Are all camplite CD players horrible?

[ron]

Is it  just my system , or are all CD players and tuners horrible?  Mine has absolutely no clean volume, anything beyond level 8 or 9 or above results in rapidly increasing distortion, well  below any cheap car system I have heard.  I took out one speaker and did not find anything abnormal.  Could the polarity of the speaker wires be installed correctly?  ( is there such a thing as this?). Any advice beyond total replacement?

[charliem]

[font size="3"]I haven't noticed any problems playing  FM, TV or satellite radio through the factory installed radio and ceiling mounted speakers in the 21RBS, although I don't play it at ear shattering volume. Never tried a CD. Yes, there is a correct polarity for the speakers. It affects the stereo and bass performance. Each speaker should have the + wire connected to the same terminal. It doesn't matter which wire/color you designate as +, as long as all speakers are connected the same. Which model CL and radio do you have?
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[tinkeringtechie]

What kind of distortion are you hearing (crackling, popping, buzzing)? It could be a blown speaker, but the speakers aren't very good to begin with. Someday I'll upgrade mine, but it's pretty low on my list of priorities.

[david]

ron:

Yes, I suspect that they are Chinese POS. Can't (easily) turn off, difficult to tune, Haven't noticed distortion, but wouldn't be surprised. So I wrote it off.

FWIW, what we use while camping is a $20 12V amplifier (Chinese of course!), a couple of mini bookshelf speakers (Radio Shack I think) and an iPhone playing Pandora. If we don't have a cell signal and most campgrounds that I go to don't, then we use an iPod.

This is mostly for background music around the campfire at night. We have to keep it low and aim the speakers away from others. I have walked by adjacent campsites to make sure it was not obtrusive. But it would work just as well inside, but we typically don't spend much time inside.

David

[ktnm8135]

I had an issue with speakers " buzzing" at mid to high volume. Unscrewed the speakers and dumped out the styrofoam pellets. Problem solved.  It's easy and only took a few minutes. Two speakers did not have the pellets in them, but the other two were full.