About 3 hours into a 4 hour drive (while the car was only months old, with just 1800 miles), the sound switched from playing the radio at a normal volume to suddenly extraordinarily loud crackle, static, popping noises. The noise continued at this indescribably high volume for about one minute while I tried anything to help -- I tried adjusting the volume knob, unplugging my phone (which was plugged in just for directions), switching inputs, switching from FM to AM, pushing the volume knob in to turn the whole thing off, etc. Nothing stopped the noise. After about 90 seconds, it stopped, but I still do not know why. After that, I could not get any sound to play. My ears rang the entire rest of the drive (another 1 hour). The noise was so loud and so sudden that it made me very upset and scared at what could have happened that luckily didn't - I could have easily been so startled to swerve into another lane, and if my 4 year old had been in the back, I am really scared to think of how traumatized he would be, how damaged his ears would be, and what else would have happened. My ears are still ringing today, a full day later.