98 Q45 has two amps for rear deck speakers????

[tfvesquire]

Hi There:

I am new to this forum and just purchased my first Q (1998 Pearl White) and am slowly working out the bugs. When I turned on the stereo, the HU worked fine and I have sound from all ten speakers, but when I adjusted the bass and treble from front to rear to check each speaker, they were severely distorted in the rear. Now, I'm not sure if it is just the rear deck speakers or the rear door speakers too, but from what I have learned, most of the time, the rear deck speakers will get damaged first. I was planning on unplugging the rear deck speakers from inside the trunk and then testing the speakers in the rear doors.

I went ahead and bought replacement rear deck Bose amps that simply bolt right in in preparation for their replacement, but I also heard from a member (Bullitandy) who is parting out his 97 Q that there are two sets of amps in the rear deck area (one set on the speakers themselves and one that is mounted directly to the rear deck. He said the one mounted on the deck seemed to control all of the speakers in the car based on the number of cables running from it.

My question is, how will I know which amp is causing the distortion besides plugging in the replacement amps and testing everything one at a time? Is it more likely that the rear deck speaker amps would blow out before the larger rear deck "junction" amp? I know it would be based on the PO prior abuse of the stereo system, is either amp build stronger than the other? Finally, could my HU also be going out?

Let me know if there is anyone out there who is dealing with the same issue and found a solution.