Crackling and Sound Drop Outs
 

Hi There,

Im not quite sure what to say, but hoping someone can give me an insight...

Just upgraded the car radio couple weeks back... Got a Clarion DXZ748RMP
or something, in a 94 Nissan Primera. I hooked up the iPod to the back
through the Aux, and was mostly satisifed with everything, sounded
pretty nice even though I had crabby JBL's 4x6 120 Watt max peak in the
front.

I wasn't too impressed with the level of audio for the iPod (using Line
Out), and the sound kept cutting out every now and again in, I wouldn't
say big bassy parts, but just in lots of noise area. Overload
shutdown... I dunno.

Anyhow, I turned up the Clarion input sensitivity from Medium to High,
and from then on, the sound was even louder, and there was no null
silence! Everything was great for a couple of weeks!

Then I was showing someone at work the stereo, and put on this MP3 I
found, this, THX Bass Test thing... I could hear the sound distorting
but everything was good! I turned it down after about 30 seconds, and
off after about a minute.

Since then, the sound cut out's have reappeared, and now I have crackles
in the sound! But its completely random at when it appears. I could play
the same song over and over, at the same volume, and each time I'd get
different results.

If I flip the balance between speakers during crackles, then the
crackles disappear! I can turn the bass up to max, and restore the
balance, still nothing. But if I turn the treble up full, then I'll get
big distortions.

Restoring everything back to normal, the crackles are gone. As to when
they return, who knows.

But this is making me very perplexed for its intermittency.

Could I have fried the Amp already? It's only three weeks old! My old
Clarion (NIssan radio) never did anything like that and I regularly had
it cranked up to max. Does it have four separate AMPS which might
account for the differences when I switch between right/left/back/front?
Or is there less power required to drive two speakers? Is there
something to be learned from the fact the unit gets hot? Maybe I could
stick a fan on the back?

Let me know if there's any more information I can provide? I hate to
think that it's this easy to blow internal head unit AMP's on modern
radios! Never had this kind of issue before.

Thanks
Simon