What's wrong with my stereo?

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Kraze

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I have an aftermarket stereo, but I have a problem. My head unit powers on, but the sound will cut in and out from all speakers, including the sub, for long periods of time. For a couple minutes it will be playing fine, then seemingly out of nowhere the sound will completely cut out, for all modes (radio and cd) and through all speakers, including the sub. I can tell the cd is still playing even while I hear no sound though, and sometimes this goes on for days where I have no radio.

This can't be a blown fuse or a bad ground since the head unit stays powered on while the sound cuts out right? What could be the cause?

I have an Eclilpse 5425 that I've had for about 4 years now and never had this problem.
 
I had a shop install it. They used a wiring harness adapter I think. I took it out and tried looking at the connections really quick but didn't see anything. I'll try checking them out more thoroughly. If it's a loose connection, what wire would be causing all the sound to go out while the deck continues to play?
 
are your speakers powered by an aftermarket amp? check your grounds and also make sure your gains arent set all the way up.
its sad to say but when you get it "professionally" done, they like to mess with your stuff. did you buy all your gear from the place?
 
Speakers are running off the stock amp, the sub is off a separate amp, but both of those cut out when it happens. Only thing that came from that place was the head unit, but it's been working perfectly fine for 4 years and it just recently started doing this. Could something have gone wrong with the head unit to make it start doing this?

What seems weird to me is that the speakers and sub are all cutting out, and those are two different systems you know? That means the signal to the stock JBL amp is getting lost along with the ones down the RCAs to my sub's amp, for both radio and cd, which makes me think the problem is coming from the head unit.
 
sounds like the remote output on the headunit is looseing power for some reason. You can try checking it at the aftermarket amp that powers the sub useing a dmm just test the blue wire when you loose sound and see if it has 12 volts. If it does not thats most likely your problem. In that case you could just move the turn on wires to the switched power in the radio harness.
 
kylecm85 said:
sounds like the remote output on the headunit is looseing power for some reason. You can try checking it at the aftermarket amp that powers the sub useing a dmm just test the blue wire when you loose sound and see if it has 12 volts. If it does not thats most likely your problem. In that case you could just move the turn on wires to the switched power in the radio harness.
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If the remote output was bad would the head unit stay on still though? Because when the sound is gone the head unit is still on and continues to play the song (I can tell because the songs still switch like they would normally do).

Edit: Ooooh wait. I think I know what you're saying. If the remote output was bad on the head unit, then it would be turning off both the speaker amp and the sub amp when the sound goes out. I'll go check to see if my sub amp is on when the sound goes out next time. I didn't even think of that!
 
you got it right the remote wire just has power when the radio turns on. It does not send any power to the radio to turn it on. That just seems like the most logical problem.
 
kylecm85 said:
you got it right the remote wire just has power when the radio turns on. It does not send any power to the radio to turn it on. That just seems like the most logical problem.
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You got it right. Just went out and checked, the sub amp is not on when the sound is out. When I get off work I'll go out and check all the wires having to do with the remote output on the head unit and see if there's any loose connections.

You guys are more helpful than the forum dedicated to car audio!
 
haha no problem it is what i do for a living so i kind of have to be somewhat good at it. Let me know how that goes for you tomorrow.
 
kylecm85 said:
haha no problem it is what i do for a living so i kind of have to be somewhat good at it. Let me know how that goes for you tomorrow.
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Will do. And if there's no loose connections would you suggest switching the remote for both amps to the power on wire for the head unit, so when the car turns on, both amps and the head unit automatically turn on too? Or is that a bad idea? I don't want to burn up the amps by having them all the time if that is a problem with my idea.
 
you can do that or move them to the fuse box find a circuit that is switched that does not control something vital to the car. But you should have no problem just useing the power from the radio
 
Either that or just use this as an excuse to upgrade to a new head unit lol. I've been looking at this one, what's your thoughts on it?
 
thats tru. It looks like a nice one im just not a big fan of pioneer never have been. They do work for a long period of time though. I really like the new kenwoods you might check into some of them as well.
 
kylecm85 said:
thats tru. It looks like a nice one im just not a big fan of pioneer never have been. They do work for a long period of time though. I really like the new kenwoods you might check into some of them as well.
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I'll take a look into those. Pioneer, Kenwood, Eclipse, and Alpine are the four brands I've been looking into. Seems like Eclipse has been going downhill lately though.

danny_holtermann said:
bring it back to the shop and say wtf
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I would if the stereo wasn't over 4 years old and a discontinued model. I don't think they'd do anything about it because of those reasons.
 
stay away from eclipse as they are no longer in buisness lol any of the other 3 you will be fine with.
 
Lol shows how long I've been out of the car audio game for! Any new upcoming brands that are promising?
 
Ok I looked around in the mess of wires behind the head unit for anything suspicious and came up with nothing, and my radio hasn't worked for a couple days now. So, time to upgrade! Besides a head unit, do I need anything else? Will my dash kit and wiring harness from the eclipse deck work with other brands of head units, or are those brand specific?
 
If you buy the same brand head , like Pioneer.. They use the exact plug on the back of all their decks, so you don't even have to rewire anything, just unplug, and plug into new deck, if you switch brands you'll need to rewire the head to the car harness adapter
 
Sapperfire said:
If you buy the same brand head , like Pioneer.. They use the exact plug on the back of all their decks, so you don't even have to rewire anything, just unplug, and plug into new deck, if you switch brands you'll need to rewire the head to the car harness adapter
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No they dont. Pioneer has a few different plugs and they change every couple years too.


OP, I agree with everyone here about the remote on wire being the issue. Also some Eclipse decks had problems with their remote ons not working after a couple years cause they cant handle multiple amp loads.

As for good decks, I prefer Pionner and dont care for Kenwood. Kenwoods menu systems are crap, their LCD screens are about the worst and the nicer display decks burn their screens out all too often. A Kenwood will do a good job of repoducing a digital signal though and they have a decient processor stage. Pioneers have a more natural sound to me and much better displays. The EQ isnt as flexable as the higher end Kenwoods though but the x-overs are better and keep the signal in phase.
 
So I'm looking at wiring harnesses on onlinecarstereo.com right now and it seems that the harnesses are vehicle specific and not brand of head unit specific. If I'm getting this and I previously had an Eclipse deck, what wiring harness do I need now? I'm confused :confused:

Sorry for basically asking you guys to hold my hand through this lol.
 
Kraze said:
So I'm looking at wiring harnesses on onlinecarstereo.com right now and it seems that the harnesses are vehicle specific and not brand of head unit specific. If I'm getting this and I previously had an Eclipse deck, what wiring harness do I need now? I'm confused :confused:

Sorry for basically asking you guys to hold my hand through this lol.
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You just chop off the adapter harness from the eclipse plug and then match up the wire colors to the new stereos plug. Easy peasy
 
Ah, ok I guess that isn't so bad then. What do you think about that head unit Laser? You said you like Pioneer, you think that one is a good choice?
 
Great sounding deck. I didnt like the switchover to a joystick for all controlls but thats the world we live in now. You will notice that it will sound fuller and have better bass over the Eclipse deck. Good choice.
 
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