i thought it was an amp too, but then i wasnt too sure when i replaced my stock deck with an alpine unit and i realized that there was no remote (turn-on) wire coming into the wiring harnass. didnt make any sense at all, amps need remote wires in order to function preoperly and there wasnt one running to my stock deck, my new deck for that matter. so if it is an amp, where the hell is this remote wire?