Headunit repair question

[spooney]

I have a kenwood unit here with the infamous blown speaker outputs. I've never really worked on headunits before and i was just wondering if restoring the audio on the speaker outputs is as simple as replacing the headunits amplifier IC.The rca outputs work fine just no speaker outputs.

[Perry Babin]

Generally all you have to do is replace the power amp IC. If the board was damaged, you may have to repair a few traces.

A few head units use really small vias (through-holes) which can make the IC difficult to remove without damaging the board. For those head units, I recommend cutting the leads off at the body of the IC and removing them individually from the board.

Do not pull back on the IC to try to read the numbers off of it. It will generally cause the pads to be damaged (especially on head units with single-sided boards).