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[schwaber77]

I have a 2001 HD Ultra Classic
Stock stereo -deck and speakers.

I was looking to get a little more sound out of the factory stereo, mainly for highway cruising since a fair amount of my miles to and from work are on the freeway at 80mph.

I spent the evening installing a Dual 400 watt (I know, over kill but gains are set very low for now), DA407L amplifier. Installed in the fairing, mounted on top of the factory deck. I've installed plenty of stereos over the years and I know I have everything connected correctly and securely.

I'm cutting out though and it's baffling. I powered it up numerous times while and after install to ensure everything functioned properly and it did...playing a local radio station. I plugged in my iPod, connected at the iPod through the data plug (not the head phone jack) to the face of the deck which is a headphone jack. It sounded great at decent volume while at idle but I started going and as it turned up, it started cutting out and it seemed to be cutting out primarily in the front speakers. It seemed the faster I went and the louder it was, the more it cut out, again mainly cutting out on the front speakers.

While cutting out, I can switch over to the local radio station and bam! It's loud and sounds great with no cutting out! Switch back to CD (auxiliary/iPod) and it's back to cutting out like a son of a b!

Went back home, pulled the fairing off. Turned it on and cranked her way up and again, while playing the iPod it was cutting out. I'm not losing power anywhere. Amp stays powered and the protection light does not turn on at all, not even while it's cut out. I turned the gains almost all the way down thinking it sound better in the garage. Put it back together and took her out and sure enough, still cutting out.

It just doesn't make sense to me.

Is there protection circuits in the speakers?
Why does it seem to only happen with the iPod and not a radio station?
Why much more prominent while in motion and running?
Why does it seem that it's mainly the fronts that cut out and not nearly as noticeable in the rears?

I planned on buying upgrade speakers in the near future but I figured I could run what I have, try to baby the speakers with the risk of blowing them, and if so, oh well, I'll be forced to get the new ones. But now, what would be the point unless for some strange reason, the new speakers would make it work? Just doesn't make sense to me and that's a couple hundred $ investment to find out it might do the same thing.

Please help. Anything will be appreciated. Until then, I'm gonna bang my head on the wall.

Thanks.

[schwaber77]

update:

Rode her in this morning.

Tried a different iPod plug. Instead of the data plug to iPod and headphone plug to radio, I just did a standard headphone plug to iPod and headphone plug to radio. Still, same results. iPod cuts in and out like crazy so the majority of the way, just listened to a local radio station which sounded great-loud, clear, and no cutting in and out.

When the iPod does cut out, it does sound like its cutting out all together, not just the fronts. Still kind of baffling to me because it worked great before installing the amplifier. Otherwise I'd be pretty sure that it was the plug port on the front of the stereo deck that was going bad....

I did some additional research into this last night and although I found that some people have had similar issues, I have found nothing that matches my symptoms...So, still kind of lost.

Help please.

[schwaber77]

another update:

I adjusted the AVC setting down to "0". That seemed to help, I can turn the volume up a little more but once I get to a certain point while on the highway running the iPod, it still cuts out.

While parked and not running, I can turn the volume almost all of the way up before it cuts out.

I can't find anything, anywhere that matches this issue...still stumped.

[Trapperdog]

When you say data plug, has your head unit been re worked to include a data plug coming from the rear of the unit?

[schwaber77]

Nope, no mods to the bike for the plug. It's just a regular iPod plug on one end with a head phone plug on the other end of the wire. Ran from the iPod to the aux plug on the front of the deck.

[Trapperdog]

I might assume your head units aux port is problematic if things are normal with the engine off. If you can jiggle the plug in the port with the engine off and recreate the issue, that could confirm that the port has gone out of round and vibration is causing loss of contact. This happens to mine several years ago. If not, hopefully someone with more knowledge will chime in.
You may want to introduce yourself in the introduction forum and link this thread regarding your issue

[TIF2]

Google doesn't return any results for a DA407L amplifier.
Are you sure you have the model number right?

I was trying to search to see if there are any KB posts on the amp

[Para Bellum]

If it's only with the iPod, that points to the iPod or the cable.  Can you try a different one of each?

[BostonboyDH]

Stupid question but is the volume on the Ipod at max volume?

[schwaber77]

I might assume your head units aux port is problematic if things are normal with the engine off. If you can jiggle the plug in the port with the engine off and recreate the issue, that could confirm that the port has gone out of round and vibration is causing loss of contact. This happens to mine several years ago. If not, hopefully someone with more knowledge will chime in.
You may want to introduce yourself in the introduction forum and link this thread regarding your issue

I've tried this, with the engine off and while cruising and it makes no difference. Seems like the connection is solid. I've also tried changing the cable out and that made no difference as well.

[schwaber77]

Stupid question but is the volume on the Ipod at max volume?

By using the data plug (not sure what to call it but it's the wide plug on the bottom of the iPod instead of using a headphone plug) the volume of the iPod is over ridden. There is no volume control on the iPod when using this style plug. I've tried using just the headphone style plug with the iPod volume set at 3/4 volume or lower and it still cut out.

[cambo]

Reading through your description I am a little confused as to whether only front speakers are cutting out or all speakers. This is important because if it's all speakers then you might have a problem with the iPod, which have had issues with cutting out randomly. So I guess if all speakers cut out then I would recommend testing with a different iPod or iPhone just to eliminate the iDevice from the equation. I would also be curious to know if you have any problems with the sound dropping if you don't raise the volume up high. Lastly, and this might be a little exotic as far as an issue but the main difference between FM stations and iPod sound (as far as an Amp and speakers would be concerned) is the frequency response. FM stations broadcast music at 40HZ-15kHz compared to iPod's 10Hz-20kHz, which can be tough on speakers and would bring out any potential flaws in the amp's circuitry. How about connecting an old fashioned walkman (sucky frequency response) to the headphone jack to see if you are having the same issues.

[Twolanerider]

Unless I'm misreading your descriptions that one that is always consistent to the problem is the aux port on the front of the radio.  You're not using that port when playing the radio (and not having the problem when playing the radio). You are using that port on the radio no matter which output port from your iPod you are using.  Could be mistaken but my concern would be a bad aux-in port on the front of the radio itself.

[schwaber77]

Reading through your description I am a little confused as to whether only front speakers are cutting out or all speakers. This is important because if it's all speakers then you might have a problem with the iPod, which have had issues with cutting out randomly. So I guess if all speakers cut out then I would recommend testing with a different iPod or iPhone just to eliminate the iDevice from the equation. I would also be curious to know if you have any problems with the sound dropping if you don't raise the volume up high. Lastly, and this might be a little exotic as far as an issue but the main difference between FM stations and iPod sound (as far as an Amp and speakers would be concerned) is the frequency response. FM stations broadcast music at 40HZ-15kHz compared to iPod's 10Hz-20kHz, which can be tough on speakers and would bring out any potential flaws in the amp's circuitry. How about connecting an old fashioned walkman (sucky frequency response) to the headphone jack to see if you are having the same issues.

At first, I thought it was only the front speakers but it is not, it is all of the speakers. I have not tried another device, just several different cables to connect to the aux port on the radio. I'll try a different iPod and/or my phone.

The sound does not cut out at lower volumes but, the faster I'm going, the lower the volume has to be in order for it to not cut out. That being the case, obviously is not ideal considering the majority of my daily riding (to work n back) is freeway. At freeway speed, with volume down so it doesn't cut out, I can barely hear the music.

That's interesting info on the frequency #'s. I've been questioning that as well, seems like it could make sense in regards to what I'm experiencing. Not sure if I have a Walkman but I'll look and give that a try. Do you happen to know, is it just iPods that run in that frequency range or is it all digital devices (like a cheapy Walmart MP3 player)?

Thanks camcvo for the response. Any other thoughts you come up would be greatly appreciated.

I'll post the results after tinkering some more.

Chris

[schwaber77]

Unless I'm misreading your descriptions that one that is always consistent to the problem is the aux port on the front of the radio.  You're not using that port when playing the radio (and not having the problem when playing the radio). You are using that port on the radio no matter which output port from your iPod you are using.  Could be mistaken but my concern would be a bad aux-in port on the front of the radio itself.

Thanks Twolanerider. That does certainly seem to make sense and I think I've addressed that as best as I could (stress on "think"). The aux port/iPod were working just fine that day before I installed the amp and to install the amp, I didn't remove or mess with the deck much. Just removed the outer fairing, spliced wires and mounted on top of the deck. As stated before too, I've changed the connection (iPod to aux) cables, wiggled the plug while parked running and not running as well as I was riding when it was cutting out and before I got up to speed and it started cutting out. With all of those variables checked, I'd think I'd be able to determine that the port was suspect. Definitely not ruling anything out at this point but with all the reading I've done about bad aux ports, something there would've indicated a faulty port.

Thanks for your response. Anything else you can think of would be greatly appreciated.

Chris