Pioneer DEH-P860MP loss of single rca channel
#1
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The unit was bought based on the high praises it received in this forum and a few others.. Figured this would be a good place to ask.
This setup has worked relatively flawless for the past year. The other day while driving I noticed an unbalanced sound. After some playing around, I found that the front left channel had no mid/lows, and the highs were scratchy.
After some head scratching, I did some diagnostic work. If i swap the rca's around at the amp and turn off all other channels, the scratchy sound moves to the right side. The left side plays fine then. This eliminates the amp and speakers.
What leaves at fault is possibly the HU or the rca's. The rca cables are high quality 4channel (4 rca's, 1 cable) knukoncepts premium cable. If the rca was shorting out, I could see not getting any sound at all, but not a lack of certain frequencies, and passing of others.
Later today I will try swapping the rca's at the HU and see if this behavior follows.
I'm leaning more so that something is fried in the HU.
Anyone experience this with this HU, or has other ideas?
Thanks
This setup has worked relatively flawless for the past year. The other day while driving I noticed an unbalanced sound. After some playing around, I found that the front left channel had no mid/lows, and the highs were scratchy.
After some head scratching, I did some diagnostic work. If i swap the rca's around at the amp and turn off all other channels, the scratchy sound moves to the right side. The left side plays fine then. This eliminates the amp and speakers.
What leaves at fault is possibly the HU or the rca's. The rca cables are high quality 4channel (4 rca's, 1 cable) knukoncepts premium cable. If the rca was shorting out, I could see not getting any sound at all, but not a lack of certain frequencies, and passing of others.
Later today I will try swapping the rca's at the HU and see if this behavior follows.
I'm leaning more so that something is fried in the HU.
Anyone experience this with this HU, or has other ideas?
Thanks
#2
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This gets weirder yet.
I pulled the HU this morning, turned it on, and listed to all the channels separately (FL, FR, RL, RR, etc..)
Nothing, no loss of bass, no loss of midbass, no scratchy highs. Only thing left to scratch is my head.
I wonder if one of the rca's was making a partial contact where the rca patch cable meets the HU dongle. For good measure, I pulled and reseated all the rca's (hate pulling the hu out). Had some errands to do, and so far so good.
It may be a good idea to ebay this thing while it still works :-)
We'll see if it returns.
I looked at the new 980BT, and while the display is really nice, the single rotatary commander design stinks. Also, you can't see which functions you get by rotating left/right like you can on the 860/960 (shows 6 or 7 tab functions at the top).
The BT would be nice especially since I have a BT enabled cell phone and drive a stick.
I'm guessing by pulling the HU, something shifted in a cable (either the rca's or the dongle), and now its making full contact - for how long? we'll see..
Guy at the store seems to think its possible there's a bad solder connection either in the unit or the rca's, which changes the characteristics of the signal and acts like a HP filter. This too makes little sense since coils act as LP filters when in series, not HP...
I pulled the HU this morning, turned it on, and listed to all the channels separately (FL, FR, RL, RR, etc..)
Nothing, no loss of bass, no loss of midbass, no scratchy highs. Only thing left to scratch is my head.
I wonder if one of the rca's was making a partial contact where the rca patch cable meets the HU dongle. For good measure, I pulled and reseated all the rca's (hate pulling the hu out). Had some errands to do, and so far so good.
It may be a good idea to ebay this thing while it still works :-)
We'll see if it returns.
I looked at the new 980BT, and while the display is really nice, the single rotatary commander design stinks. Also, you can't see which functions you get by rotating left/right like you can on the 860/960 (shows 6 or 7 tab functions at the top).
The BT would be nice especially since I have a BT enabled cell phone and drive a stick.
I'm guessing by pulling the HU, something shifted in a cable (either the rca's or the dongle), and now its making full contact - for how long? we'll see..
Guy at the store seems to think its possible there's a bad solder connection either in the unit or the rca's, which changes the characteristics of the signal and acts like a HP filter. This too makes little sense since coils act as LP filters when in series, not HP...
#3
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I used the 860 as a spare and never had issues, but this was twice, as my 940 was sent back to Pioneer for (2) separate repair orders:
(a). Bad fan motor (humming noise)
(b). Defective HU ejection system
Love the Pioneer, but NEVER again on a high-end unit! Majorly dissappointed in the Pioneer craftsmanship.
(a). Bad fan motor (humming noise)
(b). Defective HU ejection system
Love the Pioneer, but NEVER again on a high-end unit! Majorly dissappointed in the Pioneer craftsmanship.