Stereo & Electronics - I HATE my stereo. Make it stop whining...

I'll try to make this as shot as possible, but its a long story. Here's what I have:
Alpine H/U
2 Rockford Power 500 amps
Infinity Perfect 12" sub
Diamond Audio components in front, nothing in rear.
So for years I've been dealing with a whine when I put the amps in. Not only does it whine, but it also pops when another electrical item is used such as brakes or turn signals. I've done numerous stereos and never had a problem. I installed for Best Buy for 5 years and never had one come back and I've tried everything on this car (94 T/A).

Over the time I've tried 4 different H/U (some for testing, others replaces) and it still makes the noise, so it shouldn't be that.

I've tried different amps, all with same whine and popping noise.

Ran new ground for H/U and amps, even tried running them to the same point in the car once, no change.

Ran a new power wire outside the car (for testing), no change.

Ran the RCA's down the middle of the car, not even tucked into anything just sitting there. That was the ONLY difference I ever saw. It made the noise quieter, but still there. I even recently bought new RCA's, double shielded and what not and tried them last night with the same result.

What gives??? I'm at my witts end with this damn thing. I'm about to build the system outside of the car and put on piece in at a time or something.

One thing I did try was I disconnected the RCA's at the amp and the sound went away. But my question here is, if the RCA is not plugged in, is the amp even sending anything to the speakers? If it does then I guess I can look at the H/U, but what else can I do? I've tried dedicated ground and power wire to the H/U. The ony thing I haven't run a dedicated wire for was the acc. wire for the deck to turn it on. Just thought of that, but would it have any affect?

Sorry for such a long post, but any ideas are greatly appreciated. It realy shouldn't be this damn difficult. I'm about to pull it all and put some gauges there, at least it would be USEFULL!!! lol. Thanks guys.

I wonder if the alternator and its ground are good. Maybe the amp is picking up something from there.

I tried that before, just disconnected the alternator. Also ran new ground wires on the batery, to the block and to the ground on the chassis. Should probably do the positive side too...
Thanks for the reply!

Oh, and the noise is still there when its on accessory. Not the whine but the popping noise if that makes any difference.

I wonder if the alternator and its ground are good. Maybe the amp is picking up something from there.

Where is the ground for the alternator?

It grounds through its chassis but I believe there is a braided ground strap nearby it. Now that I think about it its probably a block ground.

If you unhook the rcas to your amp and the noise/noises go away then the problem is with the wiring to your head unit. Try an alternate ground, power, and 12 volt switched along with unhooking the antenna, etc.

Good luck.

How is the ground on the amp? Make sure its to a good solid piece of metal..

Also, make sure the RCAs and the Power wire are run down opposite sides of the car. That helps a lot.

And one trick that helps me a lot is running an extra small ground wire. (About 14 gauge is all you need) Run it from the radio ground to the ground on the amp.

And while you're behind the radio it probably wouldn't be a bad idea to get rid of the factory gound and ground it somewhere else.

If its still there I'd say the amp is likely just garbage..

could have a ground or power wire stripped some where in the travel from battery to amp or ground to amp...

try using just one of the amps and then switching, to see if ONE amp is doing it or BOTH of them are doing it...

as has been already stated, sounds like the amp's trashed