Mark Levinson Amplifier Failure
05-11-15, 07:56 AM
#1
Pit Crew
Thread Starter
Mark Levinson Amplifier Failure
Happened on Sunday. Driving down the road, listening to the radio when suddenly the radio completely stopped and the passenger side, dash speaker started making a loud popping sound about once per second....pop....pop...pop...continuously. Turning the radio off didn't make any difference. I couldn't turn it off with any control. No volume control, nothing helped.
Turning the car off and restarting didn't make any difference. ....pop....pop....pop... I got to enjoy the rest of my 30 minute drive with that incessant noise.
Reading up on the symptoms, it seems I suffer from Mark Levinson Amp failure.
I've pulled the amp out of the trunk and called United Radio in Syracuse, NY. I gave them the part number off the unit and they quoted me $475 to repair if I ship in.
It's more than my wife wants to spend as she only listens to AM talk radio...... I told her I would just velcro a $5 AM radio to the dash and she'll be good to go!
There aren't any less expensive viable options, are there?
Turning the car off and restarting didn't make any difference. ....pop....pop....pop... I got to enjoy the rest of my 30 minute drive with that incessant noise.
Reading up on the symptoms, it seems I suffer from Mark Levinson Amp failure.
I've pulled the amp out of the trunk and called United Radio in Syracuse, NY. I gave them the part number off the unit and they quoted me $475 to repair if I ship in.
It's more than my wife wants to spend as she only listens to AM talk radio...... I told her I would just velcro a $5 AM radio to the dash and she'll be good to go!
There aren't any less expensive viable options, are there?
05-11-15, 02:35 PM
#2
Instructor
A technician from http://www.svtservices.co.uk/lexus-m...epair-service/ posted at https://www.clublexus.com/forums/ls4...ml#post7662347 and he states that repairing the amp isn't just as easy as replacing a diode, fuse, or capacitor.
On the other hand, I've read other posts of people sending their amps in for repairs and it is shipped back same day. Maybe some repairs are easy and don't involve removing a layer of epoxy off the entire circuit board, soldering on a new 208-pin DSP chip by hand, and reprogramming the flash ROM.
If you have a friend that is an electrical or computer engineer, your friend could check the basics. I don't think it's likely for a DSP or flash ROM chip to randomly fail if it wasn't exposed to extreme temperatures or an unclean/out-of-spec power supply. If they do fail, I would think it is likely to be caused by a smaller component failing first.
Some pics of the circuit board are at https://www.flickr.com/photos/oparve...th/3485318764/
So far, the original ML amp in my 2002 UL works perfectly fine.
On the other hand, I've read other posts of people sending their amps in for repairs and it is shipped back same day. Maybe some repairs are easy and don't involve removing a layer of epoxy off the entire circuit board, soldering on a new 208-pin DSP chip by hand, and reprogramming the flash ROM.
If you have a friend that is an electrical or computer engineer, your friend could check the basics. I don't think it's likely for a DSP or flash ROM chip to randomly fail if it wasn't exposed to extreme temperatures or an unclean/out-of-spec power supply. If they do fail, I would think it is likely to be caused by a smaller component failing first.
Some pics of the circuit board are at https://www.flickr.com/photos/oparve...th/3485318764/
So far, the original ML amp in my 2002 UL works perfectly fine.
Last edited by StanVanDam; 05-11-15 at 02:44 PM. Reason: Added link for circuit board pics
05-12-15, 01:03 PM
#3
Driver School Candidate
Join Date: Dec 2014
Location: Indiana
Posts: 2
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
ejthomp,
So the SAME thing happened to me last night as well, except my "popping" noise eventually stopped! As I work at Lexus, I have a replacement cost with exchange of $525.
According to our experts, there is no less expensive aftermarket solution with the ML sound system that won't likely cause other problems. Seems hard to believe, but the market for this particular part is so small as to preclude any manufacturer from making a replacement.
So, replace with exchange seems the way to go!
So the SAME thing happened to me last night as well, except my "popping" noise eventually stopped! As I work at Lexus, I have a replacement cost with exchange of $525.
According to our experts, there is no less expensive aftermarket solution with the ML sound system that won't likely cause other problems. Seems hard to believe, but the market for this particular part is so small as to preclude any manufacturer from making a replacement.
So, replace with exchange seems the way to go!
Thread
Thread Starter
Forum
Replies
Last Post