Ground Loop Isolators, Do they really work?
 

I'm getting a constant hissing noise from the components ever since I had my amp installed.

Would an Isolator fix that, I know it's RCA related. I unplugged one of the RCA sets and the hissing was lowered.

So I was thinking of picking up an Isolator and giving it a try, It's really annoying trying to hear the quality of music when you hear a faint hiss on lower volumes :ohwell:

isolators work, I use them in my setup now, powered ones work best, but the ones that just simply plug in the rca, just reduce it

Ah ok, I'll see if I can find a powered one around here.

A 4-Channel one :smokin:

i read the zapco symbilink is a pretty good system to use it but from what i understand if you use non zapco amps you need the receiver module to go on the amp side of the patch cable

I had some strange effects when I tried one. The noise I was trying to eliminate was gone, but the sound had changed. The lower notes seemed to have less impact but up around 50 hz or so it got audibly louder. Needless to say we scrapped it. It may have been the brand but who knows. It was a Stinger though.

solder a piece of wire to the shield of the RCA and then take that piece of wire and ground it

I used a very high quality noise isolator once (a jensen $150 affair), it had milder but similar sonics differences you mention, the dynamics were slowed, the bass was weaker, seemed like there was less detail but there was also less edge to the sound ...but these were very subtle. But the noise was gone (so I spent more time trying to find the ground... I think the car was a large part of that issue). All they are is an isolation transformer so they are good for audio band transmission but will have issues at lower frequencies since the transformer action gets less efficient at low freq

If it is hiss and not whine then your gains are too high and an isolator probably won't help..

I'm going to put them really low tomorrow and test that out.

Yeah...There's no alternator whine or anything, Just a constant low hiss from my components.

If this is the case a line driver should help...