I just installed a new Pioneer head unit, and I by passed all the Bose amps, and kept the original speaker in until I can afford new ones. Now when I turn the volume up, past say 28 (loud but not extremely loud) the speakers cut off and I have to reset the radio to get back sound. Anyone ever have this problem? Do you think it's the car (ie wiring) or the radio? Let me know what you guys think.

 

My friends car does this because his headunit has like a saftey on it where if it goes too loud to the point where it cant power it without hurting itself it will stop playing until you turn it down. If you buy a cheap amp and run your speaker wires thru that it would most likely solve all your problems. But for your amp just go to like a pawn shop and buy a really cheap one because if your not pushing subs you dont need anything that expensive or highpowered.

 

yeah that's what I figured. I just didnt know if an amp would help. I'll email Pioneer and mess with them a little, man they are a sucky company to deal with.

 

ya but they make some of the best head units ive ever used

 

the HU probably have some sort of clipping prevention. you push a head unit hard enough, it'll start to clip, (though some of the high-end HU are hard to clip)

 

But Im not even pushing it that hard, thats what I dont understand.

 

Its just if your running 4 speakers off of a head unit it uses up alot of power... like if you were just running the back speakers and nothing else you probably wouldnt get the problem you have now... but you want the front speakers to play so just get a cheap amp, it will work.

 

Aren't Bose speakers 2ohm (regular speakers a re 4 ohm)? What do you mean by by-passing bose amps?
The only way to connect bose speakers is through "low" inputs - i.e. this device converts speaker outputs (aftermarket HU) to amp inputs. But you still need to use original Bose amps in this "setup".

PS: I have pioneer MP9400 (4x50) unit and never had problems with "cutting out" but I installed aftermarket speakers (4ohm; peak power 150w each).

PS2: reference sites:
http://www.autotoys.com/New_Tech/Our...axima_bose.htm
http://www.carstereohelp.com/stereoremovalNisMax1.htm

 

What's happening is your radio is "saving" itself from driving into what it sees as almost a dead shorted load. The original Bose speakers are only 2 ohms and your head unit wants 4 ohm speakers. If you keep doing that you probably will damage your head unit. Keep the volume down until you can replace the speakers.

 

I thought the bose were 1 ohm speakers

 

By by-passing the amps, I mean I cut the speaker wires going into the amp and hook them directly to the stcok speakers. The back speakers sound fine. I should say this: now I only have the 2 rears hooked up and the left front (tonight I'll do the right side). Whenever I use just the back, I can turn the volume up as high as I want. When I put on the front, even alone, it shuts off around half volume (28). This makes me think it is a wiring issue. This may sound like a stupid remark but I didnt know that the amps change the ohms, I thought they just add more power (wattage). Also, what happens if neg and pos get inverted when I hooked them up, could that cause this?

 

pretty sure the bose was ~1 ohm from what I recall.

Regardless just pick up some Infinity References or something, they sound good and are fairly cheap.

 

also make sure you got + to + and - to -
your headunit is smart in turning it self off its telling you something(exactly what, i dunno).

 

if you hook reverse the hook up, you will still get sound, but the bass hit are not good since the cones will move down instead of up, kinda like when you reverse the polarity on a motor and it will spin in reverse.

 

proably just over driving the headunits internal amp because the ohm load is too low and its just kicking into protection. Your gonna destroy the hu if you keep doing this

 

maybe its a bad ground or your constant power isnt enough to power it. i installed a kenwood hu on my friends mvp and we thoguth it was soemthing with the speakers cuz it kept cutting out. thought it was the ground after we found out speakers have no problem in low volume..sanded metal down for ground and still cut out at around 23 of 35(max volume)..ended up finding out the car was almost dead on battery for some reason wen i tried to start up

 

But why only on the front speaker?

 

lets analyze this... 1ohm speakers probably 45 or 50w max output from your HU, Power (watts) = I (current) * Voltage (volts)
Voltage (volts) = I (current) * Resistance (Ohms)

if we solve the second equation for I (current) we get I= V/R and plug that into the fist equation.
lets also say that voltage is 12V, actually ~13.8V when the car is running
if the BOSE are 1ohm you get 12*12 = Power required = 144w, you only have 45-50w so the current draw is too much, so it shuts off, even if the voltage is Vcc and around 5.5volts or 2ohm speaker and you get about half the Power required, but you still only have 45-50w to give, so the current is too high, and shuts off.

Simple electronics.

Brian

 

Brian, since I'm a biologist by trade who slept through physics, can you explain how one speaker would shut off the radio, while running 2 would not? I don't want to sound like an idiot, but I seriously don't know much about these whosits and whatsits.

 

My bad, you are right but the answer is the same.

 

If one of the channels overloads, then the whole thing should shut off, not just the one channel.

Brian

 

those HU only really put out ~20 watts rms per channel. you won't see that 50 x 4 or whatever it says on the unit.

does it shut off for certain songs or just shuts off in general? like mentioned above, the bose speakers might be 1 ohm, which will put too much stress on the internal amp in the HU. at low volumes may be fine, but once you crank up the volume, thermal protection might set in, and turns the unit off. i'd invest in some new speakers.

 

My bad ... it is 1 ohm
BTW, did Nissan make GXE with Bose HU ever ...? - I'm looking an guy's profile ... and see - GXE'92 ... It should come with clarion speakers and amps at the rear only ...

 

some GXE's got the Blose too

 

Bose really isnt that bad for stock, sounds much better than a majority of other factory stereos. Bose > the factory 740i stereo.

 

true, the 95 camaro got the Bose too
but the infinti setup in the van rules (once you swap out the head)

 

I like Infinity, but the factory HU in the Durango is fine enough. Maybe its the 1.5 DIN or the little balance/fader **** my Dad loves, but it's staying . My Sister managed to blow the front passenger speaker (she listens to burnt CD's her friends make.... really loud, it was probably clipping ). I'm just going to put a factory speaker back in it (plus I have a basslink in it, but I really dont want to put it in, she will just listen to the radio louder. I told my Dad she's not allowed to drive his bimmah, (JL 450/4 powering PCE's and 1000/1 powering 2 10W6V2s).

 

the factory infinti we had in the van was a CD/Cassette combo , CD and FM failed (VERY common)
swapped in a plain jane Tape HU (chrysler stock) and boy can I rattle the car

 

What I did to run Bose speakers on a Kenwood HU:
I just wired both left speakers in series to the LR channel and ditto for the right. This doubles the load (I dont know if only using 2 channels reduces the load on the HU considering the 2 ohm load on each). I have yet to have the head unit shut down, which it did if I went past 15 (30 max) volume with the amps bypassed one speaker per channel. When I crank it really high it starts distorting but I think thats just the 15 year old crappy speakers *****ing.