Kenwood x997 internal amp problem

[Toki]

Hello,

I'm new here and I'm looking for some help. I installed a new x997 yesterday after pulling out my fully functional old kenwood. We used the same harness so everything should work. I am using amps for my speakers and sub but there are the stock fronts not on an amp that I don't want to use. So I turned of the internal amp and everything worked fine. But when the unit is turned off and back on it makes no sound at all. I found that it i turn the internal amp back on, switch to a source, go back to standby to turn the amp off again and the go to a source it plays through the pre outs fine. I have tested this with the same result multiple times, done a factory reset, checked for any firmware updates and emailed kenwood but they have not gotten back to me yet.

I would greatly appreciate any help with this. It ***** to have to spend a minute or two every time I turn on my car just to get it to work. I shouldn't have this issue with a brand new top line head unit. It kinda makes me regret not getting an 80prs.

Click to read more...

 

[admobass]

When you say used the same harness you mean harness to the car and not to the unit?

 

[admobass]

Also if you are using an amp on your speakers why are your front speakers still powered by the unit and not the amp? Elaborate on your set up a little more.

 

[Toki]

I used the kenwood harness from the old deck. It's the same one that came with the 997.

I have an 89 camry and the stock front speaker locations are in the lower dash. They position is horrible, they are either 4.5s like i have that point into the dash or 3.5s that point at your knees. Its really strange. Either way they are muffled, cant keep up with the rears and 2 12s so I have 6.5s in boxes on the floor in front of the seats and 6.5s in the rear deck running of my 4 channel. Not the best but it works until i decide if i want to put the work into door speakers or kick panels. I know I could just cut the wires going to the dash speakers from the head unit but supposedly you get better sound quality by turning of the internal amp. Is this even true? Cause if not ill just cut the wires and leave the internal amp on.

 

[admobass]

Turning off the internal amp will free up power for the line outputs and lessen the heat that is caused by having the amp on, so ya it's good to have it off if you can. I'm not to familiar with that model but alot of the time different sources like tuner and cd and aux settings will have there own settings. like when you set the bass and treble when playing a cd you might have to set it again when your using aux or the tuner, but after you set it it should be set unless you don't have your constant batt + wire connected correctly. that is the wire that saves memory on the unit. do your radio presets save when you turn the unit off? or your sound settings?

 

[Toki]

That is true for things like like the equalizer and sub level but the internal amp setting can only be accessed in standby so it should apply across all inputs.

I never had a problem with a bad connection with the old unit. I suppose I could have messed something up putting the new one in. But settings have not been reset. The most obvious would be the display color which has stayed the same. And the audio settings are the same as well.

 

[nismos14 5,000+ posts]

Don't just "cut" the wires, disconnect the speakers, I bet you're running into some impedance issue that the HU detects immediately and it kills all the outputs.

 

[Toki]

So youre saying that my dash speakers being hooked up could be whats causing it? Disconnecting the speakers is an hour or two job at least. You have to pull the entire lower dash off and the glove box. Taking the head unit out is about a minute. Thats why i though to cut them at the harness. My rears are disconnected at the speaker.

 

[Toki]

I got around the dash speakers on my old head unit (kdc-248u) because it only had one pre out that was basically the rear channel. It had no sub level or anything. That went to my mono amp and was then chained to my 4 channel. Then by fading the head unit all the way to the rear it stopped using the dash speakers and since I only was using one input on the 4 channel, all my other speakers worked. I can't do that now that I have proper 6 channel pre outs.

 

[nismos14 5,000+ posts]

Disconnect them behind the radio, but separate each lead and tape them up. That's all I meant by not cutting them.

 

[Toki]

Oh ok that makes sense. Ill try that when I get up and report back on the effect tomorrow. Thank you for your help.

On another note I still have not heard from kenwood. It's been two days now. I don't know what their typical response time is but it says 48 hours on their website.

 

[Toki]

Well I got a response from kenwood. They said they are researching the problem. But for now I disconnected the speakers and achieved the basic goal of turning off the internal amp. It still dosent work when the unit is powered on with the amp off though

 

[otakusama]

Hello,

Did you ever receive a reply from Kenwood? I am having the exact same problem.

 

[mjh_ca]

This issue was resolved with a firmware update (it is the first item on the list of fixes):

Firmware updater | Kenwood