no its not a gimmick because its a friend of a friend who works at best buy who did the installation. and i went to other best buy installers and they also said its common that aftermarket HU can lead to loss of reception.

i went in yesterday morning at best buy and told him about all the possible problems and he took it out, looked at it and said all the connections are good. the installer said the power antenna wire is properly hooked up as well and verified that everything is hooked up properly.

im thinking (and hoping) its because i have a 350z antenna and not an s2k antenna. im trying to get an s2k antenna or find my old one and see if that helps, but if not this really sucks cause the static is really bothering. i cant even bump my radio because the static is so bad.

could there be any other problem? can someone elaborate the whole "ground" issue? any other possible problems you can think of? they suggested to get a "radio enhancer" or something like that to help me with my reception, but i cant find one anywhere.

 

I am not an audiophile, but I haven't heard of the radio enhancer. Or anything that best buy sells that can do that. I have the same car, same deck and didn't have any problems.

 

Ok. Don't believe me. Go put down your hard earned $$$ on a "radio enhancer" instead of actually fixing the problem (that you'll have to wind up fixing ANYWAY).

Is there static when listening to CDs?

Edit: oops, you can't listen to CDs...

Is there static when listening to MP3s?

 

If there's one thing I learned on the S2000 Electronics board when it comes to car audio, listen to Neutered Sputniks.

 

simple question. does the static increase as you accelerate? if there is it is a grounding problem. On some of the cars where i've used the ground on the harness, it gave a lot of static.

 

its not that i dont believe you, its the fact that i know its not a gimmick. and no i do not have static when listening to mp3's. its pretty much just my radio. although i do believe that this problem could be fixed without a "radio enhancer"

no i do not get more static as a accelerate. or... i havent noticed. i will test that out today. can you elaborate on what "bad grounding" is? when he installed my deck he didnt use this metal frame that went around the stock HU. could that be the problem?

 

Nah. That metal frame is just for mounting in different vehicles. With the mounting brackets used in the S, it's not needed (wouldn't fit anyway).

Sounds like it's not a ground problem as that would show up no matter what source you were using (unless your antenna is not properly grounded...)

If you don't want to believe me about "radio enhancers" (at most, it's just an inline antenna amplifier - have your original checked out first), try googling it.

 

i switched out my 350z antenna and put on my s2k antenna and got a lil better reception, but still experience static. when i play mp3's some songs arent as clear as other, but that could just be the format right?

is the inline antenna amp the main thing to receive reception? so are you saying that mine could possibly be bad thats why its causing the static problem?

 

The MP3 thing is due to the format. This is a perfect example of why I recommend against going to a strict mp3 HU.

Ripping a CD to lossless WAV format, you'll have a 1.4Mbps bitrate and 40MB file. Ripping a CD to mp3, at 128kbps you'll have a 4MB file and at 320kbps (highest you can achieve with mp3) you'll have an 8MB file. Doing a bit of math, we see that going from CD quality to 128kbps, you wind up with 1/10 the sound data - that's a loss of 90% of your music. 90%! Even going to 320kbps, you lose 80%!

 

so what about the inline antenna amp?