Panasonic Problem

[AngelAide 10+ year member]

Hooked up new Amp to pre-out on my Panasonic Head unit. Now when volime exceeds level of 20, there is a lot of distortion. Anyone had a similar problem? Unit is older. Model # CQ-DP830U.

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[natem33 10+ year member]

You didn't specify if the distortion is comming from the Panisonic HU or the amp that you installed. I'm assuming that the distortion is comming from the external amp. Try turning the gains way down, then turn your HU up to your normal listening volume and then slowly turn your gains up again until you hear a little bit of distortion. Back the gains down a little bit and this should give you a general listening volume. You can try tweaking the gain setting in accordance with your HU volume until you get a good balance.

 

[AngelAide 10+ year member]

I have the gains all the way down, and I get distortion through all of front and rear speakers, indicating that letting this baby sit unplugged for over a year was not a good idea. I may take it apart and check the capacitors. What do you think?

 

[natem33 10+ year member]

What type and brand of amp is it? Is it a 4 channel or 2 channel. Is the amp powering all 4 speakers? If the capacitors in the amp are bad, then yeah that leads to distortion. The capacitors in my Rockford punch 360.2 came disconnected from vibrations which led to speaker damaging distortion. If you know electronics then go ahead and check it out BUT, it would void most manufacturer warranties. Before you blame the amp make sure all RCA connections are clean. If you have access to another amp then try swaping the amps to see if the distortion is still present.

 

[AngelAide 10+ year member]

My Amp is an Mobile Authority 300Wx2 powering two MA 6x9's. All connections are clean and tight, including the ground which is bolted onto a clean section of the frame of my 98 Achieva. I work on electronocs everyday. It's my part time job, but The amp was working fine with another head unit. So I am pretty sure it's a head unit problem. And, I get distortion through all four speakers, and the amp is only powering the rear.

 

[natem33 10+ year member]

I would agree now that the problem is within the HU. I'm running out of ideas about this myself. My next assumption would be that there is a lack of electrical power in your vehicle with the new amp pulling power. If you can't find any problems with any of the 12V connections or grounds, then I don't know what else it could be.