[Cal Carnsen]

Hello -

Up until a few weeks ago, my 98 Dodge Stratus was equipped with a
6-disc CD changer that operated via a wired FM modulator. I bought my
first portable MP3 player 3 years ago and the CD player has not been
used since then. I got a wild hair up my ass to get the CD player out
of there, so I removed it with no issues.

I then got the idea to install a wired FM modulator to hook my iPod up
to, rather than continue to use the stupid cassette adaptors that short
out so easily (the modulator that was operating the CD player was not
able to connect to the iPod; otherwise I'd have stuck with that
modulator because for the CD player, it worked perfectly).

So I bought a Sound Storm FM Modulator (model SSVFM10) used from a car
audio shop for about 7 or 8 bucks. In the process of installing it, I
had no choice but to modify the modulator's connecting red and black
wires because the jacks would not fit together. Upon completing the
installation, I took my new pimped out ride for a drive, only to
discover that there was a very high-pitched whining sound clearly
audible over the more mellow tunes in music collection, and it was
syncrhonized with the RPMs of the engine. (.i.e., I'd hit the gas and
the pitch of the whining sound would go up; I'd release the gas and the
pitch would come back down). I tooled around with the different
frequencies the device can be set to, and that made no difference.
Assuming that the problem is related to either A) the fact that this
thing is used and the previous owner probably got rid of it for this
whining problem, B) the fact that I shortened / stripped / tied
together a few wires just to get it to work, or C) the fact that I am a
car audio uber-newbie and don't know what in the hell I am doing, I
just removed the modulator and went back to the tape adaptor.

So my questions a

A) could I have avoided the jack incompatibility problem with some sort
of adaptor that would take both incompatible ends and bridge them
together?

B) Could the whining sound be caused by a cut-and-tape job I did on the
black and red wires?

C) What about grounding? the plug coming from the tape deck had three
wires - red, black and yellow. The modulator had just red and black. So
I snipped / taped the red and black together and left the yellow still
hooked into the jack. Is yellow colored wiring typically reserved for
ground? I thought ground was green. I have no friggin clue.

D) is this product (Sound Storm SSVFM10) known to be a general piece of
crap? Or perhaps modulators in general get this whining problem when
they are no good anymore?

Thanks in advance -

Brian Mc

[Matt Ion]

Cal Carnsen wrote:
Hello -

Up until a few weeks ago, my 98 Dodge Stratus was equipped with a
6-disc CD changer that operated via a wired FM modulator. I bought my
first portable MP3 player 3 years ago and the CD player has not been
used since then. I got a wild hair up my ass to get the CD player out
of there, so I removed it with no issues.

I then got the idea to install a wired FM modulator to hook my iPod up
to, rather than continue to use the stupid cassette adaptors that short
out so easily (the modulator that was operating the CD player was not
able to connect to the iPod; otherwise I'd have stuck with that
modulator because for the CD player, it worked perfectly).

So I bought a Sound Storm FM Modulator (model SSVFM10) used from a car
audio shop for about 7 or 8 bucks. In the process of installing it, I
had no choice but to modify the modulator's connecting red and black
wires because the jacks would not fit together. Upon completing the
installation, I took my new pimped out ride for a drive, only to
discover that there was a very high-pitched whining sound clearly
audible over the more mellow tunes in music collection, and it was
syncrhonized with the RPMs of the engine. (.i.e., I'd hit the gas and
the pitch of the whining sound would go up; I'd release the gas and the
pitch would come back down). I tooled around with the different
frequencies the device can be set to, and that made no difference.
Assuming that the problem is related to either A) the fact that this
thing is used and the previous owner probably got rid of it for this
whining problem, B) the fact that I shortened / stripped / tied
together a few wires just to get it to work, or C) the fact that I am a
car audio uber-newbie and don't know what in the hell I am doing, I
just removed the modulator and went back to the tape adaptor.

So my questions a

A) could I have avoided the jack incompatibility problem with some sort
of adaptor that would take both incompatible ends and bridge them
together?

Which wires/connectors are you talking about? The antenna insert? The power
feed? The signal input?

B) Could the whining sound be caused by a cut-and-tape job I did on the
black and red wires?

If they're the power wires, probably not. That IS likely where the noise is
coming in, but I doubt it's the fault of your "modifications".

C) What about grounding? the plug coming from the tape deck had three
wires - red, black and yellow. The modulator had just red and black. So
I snipped / taped the red and black together and left the yellow still
hooked into the jack. Is yellow colored wiring typically reserved for
ground? I thought ground was green. I have no friggin clue.

Assuming you're referring to the power wires here, in most car systems, black is
ground, red is for switched (accessory) power, and yellow is for constant
(battery-backup) power. The yellow wire is normally only used to supply power
to maintain clock and radio-memory settings on the deck, while the red supplies
the main power when the key is turned on (with some designs, the yellow supplies
the main power and the red just signals the deck to power on with the key, but
that's not important to this issue, and I add it only to appease the nitpickers

D) is this product (Sound Storm SSVFM10) known to be a general piece of
crap? Or perhaps modulators in general get this whining problem when
they are no good anymore?

Can't speak to that... your problem is more likely a poor ground somewhere, or
an inherently noisy (ie. poorly filtered) power source. You can pick up a
simple power filter from any car-audio shop; most head units come with them, and
a lot of installers just cut them off. Try asking at the place you got the
modulator from. Also, check that that black wire is connected to a good solid
ground.

I assume there's no engine noise from the radio itself under normal conditions,
just when playing the iPod?

[Cal Carnsen]

You're right, the only time this noise is present is when I am playing
the iPod through this modulator. The iPod playing through the tape
adaptor sounds fine.

After looking things over and asking a few buddies here at work, it
appears as though what wires I am actually talking about are the audio
wires. Not sure why that fact escaped me earlier.

Anyway, one guy here said if I were to wire a "power filter" between
the modulator's audio wires and the deck's audio wires, that would
solve the problem. However, he said this while I was still laboring
under the misconception that what I was dealing with was the power
wires, not the audio wires.

I called a local car audio store (different than the one I bought this
thing from) and they said what I need is "ground loop isolator." Is
this the same thing as power filter? I am not sure. Radio shack as a
device called a ground loop isolator that is $16.99, but from the looks
of it on their site, it is all RCA jacks which doesn't do me much good.
The car audio store I called said they have them for between 20 and 40
dollars. Not sure if that is excessive or not, but it strikes me as
such.


Matt Ion wrote:
Cal Carnsen wrote:
Hello -

Up until a few weeks ago, my 98 Dodge Stratus was equipped with a
6-disc CD changer that operated via a wired FM modulator. I bought my
first portable MP3 player 3 years ago and the CD player has not been
used since then. I got a wild hair up my ass to get the CD player out
of there, so I removed it with no issues.

I then got the idea to install a wired FM modulator to hook my iPod up
to, rather than continue to use the stupid cassette adaptors that short
out so easily (the modulator that was operating the CD player was not
able to connect to the iPod; otherwise I'd have stuck with that
modulator because for the CD player, it worked perfectly).

So I bought a Sound Storm FM Modulator (model SSVFM10) used from a car
audio shop for about 7 or 8 bucks. In the process of installing it, I
had no choice but to modify the modulator's connecting red and black
wires because the jacks would not fit together. Upon completing the
installation, I took my new pimped out ride for a drive, only to
discover that there was a very high-pitched whining sound clearly
audible over the more mellow tunes in music collection, and it was
syncrhonized with the RPMs of the engine. (.i.e., I'd hit the gas and
the pitch of the whining sound would go up; I'd release the gas and the
pitch would come back down). I tooled around with the different
frequencies the device can be set to, and that made no difference.
Assuming that the problem is related to either A) the fact that this
thing is used and the previous owner probably got rid of it for this
whining problem, B) the fact that I shortened / stripped / tied
together a few wires just to get it to work, or C) the fact that I am a
car audio uber-newbie and don't know what in the hell I am doing, I
just removed the modulator and went back to the tape adaptor.

So my questions a

A) could I have avoided the jack incompatibility problem with some sort
of adaptor that would take both incompatible ends and bridge them
together?

Which wires/connectors are you talking about? The antenna insert? The power
feed? The signal input?

B) Could the whining sound be caused by a cut-and-tape job I did on the
black and red wires?

If they're the power wires, probably not. That IS likely where the noise is
coming in, but I doubt it's the fault of your "modifications".

C) What about grounding? the plug coming from the tape deck had three
wires - red, black and yellow. The modulator had just red and black. So
I snipped / taped the red and black together and left the yellow still
hooked into the jack. Is yellow colored wiring typically reserved for
ground? I thought ground was green. I have no friggin clue.

Assuming you're referring to the power wires here, in most car systems, black is
ground, red is for switched (accessory) power, and yellow is for constant
(battery-backup) power. The yellow wire is normally only used to supply power
to maintain clock and radio-memory settings on the deck, while the red supplies
the main power when the key is turned on (with some designs, the yellow supplies
the main power and the red just signals the deck to power on with the key, but
that's not important to this issue, and I add it only to appease the nitpickers

D) is this product (Sound Storm SSVFM10) known to be a general piece of
crap? Or perhaps modulators in general get this whining problem when
they are no good anymore?

Can't speak to that... your problem is more likely a poor ground somewhere, or
an inherently noisy (ie. poorly filtered) power source. You can pick up a
simple power filter from any car-audio shop; most head units come with them, and
a lot of installers just cut them off. Try asking at the place you got the
modulator from. Also, check that that black wire is connected to a good solid
ground.

I assume there's no engine noise from the radio itself under normal conditions,
just when playing the iPod?

[Cal Carnsen]

sorry to be such a retard.....It appears as though these wires ARE for
power afterall. One of them (the red one) has a fuse inline. That can
only mean power, right? At this point I consider myself fortunate that
I haven't blown up my car.

I called another shoppe and they said that their power filters run
about 15 bucks, they are NOT the same thing as ground loop isolators,
and that ground loop isolators would apply in situations where the
person is trying to reduce noise by installing something in the AUDIO
line only. The power filter is kind of the power line equivalent of a
ground loop isolator.

Anyway, if anyone knows where I can get a reasonably priced power
filter, let me know. sorry for all the confusion.

thanks again.

[Matt Ion]

Cal Carnsen wrote:

You're right, the only time this noise is present is when I am playing
the iPod through this modulator. The iPod playing through the tape
adaptor sounds fine.

Okay, that narrows down the issue to the iPod and/or the modulator.

After looking things over and asking a few buddies here at work, it
appears as though what wires I am actually talking about are the audio
wires. Not sure why that fact escaped me earlier.

Umm... audio wires?

Consider this: if the wires you connected to power were in fact "audio wires",
the thing wouldn't work AT ALL. The fact that it does WORK, means you connected
it correctly and it is functioning, so you're halfway there.

Anyway, one guy here said if I were to wire a "power filter" between
the modulator's audio wires and the deck's audio wires, that would
solve the problem. However, he said this while I was still laboring
under the misconception that what I was dealing with was the power
wires, not the audio wires.

Okay, whoa... that was me, and from what little information I've been able to
find on this unit (he http://tinyurl.com/nxnj6 - if you have a link to a
manual or something, do share), there are no "audio wires". So let's back this
up to the beginning... (this is a bit long, but I figure if you understand
better how it all works, it'll all make sense in the end).

There are antenna input and output wires - one side, you plug your antenna into;
the other, you plug into your deck's antenna jack. That's how the audio gets
into your deck; that's the ONLY "audio wire". You've obviously done that.

The only "audio" connections at all are a pair of RCA input jacks, and the other
pictures I've found show them as protruding directly from the case; there are no
wires attached to them. For these, you would use either a 1/8"-stereo-to-RCA
cable (similar to this one, though such an expensive one is hardly necessary:
http://tinyurl.com/faafl), or an adapter that plugs your iPod's interface
connector into the same plugs (http://tinyurl.com/eqts6 for example).

Finally, there appears to be a set of power wires (there would have to be), and
the specs list a "remote on/off switch", which would be a separate set of wires.
How you've got all these wired up, I don't know, although if you've connected
the "remote switch" wires to the car's power, you may be bypassing any internal
power filtering the unit has, and that could be the source of your noise.

I called a local car audio store (different than the one I bought this
thing from) and they said what I need is "ground loop isolator." Is
this the same thing as power filter? I am not sure. Radio shack as a
device called a ground loop isolator that is $16.99, but from the looks
of it on their site, it is all RCA jacks which doesn't do me much good.
The car audio store I called said they have them for between 20 and 40
dollars. Not sure if that is excessive or not, but it strikes me as
such.

I'd say it's a 99.9% chance a ground-loop isolator WILL NOT solve your problem.
Your iPod isn't grounded to the car to begin with, unless you're using a
cigarette lighter power adapter (you didn't say if you were), and so there's no
way for a ground loop to even exist. If the noise is there when your iPod is
running on its own battery, it's not a ground-loop issue.

If you DO decide to try the isolator, make sure the shop allows you to TEST one
BEFORE buying it - it takes all of 15 seconds to plug in between the iPod and
the modulator's input, and you'll be able to tell immediately if it solves the
problem.

I still think the power feed is your problem, though. As I say, any car audio
shop should have a bunch of "spare" small power filters that they can sell you
for cheap, or just give to you; the modulator draws very little power so it
doesn't need a big hefty filter.

First though, make sure you have the power and remote-switch wires hooked up
correctly.

Oh, and tell the guys at work, they don't know anything about car electronics -
you got the thing wired and working as it is, you're obviously way ahead of them

Matt Ion wrote:

Cal Carnsen wrote:

Hello -

Up until a few weeks ago, my 98 Dodge Stratus was equipped with a
6-disc CD changer that operated via a wired FM modulator. I bought my
first portable MP3 player 3 years ago and the CD player has not been
used since then. I got a wild hair up my ass to get the CD player out
of there, so I removed it with no issues.

I then got the idea to install a wired FM modulator to hook my iPod up
to, rather than continue to use the stupid cassette adaptors that short
out so easily (the modulator that was operating the CD player was not
able to connect to the iPod; otherwise I'd have stuck with that
modulator because for the CD player, it worked perfectly).

So I bought a Sound Storm FM Modulator (model SSVFM10) used from a car
audio shop for about 7 or 8 bucks. In the process of installing it, I
had no choice but to modify the modulator's connecting red and black
wires because the jacks would not fit together. Upon completing the
installation, I took my new pimped out ride for a drive, only to
discover that there was a very high-pitched whining sound clearly
audible over the more mellow tunes in music collection, and it was
syncrhonized with the RPMs of the engine. (.i.e., I'd hit the gas and
the pitch of the whining sound would go up; I'd release the gas and the
pitch would come back down). I tooled around with the different
frequencies the device can be set to, and that made no difference.
Assuming that the problem is related to either A) the fact that this
thing is used and the previous owner probably got rid of it for this
whining problem, B) the fact that I shortened / stripped / tied
together a few wires just to get it to work, or C) the fact that I am a
car audio uber-newbie and don't know what in the hell I am doing, I
just removed the modulator and went back to the tape adaptor.

So my questions a

A) could I have avoided the jack incompatibility problem with some sort
of adaptor that would take both incompatible ends and bridge them
together?

Which wires/connectors are you talking about? The antenna insert? The power
feed? The signal input?


B) Could the whining sound be caused by a cut-and-tape job I did on the
black and red wires?

If they're the power wires, probably not. That IS likely where the noise is
coming in, but I doubt it's the fault of your "modifications".


C) What about grounding? the plug coming from the tape deck had three
wires - red, black and yellow. The modulator had just red and black. So
I snipped / taped the red and black together and left the yellow still
hooked into the jack. Is yellow colored wiring typically reserved for
ground? I thought ground was green. I have no friggin clue.

Assuming you're referring to the power wires here, in most car systems, black is
ground, red is for switched (accessory) power, and yellow is for constant
(battery-backup) power. The yellow wire is normally only used to supply power
to maintain clock and radio-memory settings on the deck, while the red supplies
the main power when the key is turned on (with some designs, the yellow supplies
the main power and the red just signals the deck to power on with the key, but
that's not important to this issue, and I add it only to appease the nitpickers


D) is this product (Sound Storm SSVFM10) known to be a general piece of
crap? Or perhaps modulators in general get this whining problem when
they are no good anymore?

Can't speak to that... your problem is more likely a poor ground somewhere, or
an inherently noisy (ie. poorly filtered) power source. You can pick up a
simple power filter from any car-audio shop; most head units come with them, and
a lot of installers just cut them off. Try asking at the place you got the
modulator from. Also, check that that black wire is connected to a good solid
ground.

I assume there's no engine noise from the radio itself under normal conditions,
just when playing the iPod?

[Matt Ion]

Cal Carnsen wrote:
sorry to be such a retard.....

Not at all - you're a step ahead of the guys at work already

It appears as though these wires ARE for
power afterall. One of them (the red one) has a fuse inline. That can
only mean power, right? At this point I consider myself fortunate that
I haven't blown up my car.

:-)

I called another shoppe and they said that their power filters run
about 15 bucks, they are NOT the same thing as ground loop isolators,
and that ground loop isolators would apply in situations where the
person is trying to reduce noise by installing something in the AUDIO
line only. The power filter is kind of the power line equivalent of a
ground loop isolator.

Well, the desired result is the same, but I'd hardly call them equivalent. The
ground-loop isolator physically separates the two circuits with a transformer.
A power filter uses coils and capacitors to filter noise out of the power line
(as the name suggests).

Anyway, if anyone knows where I can get a reasonably priced power
filter, let me know. sorry for all the confusion.

Again, a lot of head units (particularly cheaper ones) come with them integrated
into their power wires, and installers will often simply cut them off and
discard them, or sometimes keep a few around for uses just like this. Check
around at a few different shops and you should have no problem being able to
find an installer to just give you one (if it was me, I'd probably install it
for you as well).

But first, like I said, check that you've properly wired the power and don't
have the remote-switch wire tapped into the power feed.

[Cal Carnsen]

Ok, thanks for everyone's input. Turns out the wires are of course
power wires. Again, sorry for all the mixup.

I purchased a noise filter and wired into the red power wire. It took
care of the problem 100%. I only paid 10 bucks for it.

Thanks for everyone's help!

Brian Mc

[Matt Ion]

Cal Carnsen wrote:
Ok, thanks for everyone's input. Turns out the wires are of course
power wires. Again, sorry for all the mixup.

No problem... just don't trust the guys at work

I purchased a noise filter and wired into the red power wire. It took
care of the problem 100%. I only paid 10 bucks for it.

Bingo!

Thanks for everyone's help!

Anytime