ML amp opened up.

Analog Devices SHARC processor. More info found here.
http://www.analog.com/en/prod/0,2877...21065L,00.html

11 pairs of NPN/PNP discrete power transistors. 2N6488/2N6491 pairs.
http://www.datasheetcatalog.com/data...4/2N6488.shtml

2 capacitor banks, one totaling 14,400 microfarads, the other totaling 18,800 microfarads. Standard issue caps, nothing special about them. Electrolytics.

One small fan to cool the whole unit. The rest of the cooling relies on the outer chassis. ML packed ALOT into the amp/processor. The higher than normal (compared to pioneer/nak) mortality rate is more than likely due to heat.

This amp was donated by one of the CL members (thanks Nate!) for me to look at.

More pics to follow.

Percy

 

Another pic. This was out of a 01 GS430.

Percy

 

One of the two banks of transistor pairs.

 

WOW...i dont know much about all of the electronics that go into making a good speaker system work, but this stuff looks real tough.

 

Percy, are you going to upgrade it?

 

Richie,

The only thing that I could update/upgrade would be the filtering caps. Probably drop in some Black Gate/Rubycon (they work NICE!) or some Nichicon MUSE. Other than that, there are little banks of components right by the npn/pnp power transistors. Have to take a look to see what they do. Pretty tough to upgrade the board since it's a 4 layer design. Even taking out the caps might be risky if the solder doesn't flow correctly to all 4 layers.

There's also that layer of epoxy all over the main board. Still, the SHARC chip looks pretty darn cool. If I had the time, I wonder if I could make it adaptable to the pioneer/nak systems.... would have to find a source for those darn plugs.

Percy

 

This thing doesn't look bad for a factory-installed unit. Still NOTHING like an aftermarket unit. I'd say even a crappy aftermarket amp can equal it. Not even worth upgrading caps or other parts. The base stuff is just not there.
Those TO-220 packages for the 2N transistors are a bit wimpy, especially for dissipating heat. Surprised they didn't use MOSFETs...I'll bet this thing goes non-linear if you push it too hard. Probably geared for the average Lexus driver that isn't going to rock the neighborhood.
The SHARC is always cool.

 

Yep, I opened plenty of amps in my days and even a cheapo amp these days looks beefier inside than that thing. This is definitely for the owners who will never have their volume **** pass the 1/4 mark.

 

Very nice..thanks for the info...

Question for you guys...I have access to an AMP MANUFACTURER and DESIGNER...Can I have this amp modded to have FULL SIGNAL Stereo output "PRE_AMP???

I would like to know this in advance before I go about ripping my amp off and sending it in.

MIke

 

YES. They would probably have to add a buffering op-amp stage to drive the preamp signal output without affecting the existing stuff. The better question though, is - Is it worth it? I've gone thru so much of this kind of stuff and in the end, in hindsight, it was better to rip all of it out and start fresh.

 

Cool pics. Can you tell me if there are any internal fuses in the amp? I'm currently troubleshooting loss of audio in my 03 LX470 and none of the external fuses are blown. I really don't want to remove the amp if I don't have to.

Thanks in advance.

 

Donated for the sake of our curiosity huh!

Glad to hear that you didn't take apart the amp from your car!

 

I didn't see any internal standard sized fuses. Not worth the effort to take it apart for what is probably a surface mounted fuse.

Percy

 

I would have done the same thing Nate did...purchased one off of FleaBay (TM) and ditched the old one. But, it's a heck of a learning experience. Knew that ML was cheapo-ing some stuff, but didn't know it was THAT bad.

Percy

 

this is off the subject a little but I have the old Nak setup in my LS and I am wanting to upgrade the sub only. When I dug into my trunk and got to the amp I was confused by all the wires. Nothing is labelled and I cannot seem to find the sub wires. Are you guys familiar with this amp? What I am wanting to do is take the sub signal before it gets to the stock amp and run it to a different amp and sub. I assume this is possible. I have pics of the wires if that helps. They aren't great pics but they show the colors. Thanks in advance.