read this "Plan on a single-point (star ground) scheme
so all components, including the head unit,
connect to a common ground point. Use no
less than 14 gauge wire for the
ground connections."

dont really know whats up. never heard i needed a common ground for all of my audio components

 

Honestly, if your wiring is of a decent guage and your grounds are all solid, you won't need to share all the grounds. This is provided that you upgrade your battery grounds and let the chassis do most of your grounding for you of course. I have never had to use a single ground for all components.

That said, I do like to share grounds for my amplifiers as this reduces diagnostic time when finding grounding issues.

 

yeah, i use my cap as a distro and have all of my amps grounded in the back in 1 spot

but im getting some signal noise on my passenger side and its driving me nuts

 

You've got noise just on one side? What happens if you swap the RCA cables? Does the noise go to the other side or does it stay on the same side?

Noise on one side most likely isn't a ground issue, it's most likely a component issue or a signal issue.

 

A single ground is not necessary, and sometimes this is nearly impossible. Using multiple grounds is a very common method that works fine. The only requirement is selecting adequate shielding and grounding for any wires that are in proximity.

The advantage of a single ground is easier diagnosis of a problem (as orgasm donor mentions), and it avoids the dreaded ground-loop problem (which you can easily avoid by following proper grounding parameters).

--Spike

 

I have read that if you are grounding your amps separately, the grounding points need to be a certain distance apart. I think thats if you are using a ring terminal and securing to the chassis via a bolt, with one ground on top of the other. Can you post a pic of what type of ground terminal you are using?

I should just buy a ground block haha

 

im just using a single ground with a ring terminal

 

Yeah, you are good to go. I wasn't sure myself, and so referred to the trusty Basic Car Audio Electronics bible:

"It is OK to ground all of the amplifiers in the same place (if the ground wire doesn't need to be extended to more than about 18 inches). If the amplifiers are mounted on opposite sides of the trunk, I'd probably use 2 ground connections (with 3/8 bolts to the vehicle's floor pan). "

I was making it harder on myself than it needed to be!

 

i have mine wired like this

but i was referring to whether i need to ground my headunit to the same position