Florida_Audio

ok well im fairly convinced this was the solution! good thing it was an easy one..... i did try to push the faceplate on tight before, when the issue was happening, but i guess it wasnt pressed well enough. cause all i did was take out the whole headunit and check the wires behind, but didnt find any that were loose. and then i pressed the faceplate firmly once again. and so far i havnt had any issues! thanks again all who suggested various things to check and helped out! either way i learned a good bit.

oh ok thanks.... ugh and i thought i needed those two thin metal pieces to slide out the faceplate... thanks yea. i do like to learn about this. but dont like to be forced to have to do it. like a part of the trim panel for my middle area, by the gear shifter, its not completely snapped in, and slightly up. not very noticeable, but i notice it now.... i cant put it back on correctly. i think i somewhat broke it. i took it off a few times trying to replace it, but it didnt get better. its not too big of a deal, just that, at first i wasnt exactly sure how to take off the trim panel in order to get to the headunit. but now i see how the clips are positioned. i do hope its just the faceplate being loose, ill try to push it in place again tomorrow and see if i can remove it, then re attach it without the keys. i do hope its as simple as the faceplate! but also, it might make sense, because i sort of noticed the issue with it shutting off much more often when i would touch any button on the headunit, and especially the volume knob. even very very gently, but still any touching seemed to make it worse when it started to have issues.

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yes it is..... but the absolute piece of sh** shop that did my install, never gave me back the keys for the stereo face plate. i have an alpine cde-164bt headunit. will any bracket keys that i can find online work? i can try and ask the shop, but it was like back in march, so around 5 months ago. i even called the same shop up, and said hey, i got my whole system installed by your shop, how much to checkout my headunit for issues. they said yea we charge you like $60 to check it, and then whatever issue is found it goes towards fixing the issue... i said okay, bye.... cause they fking installed it in the first place. and they wont even check their own installment that is having these issues now. although i didnt expect them to when i called, because they never cared before. so maybe it is the face plate? mine is slightly wobbly when i press it.... maybe its not in snug enough? so basically wondering what type of tool i should get to remove the faceplate? thanks!

i wiggled a few of them, and specifically wiggled the red wire as suggested, but they seemed fine. i didnt actually do every single wire. but i visually inspected them... ugh lol yea i should have tried every wire. but it was a bit difficult because i could not pull the headunit out all the way, only a bit, because of how the cords were tied together i had to ask a friend to hold up the headunit while i used two hands to inspect a few cables.

not sure how useful some of these pics are, but here they are in case they show something special. i noticed several cords are not actually connected to anything. and that one cord that looks different from the rest is also not hooked up to anything. everything seems to be snug in place? but they dont seem to be heat shrunk or crimped? or maybe that slight pinch is the crimp? i dont know what im looking at to be honest :[ heres the album to view all the photos on imgur, and ill try and post the images here as well http://imgur.com/a/qKL6t

thanks yea, so i looked behind the headunit, ill post pics in a second, please let me know, if any1 in online before i reconnect everything! if not, post replies whenever, i do appreciate any and all help!

ok so ive taken off the trim panels around the headunit.... holy shit those were hard to take off... i had to use my flathead screwdriver. my plastic trim removal tools were too thick and didnt work well at all for it. im about to unscrew 4 more screws for the headunit. so far ive taken off 6 screws for the plastic bracket around the headunit. it goes, two trim panels, one each side. then the 6 screws around plastic bracket for headunit. and then 4 more screws for the headunit casing thing. so fking hot out. gotta shower after just doing this for like 30 minutes.... drank 2 bottles of water alrdy.... and im under a tiny tree for some shade

ok so i think im going to pry out the clips behind the headunit and then unscrew 4 screws and check behind the headunit. i should just need 1 screwdriver, and 1 tool to help remove the panel around it. and ill disconnect the negative terminal on the battery. anything else did i miss? what exactly am i looking for? ill just check for loose wires, and somewhat just want the experience of taking it apart and then putting it back on. good to know how to do lol. and i will take pictures for u guys. cause ive seen some videos online, and honestly i still do not know what the wires go for and or what they do or how they are supposed to look. thanks! also, i dont want to ask too much of you guys. but ill now try to take it apart, and then post pics, and not put it back together, and wait a bit for a response, if i have time, then ill go fix whatever u guys say i should do. i got around 1 hour 30 minutes of free time now, so i hope to try and fix it within this time. all good if not, but ill at least get started, thanks again!

ok i think ill have to actually pull the headunit out and check the wires. its shutting off every day now, sometimes it shuts off constantly. but it ALWAYS turns on again, if only for 1 second and then off.... sometimes when it turns on it seems to be on for several minutes. im not sure, but it seems to shut off more often when i touch my finger to the dial for the volume, even when i dont turn the knob, but just as i touch the headunit knob, it shuts off.... like if its going into a frenzy and shutting off alot, when i touch it, seems to aggravate it, even an extremely light touch.... seems so weird. also, just wondering, is there any chance its my amplifier? like if the amplifier is overheating or having some issue where it shuts off, would this ever cause the headunit to shutoff? i dont think so, but just wondering.... Thanks!

is just unplugging the RCAs fine? to stop the sound from playing from speakers? and if so where should i place the RCA cable ends. id assume if they touch something like metal it can damage the speaker?

how do i shut off everything else? would just unplugging the RCA cables from the amplifier do it? and be safe to do? also if thats the safest and easiest way, id be somewhat afraid to just lay the ends of the RCAs cables anywhere, what precaution should i take to make sure the RCA ends dont touch anything that would cause damage to my system? thanks again!

so simple yet so complicated lol.... ok thanks. i guess all i can do is try and pay very close attention. its difficult with music in the front. maybe ill take like 30 minutes to just sit in back with seats down, listening to the subwoofer.

yea cause all low end frequencies sound very similar lol. almost the same i saw a video on youtube with a 40 hz test tone, and they slowly rose the gains, till the tone changed in its sound to a slightly different tone. barely noticeable in the youtube video they recorded, but still very slightly noticeable. and thats at one single frequency... i cant really imagine when playing a song. but as you or someone else said, that the test tone will limit alot, by possibly setting the gain much lower than needed? right? but then i guess the same might be said if i can even notice distortion in a song. because the distortion would be occurring at a specific frequency? maybe i can use the 40hz test tone, then right when i hear a slight distortion, keep the gain at that setting? or it might cause be to keep the gains too low still?

he alrdy said the answer to this. he said this "You should surely start listening more closely and make sure they aren't set in a way that adds distortion and/or noise. If that is the case then you are fine. "

ok thank you for the response, and for clarifying that is can be safe for the amplifier to be turned all the way up. although it depends. and thanks for explaining how most often its around the middle thats best. but i would like to ask, how should i really be listening for distortion? by opening the rear seats and placing my head near the subwoofer to listen to music for several minutes? because im not really paying too close attention for distortion from the subwoofer specifically when driving and listening to music. i feel like hearing distortion from the subwoofer may be more difficult to notice when sitting in the front seat? ill take a look and see, but also its a bit difficult, because in order to get my subwoofer really bumping, i need to turn the volume up to around 20 out of 30 notches for the volume.

i am more worried now about clipping my amplifer and damaging my amplifier. but that wouldnt smoke show any signs of possible overuse or damage until its too late? right? or is there someway to check?

thanks good read, although i dont understand everything there, but still good info

did you watch any youtube videos i just checked and it seems theres quite alot of videos using that specific unit. not sure how helpful most videos are, but might want to check them out? for example and this video around 6:45 into the video he starts to explain the settings

ok thanks. i would assume that i would need to be playing music for at least several minutes in order to tell if its heating up like such. i do appreciate the answer. thank you. but im not sure that is related to my question about possibly damaging the amplifier? are you talking about the headunit's voltage? i have the Alpine CDE-164BT. its preamp voltage is 4v.

ok thanks. should i try by using a 40 hz test tone? or music to test? or just say whatever, and simply play music while driving and listen then? im pretty sure that my subwoofer is fine, but somewhat concerned. because the amp is like exactly matched with the RMS of amp to RMS of the subwoofer. and ive heard people sometimes overpower with higher RMS amp to their subwoofer. but i guess then my main concern should be the amplifier pushing more than it can handle and it may die or cause some issue? although ive heard amplifiers will shut down and go into protection mode before they get damaged?

M5 or someone else who knows this very well, i just read this from another place on internet. curious if its true, or at least somewhat true, or whats your opinion on it! " Mathmatically speaking even a perfect square wave that no amp can even reproduce is only double power under the curve than a sine wave of the same volume. It's 1.414x the voltage so RMS voltage is double as a sine is .707x it's peak voltage to get an average So 750 watts clipped to the point of impossibility (literal impossiblity since you can't make a real square wave) is only going to give you the heat of about a 1500 watt amplifier." Basically if thats true.... then my amplifer bridged is rated at 250 RMS. My subwoofer is also rated at 250 RMS. and 500 W MAX. so then if clipped then its should produce the heat of the 500 W MAX. so then the only issue would be if its like nearly always clipping to 500 W MAX and not allowing my subwoofer to cool down? so then the subwoofer seems to be safe. but then my question is what about the amplifier? is the amplifier safe?