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!

 

Does your Navi work? If it does, it means ML amp is working. If so I would go to a professional sound shop and let them rewire a new amp or take it out completely if it's not necessary.
Did prev owner tell you why he put an extra aftermarket amp?

 

Bad amp is a pretty good bet. I like the 'get rid of it' approach.

 

No he didn't. The guy didn't know much about the car, it was his dads car that he was driving. Could the whole ML amp have been bypassed by this thing? It's so weird. I now nothing about car audio so I am a bit hesitant to just start pulling things out and replacing it. Best Buy said they could diagnose it for 35 bucks, I may do that........

 

The wire going to the fuse box is just the 12-volt turn-on wire. It isn't hurting anything. There is only one set of speaker wires hooked up to the amp, so it was likely for a subwoofer, or may be for a subwoofer that is in the factory location. I assume they go to the sub, and that you will find a line converter connected to the factory wires and going to the amp. None of that would affect the rest of the system though. It is possible that the ML amp is bad, just as you originally thought. Fixing the ML amp will restore the signal to the aftermarket amp, and everything should start working again, including the aftermarket amp and whatever sub is in there.

 

Now THAT is a great analysis of a problem and makes a lot of sense.....

 

Interesting. Bummer, I was hoping not to have to spend 600-900 bucks on a ML amp. Anyone got one???

 

Probably gonna get the amp fixed through united Radio in new York. 450 with a one year warranty sounds decent to me.