I have a very basic 5 year old Kenwood head unit, 8" kicker sub and 300 watt kicker amp, every since I installed pioneer 4-way 5x7s all around the speakers seem to cut out after a long duration of blasting music, the speakers aren't wired to the amp so does this mean that the head unit needs upgraded?

 

buy another cheap amp and hook the other speakers up to that maybe? because it sounds like your overpowering the deck, headunit.

 

^ that's a possibility too, I don't know anything about audio equipment, but would I be lookin for a 4 channel amplifier?

 

i have a standard cab, and did a 2way amp to the front 2 speakers. if you want to power all 4, i'd look for amp that delivers at least 50rms x4. sounds to me like you're over power the head unit. next time the music cuts out, feel the unit to see if it's hot.

if your not worried about rep'n an off-brand check out
http://www.crutchfield.com/App/Produ...9HA1040&tp=115

its more than plenty of power, and the cheapest 4-way amp on the site.

i won't buy from anybody but Crutchfield

 

That definately sounds like an overheating headunit to me. My old system in my Alero had the same prob, but i amped all the speakers so the HU had no more stress on it and it never happened again.

 

If I got a new head unit what kind of numbers should I be looking for out of it? I just got the specs on my current head unit:

kenwood KDC-222
Max Power 45 watts x4
180 watt max power

So obviously anything better than this? I'd rather get a new head unit than another amp cuz I want to be able to plug my ipod into it, and my current HU doesn't support this

 

One thing to look for is RMS wattage. That is the power the cd player can continuously run to your speakers. If you want to stay with Kenwood, I'd recommend this unit. It has a ipod hookup via usb

http://www.crutchfield.com/App/Produ...DCX592&tp=5684

 

That's a real nice unit, I was hoping to maybe spend $150 or less, but I guess you can't really get around it if you need something with better performance

I don't really care if I stay with kenwood either by the way, my kenwood has been good to me for 5 years but I got pioneer speakers and a kicker sub and amp so it's not like I'm loyal to one brand

 

I just bought this head unit, it was on sale at pep boys with a 10 dollar rebate, got it for 69.99

http://www.crutchfield.com/App/Produ...38&i=113KDC138

It has the same RMS watts and peak power as the one you mentioned, so hopefully it'll work out good. It has a ipod hookup thru a auxilary output, how much different is the aux hookup than a usb hookup?

 

Most (Meaning 99% or better) head units dont have built in voltage amplifiers. Thus, maximum rail voltage is 12v. This means that into a 4ohm load you will never get more than 36w RMS...That is IF your unit is running at 100% efficency which it is not.

:-)

 

the aux input v. the usb, is the usb will constantly charge and usually usb has an interface on the head unit to browse your ipod...the aux is basically just making your head unit a set of headphones to the ipod

 

Alright, I'm not very audio inclined and it sounds like you know what your talking about, so knowing the system isn't 100% efficient are you saying that 22w rms is respectable out of a possible 36w rms? Or do you mean that under ideal conditions the unit would theorectially only put out 22w rms?... I'm just sort of confused by all this. I'm just trying to achieve a better than "stock" sound system, so spending the least amount of money is my limiting factor, at this point at least.

 

You've got it down. 22-25w RMS is the most I would ever trust comming out of a head unit. If they are claiming any more than that they are probably full of it.

 

Ok that's good to know, so would that remedy the current issue with my speakers cutting out after a long period of playing music at high volume?

 

A new unit might. It is likely that your old unit is overheating.

Of course, adding an amp will work too if that is the case because the headunit will no longer be generating as much heat.

:-)