I feel like I should chime in here, due to the fact that I think Grinder1989 is giving Maxxsonics a little bit too hard of a time about their budget line of amps, and I have my opinion as well, value it however you want to, I haven't been doing this forever, I have no EE degree either, though I have a couple semesters of it, but I have lots of experience working on Maxxsonics products and most all the others out there:
In Maxxsonics defense, all of the Brutus amps I have worked on had Vishay/IR parts in them in the output section where it really counts. The power supplies use various different parts, sometimes Vishay/IR, would like to see them use all Vishay parts, (IR's mosfets are now all Vishay) but seriously just in my opinion after having worked on everything from A-Z here well, almost everything, the Brutus amps are not that bad and definately the best built China amps I have seen. It's almost like they get their PCB's from the same place as the Koreans do, and hired one of the same engineers. I do agree on the mounting of the mosfets, 90 degrees = disaster waiting to happen 180 degree (flat) is the way to go, leave some length on the legs so the part legs don't break as easy from vibration. I do agree that better parts is more of a priority than a lightbulb in an amp too. Not ragging on Maxxsonics here, I like their products, they are NOT that bad in my opinion, but that's just my opinion.... obviously not everyone shares it. There is WAY WAY worse stuff out there than Maxxsonics budget lines of amplifiers.
The older Brutus series were plauged with problems caused by using the HIP4080AIP Full wave drive IC for the output section of the amplifier. BUT, that has gone away, and they were NOT the only ones to do it, there are literally millions of amplifiers out there that used the same chip, same design, and have problems along the same lines.... For example, everyone's beloved MMATS amps.... Those old MMATS amps that people just RAVE about use the same IC to drive their output section. And it often fails, and when it does it usually takes out an output or two with it. This can lead to the power supply in the amp blowing up if the protect circuit doesn't catch it. I believe MMATS did a little better implementation of the HIP4080AIP chip and a little better perhaps, protection circuitry than in the Brutus amps, but maybe not. Maybe the reason so many Brutus amps ended up going up in smoke, while the MMATS amps just stayed in protect was because the people using the amp. If an amp is going into protect, and you are a smart guy, you will unhook it and quit trying to power it up, whereas the guys who bought the Brutus amps may not have even thought about "well, maybe I should unhook it" and just kept trying to turn it on, and eventually the protect circuit doesn't kick in, or burns up trying to keep the amp in protect and the amp starts up and then smoke goes everywhere! While the guy with the bad MMATS amp unhooked his and sent it for repair... The FET mounting is way better in the MMATS amps, the FETs are under the board, never seen one break a leg from vibration, on the other hand I have worked on LOTS of Brutus amps with broken legs on the parts, mainly the rectifiers and output mosfets. This is from the 90 degree FET mounting. Most companies don't want to incur the extra costs of the 180 degree mosfet mounting, I suspect for a couple reasons: 1 cost, would have to tool a new heatsink 2 size, the amp would grow a couple inches, compact amps sell good these days, 3 they are not informed about this problem, the factories and engineers that actually design the way the things are assembled assure the buyer "everything is gonna be just fine, this is the best design ever!!!" which that's what they all say, so it gets overlooked and comes around to bite you in the *** later down the road with all the vibration failures. I know of at least 1 company that willingly, even after being informed of the 90 degree mounting problem, went back with it anyway, not mentioning any names here.... The reason was to be compact. Compact is what sells these days.... that's what they said....
In Maxxsonics defense, all of the Brutus amps I have worked on had Vishay/IR parts in them in the output section where it really counts. The power supplies use various different parts, sometimes Vishay/IR, would like to see them use all Vishay parts, (IR's mosfets are now all Vishay) but seriously just in my opinion after having worked on everything from A-Z here well, almost everything, the Brutus amps are not that bad and definately the best built China amps I have seen. It's almost like they get their PCB's from the same place as the Koreans do, and hired one of the same engineers. I do agree on the mounting of the mosfets, 90 degrees = disaster waiting to happen 180 degree (flat) is the way to go, leave some length on the legs so the part legs don't break as easy from vibration. I do agree that better parts is more of a priority than a lightbulb in an amp too. Not ragging on Maxxsonics here, I like their products, they are NOT that bad in my opinion, but that's just my opinion.... obviously not everyone shares it. There is WAY WAY worse stuff out there than Maxxsonics budget lines of amplifiers.
The older Brutus series were plauged with problems caused by using the HIP4080AIP Full wave drive IC for the output section of the amplifier. BUT, that has gone away, and they were NOT the only ones to do it, there are literally millions of amplifiers out there that used the same chip, same design, and have problems along the same lines.... For example, everyone's beloved MMATS amps.... Those old MMATS amps that people just RAVE about use the same IC to drive their output section. And it often fails, and when it does it usually takes out an output or two with it. This can lead to the power supply in the amp blowing up if the protect circuit doesn't catch it. I believe MMATS did a little better implementation of the HIP4080AIP chip and a little better perhaps, protection circuitry than in the Brutus amps, but maybe not. Maybe the reason so many Brutus amps ended up going up in smoke, while the MMATS amps just stayed in protect was because the people using the amp. If an amp is going into protect, and you are a smart guy, you will unhook it and quit trying to power it up, whereas the guys who bought the Brutus amps may not have even thought about "well, maybe I should unhook it" and just kept trying to turn it on, and eventually the protect circuit doesn't kick in, or burns up trying to keep the amp in protect and the amp starts up and then smoke goes everywhere! While the guy with the bad MMATS amp unhooked his and sent it for repair... The FET mounting is way better in the MMATS amps, the FETs are under the board, never seen one break a leg from vibration, on the other hand I have worked on LOTS of Brutus amps with broken legs on the parts, mainly the rectifiers and output mosfets. This is from the 90 degree FET mounting. Most companies don't want to incur the extra costs of the 180 degree mosfet mounting, I suspect for a couple reasons: 1 cost, would have to tool a new heatsink 2 size, the amp would grow a couple inches, compact amps sell good these days, 3 they are not informed about this problem, the factories and engineers that actually design the way the things are assembled assure the buyer "everything is gonna be just fine, this is the best design ever!!!" which that's what they all say, so it gets overlooked and comes around to bite you in the *** later down the road with all the vibration failures. I know of at least 1 company that willingly, even after being informed of the 90 degree mounting problem, went back with it anyway, not mentioning any names here.... The reason was to be compact. Compact is what sells these days.... that's what they said....
