ThePaintist

I recently installed an aftermarket radio (Dual XDM16BT) in my 2005 civic lx, with factory speakers, and the audio is crackling/distorting heavily above anything but low volume. I checked the wire connections, tried running ground to the vehicle chassis instead of the ground wire, checked my speaker polarities, and checked that no wires are loose. Here's a video of what it sounds like, though my phone mic doesn't do the loud crackling justice, it's very aggressive https://streamable.com/ito1d The crackling is present on every sound source.

After going through everything, I'm assuming it's either too much or too little power. The radio says it outputs 16 Watts RMS x 4 Channels, but I'm unsure what the factory civic speakers are rated at. I could get a much louder clear sound out of the factory radio. Any ideas?

Colin42

dual is not exactly a good brand, my guess would be the head unit.
how did you make your connections? did you use an adapter harness?
only time I've ever had a problem with a head unit was with a really crappy $25 deck from amazon that i bought as a temporary fix. it had similar problems to what you're describing.

Any of the other decks I've had (JVC, Sony, Pioneer,, etc) have never given me problems

ThePaintist

It is the cheapest head unit I could find, but after reading about 200 reviews for it, nobody has experienced the same volume-dependant crackling as far as I could see, so I'm hoping it's just a wiring or power problem. But it could just be a bad unit for sure. I'm not using an adapter harness, I wired the head unit wiring harness straight to my cars radio wiring. Initially using crimps, but when there was the same crackling I thought it might be a bad connection somewhere, so I undid that and then twist and taped everything and am getting the same result. It's coming through every speaker evenly. I'll probably go out and buy a better head unit, but I'm crossing my fingers for a day or two that it's something else.

Colin42

when you install the new headunit, do the wiring properly with crimps, it is better to use the adapter harness, but if you don't mind cutting up the factory wiring go ahead. also make sure to not connect the orange illumination wire, it will burn out the gauges

Slumpertcivic

My 2003 Civic interior is apart atm doing speaker replacements.

At this age, the factory speakers have become so brittle they are literally shredded from high power head unit I installed recently as this car has been taken over by my son who wanted Bluetooth connectivity.

Those 200 reviews likely were not based on people putting them in cars with 15yr old speakers and even if every other unit was perfect , you still might have a defective one.

mac25

16 watts to each channel or 16 split across 4 channels?

If it's only 4watts per channel, that's probably not enough to power the integrated OEM subs.

The rear subs draw the most currant, so you can unplug them inside the trunk, to see if things get better.

kydd_dos

I'm sure it's 16 watts per channel

Try a different grounding location make sure it's shiny bare metal. Attach a 2nd ground wire from your stereo chassis to the same ground point.