Just installed a CDA-9885 in a '97 VW Jetta.

The problem is, any time I press a button to change a track or radio station (or anything else), the speakers make a "POP" noise. It also does this when you turn it on or off. Its pretty loud...and annoying.

I think it may have something to do with the factory amps (the car has a Bose system in it).

I turned of the internal amp of the head unit, and connected the RCA's from the deck, to a Factory Amp Integration harness. So I'm sending line level outputs to the Bose amp/system.

Any clues as to what the problem may be?
Would a bad ground cause this? I've connected the ground wire from the factory plug to the ground on the head unit harness. Do I also have to ground the casing of the head unit somehow? or does the ground wire take care of that.

Sorry for rambling on...just don't know what to try...

hey welcome to the fun worl of intergrating factory amps! now you can try grounding the shielding of the RCAs to the chasis of the deck, but most times it leads to more noise you can try grounding the deck to another source, try running a ground loop isolator. The best solution is going to be to remove the amps all together and run new speaker wires to the speakers, but chances are they are going to be a stupid impedence and you will have to replace the speakers. Unfortunetly replacing the headunit is more then just buying the Activ speaker low level harness, it rarely works 100%

Why would you ruin the sound of a good alpine like that with a factory amp?
Worse, have you still got factory speakers?

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Alpine CDA-9887, TUA-T500HD, CHA-S634, CHA-1204 & KCA-410C
Pioneer TS-A6981, 6 x GM-5100T
Kicker 2 x CVR15,
MBQ RCE-216
PG MX2
Soundgate LanStar1
PAC SWI-ALP

When I'm not doing anything (just listening to music), it sounds great. Much better than the factory stereo. The only time I hear the popping sound is when I press a button.

Would a grounding problem be present at all times?

I think the speakers are 2ohms...

I'm not really interested in the quality of the sound. The main reason I purchases this head unit was for the ability to intergrate my Ipod, as well as play CD's (the factory unit only had radio/cassette). Actually, the Alpine makes the system much better than the factory head unit.

I've still got factory speakers (8 of them, in fact). I guess i could replace them, but its not really in the budget.

The system is doing exactly what I want it to do, expect for the popping thing....

Any advice?

how have you got it hooked up? did you use the alpine speaker outputs to go to the line level input on the factory amp?

The way to do it right, is get the proper interface. You should use the RCA's out of the alpine, and a line output converter to go to the factory amp.

PAC & Soundgate sell interfaces to do this.

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Alpine CDA-9887, TUA-T500HD, CHA-S634, CHA-1204 & KCA-410C
Pioneer TS-A6981, 6 x GM-5100T
Kicker 2 x CVR15,
MBQ RCE-216
PG MX2
Soundgate LanStar1
PAC SWI-ALP

I used the RCA's out of the Alpine and connected them to the line level input on the factory amp.
This is the harness I used: http://www.bestkits.com/i/bha1784r.jpg

I believe that this is the proper interface.

I figured this was a better option than converting the speaker outputs to line level, then sending it to the factory amps which re-convert to speaker level. The quality would be worse because there is an unneccessary conversion.
With the method I used, the conversion from line level to "speaker level" is only done once...

I'm close to giving up and replacing the speakers and running new wires to them straight from the head unit....I really don't want to do that tho...

Anything else I can try?

man I had the same thing dude......its a loud popping and very annoying....I told my cousin and he checked the wiring......it turn out to be a shortage with the wiring.....check all the wiring properly......DUDE

Were you trying to integrate your factory amp?

Did the popping noise only happen when you pressed a button?

the popping is caused because the factory amplifier is very sensitive to line noise, you probably arent able to trun the volume on the hu up that far as well.... right ? like only half way ? or less before the facotry amp begins to clip. two ways around this..... first is fry using a line out converter on the speaker out on the hu . use one that you can adjust the sensitivity on.
other option is to replace the factory amp with aftermarket 4 ch and passive crossovers. quite abit of work but the end result is pretty good

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BUILDING STUFF IS COOL ..... BREAKING IT IS MUCH FUNNER !