Hey folks, I've got myself a small and aging setup in my car(2000 Toyota Corolla VE-
Kenwood KDC-X959 in-dash connected to a Kenwood KAC-919 amp powering a budget 10" MTX sub. Also connected to the head unit is a KTC-SR903 sirius sattellite reciever(no slave units, all controlled thru the head unit) and the four stock speakers.
My problem is this: A few years ago, every once in a while I'd hear a "popping" noise through the speakers (also audible through the sub). While attempting to play CDs, it would sometimes crackle and produce no other sound. While this would happen, "tweaking" the faceplate(to the point of shifting the whole unit in dash) would cause it to "pop," and hit the "sweet spot" and allow the music to come through clearly once again. While doing anything else(Tuner/Sattellite/Aux input), the "pop" was still audible, and whilst "popped" (when it would be crackling, and not playing CD audio), the amplifier wouldn't recognise any change of volume(or, if just turning the unit on, the amp would produce no sound at all). Once again, by "tweaking" the head unit, it would fix the situation temporarily and allow for a re-synching of the correct volume on the amplifier.
After a while of this going on, and after checking(and re-checking) all the connections, nothing seemed to fix it. A few weeks later, the problem stopped and everything was fine and dandy. Just recently, however, this started occuring again, and I've rechecked all my connections, and everything still seems well in place.
Does anyone have any information or advice to give me? It's driving me up the wall!
I've had the same problem and would be able to temporarily "hit the sweet spot" by tapping on the plastic directly under the faceplate.
While digging around some wires behind the headunit while it was running, I noticed one of the wires... the topmost one, I forget which, was causing the popping sound everytime I touched it. Turns out its some loose connection, and would pop into the sweet spot anytime I held the wire into its socket.
This may or may not be the same problem youve been having, but alas, I haven't figured out how to fix it. some clever way of keeping the wire secure should do it.
I've just figured out a temporary solution to the problem. Apparently, in my case at least, it's a connection problem between the head unit and the umbilical cord plugged into it. Moving the cord/wires would cause it to pop/unpop. Of all things, I tried making a small wedge of paper, and fit that inbetween the harness and the locking pin to hold the harness in place on the head unit. Tried that a little while after my original post, and I haven't yet had another problem with it. Hope that helps you and anyone else stumbling onto this problem.