No more sound if I put the volume too high?!?!

[sedoriku]

I bought a month ago a new Head unit to replace the monsoon, and I got a Panasonic CQ-C5310U, it is a great head unit, and after a few cross wires when I installed it (thanks guys again for your advices), it worked pretty well...until yesterday! I thought the sound wasn't that high (it was windy, I had the t-tops off, pretty loud), so I turned it up (up to 25, and the sound can go up to 40), and after a few minutes the sound just stopped. The unit was still working, I just had no more sound in the speakers. I thought at first it was the monsoon amplifier which was maybe overheating, but then I would still have sound in my front speaker since they are connected to the head unit directly. Then, I just removed the front of the head unit, put it back, and I would have sound for a few seconds...and then no more sound again...
If I put the sound down when I have no more sound, the sound doesn't come back. I need to first remove the front and put it back, then the sound comes back. It seems that I can't go over 25 or 26, unless the unit doesn't provide anymore sound. And it is the same if I put the radio. Anyone knows about this problem?? Seems like there is something that shut the sound off if you want to put it to loud...strange... I checked the manual, and they don't mention about anything like that. And I don't even put the sound as high levels, I mean the speakers are not even distorsing... What could it be??

[dmw319]

are you sure you wired the ground correctly to the new HU? ive heard of people having problems with a bad grounding, and when the volts are pushed harder it just shuts it off. i kinda doubt this is the problem. just thought id mention it.

also, do you have speaker protectors? i used to work at best buy at the install garage, and we sometimes had to use these protector gadgets that kept the speakers from blowing if too much amps were pumped into them, yet again.. i dont know why this would make the sound compeltely stop.

sorry this post was kind of useless..

[sedoriku]

well, the ground was connected well as far as I remember, but I will check the connections again just in case. But why would it shut just the sound?? I would think that it would just shut everything down, no more power (which happened to me before, but this is not the case here, the head unit still works just fine, just no sound).
As for the speakers protection, there is none, but honnestly Im not pushing the sound very high, I doubt it would blow the speakers (and I bought RF for the front, Im sure they can handle more than the 50W of the Head unit amp). And I don't think it would switch off the sound on all speakers...strange.... Is there like a special internal component in the head unit that would just shut the sound if you use it too loud or with too much bass?? It is like if the head unit is too hot, then maybe the sound shut off??

[dmw319]

have you replaced any of the speakers??

if any of the wires that connect the speaker arent connected properly, and are touching metal somewhere, it will cause them to turn off the speaker, i had this problem in my blazer.

[sedoriku]

Yes, I replaced the front speakers, but if a cable was touching somewhere, would it switch off all the speakers at the same time?? I would think it would only switch off the one which is not connected properly... and I would definitely notice that one speaker is not working

[dmw319]

no, itd switch them all off. im positive.

[sedoriku]

but why would it work fine until a certain sound level?? And then no more sound if I go over 25 or 26 on the volume?? And it works just fine again if I remove the front desk, put the sound down and put back the front desk.... strange
But I will check the speakers wire connection just in case, even though it is going to be a pain to remove the door panels again, Im not really looking forward to that...

[dmw319]

i dont know why it does it at a certain volume, but it was the problem that i noticed with my blazer a few weeks back. and also when i went around turns the wire would come off of the metal and it would play fine, but then id go back the other way and the sound would crap out agian. i dont know if this is your problem, but id say its worth checking if youre out of ideas!

[sedoriku]

dmw319, thanks for your advice, I will check the connection just in case next weekend (will check if I correctly wired the speakers at the same time, I kind of reconnected the front speakers wires randomly, didn't know the color chart at that time and didn't know which one was the + or the -). I may reconnect the front door tweeters too at the same time (the one from the monsoon system, I didn't bother connecting them back)

[Turbo V6 Camaro]

HU could be over heating taking the face resets it and it had time to cool

your speakers could be drawing to much juice and the crapy stock wires are not helping that matter and its over loading your HU

you HU migh not be getting the power it needs how is it hooked to the battery? You may need to run a bigger power wire

you could have a bad ground like was said above

[sedoriku]

Yes, I would think that maybe the HU is overheating and that's why it switches off the sound, to maybe allow the HU to cool down. It wasn't doing that before though, and it was way hotter 2 weeks ago here.

[96firebird311]

I think you know it's probably not any loose wiring. It would be cutting out when you go over bumps, take turns, etc. You would know.

Speakers don't "draw juice" from the headunit. They place a given load on the headunit's amp and the headunit outputs power accordingly. (Just bad wording ;) ) If you are using 2 ohm speakers, or if you have your speakers wired together and then wired to the headunit... this could be a problem. The headunit's amp is not stable to this load and is overheating while trying to output the increase in power. (Thermal protection, not overload protection)

But it really sounds like your headunit is just overheating. It is simply not getting the airflow it needs. (Which isn't much) Got a mess of wires back there? Any rolls of foam or anything like that? Does it play any better in colder weather? Or even if you have the A/C on versus windows down? You might even try removing the headunit from the dash cavity and leaving everything connected. Grab a fan and position it so it's blowing on the headunit. Crank it up and see if it cuts out. If it doesn't, you've solved the mystery and it's just about what you can do to increase airflow around the headunit when installed.

[sedoriku]

96firebird311, you know everything about everything, amazing!! You are the Firebird encyclopedia here! By the way sorry if I sometimes have a hard time expressing myself when I write but english is not my native language...I think you got my point anyway.
Back to the subject... It is definitely a mess in the back of the head unit, I tried to put all the wires together, tried to get some room, but it is still quite small. And yes, I definitely noticed that the HU was very hot, you can barely touch the front desk when you remove it, and when you touch the HU it is definitely quite hot after a while, especially theses days. Moreover my car stay under the sun the whole day, you can barely touch the dashboard, so I guess it doesn't help either. I will try to see if I can get some more room in the back of the head unit, and for now I won't put the volume too high. By the way Im using 4 ohms speakers in front, but I connected them directly to the head unit (cut the wires going to the monsoon system and plugged them together, so it is not going through the amplifier anymore), and in the back I still have the Monsoon subs (one is rattling bad) and a pair of 6x9 kenwood (they were in the car when I bought it). Is that too much too handle for the HU??

[96firebird311]

Originally posted by sedoriku:
Is that too much too handle for the HU??

A little confused on how you have everything wired. What speakers are still connected to the Monsoon amp? You want to avoid wiring speakers together (+ to + and - to -) and then running the pair off a single channel on the headunit. This is the same as running a 2 ohm speaker.

[sedoriku]

The rear speakers are still connected to the Monsoon amp (the two subs in the sail panels, and the 2 Kenwood 3 ways in the hatch). For the 2 front speakers, I just cut the wires which were going to the Monsoon amp, and connected the wires together without going through the Monsoon amp (I know it would have been better to just run a new wire directly from the front speakers to the head unit, but I couldn't get the wire through the doors). So the front speakers are going directly through the HU, even though the wires are going all the way back to the Monsoon amp, so Im running them on 4 ohms, as they are supposed to. Well, this morning it was still not too hot and I tried to push the volume a bit, and the sound didn't stop, so I guess the problem is really about the HU overheating... You got that right.