head unit is cutting off sound

[240noxmaniac]

i just installed a kenwood excelon head unit myself. I've had experience doing this before however in the past i have never encountered a problem such as this. The head unit cuts off sound at regular 5 second intervals for a splitsecond whether its on the tuner or reading from CD. does anyone have any idea why its doing this?... thanks

[s13rookie]

sounds like you have a short somewhere, check the wires on the back of the deck, make sure no wires are touching. worst off add a few layers off elec tape.if no problems are found behind the deck, check the speakers for a loose connection. if that doesnt help check for a blown speaker. i had a problem like this years ago in my civic, my rear driver side speaker was blown and would cause my deck to short, a few seconds later it would play, it would happen even if i was parked so i knew it wasnt bumps, i disconnected the speaker, and it never happened again. hope this helps

[gfisch]

Well, is the headunit losing power, or just the sound cutting out?
And if its the sound cutting out, is it all the speakers, or just one of them?
Try to narrow it down a bit to track down the problem.
Sounds like a short/loose connection somewhere.
If your running at high volume, might be saturating the amps or causing clipping at the speakers.

[s13rookie]

amps clip, not speakers

[gfisch]

Well, yeah, the amps cause the clipping when you push them too far. Its the "clipping off" the tops of the waveforms when the amplifier output is saturated.
I was just sayin that clipping can sound as if the speakers are cutting in and out

[ralphyboy]

If its an amplified system it could be cliping, your amp in the head unit will overpower the amp in the car ( read too much voltage ) It will start cliping you will not get any louder above that point anyway the easy way to fix is to turn it down, you could rewire the whole system or somebody may make an amp bypass kit I'm not sure. Or it could be a short :)

[ralphyboy]

Originally posted by gfisch
Well, yeah, the amps cause the clipping when you push them too far. Its the "clipping off" the tops of the waveforms when the amplifier output is saturated.
I was just sayin that clipping can sound as if the speakers are cutting in and out



Yea that

[240noxmaniac]

i have tested the speakers... they are all fine. When the head unit cuts off for a split second it does not lose power... the equalizer bands all drop to zero and all speakers make no sound, however the unit stays on. It does this no matter what volume it is at so its not an amplifier overload problem. So i'm assuming it must be a wiring problem?

[gfisch]

Yup, sounds like most likely a loose wire.
Guess it could be a deffective head unit too. If you keep having problems, you might wanna test it in another car or see if you can do some test on it to make sure its workin right.

[misnomer]

EQ display drops to zero, keeps power but speakers cut out at any volume. . . I cannot see how that would be a wiring issue. I'd put money on it being a defective head.