Clipping from my Pioneer HU or Speakers...

[West]

Ok so I am about to admit defeat here. I installed a Pioneer Avic-X930bt Hu in my car and I hear distinct clipping on certain songs (Stairway to Heaven and a few others). The clipping only occurs for a few moments around 5 min 30 sec into the song.

I upgraded my wiring and amps from a to McIntosh (MCC404M and MCC302). Found that the switch of amps helped a lot but its still there. I am running Focal PS 165 speakers. I have the equilizer turned down quite a bit and the clipping is still there around the 2.5kHz range... I am playing my music off an SD card with all the songs recorded as .wav files. Any idea's on possible fixes? Is my problem probably with the speakers or the HU?

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[maylar 10+ year member]

How do you know it's clipping? Have you put a scope on it? Or are you assuming that any distortion must be clipping? What does it sound like?

And have you played a CD and got the same results?

 

[West]

How do you know it's clipping? Have you put a scope on it? Or are you assuming that any distortion must be clipping? What does it sound like?
And have you played a CD and got the same results?

Those are good points. I will try the cd tonight to see if its the data transfer from the SD card. It sounds like crunching/cracking, definately sounds that are not supposed to be produced by the speakers. The majority comes from my tweeter.

I think you are on to something there... the HU's processor is probably distorting the sound wave and that is making the cracking sound, because it sure isn't the amp. Thank you very much.

 

[LosIsATool 5,000+ posts]

With high end equipment it is much easier to hear defects in the recordings. Downloaded music

 

[Why So Cereal? 5,000+ posts]

With high end equipment it is much easier to hear defects in the recordings. Downloaded music

this, some CDs people will give me to "check out" sound like absolute garbage to me on a good system. The tweeters will reveal EVERYTHING! and it sometimes sounds crackly....

 

[LosIsATool 5,000+ posts]

this, some CDs people will give me to "check out" sound like absolute garbage to me on a good system. The tweeters will reveal EVERYTHING! and it sometimes sounds crackly....

that was what my old w404 did on the pdx2.150.. Deck was ipod only which made it even worse

 

[Why So Cereal? 5,000+ posts]

that was what my old w404 did on the pdx2.150.. Deck was ipod only which made it even worse

I noticed it was way worse on my iPod too....one song had a distinct tweeter "crackle" everytime the bass hits....almost sounds like the tweeter wants to play bass or something....guess that's bad recordings for ya.

 

[LosIsATool 5,000+ posts]

I noticed it was way worse on my iPod too....one song had a distinct tweeter "crackle" everytime the bass hits....almost sounds like the tweeter wants to play bass or something....guess that's bad recordings for ya.

Im sure the S/N ratio on the PDX didnt help

 

[Why So Cereal? 5,000+ posts]

Im sure the S/N ratio on the PDX didnt help

ahh, yeah I forgot the older PDXs had that issue. The new ones sound pretty good from the time I've heard em.... we have a PDX 5 channel on our golf cart, and I wanna say its the older one. I forget though. But, it doesn't sound too bad, definitely not A/B though and has a bit of background noise (so I guess its an older one). But, who cares, its a golf cart....

 

[nateberrier 10+ year member]

Lol download something at 128 kbps and play it in there. wait for your ears to burn and tweeters to pop. Also I would download audacity and load the tracks into it. In the tools or somewhere in setting you can check for clipping a lot of tracks clip from the studio

 

[maylar 10+ year member]

Even MP3's burned from good CDs can sound like crap from a flash drive. I've never used wav files so I dunno if they're better or not.

 

[West]

With high end equipment it is much easier to hear defects in the recordings. Downloaded music

Music was from a box set CD of Zepplin

But mp3's are not worth the money. The music is compressed by a factor of nearly 10. Why pay a $1 for 1/10th the music?

 

[West]

this, some CDs people will give me to "check out" sound like absolute garbage to me on a good system. The tweeters will reveal EVERYTHING! and it sometimes sounds crackly....

I believe you are right. I tired the CD on my deck, sounds the same as the wav file (they should be identical.) Tired the CD on another system, no distortion, but the speakers I tested it on were not as sensitive. I have found that a lot of "remastered" music is made to sound good on mp3 formats on ear buds that are not nearly as sensitive as my current setup. Also a lot of newer music has the levels pushed way to high, and it does not sound as it should...

I cannot buy iTunes anymore, it just sounds muttled now //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/frown.gif.a3531fa0534503350665a1e957861287.gif