G'Day one and all I have an earth loop problem between my pioneer Deh-P1y HU and Phoenix Titanium 500.4 amp When any current is drawn (head lights, air con' wippers etc)it gets worse, I have keept all interconact leads sep and away from power wires and earthed HU and amp, it is most noticeable when the HU is turned all the way down or at low volume. By fitting a line Isolation transformer in between the RCA leads on ch 1 & 2 at the amp (front speakers) the noise disappears
I'm concerned fitting this $19 crap looking thing between $100 interconnects is degrading the SQ
If I changed from sheilded interconnects to a twised pair would this fix it ?
PG is "ok" but not my first choice. as for the ground loop, it's not the cables causing the problem most likely, but you can try twited pair cables and see if it helps. they will reject outside noise. check the ground point for your head unit, and move that to bare chassis metal. check amp ground points too. the transformer shouldn't hurt your signal quality that much if yo have a good line driver before it anyway, or some sort of a preamp. you can verify signal integrity though if you have a multimeter and an occiloscope along with a test tone CD.