Help - professional installers stumped...

the whine can usually be fixed by correcting the ground wire in most cars.

 

The best spot is to follow the negative side from the small auxillary battery in the right rear of the car and use the exact same spot it bolts to the car.

A common misconception is that your "ground" wire is only a ground when in actuality it is the Negative power wire. It should also be of the same gauge (thickness) as the 12v + wire. I hope this helps.

 

did your installer put in the high-to-low "do-dad"?

after splicing off the speaker lines, they need to hook up a high to low "filter" and use the low lines. otherwise the amp cuts out and everything goes haywire... i wanted to use the high lines for my amp, but could not as this happened.

 

The JL CleanSweep is intended do much more than just remove engine whine.
If that's all you're looking for there are several much cheaper options. Start with
a ground loop isolator. Another option is to add a component in the signal path that
achieves a balanced line signal; there are many such devices, one of which is the CleanSweep. In my system I have a Balanced Line Module mounted inside the amplifier itself. In my case the BLM completely eliminates any engine whine.
Google "Balanced Line Driver" and read all about what it does. Audio Control makes several devices that achieve this...I encourage you to look into them.
If you've made the investment in speakers as good as Focals, then you owe it to your ears to clean up the signal and hear what they're really capable of.

 

I've got the Three.1 and love it, but many of their devices do balanced input/output; it really depends on what else it is that you want to accomplish.
In my case I wanted something to take the speaker level output wires and convert them into clean, balanced, pre-amp signal to feed into my amps. I also wanted to get a separate knob to adjust the subwoofer level. The three.1 did that plus give me some equalizer knobs to adjust as well.
Go to http://www.mobileaudiocontrol.com/dept.asp?d_id=17612&l1=17612
and choose what options seem important to you....most all of them (labeled "OEM integration") will take your factory radio inputs and put out good balanced pre-amp signal...it just depends on what other processing you want to do.
I got my Three.1 on eBay for $75...so it doesn't have to be real expensive.
There are several online sources for Audio Control gear at better than retail prices.