I was recently driving (about 1/2 hour ago), and something happened that anybody who's invested any money in their audio system dreads; the backlights on the gauges dimmed, and the faint smell of ozone and/or burning wire wafted to my nose just before the radio went out.

All I have in my car is a Pioneer DEH-P3700MP, moderately new side speakers (rated at 200-400 watts), and stock dash speakers (I think, can't remember). The car has been this way for at least 1 1/2 years and no problems whatsoever. It cut out while I was driving home at about 12:50AM and listening to Beethoven's 9th Symphony. It was pretty loud, but I've had the radio plenty louder so I couldn't have overloaded it (right?). The radio unit wasn't hot, or even warm, and I couldn't tell where the smell came from.

ANY guesses are welcome so I can fix this quickly- I'm not in a position to spare much time as of lately : ( If anybody has had a similar experience or anything simple in mind please let me know (please tell me it's an in-radio fuse or it's the cheap dash speakers).

I will be trouble-shooting tomorrow, but I just wanted a point (or ten) in the right direction cause like I said, I'm not in much position to spare time and probably won't be in my right mind anyway ; p. And besides I need my music! I'll update tomorrow.

P.S. I searched, really, I did.

 

Good song
My only guess would be checking your speakers wires or maybe ur deck wires..

 

I'm not sure what i would think if i passed a car blasting Beethoven's 9th

 

OK, I'm back with my update, and it's a confusing one. The radio now works, as well as all the speakers. I checked all the wiring I could dig up, and have found no seemingly faulty or even questionable connections. The car runs fine and there are no problems or even signs that there might have been any trouble, or that anything ever happened at all.

I even found the box to the radio and the remote for it that I've been searching for since the radio was put in, and had a chance to troubleshoot and explore my car's innards. While this leaves me happy that I don't have to replace anything expensive or otherwise, I'm very confused and a tad worried/frustrated about what the helicopter really happened, if anything at all...
*Cue X-Files music*

 

Found the culprit:





The wire has been rerouted and fixed up, burnt up junk has been tossed. Yay, if the battery makes it through the week, I've been successful in this operation.