Half or full bridge?

[adulbrich 5,000+ posts]

What kind of amplifier do you run and why?

Please contribute to the poll!

I am going to use the statistics in my English paper.

Why did you chose Korean or Brazilian?

I've run both, but only have my experiences and opinions.

Main reason I'm not running half bridge anymore is I can't afford to upgrade to the next level. Big gap in price/power for next Brazilian amp up.

I plan to wire my M4a lower in the future when my electrical is better & I need/want more power (will get new subs or re-cone).

For those who don't know

Most amps people run are Korean. Korean amps are half-bridge and only use half the rail voltage inside the amp. They are less efficient than Brazilian amps, but are "more reliable". They can be wired lower than "equivalent" Brazilian (full bridge) amplifiers. Half bridge components are commonly over-built. When you wire lower, your amp sees less impedance. More current is allowed to flow. Beefy Korean amps have strong enough internal parts to handle the extra current flow. Brazilians are not "over-built" and cannot handle excessive current. They make their power by putting out a higher voltage, because they use the full rail voltage to drive the load. Also, they are more sensitive to voltage fluctuations. They don't like low or high voltage. The argument is that full bridge will never do rated power because of impedance rise. Koreans can be wired lower to compensate. Cost for the vehicle's electrical upgrades are significantly more for half-bridge amplifiers. It gets more technical than this, but I hope I've given a basic overview.

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[LosIsATool 5,000+ posts]

Korean

Personally I've pissed enough money away over the years so if something is even a little suspect I avoid it.

 

[adulbrich 5,000+ posts]

Thanks for the response!

 

[hispls 5,000+ posts]

I have yet to talk to an amp repair shop who has anything good to say about Brazilian amps and the class D amps coming from the Far East are very antiquated technology. If these were my only choices in the matter I'd take a Brazilian since at least they're small and I could get one to run high voltage.

 

[Bomber Z 10+ year member]

Korean. After all the years of changing things around, running low ohms and all the other crazy things I've tried 4 in the morning. And they still work.

 

[adulbrich 5,000+ posts]

Thanks. I haven't had issues with either. I don't wire below 1 ohm though, because my electrical has always been limited. Going to make it solid after I sell my old gear

 

[gckless 5,000+ posts]

You might want to explain this for people that may not know.

 

[adulbrich 5,000+ posts]

You might want to explain this for people that may not know.

True. I'll edit my first post.

 

[macsdad 10+ year member]

This simply embodies the age has nothing to do with knowledge. Thanks for the informative post, young dude, seriously.

 

[adulbrich 5,000+ posts]

This simply embodies the age has nothing to do with knowledge. Thanks for the informative post, young dude, seriously.

Thanks man

Based on the poll, more people run Brazilian than I thought

 

[macsdad 10+ year member]

I had thought about it, but I think, with help of your post, I will keep my saz1500v3, put in my second batt, and maybe my singer alt-if I can recover it from storage, and give these tc 2000 12s the business.

 

[adulbrich 5,000+ posts]

Sounds good

 

[dbjunior 10+ year member]

Running Korean 5k at .5 now with rise getting Maybe 3k to get 5k I'd have to run .25. Instead I'm going Brazilian 8k at 1ohm to get 5k and efficiency will be better

 

[adulbrich 5,000+ posts]

^That's the theory. Many are still reluctant to run Brazilian. As long as you don't wire below rated, you should be fine.

Full-bridge is great for daily, but I'm not sure that they are right for SPL burps. Don't see a lot of Brazilian topology in the competition lanes.

I did see someone running Taramps a while back, and know someone who competed with a Stetsom 2kd though. Is Stetsom quite a bit different than the others? Boards look different. @mylows10;

 

[mylows10 5,000+ posts]

The main difference I've seen between Stetsom soundigital and taramp is the crossovers on the amps. Stetsom seems to have invested more time there which makes for a better daily amp. All 3 amp really don't like any voltage over 14.6 and some may even blow. I actually talked to mari from stetsom at ces about this. She reason was most of the Brazilian cars have voltage at 14.4 or less so they designed the amps to work well in that range. She also said if you need the higher voltage amp. Then go 18 volt stable. Anyway. My sd 8k didn't have a good xover at all,frankly it was junk. My teammates taramp 4k looks like the same crossover as well like said. Don't go under rated impedance and under voltage you'll be fine. But consider a external crossover for daily