OK, I figured this would be a good place to ask this question because a lot of you guys seem to really know your stuff when it comes to stereos.

Here's the story: My father has a 96 Suburban. Just to give you a mental picture: It's black, 3/4 ton 4X4 W/ a 454, pretty much mint condition. It had the stock stereo with an external CD player in the dash (all stock) 6 speakers (2 in front doors, 2 in back doors and 2 in the ceiling near the back of the truck)

We thought that the stock radio finally shit the bed and needed to be replaced because when listening to a cd OR the radio, the sound would just kind of fade out and go away...and then COME BACK REAL LOUD... and then stop for a while.... the sound only worked maybe half the time you wanted it to. you get the picture. While this was happening, the head unit did not appear to loose power (lights stayed on, etc). Now to me, that looked like the thing was junk. :?

For Christmas we all chipped in and got my father a gift certificate to a stereo place so he could get a new head unit and some new speakers. Today he went in and it sounds to me like he was dealing with some screwball who doesn’t know his ass from a hole in the ground. When I got home from work today he asked me to go listen to it because it sounds WORSE then the old system. The new head unit they sold him is an Alpine CDA-9805 FM/AM CD Receiver. He also bought new speakers for the front doors but left the rest alone. (I don’t know what kind they are)

so on the ride home from the place he's listening to his new stereo... and the volume fades out...and does the same exact crap that the old system did!!! Also the speakers in the rear doors are not working AT ALL, they are bigger than the front door speakers so that's where most of the power came from. They did replace the front speakers and they sound better but they are nothing without the rear speakers. I think they just didn't hook them back up!! Or maybe the unit he bought won't run 6 speakers?

The speaker issue seems simple to me... they can't be hooked up. Either someone forgot to do this, or the unit won't accept them?

The Volume issue on the other hand has me completely baffled... why would this brand new unit do the same exact thing the old one did? if it was loosing power wouldn't the lights on the unit go out?

Of course he's going to bring it back and have them look at it, but I was wondering what you guys thought.

not that i know much about "systems" but it sounds to me like bad wiring or reception problems.

I'd check the wiring to ALL the speakers
check for good connection with the antenna.

wiggle wires while playing and see if it changes.
You say it fades even with a CD playing?
that would rule out the antenna but not loose wiring.

That sounds a lot to me like one of the factory speakers shit the bed. A blown speaker in the loop (as I've encountered much before) will make your stereo act funny. None of my stereos acted like they shorted out, just 1/2 the speakers worked, and 1/2 didnt. Just disconnect one speaker at a time until everything starts working. As for the rear door speakers, I bet the stock stereo had a separate amplifier for the extra speakers, and maybe they couldnt hook up the GM amplifier to the new stereo. They should have told you that at the shop though. Worse case - you have to replace a speaker or two, and buy a cheap 2 or 4 channel amp to run them.

Id check for a blown speaker. This will cause similar problems as you are describing.

yea, someone also just mentioned to me that there may be a factory installed amp that is bad and is screwing things up... seems like once you have it on for a while something must heat up and all of the speakers just cut out at the same time. Oh well, it's going back into the shop next week to get officially diagnosed by the "pros" so it's out of my hands now. Kinda interesting though... I didn't know vehicles came with factory amplifiers.

73...actually, many of the newer cars have factory amps...what you're describing could very possibly be that...in some cases, an aftermarket deck has to have certain adapters to properly work with a factory amplified system, or the factory amp has to be bypassed all together. Also, with the 6 speaker system, most likely the front speakers are independent (left front and right front), and the rears are wired in series (left rear door and left rear ceiling, right rear door and right rear ceiling)...if the wiring isn't hooked up correctly, or if they simply cut the wiring and splice it instead of using adapter harnesses, all kinds of wierd shit can happen. It sounds like you may want to start going to a different stereo installation place...

i agree with stroker, go somewhere else.

well, it finally got fixed... brought it back to the shop and they found a speaker wire in one of the back doors that was chafed and was gounding out on the inside of the door. also one of the speakers way in the back was blown, replaced the 2 speakers in the way back (4x10's) and fixed the wire in the door and everything seems to be working great.

thanks for the input guys