guitarguru87

Hello all.

I've purchased and installed a Kenwood DPX592BT from Crutchfield and I'm having some issues. I have troubleshot the issues on the phone with Crutchfield (great technical service) and we are out of troubleshooting options. Maybe someone on here can help. Here goes:

When I purchased the stereo, I also purchased the Axxess LC-GMRC-LAN-03 harness. This harness is technically made for non-Pioneer cars so I spliced two sets of RCAs into the speaker wires of the Axxess harness for the front/rear speakers similar to the way many other people have done it for stock amp situations. These RCAs were then plugged into the Front/Rear outputs of the Kenwood. I have an aftermarket Pioneer amp and sub in the trunk which is connected to the sub out of the Kenwood using a normal RCA cable. All of my connections are soldered. Everything sounds great and works perfectly including the door chimes and the stock amp. However, when turning the car on and off and when performing any radio functions (skipping tracks, adjusting EQ settings, selecting radio stations, turning the volume from 1 to 0) there is an audible pop from all the speakers and the sub.

Here is the troubleshooting performed so far:
1. Replaced the Axxess LC-GMRC-LAN-03 harness.
2. Replaced the Kenwood head unit.
3. Manipulated settings with only Front, Rear and Sub RCAs connected individually and in every combination. No matter which ones were hooked up, the pop could be replicated consistently.
4. Checked ground to the head unit (~0.4ohms to various points in the chassis including the ground on the Pioneer amp). Also did a 100% continuity check of every connection in the Axxess harness.
5. Manipulated all the individual connections with the stereo on to try and find intermittent connections. No noise when doing this.

What I believe is going on, is that whenever the Kenwood head unit brings the audio signal low (skipping tracks, adjusting settings, etc.), the transition is causing a spike of some kind on the RCA outputs. At first I thought this may be an impedence mismatch between the RCA outs and the stock amp's inputs but the pop can be heard on the sub as well (which is not connected via the stock amp).

The only other thing I can think of is that this model Kenwood has 4V RCA outs instead of 2V. Maybe the stock amp and my old Pioneer amp aren't made for this setup?

Any help/insight would be greatly appreciated. I'd like to get some other input before I return this head unit for a different one altogether. Sorry for the long post.

EmperorJJ1

iTrader: (5)

might just be a shitty HU to be honest BUT try grounding the chasiss of the HU to a ground on the car other that the one in the harness. see if that does anything. Then try grounding the RCA shield to the chasiss of the HU at that same point

No luck then try a different model HU or possibly try using the speaker outputs instead of the the RCA.

Oh and if you cut and rigged regular RCA's for that maybe try something like this instead
RFI2SW - Speaker Line To Male RCA Adapter | Rockford Fosgate®

Sharkey

iTrader: (1)

so just to make it clear, your running an aftermarket head unit, factory pioneer amp and then a seperate amp and sub?

when i put my head unit in my ss/sc with pioneer system i used the speaker outputs (high level) from the deck to input to the amp. basicly just connected the adapter harness right up to the deck harness. it worked fine, never had an issue.

guitarguru87

Emperor, it definitely could be the head unit. I've had good experience with Kenwood in the past but maybe this model is just not up to par. I did try and ground the chassis of the radio and the RCAs to another ground point and no luck. I wish I had an extra head unit laying around that I could use to swap out.

Sharkey, yes, I am using the factory Pioneer amp for the speakers and an aftermarket Pioneer amp for the sub. I haven't thought to use the high level outputs directly into the factory amp. From reading other owners installations, I assumed that the high level inputs would be too much for the factory amp and would cause distortion or other issues. I might give that a try.

Thanks for the input. I'm also considering replacing my sub amp with a 5 channel amp and completely bypassing the factory amp. Somehow, I feel like the factory amp is the issue here.

Sharkey

iTrader: (1)

i didnt find the aftermarket deck i put in sounded that great with the factory amp. it just wasnt that clean. i put in an alpine pdx-5 amp and never looked back. it sounds great.

EmperorJJ1

iTrader: (5)

it could pioneers tend to do voodoo **** but that's mainly from HU's. I've never really liked their amps either but maybe that's just me. Oh and high level is basically the same the only difference is you are cutting off your low end volume and possibly a few notches in the middle. The possibility of distortion is higher but thats only at the high end. EX say the stock HU is 1-25 in volume. with high level at 1 you are at 8 instead. 2 is 9 but 3 is 11. ect. Now at 15 is where it used to max out at 25 but 16+ still exists so you can keep going. Chances are 15 wasnt a very clean signal but that's what GM determined was acceptable as a max volume and you still have +10 to go.

Maybe try high level first see what happens then go for new amp?