I have a Sony cdx-f7700 hooked up to Infiniy kappa 63.5i(75 rms) in front and kappa 693.5i(110 rms) in the rear of my 99 cavalier. i have a Optima red top battery to run it. I checked all the wiring(all stock) and it is all connected right and is in good condition. But when i have it turned up to more than about 85% of the volume my headunit momentarily cuts out like it loss power or something. its worse when my car is off and i run my stereo, it does it at about half way. i have to turn it down for it not to do it anymore. i thought it was the battery so thats why i got the optima over a older duralast that i had but the lights still dim when i have it loud enough. i dont know if it needs better wiring, battery, alternator, or maybe the speakers need more juice than the 52x4 (about 25rmsx4) offered by the headunit, like an amp or cap. in tired of not being able to enjoy my speakers at high volume without the unit shuting down then having to turn it down. anybody run into this?? any suggestions??
It sounds like a problem with either your ground wire or constant power source (yellow wire). Somewhere there's too much resistance, and when the current draw gets high enough it creates a voltage drop that shuts down the head unit.
when it shuts off, do you have to reset any of the presets, clock, or any of the memory settings?
If not then we can eliminate that its the constant power wire, and turn our attention to the Red switched power wire behind the radio.
Look for a loose connection, corroded connection>
Perhaps take the radio out of the dash board connect a mutimeter (voltage tester) to the red wire and the black wire in the radio harness, and next try to duplicate the problem (turn the radio up again and watch the voltage and see what it does) If your power drops below 10 volts then thats the problem. If it doesn't drop but the radio shut off anyways, your radio is more than likely the problem with .
If your memory setting reset then we direct our attention to the constant power wire behind the radio.
perform the same type of visual inspection behind the radio then move on to the above meter test.
So go get a voltage tester (NOT a test light) as a test light will turn on and light up with any kind of voltage but electronics need at least 10volts....so just make sure you get a meter.
-------------
All the settings, clock, memory stay the same, not reset, it even resumes playing where it was at. if it is the switched power wire all i would need to do is replace that wire to ensure a good connection? ill go get a multimeter, theirs a radioshack down the street. so basically look to see if the voltage drops under 10 volts and that would be it? also what would cause it to do that, the drop in volts?
Let me get this right, Your lights are dimming from just the use of the head unit? Sounds to me as if the alternator is not charging the battery properly. Better check that out. I have never heard of a head unit Dimming the lights!!!!
As far as it cutting out, why would you want to turn the volume up so much? The internal amp is probably clipping and shutting itself down. If you want it that loud, then install a 4 channel amp to run the speakers istead of the internal amp in the head unit.
Chris
-------------
Alpine CDA-9833 HU
Diamond Audio M661 Components
MTX Thunder T6.6 Components:rear fill:
Cadence Q400 4 Channel Mains + rears
Thunder 801D Subs
MTX 1004 10's
Dual 4g wire to rear
4g grounds