why do power cables and rcas need to be down opposite sides of the car. is this a must or would it be ok to put them down the same side? hows yours set and do you have problems?

Putting both cables down the same side of the car often causes a buzzing sound from the power cable interfering with the RCA's as far as i'm aware.

they dont need to be. its a myth.

I've never had any interferance issues.

its not a myth, the power lead will give off a frequency that can be picked up in poorly shielded rca cables. more expensive rca leads have better screening which blocks out external noise given off by power cable, ht systems etc! you can run power leads across audio leads, but its good practice to keep them as far apart as possible and not in parrellel with one another. its more important on pre amplifier audio wiring as any noise picked up pre-amp will be amplified!

I got RCA's and power lead running along side eachother and towards the boot, they are touching eachother and theres no interference there

I got RCA's and power lead running along side eachother and towards the boot, they are touching eachother and theres no interference there

then you are probably using decent quality cables then

TBH mate, it powers subs in boot and that's all I really care about. Didn't know there is a myth about it and has it been proved?

If it was proven it wouldn't be a myth...

I run cheap cables down one side, no buzzing or interference at all.

TBH mate, it powers subs in boot and that's all I really care about. Didn't know there is a myth about it and has it been proved?

well if its powering the sub you wont hear it anyway cos the high freq sound that the cables will pick will get filtered out by the low pass filter!

I'm no expert but as a battery supplies DC voltage that's probably why it doesn't cause interference. Mains is AC so the magnetic field around any cable is constantly changing which can cause interference in other cables. So a car battery wouldn't cause interference.

but on a car the voltage is rectified, so if you were to put it on an oscilloscope it would be constantly fluctuating. even if I'm wrong and it doesnt fluctuate much it will still produce a frequency it just wont change so you will still pick up the noise. most modern headunits have in built noise suppressors, but they dont protect curcuits going to amps, but if the amp is decent it too would probably have a noise suppresion curcuit. in any case if the amp is just being used to run subs it doesnt matter

I used crappy RCA cable before from home stereo alongside some nice 4-gauge cable and it made a weird buzzing noise most of the time. i dont think its a myth cos when i rewired it using beefy shielded RCA cable on the opposite side of the car 2 the power cable, it stopped!

Buy good cables....ones with a thick plastic coating...Mines were down the same side powering a pretty good set up and never had any problems.

thanks for the advice and comments, nice thick wires and ill be fine then.

i have my power wire runnin down the centre of the car and the RCA along the passenger side

there will be interference...whether your affected depends on the scale of the voltage fluctuations along your power wire, how well your RCAs are shielded and whether or not your amp/speaker can reproduce the frequency at which the interference is occuring

It's all relative to the power draw, sheilding on the cables, thickness, materials used next to the cables etc. It's called crosstalk, well in networking anyway, the same thing can happen on computer network cables that are not sheilded properley which in turns hampers bandwidth so any one preaching it's a myth is wrong. Just in it does not appear apparent in certain cases, easier to run them seperate and theres no problem, capiche?

Simon

is it a myth? has it been on myth busters? We never knoww

is it a myth? has it been on myth busters? We never knoww

No it isn't a myth, thats what I just explained lol

Simon

i'm never gonna get any interference issues in my disco... the power wire for the 6x9 amp runs outside the car cable tied to the chassis rail

i had the buzzing noise, moved it to the opposite side and it was fine for about 2 minutes, because I'm running two amps two 6x9s from one and a sub from one, the car isnt generating enough power to run them and charge the battery at the same time.. i think it may be that?