Printer Friendly Forum Posts - music chopping in/out at higher volumes

ok my setup is

pioneer 5900I deck

component 6.5" in front and 4way 6X9's with cross overs and infinity tweeters

1.5 farad cap-(even though they don't "do" anything)

memphis 1000.1D power reference amp

2 kciker CXV 12"s

about two days ago i noticed that when i turn my music up to normal listening level... they music from the speakers-(not subs) cuts in and out... extremely shortlived moments of silence as if a CD skips when you hit a bump.. but i don't use cd's.. i have an ipod.. so it's not the music source.. my subs hit very consistently but it's the actual music that is hiccupping so to speak... the music skips particularly when bass hits.. and like mentioned earlier.. from the speakers,not the subs.. it's not as noticible when i play songs with little or no bass. does anyone know the cause of this?

thanks, seth

Try balancing the radio to the left and see if it still does it. Then balance to the right. If it only does it on the left or right, you may have a shorted tweeter or mid driver. If it does not do it with only one side playing at a time, you could have a Lack of power issue with the deck.

even though pioneer decks are good, their wattage is not true 45w x 4 or 50w x 4. The speakers must require more power or their is a short somewhere. If you screwed the speakers into metal make sure none of the wires got clamped in between and have gotten grounded. That will cause the radio amp to cut in and out as well as a driver being defective. On another note, make sure the ohms are 4 per channel, any lower and that will fry that radio internal amp.

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The wire I'm test'n isn't doin' what it's supposed to be doin'... I am so glad I printed that tech sheet, with the wrong info.
Do it right the first time... or I might have to fix it for ya

another issuse ive heard about not just pioneers, but all head units sometimes.if they get hot sometimes will do what you have described. almost like a bs protect mode?. id do the above tests, that have been already suggested. and if poss if you have a test head unit swap it out.

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OWWWWWWWWWWW you said you discharged the cap!

Is it ALL of the tracks, or just some of them? If you rewind the iPod to listen to the same portion of the track again, without changing ANYTHING ELSE as far as settings, does the skip happen in the same place? What I'm asking is this: are the skips "repeatable"?

A bad rip from CD to the iPod can do that. I also have seen some iPods just "skip". My brother's does it on SOME tracks, that I can copy to mine and they play just fine.

What ripping software are you using? iTunes is a CRAPPY encoder.

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It all reminds me of something that Molière once said to Guy de Maupassant at a café in Vienna: "That's nice. You should write it down."

i will check the wires of all of the speakers to see whether anything became grounded.. as far as the tracks on the IPOD... i doubt it is infact the ipod because of the fact that many of the songs a frequently listened to and has never been an issue. and the ipod is basically brand new.thanks for the input so far guys i will follow the above instructions and post whether or not any of the above resolved the issue.

-seth

ok well i replaced the rear 6X9's to eliminate the possibility of a short in one of my rear mid drivers but the problem still persists. when i changed the balance from left to right it didn't seem to do it... could there be a short in my inifinity 3-way crossovers? and no i don't have another deck to switch out to compare the two. any other suggestions on how to diagnose the problem?

With the volume turned up to the point of the radio cutting out, check the voltage on the yellow wire of the radio. Connect the black meter lead to the chassis of your radio, and the red lead to the yellow wire, prefferably right at the harness of the radio. Let me know the lowest reading you saw. It is important that you use the chassis of the radio for ground.

ok well when i bought my car, the radio had been stolen and they had ripped out the deck and the factory harness with it.. so i had to hardwire the pioneer harness the the wire leads of the car. i will look but i do not believe there will be a convenient place for me to place the red meter lead to an exposed portion of my constant wire... and by chassis of the radio do you mean the actual metal body of the deck? and if my car has a factory ground, you're suggesting that i disregard that and create a chassis ground for the deck?

thanks, seth

When testing with the meter, it is critical that you use the metal part of the radio to attach the black meter lead to. You should be able to get the tip of the red lead into the back of the radio harness itself. The ground of your original harness should be fine, but that is what we are trying to find out. Do the lights on the display of the radio dim when it cuts out?

no the lights on the deck do not dim or flicker at all.. no matter the voume... and also.. not to get onto another subject but.. would you happen to know why my music sounds so much cleaner when i fold my back seat down-(making the trunk and the cab one big airspace)... when i have my seat up-(separating the trunk from the cab), the music particularly from my rear 6X9's sounds scratchy so to speak... somewhat distorted..

-seth

Maybe the pressure in the trunk when it is closed, pressure from the woofers, is moving the 6x9s more than they want to be moved.

and that is exactly what i thought it was... so what i did was i went and bought a pair of what i want to call "speaker buckets" or the things that would ideally make an in-door sealed enclosure for the speakers.. i'm sure you guys have a name for them but they're like a 6X9 fitted bucket that you sit the speaker in and then screw that into your door or in the rear deck above the trunk. well they wouldn't fit just right so i had to cut them and it basically defeated the whole purpose of the enclosure..

do you have a solution in mind? i'm actually about to create a topic about this so that it can get more visability and hopefully more solutions ideas.

thanks, seth

I think they are called speaker baffles. Make a new topic.

Does the radio cut out when the seat is laid down? When I got yo to balance left and right we were probably only feeding half signal to your subs. That is why the problem did not happen then. I am guessing that when the seat is down the cutting out does not happen, am I right?

Make sure That your ground wire from the decks harness is lead to a proper ground. I had a similar problem with a sony deck because I relied on the antenna ground and the music would chop when the stereo was turned up so I made sure that the wire from the deck was grounded correctly and then that took care of the problem. the subs are most likely fine because they have their own power source and ground. If you have an amp on your speakers deffinetely make sure the power and ground are done correctly for that as well. your most likely just lookin for a loose wire

mark2vw wrote:

Make sure That your ground wire from the decks harness is lead to a proper ground.

This has already been eliminated. i am an idiot recently asked if the display lights on the deck dim when the problem occurs. The reason why he/she asked that is because he/she thought it may be a loose (or inadequate-sized) power and/or ground wire.

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