[ronline]

Hi Gurus,

Few days ago I had got the following system installed in my Skoda Rapid.

Head Unit (Without CD) : Pioneer MVH-1490UB

Maximum Power - 50W x 4, 50W x 2/4 ohms + 70W x 1/2 ohm (for subwoofer)
Continuous Power - 22W x 4 (5% THD, 4 ohm load, both channels driven)
Load Impedance - 4 ohms (4 to 8 ohms allowable)

Speakers (Front & Back): Infinity Primus PR6502is 6.5" 2-way coaxial

Peak Power - 280W
RMS Power - 70W
Recommended Amplifier RMS power - 5W to 125W
Nominal Impedence - 3 ohms

Today suddenly the head unit rebooted once and after playing for some time it got shutdown completely. I did some research and I'm now wondering if the head unit is capable of running the 3 ohm speakers? Does the setup require an Amplifier to safely run the speakers?

If the shutdown is not because of the speakers then I'd be very upset with Pioneer because I already face this problem in my Santro which has the buggy Pioneer DEH-2290UB. In that I've to take out the HU and then remove and reinsert the power cable plug to reset it.

I also stumbled upon one report of MVH-1490 HU rebooting on MouthShut. Now both my cars make me think should I move away from Pioneer.

Thanks & Regards,
RS

[swarnava.m]

Originally Posted by ronline

...I did some research and I'm now wondering if the head unit is capable of running the 3 ohm speakers? Does the setup require an Amplifier to safely run the speakers?...

I am no expert but I think it is probably due to a mismatch of the impedance of the HU and that of the speaker. As per my understanding, a lower impedance means that the device draws higher amount of current. So in this case what is probably happening is that your Infinity speakers are drawing more current than the HU can safely supply. And this is probably the reason for the HU reboot.

I am saying this more so because I use the same HU, with JBL CS4 front speakers and MTX RT693 rear 3-way coaxial speakers. All have 4 ohm impedance, which matches that of the HU. Hence there are no issues like what you have mentioned. In fact, I am quite satisfied with the whole experience.

Gurus, please correct me if I have made any mistake.

[greenhorn]

1. these Pio HU's are installed along with JBL GTO's which run at 3 Ohm (2 officially) everyday and run without issues, so it should handle the infinity speakers fine

2. Holy mother of mismatch batman ! What's a low end HU like that doing with such nice speakers like those ? Get something nicer! ( my money would be on an alpine or a kenwood!)

3. there might be a short somewhere. do check.

[ronline]

Today I took my car to the Pioneer Service Station. I also told the service guys that I have to frequently reset my other Pioneer HU (DEH-2290UB) by removing and reinserting the power cable and I'm afraid this new HU might have the same problem. And when they took out this new HU it did come back alive after removing & reinserting the power cable!

They acknowledge a fault with DEH-2290UB which they say is fixed by installing an IC. However, MVH-1490 is a new product and they did not have any ready answers for the problem. What they are gonna do is that send an incident report along with bill & warranty to Pioneer which will then decided whether to replace and/or fix. It is going to take a week now.

MVH-1490 being a newly designed and developed product I was not expecting it to have this same old issue. I'm utterly disappointed.

Originally Posted by greenhorn

2. Holy mother of mismatch batman ! What's a low end HU like that doing with such nice speakers like those ? Get something nicer! ( my money would be on an alpine or a kenwood!)

Btw the HU is pretty good when its playing. I selected it because I didn't need a CD player and its SQ is very good. Much better than the other Pioneer HU that I have. Of course the speakers are too good as well. If this problem is not fixed, probably then I will write this HU off and get a Kenwood/alpine digital media player.