WS420 Hissing....

I just got done installing my new ws420 and now I have a horrible hissing sound coming from all my speakers all the time, even when the volume is all the way down and nothing is playing. Is it a grounding problem or is there something else that is causing this?

I also installed a pair of MB-8's to go with my pro 60's and everything works fine until I crank it up to normal wakeboarding volume and then after about 20 seconds or so it seems that the highs cut way down and are not near as loud.

I'm stumped, any help would be nice. Thanks in advance.

Where are the gains set ontop of the EQ?

As to the speakers cutting out. Sounds like your amps are going into protection mode. How do you got them wired? Tell us your whole set-up. Amps, wiring, etc.

As to the hiss.... could be a number of things. Could be a bad ground, noise coming from your RCA's/power/grounds running right next to each other.

Are your WS-420 and stereo grounded on the same battery? Personally I always prefer to have the stereo on it's own set of batteries, and everything else on the other battery.

I disagree it's probably the gains to high on the amps or the EQ. When you crank the gains up on that EQ you get that hissing sound.

Yep, my hissing was caused by my amp gains being too high. They are almost all the way down now and it works great.

It is most likely what is called gain hiss. Setting up a system with a line driver like the WS 420 is more difficult becuase you have higher voltage running to the amps. And you have 2 gain structures to work with. The eq and the amps. You are looking for what is called unity. A matched signal.

It also sounds like you do not have the gains set at the right level to the tower speakers. I designed a protection circuit in the crossover on the tower speakers that will attenuate the horn when it sees a clipped signal. If you are hitting this. You are clipping your amplifier. You may also not have enough power. Which is the biggest issue I see when it comes to our tower speakers. People do not run enough power and the gains are maxed on the amp clipping the signal. You have to listen to them when setting them up to hear the distortion.

First thing to do is make sure you have good grounds. Head Unit, EQ, and amps should all share the same ground. Also, make sure you are using high quality shelded RCA's. And make sure they are not run with other power wires.

Then follow this on setting the gains.

Setting up a system using the WS 420

1) Unplug all the RCA’s from your amps. Turn all the amp gains down.

2) Turn the radio up to find the maximum volume. Set the system with the head unit volume at 85% of max. This is the loudest the radio should ever go. Radios will create distortion the higher the volume is turned up. Which will create distortion on the output signal before reaching the amps. So find a safe easy to remember volume. If the head unit is 35. Max should be 30. If the head unit is 40. Maximum should be 30 to 35 and so on.

3) Once you have found the maximum volume set point. Turn the radio back down. Use a test CD that you are familiar with for tuning. Something that has highs and lows and vocals.

4) Make sure the settings on the radio are flat. You should not tune a system with the treble or bass up. Or ever use them when using the WS 420

5) On the top of the WS 420. Set the gains at the mid level. Make sure to adjust both the main gain and the aux gain. Set them both to this mid level. This is the level where most systems will be. The WS 420 has the ability to provide more voltage if there are long rca runs but most boats will be in the middle as this is a safe setting.

6) Make sure all the eq adjustments are flat. Right in the middle. Plug in all the rcas from the eq to the amps.

7) Plug in just the RCA’s for the in boat speakers amp. Set the high pass crossover at around 80HZ to 100HZ.

8) Turn the radio up to the max safe level found in step 2. Turn the eq up to about ¾ of max volume.

9) Slowly turn the gain up until you hear the speakers distort. Slowly back off the gain from that point a small amount until you hear the speakers play as loud as they can with no distortion.

10) Unplug the RCA’s from that amp and plug the RCA’s into the amp running the tower speakers. Set the high pass crossover on the amp for the tower speakers at 80HZ to 100HZ.

11) Slowly turn the gain up until you hear the speakers distort. Slowly back off the gain from that point a small amount until you hear the speakers play as loud as they can with no distortion.

12) Unplug the RCA’s from that amp and plug the RCA’s into the amp running the subwoofer. Set the low pass crossover on the amp for the subwoofer at 80HZ. On the WS 420. Turn the bass level to max. The ring is a frequency adjustment. All the way down to the left is 30 HZ. You will want to put this around 60 to 80HZ. So about ¼ of the way up.

13) Slowly turn the gain up until you hear the speakers distort. Slowly back off the gain from that point a small amount until you hear the speakers play as loud as they can with no distortion.

14) Turn the radio back down and plug in all RCA’s and do a final check with everything playing. You should now have the gains set at “unity” Meaning they are all at the same level and you are matched across the board.

15) Note that you can adjust the high pass and low pass filters to tailor the sound to each boat. As you can set the high pass higher to get more volume but at the expense of losing some low end mid bass.

16) You can then fine tune the sound on the eq as well. Using the knobs and rings. Most systems will not need much in terms of boost.

17) You can then leave the eq volume set and use the radio as the main volume. And then turn the in boats down with the towers up or vice versa depending on you goals.


Hope this helps.

Tim
Wet Sounds

Thanks Tim, I'll try that tonight and let you know how it worked out

Thanks Tim, I'll try that tonight and let you know how it worked out