I think i fried my radio. Need help ASAP

[snobo4rder08]

so i just bought a 4 channel amp for my boat and hooked it up to some polk audio speakers. I have the RCA cables ran from the deck to the amp and then the speaker wire to the speakers from the amp. After 5min of it being on the cd deck turned off. I then smelled hot wires and touched the cd deck and it was hotttt. It will not turn back on. WTF could i have done??

i thought it was imidetly the amp that over heated or something but it was the CD deck. I have no idea how i would increase the power on the CD deck if all i have connected from the amp to the deck is RCA cables.

 

[fc3]

sounds like an impedience mismatch problem. Not knowing more details I can't say, but that's what it sounds like. Output transistors have probably failed. Simple fix if you know how. Probably just replace the outputs and the bias resistors and that should do it, but again, hard to know without seeing it.

 

[snobo4rder08]

can you explain more in detail what impedience mismatch is?

do i need to take the cd deck apart to fix it?

 

[snobo4rder08]

i guess what i mean is what would be mis matched.

oh and my amplifier is grounded on my negative terminal to the battery

 

[Firerooster]

What type deck do you have and what is it's age? The reason I ask is non-mariine decks will act this way when they are coming to the end of their life..... The reason I say non-marine rather then all is this reason. Depending oh climate, how much you use your boat, and store it etc..... Will effect it's life. But what I am explaining isas follows. The non-marine electronics, are affected by the moisture in the air, when you take the boat out use it and then cover it etc. All the water in the bilge, carpet, coolers etc. Raises the humidity level under the cover and corrodes the electronics that are not sealed up for marine use. We use our boat a lot! Thus the deck gets exposed to higher moisture then if it were just in my truck. About every two years I need to replace my deck. The symptoms are just as you have stated. It gets hot and starts cutting out.

Now I could just buy a marine radio deck and it would last me 4 years instead of two. But this is how I justify an upgrade every couple years. There are radios out there that can and will last a lot longer and others may chime in and say that theirs is original equipment and is 20 years old....blah blah blah. But that is why I prefaced it with, use, storage and climate will vary. We use our boat 2-3 times a week year round, I trailer my boat and it is kept under a custom cover. But unfortunately is not in a garage etc. It's out side in the AZ, sun. The cover breaths and let's the moisture out but it still will be very humid in there for a spell. And then it's back on the water before it really airs out.

So I am guessing your deck is a few years old and might be time to replace it

 

[snobo4rder08]

just noticed the gain on the amp was set at max.... so would that do it?

 

[Firerooster]

Shouldn't, it is after the deck not before it. So it shouldn't be sending any power back to it that would cause an increase in heat.