Audiovox ACD-12 Car CD Player
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UNIT LOCKS UP AND WILL NOT RESET
Pros
Attractive unit with great sound, excellent volume, nice bass and treble ( controllable)
Cons
MAY have an intermittent 'Lock Up' condition.
Recommended it?
Yes
The Bottom Line:
This is a really nice unit but be advised it may be very sensitive to your cars electrical system and 'lock up' becoming inoperable until properly reset.
I recently bought this unit for my daughters car. I bought it from Soundtrack because the price was very good and my previous experience with Audiovox electronic equipment was very positive. As an electronics Technician with over 40 years experience, I found the installation process very easy and the sound quality to be exceptional. However, after one day the unit locked up and would not accept a CD or play the radio. I checked the fuses and found them to be good so I promptly returned the unit to Soundtrack for exchange. Soundtrack cheerfully gave me another unit which I immediately installed. Again, after about one day the new unit locked up just like the previous one. I rechecked all my wiring and everything was hooked up as per the installation guide provided with the unit. I also took voltage readings to make sure the car battery and electrical system was good. Everything checked out perfectly but the unit still wasn't working. Finally, I unplugged the power connector to the unit and then plugged it back in again. The unit began working once I did this.
It appears that the power had to be completely removed in order for the (Audiovox) system to re-initialize itself properly. I tested the unit several times while it was removed from the dashboard just in case it was a heat related issue but it locked up again the next morning when the car was first started and everything was cold. I reset it again by unplugging the power connector and plugging it back in again. It does seem that, upon observation, the unit works fine until I start the car. However, it intermittently locks up when the car is started which may indicate there are some noise spikes on the power line which may cause the unit to lock up. This can be a common problem in any electronic equipment with low tolerance for power line noise. My approach now is to further isolate the problem by installing a noise suppression kit for the cars battery and electrical system. These kits are cheap and readily available at most automotive parts stores. This should minimize any noise spikes from the 12 volt battery line which powers the radio. If this does not solve my problem I can either return the unit and purchase another radio from a different manufacturer who may have built in a better noise rejection filtering system into their units power input circuit or I can install a manual reset switch to 'reset' the the radio when it freezes up. This can easily be done by inserting a normally closed pushbutton switch rated at 5 amps in series with the 12 volt constant battery (yellow) wire. This switch can be mounted under the dash but easily accessible to the driver to push whenever the unit locks up. It seems to me that Audiovox may have an overly sensitive unit and if you have this problem you may have to go to a different manufacturer. Try the suppressor kit first before exchanging the unit. Also, check the cars ground system as sometimes these systems are very poor due to the path they take to get back to the battery. An alternative ground circuit would be to run a wire DIRECTLY from the radio ground wire to the negative terminal of the battery. This radio really has a nice sound to it and other than the 'lock up' problem it performs very well. If your vehicles electrical system is in excellent condition, you may never experience this problem. However, be advised that possibly (in my opinion) Audiovox has a marginal unit here.
(As a follow up to this review, I discovered that Audiovox does indeed have a reset button built into their unit. However, you must use a paper clip and insert it into a recess hole to activate it. By installing the external pushbutton as previously described you can do the same thing much easier and quicker. The fact remains, however, Audiovox has a potential problem here or they wouldn't have built in the reset in the first place.)
It appears that the power had to be completely removed in order for the (Audiovox) system to re-initialize itself properly. I tested the unit several times while it was removed from the dashboard just in case it was a heat related issue but it locked up again the next morning when the car was first started and everything was cold. I reset it again by unplugging the power connector and plugging it back in again. It does seem that, upon observation, the unit works fine until I start the car. However, it intermittently locks up when the car is started which may indicate there are some noise spikes on the power line which may cause the unit to lock up. This can be a common problem in any electronic equipment with low tolerance for power line noise. My approach now is to further isolate the problem by installing a noise suppression kit for the cars battery and electrical system. These kits are cheap and readily available at most automotive parts stores. This should minimize any noise spikes from the 12 volt battery line which powers the radio. If this does not solve my problem I can either return the unit and purchase another radio from a different manufacturer who may have built in a better noise rejection filtering system into their units power input circuit or I can install a manual reset switch to 'reset' the the radio when it freezes up. This can easily be done by inserting a normally closed pushbutton switch rated at 5 amps in series with the 12 volt constant battery (yellow) wire. This switch can be mounted under the dash but easily accessible to the driver to push whenever the unit locks up. It seems to me that Audiovox may have an overly sensitive unit and if you have this problem you may have to go to a different manufacturer. Try the suppressor kit first before exchanging the unit. Also, check the cars ground system as sometimes these systems are very poor due to the path they take to get back to the battery. An alternative ground circuit would be to run a wire DIRECTLY from the radio ground wire to the negative terminal of the battery. This radio really has a nice sound to it and other than the 'lock up' problem it performs very well. If your vehicles electrical system is in excellent condition, you may never experience this problem. However, be advised that possibly (in my opinion) Audiovox has a marginal unit here.
(As a follow up to this review, I discovered that Audiovox does indeed have a reset button built into their unit. However, you must use a paper clip and insert it into a recess hole to activate it. By installing the external pushbutton as previously described you can do the same thing much easier and quicker. The fact remains, however, Audiovox has a potential problem here or they wouldn't have built in the reset in the first place.)
