Hi everyone. I recently purchased a 2001 LS430 with Mark Levinson sound. The previous owner told me that one day the sound system was working, the next it wasn't. I figured it was the ML amp that had gone out. Well i take delivery of the vehicle, and lo and behold there is an aftermarket amp in the trunk. The amp is wired directly to the battery. I have no sound coming through the speakers at all. I have checked all of the audio fuses, and everything looks good. I have disconnected the battery and reset the systems. Still nothing. The radio turns on, but no audio comes through. it looks like there is a wire going out of the amp to one of the fuses in the trunk, it looks like its an air suspension fuse. I have taken pictures of this whole wonky set up. Could the amp be bad? Was hoping it was something easy but so far I can't figure this out! Any help would be appreciated!

 

The blue wire should be your remote wire, it tells sends a signal to your amp to turn on. Your 2nd picture it looks like the amp is off since the the green light isn't on. Possibly a blown amp

 

Thanks. I think the car was off when I took that photo. The green light comes on when the car is on. Could it be non functional but still have the green light?

 

any sound from the interrior speakers? tat amp is for the subs from what i can see. please be more specific as what works and what does not. then i can help.

 

No sound from the speakers. I have audio from the navigation system, but nothing else.

 

the vr142 is a 70wrms x 2 @ 2ohm specked amp is it possible the guy before you blew the speakers? i mean 4 channels worth of speakers, 2 channel amp thats bridged... its a good possibility the speakers are blown

 

Interesting. I guess that could be possible. But all of the speakers blown? Seems like a lot of speakers going out. Idk

 

i would assume they only hooked up the front like i have seen many shops do before

 

that amp is a subwoofer amp. the two channels are bridged on the speaker wire connection. so that amp is not possibly powering any speakers in your car. Even if they tried, its not. your first step should be to trace the RCA wires from the amp to wherever they end up at. And honestly you should do it for the speaker wires too but that setup is a subwoofer setup. hence the 70w x 2 that was posted above.

that being said, find the OEM ML amp and check to see if it is still there and if so take a 9 volt battery to some of the output leads coming out of the amp to each speaker and touch them to the + and - of the battery. if it pops your speakers are good and in tact. if not you know that it is a speaker issue not an amp.

good luck

 

irish charm 1, 2, 4, or 5 channel it really dont matter 70watts to a speaker thats rated at 10 watts is 7x what its rated to support...

now i bet to think that is run to the subwoofer and not the door speakers but isnt the sub rated at 40wrms?

 

bridged thats ~140 watts

 

If your getting sound from the nav...then your speakers are good. It isn't going to pick and choose what it wants to send to the speakers. Find out what speakers work when the nav is on...this might help to determine what you know is good...

 

jgilk1 - Please tell me where I put that it powered the interior speakers.....I didn't and on the contrary said twice "that amp is a subwoofer amp//but that setup is a subwoofer setup". Only an extremely small number of people use them for speakers as you have "assumed". However I said to back trace the wires to see where they went anyway which would eliminate guessing of where the amplifier is wired to. That is what any good installer who's working in a situation like this. So your post back to me is a moot point and in no way helps the OP other than stating obvious facts about amplifiers in a general fashion based on assumptions.

"Most shops" are not all shops and not all installers are the same. Judging the fact that most are not educated by one of the technician authors of the MECP textbook, they make decisions based on the guy before them. In conclusion, a good installer takes the knowledge they obtain in the past, makes educated inferences into a current situation or problem, and starts using the most common ways to discover the truth. It's called troubleshooting and is, arguably, the hardest thing to perform in the automotive industry.

Back to helping the OP. The signal sent from your headunit to the amp is a quicker way to tell if signal is getting back there or if someone who installed the setup placed a line output converter or something else to block the path. My advice was to hone in on the output of the amp to decide if the amp itself was blown. However LEXRX04 has a good point in checking to see if anything is blocking the input from the radio to the amp is a good idea. If you find it is not, you can do a number of things including tracing wires is one of the more detailed ways to do it. I'm willing to help out where I can.

 

Thank you. How can I go about checking for a signal? I am thinking the ML amp is jsut dead, i checked all the plgus on the amp and reseated them, disconnected the battery, still nothing. What I find strange is that on the screen where the volume meter shows, its just blanked out. If the speakers arent getting powered woudl that be blank?

 

hmm. did you pull out the headunit? and its very possible the amp is dead. physically check the wiring behind the headunit and look to find where the prior owner put the line output converter. that seems like a likely culprit