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Car Audio Discussion
General Car Audio
Ongoing Car Audio Issues, is it the Head Unit?
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<blockquote data-quote="BrackishWarden" data-source="post: 8864183" data-attributes="member: 690390"><p>My car is a Subaru Forester 2006.</p><p></p><p>Very long story, last June my front left car speaker was starting to make crackling noises, and after about a week it just shut off entirely. These were speakers I had installed back in mid/late 2019. I don't remember the make/model of them, they were around $70 for the pair from a local car audio shop. So I figured it was time to get them replaced. I went back to the same store and a bought a new set of better speakers this time (Alpine S-S65) and paid the shop to install them (I'm not familiar with installing car speakers). After driving home for about five minutes, all of the audio in my car suddenly stopped.</p><p></p><p>I called the store right when I parked (they were about to close) and they told me "that radio must be out," so I assumed I just needed a new one? They're the experts, right? lol so I took their word for it like a moron and bought a new cheap head unit (radio, stereo, head unit, that's all referring to the same part, right? The box that goes into the car dash and plays the audio?) and had them install it. Same problem occurred: audio was on for a bit, then suddenly shut off. When I told them about this again, they wanted to charge me to "diagnose the problem" but I was almost certain they were the ones that caused it (it's an odd coincidence that my car never had an issue like that with my initial head unit, and the moment after they perform an installation, it suddenly "goes out?")</p><p></p><p>So I took the vehicle to my local Car Toys since they claimed they'd charge less to diagnose it at least. Turns out there was, from how they worded it, a "grounding issue", apparently the speakers were touching metal in the doors and that was causing them to shut off? They remounted them and the audio worked normally again. At the same time, the head unit I got was very cheap and from Amazon so I figured I'd just return it (it had an awful high pitched whine/buzz noise coming from it). So I bought a Kenwood DPX594BT head unit and paid them to install it, just to be done with this whole mess. But after the installation, here is where the problem came in.</p><p></p><p>After driving for about 30 seconds and having the audio relatively loud (around 18-20), I would hear lots of distortion and crackling coming from all of the speakers. Of course, I went back there and asked them about it. I went there multiple times and tried to take advantage of their "lifetime warranty" policy and troubleshooted what was going on. They tried replacing a bracket of some kind, checked the wiring, can't remember exactly but no luck; the issue was very odd, it was inconsistent and would only come in typically when I'm driving the car (not when it's idling or if the engine isn't started, usually).</p><p></p><p>A quick fix I found out was to turn the Kenwood's fader all the way up to the front; for whatever reason, when I mute the rear speakers, the distortion wouldn't come in. So for a few months, that was my workaround. On top of that, I always noticed my front left speaker had more bass and less treble than the front right speaker. Another workaround I implemented was to move the balance of the head unit to the left a bit, which would make the audio sound a bit more centered. I knew something was still wrong, but I already spent about a grand in car audio repairs and troubleshooting appointments and didn't feel like spending anymore just to have more problems come up. However, a couple of weeks ago, my left front speaker started acting up AGAIN: distortion, crackling, and after a few days it just shut off entirely.</p><p></p><p>I had a local mechanic friend of mine take a look at it a few days ago (which is probably what I should have done in the first place). Thinking that the speaker blew out/went bad, I bought 4 brand new speakers from Amazon to replace all of them in the car (Boss P65.4C for the front and Boss P55.4C for the rear). Apparently my car's front windows were crushing/disconnecting the wires, which is what caused that front left speaker to shut off. But regardless, I had all the speakers swapped out... and the distortion issue I've been having since I got that Kenwood head unit persists.</p><p></p><p>So I'm PRETTY SURE it's NOT the speakers, as BOTH sets have the exact same odd distortion problem. AND even on this new pair, again, the front left speaker is quieter and has less treble than the front right speaker. This tells me that, most likely, it's not that the previous set of speakers went bad, but something else is causing this audio issue. My mechanic told me that it was very likely the amp in the head unit.</p><p></p><p>I'm assuming at this point, after all that, I'm left with a bad head unit, that was defective out-of-the-box. I'm on this forum to ask anyone with more knowledge than me what I should do. My plan is to attempt to return this Kenwood head unit that I assume is defective and swap it out with a new one (I don't want to go to anymore audio places). I've installed head units myself before, and I'm assuming if I get another Kenwood dual head unit (I'm looking at the DPX395MBT, basically the same one as my current one but without a CD slot), the wiring/configuration in the back should all be the same? It would just be a matter of unscrewing the old one, popping out the connectors, and just re-inserting them all into the new one?</p><p></p><p>Can anyone give me any input as to what is going on now? Would you agree it's the head unit, or, after all these installations/replacements, could it STILL be some other factor? My plan is to just try out that new Kenwood head unit from Amazon and return it if it also does not solve the issue. Sorry for the long post, but this has been driving me NUTS and I already spent over a thousand on what should have just been one single simple installation. Never knew it would turn into such a mess!</p><p></p><p>THANKS!!!</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="BrackishWarden, post: 8864183, member: 690390"] My car is a Subaru Forester 2006. Very long story, last June my front left car speaker was starting to make crackling noises, and after about a week it just shut off entirely. These were speakers I had installed back in mid/late 2019. I don't remember the make/model of them, they were around $70 for the pair from a local car audio shop. So I figured it was time to get them replaced. I went back to the same store and a bought a new set of better speakers this time (Alpine S-S65) and paid the shop to install them (I'm not familiar with installing car speakers). After driving home for about five minutes, all of the audio in my car suddenly stopped. I called the store right when I parked (they were about to close) and they told me "that radio must be out," so I assumed I just needed a new one? They're the experts, right? lol so I took their word for it like a moron and bought a new cheap head unit (radio, stereo, head unit, that's all referring to the same part, right? The box that goes into the car dash and plays the audio?) and had them install it. Same problem occurred: audio was on for a bit, then suddenly shut off. When I told them about this again, they wanted to charge me to "diagnose the problem" but I was almost certain they were the ones that caused it (it's an odd coincidence that my car never had an issue like that with my initial head unit, and the moment after they perform an installation, it suddenly "goes out?") So I took the vehicle to my local Car Toys since they claimed they'd charge less to diagnose it at least. Turns out there was, from how they worded it, a "grounding issue", apparently the speakers were touching metal in the doors and that was causing them to shut off? They remounted them and the audio worked normally again. At the same time, the head unit I got was very cheap and from Amazon so I figured I'd just return it (it had an awful high pitched whine/buzz noise coming from it). So I bought a Kenwood DPX594BT head unit and paid them to install it, just to be done with this whole mess. But after the installation, here is where the problem came in. After driving for about 30 seconds and having the audio relatively loud (around 18-20), I would hear lots of distortion and crackling coming from all of the speakers. Of course, I went back there and asked them about it. I went there multiple times and tried to take advantage of their "lifetime warranty" policy and troubleshooted what was going on. They tried replacing a bracket of some kind, checked the wiring, can't remember exactly but no luck; the issue was very odd, it was inconsistent and would only come in typically when I'm driving the car (not when it's idling or if the engine isn't started, usually). A quick fix I found out was to turn the Kenwood's fader all the way up to the front; for whatever reason, when I mute the rear speakers, the distortion wouldn't come in. So for a few months, that was my workaround. On top of that, I always noticed my front left speaker had more bass and less treble than the front right speaker. Another workaround I implemented was to move the balance of the head unit to the left a bit, which would make the audio sound a bit more centered. I knew something was still wrong, but I already spent about a grand in car audio repairs and troubleshooting appointments and didn't feel like spending anymore just to have more problems come up. However, a couple of weeks ago, my left front speaker started acting up AGAIN: distortion, crackling, and after a few days it just shut off entirely. I had a local mechanic friend of mine take a look at it a few days ago (which is probably what I should have done in the first place). Thinking that the speaker blew out/went bad, I bought 4 brand new speakers from Amazon to replace all of them in the car (Boss P65.4C for the front and Boss P55.4C for the rear). Apparently my car's front windows were crushing/disconnecting the wires, which is what caused that front left speaker to shut off. But regardless, I had all the speakers swapped out... and the distortion issue I've been having since I got that Kenwood head unit persists. So I'm PRETTY SURE it's NOT the speakers, as BOTH sets have the exact same odd distortion problem. AND even on this new pair, again, the front left speaker is quieter and has less treble than the front right speaker. This tells me that, most likely, it's not that the previous set of speakers went bad, but something else is causing this audio issue. My mechanic told me that it was very likely the amp in the head unit. I'm assuming at this point, after all that, I'm left with a bad head unit, that was defective out-of-the-box. I'm on this forum to ask anyone with more knowledge than me what I should do. My plan is to attempt to return this Kenwood head unit that I assume is defective and swap it out with a new one (I don't want to go to anymore audio places). I've installed head units myself before, and I'm assuming if I get another Kenwood dual head unit (I'm looking at the DPX395MBT, basically the same one as my current one but without a CD slot), the wiring/configuration in the back should all be the same? It would just be a matter of unscrewing the old one, popping out the connectors, and just re-inserting them all into the new one? Can anyone give me any input as to what is going on now? Would you agree it's the head unit, or, after all these installations/replacements, could it STILL be some other factor? My plan is to just try out that new Kenwood head unit from Amazon and return it if it also does not solve the issue. Sorry for the long post, but this has been driving me NUTS and I already spent over a thousand on what should have just been one single simple installation. Never knew it would turn into such a mess! THANKS!!! [/QUOTE]
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