp channel that has the gold rca ground missing needs to be grounded or connected to the rca ground channel on the other channel, ie if this is the right channel use the left ground. As far as i understand your thinking of grounding the rca lead ground and thats not feeding the amp its connected on the hu. Is it not possible to open amp and connect a ground wire to where its brone off?


This is the direction I would go. All audio signals regardless of L/R will share a common ground. Open the amp up and see if you can solder a jumper from the adjacent RCA shield to the missing one.


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## timaishu (Dec 14, 2008)

So are you guys saying I should solder a lead to the RCA shield in question and connect it to the same ground the other rear channel is grounded too? If this is the case, could I accomplish the same thing by soldering a wire and connecting both shields together so the grounds pass through the same point?

To help visualize..


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## silence (Dec 20, 2014)

Sure you can't just find exactly what you need to replace?


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## TrickyRicky (Apr 5, 2009)

LOL I just replaced a dual pair RCA jack on a USA2150.....


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## timaishu (Dec 14, 2008)

silence said:


> Sure you can't just find exactly what you need to replace?


If I could find the part I would. Memphis was zero help and I looked around local stores and found nothing. Tried to google what I need and found nothing



TrickyRicky said:


> LOL I just replaced a dual pair RCA jack on a USA2150.....


I would do the same but I cannot find the part..

EDIT: Haha perhaps I spoke too soon? This time I tried googling "rca terminals" and came across this. 

It looks so similar but not quite the same.

http://www.allelectronics.com/make-a-store/item/rcj-34/2-rca-jacks-pc-mount/1.html

Right now I am at places like alibaba and mouser and other similar sites. I guess "rca pcb terminal" was the correct search term. Finding a bunch now. Hopefully I can find the part..


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## TrickyRicky (Apr 5, 2009)

Yeah that's a though one to find, you have to make sure the pin lay out is spaced and pattern the same otherwise it won't work.

Take a picture from the rear of the RCA jack, so we can take a look at the pin lay out and may be AtomicTech or I have a spare. If one can't be found, you can always use tiffany style panel mount RCAs.


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## timaishu (Dec 14, 2008)

TrickyRicky said:


> Yeah that's a though one to find, you have to make sure the pin lay out is spaced and pattern the same otherwise it won't work.
> 
> Take a picture from the rear of the RCA jack, so we can take a look at the pin lay out and may be AtomicTech or I have a spare. If one can't be found, you can always use tiffany style panel mount RCAs.


Thanks. I will take some pictures right now.


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## timaishu (Dec 14, 2008)

Another angle.


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## TrickyRicky (Apr 5, 2009)

I don't have any, but those are very common and pretty easy to find...Mouser, Digikey, Arrow Electronics should have them. Heck even ebay has them (those may be lower quality) click here or these look a bit better quality .


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## timaishu (Dec 14, 2008)

TrickyRicky said:


> I don't have any, but those are very common and pretty easy to find...Mouser, Digikey, Arrow Electronics should have them. Heck even ebay has them (those may be lower quality) click here or these look a bit better quality .


YES! That looks like the part I need. I looked on mouser, cliff electronics, alibaba ect. Just pages upon pages and didn't see the right pin layout. Do you have a link to the one in the picture. The two you posted links too look like they should work, but the one in the picture looks very close to mine. Or are the pin layouts still the same even though its fully encased?


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## TrickyRicky (Apr 5, 2009)

Click on the links I provided on post #16 they are underlined.


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## timaishu (Dec 14, 2008)

TrickyRicky said:


> Click on the links I provided on post #16 they are underlined.


Yes I saw, I guess my question wasn't phrased good. The two you linked don't "look" like the one in the picture. One looks to be the same but looks to be fully enclosed vs having the rear of the pins exposed. The other looks like it has to snap connectors I would need to dremel off. Overall not a big deal I suppose.

I guess it doesn't matter as I am sure its a standard and that either or that you linked will work.

EDIT: Just noticed the linked version that is fully enclosed may not work as the enclosed casing looks like it would hit the red/white connector seen on the main pcb in my picture. I guess the other should work fine if I dremel off the two snaps.


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## TrickyRicky (Apr 5, 2009)

No wait, don't purchase THESE, they look like they are for balance inputs so they have four pins instead of three.


You need three pins from the looks of it.


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## timaishu (Dec 14, 2008)

TrickyRicky said:


> No wait, don't purchase THESE, they look like they are for balance inputs so they have four pins instead of three.
> 
> 
> You need three pins from the looks of it.


I thought I saw a 4th pin. I think I may have found exactly what I need.

5pcs Gold 2 RCA Female Stereo Audio Jack AV Socket Connector | eBay

Same gold caps and same overall look. Only difference I see is it has dual screw holes. If it doesn't fit with the extra hole, I could always cut it off with my dremel. Massive con though is the shipping. Estimated at early February to mid march lol.


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## timaishu (Dec 14, 2008)

While I wait for my replacement RCA block to arrive, I decided to try wrapping a wire between the two rca shields to see if it could share the ground and it didn't work, still have noise in the unshielded speaker. Oh well. Im gonna leave it on though as it doesn't seem as annoying as it used to be, but it might all be in my head. My new rca block should arrive in a month or less.


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