I recently took my subs out of my 96 blazer to help someon move. When I put them back in they started to pop every time I turn on the vehicle and when ever I press any button on the head unit. Also the speakers get sucked into the box and depress after the pop. I have also noticed that the voltage meter in my dash drops when driving and pressing any button on the head unit. but When I just listen to music everythig sounds fine.
I have checked all connections going to the amp and box they are in the correct place. I also tried disconnecting one sub to see if the left or right was bad but had the same results each time. My gain level is only half way, and I turned off all the bass boost options on the amp and head unit. Can someone tell me what I am missing or if this poping even matters?
IF all your wiring is 100%, then it seems your HU has an internal problem. Would it happen to be a Pioneer? I ask bcuz i had a Pioneer HU that would also send pops through the RCA's anytime i pressed a button, along with a considerable amount of noise. The speaker outputs were unaffected. It wasn't until i joined the forum that i learned this was a common complaint, and it isn't something that can be repaired easily, if at all.
J Ro - I'm not sure you are thinking of the same problem.
The most common complaint with Pioneer is "hum or whine" through the RCA's, typically from a blown pico-fuse when the RCA's were hot-swapped with the unit on. Grounding the RCA's usually fixes it - otherwise the unit must be disassembled to repair it properly. JVC and other brands have the same warnings in the instructions, so likely suffer from the same conditions, but Pioneer has the bad rap for it.
The problem with popping through the RCA's when a button is pressed is most likely a ground loop and not isolated to Pioneer either - although the fix is likely similar. Semi-related thread here.
Hope This Helps!!!
2002 Ford Focus Sony CDX-GT410u Sony XT-100HD HD Tuner Stock speakers, no amp, no subs
The popping and voltage dropping in the dash does matter - but the annoyance factor would be enough for me to want to fix it.
Sometimes that can happen from turn-on voltage being 5V (in Fords), but since they didn't do it previously and now they do (and it's not a Ford), that's not it.
The other likely cause is poor or inappropriate grounding on the subwoofer amp. Make sure that is clean and to bare metal. If that doesn't help, you might try a ground loop isolator, or just running some wire from the sub ground to the head unit ground point and seeing if that helps.
Anyone else have suggestions?
I'm not sure i'm thinking of the same problem either, but when i started to get popping sounds from pushing buttons on the HU, i sent it in for warranty repair and never had the problem again. The whine may have been an unrelated issue, as i do tend to do a lot of hot swapping.