TheSamba.com :: View topic

Wed Oct 21, 2020 6:00 pm

Every once in awhile i'll hear a audible *POP* over the speaker and the sound will go off and the unit will freeze. Most of the time it will come back to earth on its own, sometimes it takes longer than others and not always in a "clean" manner". The sound will sometimes cut in and out as it sorts itself out, sometimes I have to wait until the controls start responding again to turn it off and wait awhile then turn it on again and the whole process repeats.

This issue is becomming more and more frequent. I have checked all the wiring and it's all well protected, I don't see where it can be shorting to ground anywhere. It even happens when the engine is off and the car is sitting still so it can't be road vibration.

Has anyone had this experience before with a Retrosound radio and if so, what was the fix?

Thu Oct 22, 2020 9:09 am

I'd look for a loose power/ground wire connection, or a chafed speaker wire. Maybe monitor the voltage present on the power feeds to see if there is a drop or spike associated with the pop, as this could help narrow which part of the circuit is affected.

Thu Oct 22, 2020 11:48 am

Are you running a amplifier? I assume with the car turned off it means you have a constant power source hooked up to it and not just turn-key power?

Thu Oct 22, 2020 12:52 pm

toxicavenger70 wrote: Are you running a amplifier? I assume with the car turned off it means you have a constant power source hooked up to it and not just turn-key power?

no amp besides the one in the radio

yes, constant power

Thu Oct 22, 2020 1:00 pm

Does it do the same thing if you disconnect car power and ground and give it power and ground from a source not connected to the car at all?

If it does, what happens when you disconnect it from the car speaker and hook it up to an external speaker not connected to the car at all?

Thu Oct 22, 2020 5:31 pm

AirHead1966 wrote: Does it do the same thing if you disconnect car power and ground and give it power and ground from a source not connected to the car at all?

If it does, what happens when you disconnect it from the car speaker and hook it up to an external speaker not connected to the car at all?

Haven't tried that yet, will soon and will report back.

Sat Oct 24, 2020 10:40 am

When I say the radio controls go unresponsive what I mean to say is that there are numbers on the screen. The power is on. It freezes. Seems that the internal amplifier is turning off but the freezing is strange. Sometimes the numbers on the screen freeze and the controls do not respond, sometimes they do. When I first turned it on today, no sound.

Tightened the hot terminal at fuse block, it was loose and would move when touched. Left radio playing. Installed my new 205AL distributor from VWNOS, started the car, set timing, went to turn the car off, no sound from radio that I had left playing. Controls responding. Turn it off. Turn it on again. Sound.

Its hooked up to a motorcycle battery now, both power and ground, independant from the car. So far no issue.

Sat Oct 24, 2020 11:07 am

Sitting in the car listening to radio. Radio running off big fully charged motorcycle battery.

Sounds great!

Ut oh. Sound becomes scratchy....slowly the volume lowers and progressively becomes more scratchy until nothing. No sound again. Controls responding. Turn off. Turn on again. Nothing. Unhook everything. Wait. Hook back up. No sound.

As of right now the internal amp will not turn on at all whether hooked up to car or motorcycle battery.

Sat Oct 24, 2020 2:40 pm

It still cut off when in use with the motorcycle battery, I think there is a very specific voltage the radio must see to turn the amp on. I think this old motorcycle battery was not topped off 100%, I dont know. I also did not have the ground side of the motorcycle battery hooked to any ground source.

However...I just found the TOP bolt of the radio strap hanger was loose and since the radio gets its ground through the body of the radio through the hanger this may have been the problem. All is working as it should at the moment.

Sat Oct 24, 2020 5:43 pm

Hanging out in my open air 'garage' tinkering. Radio has been on for 3 hours straight, no *pop*-loss of sound issue.

Maybe the loose bolt at the top of the hanger strap was the problem (bad ground)

Sun Oct 25, 2020 8:33 am

Radio was on for 5 hours straight last night after tightening the top bolt on the hanger strap, no issue.

Keep in mind when installing your Retrosound radio that even though there is a black wire on the harness that goes to ground, the ground for the internal amp is the post on the back of the radio which gets ground through the strap itself. At least on mine it is. I know this because the radio will not turn on at all without the body grounded which I discovered yesterday. I can disconnect the black wire with the radio on and nothing happens. If I disconnect the strap then the radio goes dead completely.

Anyway, I had assumed the black wire was the only ground, its not.

The online wiring instructions make no mention of this. The instructions state:
YELLOW- 12V CONSTANT
RED- IGNITION/ACC
BLACK- GROUND
ALL MUST BE CONNECTED FOR RADIO TO OPERATE.

I have found this to be untrue. The BODY of my Retrosound Laguna radio must be grounded for the radio to operate. The black wire seems to make no difference. It's possibly the ground for internal memory for the clock and the presets? but for the radio to play, the body must be grounded.

The original hanger strap setup in a 67 sedan has the top of the strap insulated with rubber IIRC. I seem to recall the original radio getting ground through a black wire and the strap had rubber at the top to cut down on vibration. There is for sure rubber at the top for the wiper motor. Make sure the rubber is not blocking your ground when installing a Retrosound or attach a ground wire to the post where the strap attaches to the back of the radio and ground somewhere else. One of the speedometer mounting screws is a good place.

Sun Oct 25, 2020 3:30 pm

Glad you found the issue.

Mon Oct 26, 2020 1:06 pm

Sad to report the issue persists.

My speaker is a retrosound D-62
One side measures 7 ohms resistance
The other side measures 6 ohms resistance

Should be 4 ohms

Mon Oct 26, 2020 2:02 pm

I'm trying to recall car stereo stuff i only kinda knew over 25 years ago- so bear with me...

On a DVC speaker, I'm thinking the 4-ohm rating must come from the OHM load an amp sees as a sum-total, as in half of what the speaker would be in a stereo configuration. 4+4 becomes 2+2 Ohms according to the rating when the speaker is halved by 2 voice coils?

If your speaker fluctuates too much of course it will cause heat to build in the amp section- and shut down as you describe. I'd call Retrosound and see what a normal range of ohm readings for that speaker would be.

Are you running one channel to one speaker input, the other to the other (parallel- the white and the gray pairs)? Or are you running one channel out of the radio to the speaker (series)? I know you can't be running all 4 speaker leads.

Mon Oct 26, 2020 2:29 pm

Didnt you purchase it from Retrosound? Ask them the question, I am sure they have heard it before.

Thu Oct 29, 2020 8:59 am

wheel607 wrote: Didnt you purchase it from Retrosound? Ask them the question, I am sure they have heard it before.

They just keep saying 'check the wiring' but now they want me to pay the shipping to send it to them for 'testing'.

The issue is much less frequent now that the body of the radio is well grounded, something the instructions do not say is needed.

I am tempted to just live with it. Thanks everyone.

Thu Oct 29, 2020 9:19 am

I have the same radio. Been having the same issue recently where occasionally it will pop and freeze. Can't figure out what reason it does it. I'm thinking some sort of intermittent power from the fuse block. I think that because sometimes if I'm not getting a good ground on the fuse block or if a fuse is corroded on the ends my car will sputter sometimes. Only noticeable it's a problem on highway driving. A minute or two cleaning up the connections and fuses and it goes away for months.

Thu Oct 29, 2020 10:20 am

Rag00oll wrote: A minute or two cleaning up the connections and fuses and it goes away for months.

Thanks!

Thu Oct 29, 2020 11:18 am

Sounds like they are just putting you off. Already a person has posted with the EXACT same problem. Now there is no doubt they have heard it before. I think it is poor customer service when they are unwilling to help over the telephone to at least try and solve the problem.

Thu Oct 29, 2020 2:29 pm

yep, shitty company and shitty radios. it's unfortunate