sundown SAE 1200D

[dB-r 10+ year member]

DO IT! make sure it's a video and make sure you get the battery voltage if you can.

 

[PIITB Wut Wut 10+ year member]

screw clampin the amps.... give those bishes 1 battery each charged up and lets see a deathmatch!

 

[dB-r 10+ year member]

LOL. That would be more like an efficiency test.... Not sure which one would win that, I did a review on the old 1200 when it first came out but not sure if I checked the efficiency of it, as it's a smaller power amp that will work with most stock electricals with a good battery so doesn't really matter.

 

[sundownz Pro Seller]

For the sake of this test I just turned everything wide open just to see when they quit making power. THD was not a factor at all, just wide open. Obviously this is not the ideal situation -- I may send them to Chris so he can use some of his equipment to do a test using a scope as well.

The amps are fed with a 4 awg and 8 awg wire in parallel reduced to 8 awg so it will fit both amps (the 1800 won't fit our 4 awg lead directly as it is tinned).

Test load consists of two Nightshade 12s wire to 1 ohm and the tone is 60 Hz.

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* SAE-1200D on the bench

http://www.sundownaudio.com/misc/1800-watt_China/vs1200D/CIMG2617.MOV

* Power Test

http://www.sundownaudio.com/misc/1800-watt_China/vs1200D/CIMG2618.MOV

* Output Voltage Test

1730 watts

59 V

29.3 A (calculated)

2.01 ohms (calculated)

12.68v power supply

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* 1800-watt on the bench

http://www.sundownaudio.com/misc/1800-watt_China/vs1200D/CIMG2621.MOV

* Power Test

http://www.sundownaudio.com/misc/1800-watt_China/vs1200D/CIMG2622.MOV

* Output Voltage Test

1440 watts

57.1 V

25.21 A (calculated)

2.2 ohms (calculated)

13.1v power supply

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SAE-1200D produced ~20% more power... and this 1800 has an extra 2 output FETs above the AP1500D.

An SPL test may be more revealing... I may see if the 1800 will stay on in the Jeep at 1/2 nominal -- my rise is to just above 1 ohm.

 

[ninjawhiteboy12 10+ year member]

**** props to you, audiopipe needs to work on some things haha

 

[Nut Hair Trick 10+ year member]

Cool. Glad you tested them.
I had one guy PM me that his didn't work right but he went back and checked it again and they did.... go figure.... I test them all before putting in the box, but something can always happen in shipping. X-rays, EMF, etc... LOL j/k.

Yeah, that was me. If you remember, I told you it was buzzing like a bug zapper before I set the gains. Set the gains where they needed to be and the sound quit. Anything over 3/4 set and it still buzzed. Guys, just make sure you dont crank these things.

 

[sundownz Pro Seller]

No need to crank them, either, the gain knob generally won't even need to go to half if you have a remotely good pre-out.

 

[Tone415 10+ year member]

I set my gain to full and my volts to full! gets my sx's bumping!

jk jk.. if i set them to 3/4 of the way the amps cut off cuz my electrical cant handle it.. so its some were close to half. how do u set volts anyway?

 

[dB-r 10+ year member]

1730 watts

59 V

29.3 A (calculated)

2.01 ohms (calculated)

12.68v power supply

1440 watts

57.1 V

25.21 A (calculated)

2.2 ohms (calculated)

13.1v power supply

-----

SAE-1200D produced ~20% more power... and this 1800 has an extra 2 output FETs above the AP1500D.

An SPL test may be more revealing... I may see if the 1800 will stay on in the Jeep at 1/2 nominal -- my rise is to just above 1 ohm.

Please do put them in the jeep. Need to see the 1 ohm power. People claim the audiopipe make rated, and I think it probably will, but to have 1 ohm actual impedance you will need to wire at .5 or no more than .75 to compensate for impedance rise. I don't know about the SAE-1200D surviving .5 ohm/actual 1 ohm at FULL blast but try and see LOL....

 

[05fronty 5,000+ posts]

just got back from gulf shores, hooked up the sae 1200d. all i can say is wow,i'm hooked on sundown now

 

[Nut Hair Trick 10+ year member]

just got back from gulf shores, hooked up the sae 1200d. all i can say is wow,i'm hooked on sundown now

yep, mine was very nice. I cant imagine the newer version being much of an improvement. I need to read up on this thread and see what the differences are.

 

[dB-r 10+ year member]

just got back from gulf shores, hooked up the sae 1200d. all i can say is wow,i'm hooked on sundown now

I don't think you'll ever get as much BANG for $125 as those clearance 1200D's.... I just hope they all hold up, I admittedly had to rush the repairs on some of them, but then again, some of them just needed solder touch ups and that was it, others were blown to bits...

 

[sundownz Pro Seller]

yep, mine was very nice. I cant imagine the newer version being much of an improvement. I need to read up on this thread and see what the differences are.

The improvements are primarily for reliability and easier repairs -- we don't make throw away boards, we like to design them to be repairable //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

 

[dB-r 10+ year member]

I don't know about the SAE-1200D surviving .5 ohm/actual 1 ohm at FULL blast but try and see LOL....

Hey Jacob. If you do it. and either one of them busts (I suspect both might let the smoke out) send them here. I will BEEF them with some newer better mosfets and you can try it again.... LOL...

 

[dB-r 10+ year member]

The improvements are primarily for reliability and easier repairs -- we don't make throw away boards, we like to design them to be repairable //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

Service/Repair is part of any company who has a product's business model. If your product can only be replaced, not repaired, you lose money, re-boarding is expensive, and your products that could be back on the market via a refurb program (which gives you a bigger presence in the market) rather than in the the dumpster when they break.... Think of it this way, only a fool would have a Sundown amp that is in the trash, when it can be repaired at a low cost, perform as good as new, and instead of a customer who normally couldn't afford a Sundown amp going and buying something less expensive, they can buy a refurb and in exchange for a shorter warrany still get a Sundown amp rather than buying something lower-grade. Gives Sundown a bigger market presence. A smart move, make no mistake about it.....

SAE-1200D v.2 upgrades:

Double sided PCB: Reliability, repairability upgrade

More caps, possibly better caps: See above + possibility of performance enhancement

Better layout: Less vibration damage. Still possible, but not as likely. Shorter PCB traces mean better performance and less noise generated from the circuits. Better quality audio.