Does anybody else have issues with the amount of static noise they get when using auxiliary input? It seems a lot noisier than my computer speakers or my other car, where I have an after-market radio. I actually ran a test, where I took my laptop and plugged it into aux in for comparison's sake.

When I have a cable plugged in, but no input attached (and by no input I mean either the cable is not plugged into a device on the other end, or the device has its volume turned down to 0), I hear ever-so-slight static hissing at a volume of 20. When I crank it up to 30, the static becomes pretty distracting; it's still there when I'm actually playing something and is especially distracting during the soft parts.

On the other hand, when I'm playing a CD, a volume level of 30 still sounds crystal clear.

 

Dak, you're just picking up the random RFI of the world when you've got a cable hanging out in free air like that. There's no way around it unless you feel like building some sort of really elaborate filter that, in the end, isn't worth the bother. I routinely hook my laptop in when on my CBus-CTown trips, and I've noticed that despite having two ferrite beads clamped around both the AC and DC segments of the power cord, the switching noise coming through from my power inverter still gets through to the audio output. Unplug the power, and the noise goes away. Annoying, yes, but even at volume level 15, I can't hear it anymore because the amount of music (signal) far outweighs the inverter scatter (noise).

 

mmr--thanks for the reply. obviously we grew up playing the same computer games.

i do expect to hear noise, it just seems that i'm getting MORE noise from my HCH2 than other stereo systems for the same amount of amplification. usually, i would just turn down the volume on the radio and crank of the volume of the external device, but in my case i'm using my cell phone to play mp3's and it's already at max volume.

 

Yes, just don't try to bifurcate me. I get really *frumple* when people do that, no matter how many *pretty colors* the *happy campers* *squirt*. Anyways, my RF static goes away the moment I plug my laptop in, so there might be a common loop the whole way through that essentially cancels out the common mode noise, while your cell phone, being in free air, doesn't have that advantage. Do you get the same trouble if you use a cd player w/lighter adapter rather than your in-dash player?

 

I have a Multimedia DVD and SatNav system that utilises the aux input with no noise.
check your power adapter and try the unit on batteries