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Stock Alpine Amp Let go of the Magic Blue Smoke

9K views 0 replies 1 participant last post by  kms 
#1 ·
So, maybe a little complicated, maybe not... Thanks for sticking with it.

My wife was driving my 2013 300c Luxury (with the Alpine System), she heard a crackling/static sound through the speakers, smelled electrical smoke, then then no sound. 25amp fuse in slot 27 blown, and replacement blows immediately without the key on.

I've gone through the wiring under the dash and don't see any burnt wires, but did fix some dodgy aftermarket wiring that the previous owner installed and insulated with electrical tape SMH (it was a SEMA car in it's previous life - led lighting controller, radar detector brain, exhaust cutouts controller, Tranzformer all under the dash). Still, the fuse blows. It's possible that a wire shorted against the heat sink on the amp and cascaded through the power supplies. All connections now protected with heat shrink.

Now... I hardly even use that amp -- I tapped into the rear deck speaker wires with a line level converter to send RCA signal to a JBL MS8, then to 3 different amps, for front components, rear deck, and subs. System has been installed in current form for ~4 years with zero trouble. All I really need is signal to the MS8 to make this go, which can be high or low level. But I do need the stock amp for phone calls (center dash speaker) - with the MS8 in play, there's a nasty echo otherwise.

I think it's safe to say that one way or another, that amp is toast. The question now is whether to replace it (looks like ~$125 online), and move forward with the aftermarket wiring as is current, or to tap into the audio signal before the amp.

What are the pros and cons of bypassing the stock amp? Lose any functionality? Any way to maintain the dash speaker functionality for the phone?

Anything I'm forgetting to check?

Finally, anyone have a working one they want to donate? Pretty sure the part number is 5064981AM :)

TIA!
 
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