iko

I have Panasonic deck, about 2 years old, hooked up to my front speakers and two amplifiers, one for my rear speakers and another for my subs. Today I decided to change my subwoofer amp for something more powerful. Everything got installed and I had my system on as I was hooking up the subs and tweeking the gains. While I was turning the screw on the + output for one of the subs, I accidentally touched the chassis of the amp (which I guess is a ground source?) with the screwdriver at the same time. I got a nice show of fireworks as sparks went flying everywhere, and my whole system made a loud crazy thunder sound. Although it was amusing, the aftermath wasnt so pleasing: my deck now makes a popping sound every time it mutes or de-mutes. I completely disconnected the amp from the deck and still the same effect... every time the deck turns on, turns off or goes into mute, it makes a loud pop thru both the low-level and hi-level outputs. Also, I should mention that I wasn't aware of this until minutes later. After the sparks/thunder, everything went right back to normal and I had a sigh of relief and carried on... but when I started turning up the gain on the amp the system started making loud pops. So due to this, I think there may be two causes of the problem: either the speaker output touching ground, or the amplifier gain going too high.

My warranty expired long ago and before I start taking appart my once-valuable deck and poking at the circuitry, I want to get a good idea of what the problem may be.

I've read about something like a delay switch which stops a burst of power from going into the output when the head unit powers up... my best guess is I fried it. If so, could I fix this myself? Any ideas as to what I broke and how? Any thoughts would be appreciated.

iko

I tried turning on my sound system again, and it's definetely not a switch because there's also a low humming noise and a bunch of quiet random static. Sounds like power is running through the outputs even when there's no music playing.

I never knew you can blow a deck with an amp... always thought it only worked the other way.