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Audio output just... quits.

GenX Retread

Drag Racing Champion
Location
Canada
Car(s)
2021 GTI Autobahn
Yesterday for the 4th time, my stereo just decided to quit making sound. Every time this happens it's the same routine: I've been playing music at high volume for a while, and then the sound just dies. I'm half deaf, and some bands are not to be enjoyed at tepid volumes.

It doesn't matter what input source I'm using, from AM radio to CarPlay (though always I've been playing through CarPlay, but after the sound dies, changing input does nothing - none of them work).

I've resolved this by shutting off the ignition, holding the power button on the head unit until it does a full reboot cycle, and waiting for it to reinitialize... but not yesterday. I did the above twice before saying fuckit and pouting in silence until I got home. This morning everything worked fine.

Does this Fender system have some kind of relay or capacitor that overloads after long periods of high volume output or something? WTF.

Anybody else?
 

Cuzoe

Autocross Champion
Location
Los Angeles
How loud is loud? If the amp is clipping it could get to a point of thermal shutoff for protection. You mentioned hearing loss so I would assume you've always listened at higher volume. If the 4 times are since ownership I would suspect it's overheating, but if it's recently maybe have it checked out.

A 2021 would be still be under warranty I assume. Dealer probably won't be able to duplicate the issue but good to have it on record early to get some consideration should it get worse over time.
 

GenX Retread

Drag Racing Champion
Location
Canada
Car(s)
2021 GTI Autobahn
Loud is 8-10/10. The system sounds fine right up until it just quits. I'm pretty impressed with the sound of it actually, but I'm not an audio geek.

I owe my hearing to loud music, loud motorcycles, loud power tools and loud firearms. I've owned the car since April.
 

Keehs360

Autocross Champion
Location
Denver
Car(s)
Mk7.5
Loud is 8-10/10. The system sounds fine right up until it just quits. I'm pretty impressed with the sound of it actually, but I'm not an audio geek.

I owe my hearing to loud music, loud motorcycles, loud power tools and loud firearms. I've owned the car since April.
I had a conversation with @Javwohl about this a few weeks ago. After our canyon run. I had volume at about 60-70%. After about 30 minutes the audio cut out completely.

I think what @Cuzoe said is plausible and spot on.
 

Cuzoe

Autocross Champion
Location
Los Angeles
I don't know that I've ever had the volume in my Golf up to 50%, lol. I'm a 10-20% guy, and then I turn the Bluetooth volume down to 50% on the phone. My wife is probably a 30 to 40% listener though. As a point of comparison, I watch TV with the volume at 6 or 7 and my wife watches TV with it at 30. I don't know how you guys do it... y'all need new ears :ROFLMAO:.

Back when I was really into car audio I'd set all the gains using test tones and a multimeter so that max volume on the head unit equaled the maximum power from my amps without clipping. Good thing about that was that I could then turn my head unit to 99 (which was soooo much louder than I could stand) on any source and it could play music all day. No audio sources would ever be as loud as my test tones.

My guess is that gains are not set that way with the factory system. It would be crazy, imo, if factory gains were set such that anything below 75% was clipping, but above that I wouldn't be surprised to see it. It would give some headroom for low volume sources (aux input, bluetooth sometimes) but cause clipping on sources with higher baseline volume.
 

Keehs360

Autocross Champion
Location
Denver
Car(s)
Mk7.5
I don't know that I've ever had the volume in my Golf up to 50%, lol. I'm a 10-20% guy, and then I turn the Bluetooth volume down to 50% on the phone. My wife is probably a 30 to 40% listener though. As a point of comparison, I watch TV with the volume at 6 or 7 and my wife watches TV with it at 30. I don't know how you guys do it... y'all need new ears :ROFLMAO:.

Back when I was really into car audio I'd set all the gains using test tones and a multimeter so that max volume on the head unit equaled the maximum power from my amps without clipping. Good thing about that was that I could then turn my head unit to 99 (which was soooo much louder than I could stand) on any source and it could play music all day. No audio sources would ever be as loud as my test tones.

My guess is that gains are not set that way with the factory system. It would be crazy, imo, if factory gains were set such that anything below 75% was clipping, but above that I wouldn't be surprised to see it. It would give some headroom for low volume sources (aux input, bluetooth sometimes) but cause clipping on sources with higher baseline volume.
Don’t shame us, Mr I got super human hearing. Pffft
 

Cuzoe

Autocross Champion
Location
Los Angeles
I worked F-16's for about a decade in the Air Force, and when I got out they said my hearing was better than when I joined. Obviously not true, but goes to show how "thorough" the evaluations were when I came in, haha. I was the avionics guy modifying David Clark headsets to add an iPod Nano into the head cushion with its own volume knob, with resistors to sum the iPod stereo to mono and then sum that with the aircraft headphone jack audio. So I always had my "ear protection" on because I was letting Sade take me away.
 

Keehs360

Autocross Champion
Location
Denver
Car(s)
Mk7.5
I worked F-16's for about a decade in the Air Force, and when I got out they said my hearing was better than when I joined. Obviously not true, but goes to show how "thorough" the evaluations were when I came in, haha. I was the avionics guy modifying David Clark headsets to add an iPod Nano into the head cushion with its own volume knob, with resistors to sum the iPod stereo to mono and then sum that with the aircraft headphone jack audio. So I always had my "ear protection" on because I was letting Sade take me away.
Or u got bit by a radioactive f-16 😂

hence your hearing being spared and elevated to Daredevil levels
 

Adurm

Go Kart Newbie
Location
Fl
Probably going thermal. If the amp is covered by something, clear some space for air flow. I think I'm my GSW there's a plastic cover trapping the heat.
 

errold32

New member
Location
Los Angeles
Car(s)
2019 mk7.5 GTI
That has been happening to me with my 2019 mk 7.5 GTI as well. The dealership was able to reproduce the problem, and replaced the amplifier, but this did not fix the problem. See link for video if interested.
 
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