You used the "smoke it out" troubleshooting technique. However, you are lucky you did not burn the PC board. Audio power amps usually use output power transistors in parallel. Your amp probably has 3 pairs and you are now running on 2. if you are not driving a low impedance load, it will probably work forever.
If I were in your shoes, I would consider myself lucky and replace the bad device.


Scott Waltham, MA 1996 GL V6 ATX