^^ do you have a drive + play also?

 

no, i just have my zune.
I have it connected to the aux port, and also connected to the cigarrette lighter to charge. Makes a ground loop i guess?

 

^^ Not sure i believe the ground loop theory- I have mine hard wired to the car ignition and grounded pretty well and it still whines. Could be interior to the device itself. But i'm no audio expert ;)

 

I just got this system as well and was very puzzled by this issue. I had used a car ipod adapter and just the stereo cable to power and play my ipod before and got a lot of alternator whine with that system. This tells us one thing: the problem is not the Drive+Play system. It's a problem with the adapter jack itself. When I was using the old adapter and cable I unplugged the adapter and all whine ceased. My best word of advice would be to wire the device up using the harness, and extend the cables, running the ground wire as close to the actual vehicle ground as possible. It would be best to splice into the ignition assembly, since not only is this very far separated from the 12V sockets, but there is also a noise filter built into the ignition harness. Trace the ground as close to the end as possible, and then splice into it there, I would assume this would stop the noise, or at least reduce it to a negligable level. Just try and separate it as far as possible from the actual cigarette lighter adapters, since these seem to be very problematic. Oh and to attempt to eliminate confusion, Black: Ground (Negative), Yellow: Positive 12V, Red: Accessory (switched positive 12V source, like the remote lead on an amplifier)<---this turns the system on and off with the car.

 

Thanks for the response! I actually did try the things you suggested around august of last year before i took a long road trip, but none of them worked.

In the end, my solution was to scrap the thing and get an Alpine IDA-X001 in dash ipod HU for christmas and install that. The interface isn"t quite as good, but it has great sound quality. Highly recommended.