Clicking noise from stereo when no music is playing
 

Went out Sunday and everything was working fine. Anchored in a cove for a while, played some music, and then headed out to get dinner. On the way back, I noticed the speakers were "clicking" or at least it would make that patterned "ticking" noise like when you would play a CD and it had a scratch in it.

Eventually I was able to pinpoint it down to a specific switch. When I turn on the switches for the stereo and speakers but do not play any music, no noise, no ticks/clicks. Once I hit the ACC switch for my stock depth finder, the ticks/clicks start. Turning off the depth finder switch then eliminates the tick/clicking noise.

I haven't added any electronics accessories today and ran everything off one battery. Stereo equipment does include subs, amps, and capacitor. And I don't think it makes a difference, but the ACC switch for the depth finder is in between the stereo and speaker switches. Where should I start the diagnosis?

(I posted this a few places, just looking for some more input.)

Connects are hitting or bad connect somewhere.

The depth finder works by making a series of clicks which are bounced back, somehow that may be transferring into the stereo. If you nicked the shielding on the depthfinder transducer wiring it might do it. You might also try a capacitor in the power feed to the DF and see if the noise goes away.

8-Track players will do that....time to make the move to a cassette player... :D

Could be a bad ground (doubt it) or you smoked an amp.. Or it simply could be low voltage, give you batteries some time to charge well above 12V.