OK, I'm not going to cry, yet. I'm a huge fan of audio, but know very little about it's secret workings. I hooked up my Aleph 2 clone a few minutes ago and powered it up with the speaker cable connected, but without the RCA inputs plugged in. After about 10 seconds, I could see faint smoke coming out of the top vents. After a few minutes to let it cool down ( I didn't feel any heat but in case resistors were overheated) I played some music through it and it seemed fine. Did I likely damage anything? I hadn't used this amp in abut 9 months., if that's worth anything.
Did you see smoke or did you see and smell smoke? Sure you didn't imagine it?? 
Did you hear anything when turning it on? Maybe a pop inside the amp or at the speakers?
If you have a volt meter, check the output DC by setting the meter to a low DC setting and see if there is any DC across the outputs. Write down what you see. Don't hook up speakers until you figure this out. If you have a disposable pair of 8 ohm speakers, then maybe use them to test after fixing the amp.
Is it possible to pop an output mosfet, yet still have a running amp?
Aleph 2 has banks of mosfets. If one went, then the rest could be sharing the current. If you let it run, is one heat sink noticably hotter than the other?
I'm no expert electronics toubleshooter, but just trying to get the ball roling for you.
good luck!
Did you hear anything when turning it on? Maybe a pop inside the amp or at the speakers?If you have a volt meter, check the output DC by setting the meter to a low DC setting and see if there is any DC across the outputs. Write down what you see. Don't hook up speakers until you figure this out. If you have a disposable pair of 8 ohm speakers, then maybe use them to test after fixing the amp.
Is it possible to pop an output mosfet, yet still have a running amp?
Aleph 2 has banks of mosfets. If one went, then the rest could be sharing the current. If you let it run, is one heat sink noticably hotter than the other?
I'm no expert electronics toubleshooter, but just trying to get the ball roling for you.
good luck!
The smoke was faint white and smelled a bit. I called a tech friend who told me I was very lucky the whole amp didn't blow. He said something about a capacitor in the circuit whose purpose is to prevent damage through oscillation when inputs aren't hooked up, and that I should get a flashlight and look for any burned caps near the rear of the amp...then I'll run it again this evening and see if the output transistors all get hot.
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