Why would my amp do that?

[Dante]

Well, I have a 900w 2 channel amp and I've never pushed it very hard. Today, on my way to school, I had my music on very low, and all of a sudden, I smell a horrible smell. My amp was smoking. What would cause an amp to do this? I've had the amp for about a year and a half, and it's never faulted on me at all.

[St8LyRaVn]

hhmm sounds like it might have possibly had some sort of power surge....but the fuses on the amp should have popped before it smoked. what brand amp is it??

[01blkcat]

Could have been condensation inside, could have been long standing damage... or you could have hit a bump hard enough to jar something loose.

[crazyoldcougar]

definately shorted something......somehow... have you done any revamping or moving of stereo equipment in the trunk....you may have shook something loose....is it i still under warrenty??

i fried an amp once by having one of the speaker leads loose and it shook out and onto one of the other leads or power wires i cant remember now...i think it was a power lead though cause i remember it welding itself to the amp..

[Dante]

It's a SoundStorm amp, and I haven't done any new stereo work. It's not under warranty, so it's time for a new amp

[Lukydogg]

SoundStorm amp's have weak solder points all over the internal's. The gain knob goes out first. They must use lighter cheaper materials because ive seen a few melt, burn up, catch fire, smoke, and just go out for no apparent reason. They are a hot fleamarket amplifier, like 1000watts for 100$ kind of deals. They resemble BOSS Audio products, cheaper made , decent power, but not high quality overall. I know quite a bit about that brand of amplifier. Cheapest bang for the buck.

[Dante]

Oh, Well, Thanks for the insight. Soundstorm is acually offering me a full warranty on the amp, so it's all good. I didn't know they were so cheap.