New install distortion issue

[1aespinoza 10+ year member]

On to the next link in the chain.

Try connecting a 3.5mm to RCA cable from your phone to the amp. This will hopefully rule out the amp. Better yet, you could use a 3.5mm to Female RCA adapter to test the RCA cables along with the amp.

 

[audiobaun 5,000+ posts]

See if you can find a Keenwood HU in your price range

 

[Cmberges1]

I did get a Kenwood HU this last weekend and there is a difference so the crappy HU was the first part of the issue. I also hooked speakers up to deck power and sound was way better, switched to amp power and sound was still good but they still seem not quite right but still playing with them. Was thinking about just getting a JL 400/4 amp as I've already replace everything else at this point and having all JL stuff should eliminate all issues. I know they won't sound like my hertz did but damn. Maybe I should just return the speakers and get something different. I mean I was at Best Buy getting the new HU and the cheaper speakers they had had a better sound than I'm getting out of my higher quality set. I'm so lost at this point idk wtf the real issue is. Can it be something about the mounting? They said there made to go into the doors without issue but IDK anymore. I would hate to end up with $1000 into it and not have as good of sound as the factory system.......LMAO

 

[hispls 5,000+ posts]

Flea market tier head units are a major weak link. Really sounds to me like a crossover issue to me. Got any pics of the crossover you're using?

 

[Cmberges1]

Just using the new HU. Kenwood BT-778HD

 

[RobGMN 5,000+ posts]

I agree with this, however, with this head unit, you could do a blind test on any music and hear that there is no EQ and horrible sound processing inside this head unit, no matter what the rest of the system has. A cheap Rockford has some sound processing. A 200$ Rockford with an EQ against a 1500$ Sony with an EQ, i probably couldn’t tell a difference in a blind test if the rest of the system is the same. You’re 100% right about that, but this is a nav unit with next to 0 sound processing. The distortion and static may be a separate issue, but the head unit is bad for music processing regardless.

In other wrods, you have ruled out the head unit without ruling out the head unit, but know it's bad because it has no EQ and no processing onboard?
You do realize that when troubleshooting distortion, the head unit should be acting as a "straight wire with gain", yes?

 

[SlugButter]

In other wrods, you have ruled out the head unit without ruling out the head unit, but know it's bad because it has no EQ and no processing onboard?
You do realize that when troubleshooting distortion, the head unit should be acting as a "straight wire with gain", yes?

You are correct. I stated you were and even put a disclaimer at the end of my statement that the distortion could still be caused elsewhere. I had to replace this unit in my daughters car because I couldn’t make it sound good no matter what was hooked to it. It did distort when she turned it up to medium volume when she had her music playing through her phone. I only had 2 Visaton 4 1/2 inch coaxials hooked directly to the unit. I didn’t have an amplifier to do any bypassing the unit to do any testing in her car so I threw it out and put in an old pioneer media player I had in storage and it works a lot better.