I have the gains set down to like about 1/3 and had no whine in the last car. But anyway, here is the latest (FAILED) updates:
Yesterday, I removed the amp ground from the seat rail bolt and regrounded it to the steel dash bracket that goes across the entire dash and is welded to the A-Pillars as suggested by a friend who owns and customizes Honda Civics all the time. NO LUCK! Still have the whine!
SO... I then removed the Monster Cable 101XLN RCA cables from the equalizer to the amp and replaced them with a couple of VERY expensive, highest quality RCA's from my previous home theater system. They have plugs that are 24 karat gold plated and twice the size of any regular car RCA. STILL HAVE WHINE!
Next, I disconnected the power wires to the head unit AND equalizer that were hooked up to the factory radio harness constant 12-volt lead and ran an 8 gauge power wire directly to the battery. STILL HAVE WHINE!
Well, I pretty much give up messing with the RCA cables and power/ground cables. Next comes having the alternator checked. The only trouble is, the car only has 65,000 original miles on it and had 54,000 on it when I got it in August, so you would think the alternator would be fine. But, since places will check them free, I have nothing to lose.
Then, I'm going to try to figure out how to connect an RFI capacitor to the engine. I googled a ton of info on them, and they seem to make sense. However, all the images I found show them connected to either the coil or the alternator. Well, since the 2001 Civic doesn't have that old school coil, I guess my only choice is the alternator hook-up.
So there ya go, over a week of replacing/regrounding/re-wiring/testing and STILL have whine! Like I said earlier, when I grounded the RCA's that run from the head unit outputs to the equalizer, the whine instantly went down about 90% if not more! To test it first, I simply grounded a wire to the dash brace, then turned on the system. While the engine was running and the whine present, I touched that wire to the outer part of the RCA plug and BAM, it was a HUGE loss of whine! So, of course, I shut things down and proceeded to ground the two channels of the deck output RCA's. Guess that's the best I'm going to get for now.
Not giving up totally, but sure am running out of things to test and check and rewire or reground. Only things left are messing with the alternator, and installing an RFI Capacitor.
Would be really cool if someone could tell me EXACTLY how/where you would connect an RFI Capacitor on a 2001 Honda Civic. I'm sure the connection is different on many different cars, so what works on a Ford or Chevy or even a Yugo might not work the same on a Honda. Pictures would be excellent.
Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go bang my head into a brick wall... pretty much the same as listening to alternator whine!!!
OH, ONE LAST NOTE: As I mentioned a couple times previously, the whine is pretty much only heard with the volume either turned way down or off. If I simply turn up the volume, I don't hear it. What the heck is THAT all about?
THANKS FOR EVERYONE'S ADVICE!!! Notes ARE being made of what you suggest, what I try, and what works and doesn't work.