Dying HK Amplifier
 

'97 238i with HK sound.

Over the last several years I have lost all but two or three of the 10 outputs from the amp in the trunk. I have replaced a couple of speakers that I found had blown cones. Wires and speakers now all check out good. I can plug jumpers into the amp plug and route the head unit signal directly to any speaker and make it work. It sounds bad because I am jumpering a full frequency spectrum and each of these speakers was designed to handle only a narrow frequency band, but it works.

I hesitate to spend $150 on eBay to get another amp just as old that could start to fail tomorrow.

Any other suggestions?

By the way, I have two '97s, one with HK and one without, and even 10 years ago when the HK system was working perfectly, it was not really any better than the standard sound system. Just a little more bass. If I could get a full set of good standard speakers (with internal crossovers) I might just convert the HK system to a standard system. Trouble is, any standard speakers I might find would also be over a decade old.

I whimped out and got another HK amp from a junk yard. $135 shipped over eBay. Works fine. Hope it lasts.