Occasionally popping in audio

[EmpiricalApe]

I recently installed a new headunit.
KW-M780BT. My previous headunit which was a $150 boss stereo didn't pop at all at any point. It does it regardless of what the settings are. Any ideas? Thank you

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[1aespinoza 10+ year member]

I recently installed a new headunit.
KW-M780BT. My previous headunit which was a $150 boss stereo didn't pop at all at any point. It does it regardless of what the settings are. Any ideas? Thank you

Bad unit.

 

[EmpiricalApe]

Bad unit.

any specifics, so I could try to fix it, or atleast diagnose it?

 

[Jimi77 5,000+ posts]

I recently installed a new headunit.
KW-M780BT. My previous headunit which was a $150 boss stereo didn't pop at all at any point. It does it regardless of what the settings are. Any ideas? Thank you

I'd guess a bad connection. You probably messed up the wiring during the swap.

 

[EmpiricalApe]

I'd guess a bad connection. You probably messed up the wiring during the swap.

I paid for the ready harness service from crutchfield where they pre wire and solder everything before they send it. I did splice into the ground, for my voltmeter, and the remote wire for my amp. I later gave the voltmeter its own ground in case I created a ground loop, but it didn't fix anything.

 

[1aespinoza 10+ year member]

any specifics, so I could try to fix it, or atleast diagnose it?

Not really. You can connect speakers directly to the high output to see if the popping is present. If it is, then it is an internal issue.

 

[JohnPD]

Probably a bad head unit if it pops all the time and you're using the head unit's built in amplifier instead of an aftermarket amp. I had that head unit and sent it back to Crutchfield and exchanged it for the KW-M788BH, which is the exact same one just with HD radio, which blows away regular radio by a long shot, other than that the 788BH has 5v preouts instead of 4v preouts like the 780BT. They use the same wiring harness too. If your vehicle has a factory amp that might be bad and causing the popping.

 

[Jimi77 5,000+ posts]

I paid for the ready harness service from crutchfield where they pre wire and solder everything before they send it. I did splice into the ground, for my voltmeter, and the remote wire for my amp. I later gave the voltmeter its own ground in case I created a ground loop, but it didn't fix anything.

I'd double check Crutchfield's soldering job. Could be a bad connector, could be a bad splice, but I would start by troubleshooting for an intermittent wiring problem.

 

[EmpiricalApe]

I paid for the ready harness service from crutchfield where they pre wire and solder everything before they send it. I did splice into the ground, for my voltmeter, and the remote wire for my amp. I later gave the voltmeter its own ground in case I created a ground loop, but it didn't fix anything.

my subwoofer is ran by rcas, and I don't think I've ever noticed any pops, so do you think it will continue when I start to run the door speakers to an external amp. I'm in the process of doing so

 

[Jimi77 5,000+ posts]

my subwoofer is ran by rcas, and I don't think I've ever noticed any pops, so do you think it will continue when I start to run the door speakers to an external amp. I'm in the process of doing so

That might fix the problem. Good luck with the upgrade.

 

[Firewalker]

He already returned it and got a new one coming as that one was defective.

 

[EmpiricalApe]

He already returned it and got a new one coming as that one was defective.

just tested the new unit... exact same issue. now what. could it be the wire harness? I got the crutchfield ready harness service, and i used the same one for this stereo.

 

[Firewalker]

Wow that is very very odd. Could be the wiring harness from them. Check the wires and possibly reground the stereo to another bolt in back of the head unit. I've had to do that before many times in order to stop a problem. I am not exactly trusting of crutchfields ready harnesses they do. Seen a couple of them really poorly done over the years on friends vehicles where I had to re-solder everything and re-heatshrink everything to get it to work properly