alpine or eclipse & random question

I've thought this one over today while working, and I'm with Rob on that.  Not necessarily a bad head unit, but one that is being driven to too loud a level and into clipping.  And it sounds like there is some bass boost being employed, too.  Could it be that your friend is expecting more out of a deck than it is able to give?

I think the "static" noise is most likely distortion of the cone caused by clipped signal.  Remove any bass boost control, and adjust crossover on the deck (if there is one) to attenuate bass below about 80 Hz.  And we don't know RMS of the door speakers he is using.  Is that something you can find out?

(My post hit after yours, kgerry, but it reads that the static noise is not intermittent but consistent with the bass...)

Well, here's the thing. The hu is old. few years old. so it's pretty much wore out, but the static never happened the whole time he had it, till last week or so, it started. i remember we had the volume up to 27 (goes to 40) and it sound really good, but now you're lucky to get it over 22 without hearing static. It doesn't static all the time, just once you play it for about 2 minutes or so then static starts. If you turn the bass down the static stops, (but the subs don't hit as hard, where it's kind of pointless having subs and amp if you can't hear them) then you can turn it up a little more. But, the bass has always been on number "3" on the hu (it goes to 12) and no problems before. just recently. it did it to the old speakers and the ones he bought off me (that were basically brand new). So it can't be the speakers. So him overpowering the HU isn't the problem, when he had it on the same settings before, and nothing happened, lasted years like it, just recently it statics.

Hopefully this helped a little. Any more advice or ideas? Thanks again

Oh, I didn't realize there were amps and subs involved, too.  No noise at the subs?  Try running new speaker wire, and try it first without actually "installing" it) after disconnecting the original wire.  Are these speakers run off an amp, or off the head unit and just the subs off an amp?

the way i read this the "distortion" is only heard on your satellite speakers... yes or no?   not on the sub/pre outs? yes or no?

since you've replaced the speakers with the same result, that tends to leave a problem in the HU after the pre/outs and before the actual speakers... i wouldnt suspect a "wire" problem ( although for the 3 minutes it takes i would meter them for any shorts or pinches to ground ) this leaves you with my first suggestion of a intermittent connection/cold solder connection in the HU or a problem in the internal O/P stage itself......

unless i'm totally reading something wrong here... and god, that's been known to happen.....

have you noticed any type of a temperature correlation?  like the problem is worse when the unit is cold.. or is ok until the unit heats up a bit??

speakers are ran off the hu and subs off the amp. static starts all the time, when it's cold and when it heats up.

and no noise at the subs, subs still sound good. and i dont believe the speakers are distorting, when the volume isn't even up all the way on the hu. it's on 21 when it goes to 40. you can barely hear anything.

the way I see it. It can't be the wires, if it were, then the static would stay the whole time even if you have the volume low. Correct? Cause it doesn't static when the volume is low. Like I mentioned before, you can turn it up to 40 when there's just talking at the beginning of a song, and it sounds loud, but when the beat starts, all static and bass (from subs). It's weird tho how it works. Any other info I can look into? Thanks

The Pioneer speakers are 100watts max, 20watts rms. it's not those speakers tho, because his other speakers were perfect, til recently when static started happening. so i doubt it's the speakers

so all of the info provided from my posts, does it sound like a bad headunit? I wish I could take mine out and hook it to his, but I'm picky about removing my equipment to other people's vehicles. So I'm trying to get info instead.

So any last advice or information you guys can give me?