Is sundown audio really that amazing?

[dragon.breath 10+ year member]

Op aq subs are decent but sound absolutely horrible, well the hdc3's do anyway....havent tried or heard the sdc's so no comment on them

you do understand that any subwoofer in the wrong box is going to sound horrible, right?

 

[sundownz Pro Seller]

i thought it was cause Jake is a ninja? guess im out the loop....

But that helps.

 

[sundownz Pro Seller]

Never really cared about Sundown but after blowing two Crunch GP3k's I decided to try a "quality" amp and got a 2500D in a trade. Been running it for about a month now and I have to say I like it. So far it's withstood my apparently harsh conditions just fine. And I kind of like any company who's owner is willing to come to online forums and defend his product, so yeah, I think Sundown really is that amazing

Glad you like it -- the GP3k amps have spring clips on the FETs so I'd guess vibration is your issue and the FETs snapped off and thus the amp blew. For this reason we don't use spring clips on the FETs and add a bunch of extra screws to the board itself to prevent this type of failure. dB-R has confirmed that ~75% or so of the amps he sees are vibration related regardless of what the failure looks like on the surface.

 

[sundownz Pro Seller]

;7427646']im getting ready to purchase a pair of sa8s... gonna be my first experience with their subs. i hope they live up to the hype and survive the 2kish im throwing at em //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/naughty.gif.94359f346c0f1259df8038d60b41863e.gif

Be sure they are the newest revision if you plan that type of abuse -- we've beefed up the leads and spider a bit on the most recent production run.

 

[dragon.breath 10+ year member]

off topic.

jacob, i do have one MINOR suggestion for you. the blue led's on your remote gain controller's are way way too bright. i have had to put black tape over mine to keep it from blinding me at night.

 

[kmanian 5,000+ posts]

off topic.jacob, i do have one MINOR suggestion for you. the blue led's on your remote gain controller's are way way too bright. i have had to put black tape over mine to keep it from blinding me at night.

yep and that is about the only down side to Sundown.

Good point though

 

[Wildbillpb 10+ year member]

SA series is the best for the price range and for the other price ranges there is Z series and nightshades lol

 

[Bettr n' Revrse 5,000+ posts]

yep and that is about the only down side to Sundown.
Good point though

Thats how most of them are... Mine is hidden in a little cubby in the dash but reflects of the back window lol

 

[RAM_Designs 5,000+ posts]

I will take high end DDs mts SHW and atomic subs over the sa subs in a heartbeat..

And you'll also be paying for it if buying new and authorized. You can get a new 18" Zv2 for $479...you can't get a 3518 for that price.

 

[bubbagumper6 5,000+ posts]

Glad you like it -- the GP3k amps have spring clips on the FETs so I'd guess vibration is your issue and the FETs snapped off and thus the amp blew. For this reason we don't use spring clips on the FETs and add a bunch of extra screws to the board itself to prevent this type of failure. dB-R has confirmed that ~75% or so of the amps he sees are vibration related regardless of what the failure looks like on the surface.

Yeah, I really hate the design of the GP3k. I attempted to repair the first one I blew and boy was it a PITA. It has 3 screws that screw the board to the heatsink, other than that, it's only the fets that hold it in place so the legs on those things must take an awful beating. I did have the amps mounted to the top of my enclosure however, it was double baffled (so 1.5" of MDF) and I thought that would be fine, but apparently not. In any case, before I installed the Sundown I cut out another piece of MDF to mount the amp to and actually put a good amount of 1/4" foam between the amp board and the double baffle of the enclosure. So far so good //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

 

[corrie32 10+ year member]

I really dont think that the spring clips are the problem, i think it was the mounting on the box that killed your GP3k. Zapco, AQ, DD, Incrimanator,American bass, arc audio, and maybe more used spring clips also.

 

[sundownz Pro Seller]

I really dont think that the spring clips are the problem, i think it was the mounting on the box that killed your GP3k. Zapco, AQ, DD, Incrimanator,American bass, arc audio, and maybe more used spring clips also.

If you would like to verify about spring clips vs. bolt down contact dB-R Electronics. He has worked on 100s or 1000s of amps both ways and statistically spring clip amps fail more often than bolt down at the FET legs. Many companies use them as they are quicker upon initial build and also can be used to mount FETs vertically much easier for a narrower case.

Reliability CAN be pretty good with spring clips IF, a big IF, adequate support is given on the board (I have seen some of the new IA boards and they DO offer good support so they are a good example of doing it well) -- which often it is not; as is the case with the GP3k. Regardless, though, bolt down has the statistical reliability advantage against vibration per dB-R.

 

[SPLaudio 5,000+ posts]

if the led is too brite guys use 600-2000grit sand paper and sand the tip on the led it will "frost" it and defuse the light alot....

 

[-01limited- 10+ year member]

if the led is too brite guys use 600-2000grit sand paper and sand the tip on the led it will "frost" it and defuse the light alot....

good tip but its bright. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/biggrin.gif.d71a5d36fcbab170f2364c9f2e3946cb.gif

 

[RAM_Designs 5,000+ posts]

good tip but its bright. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/biggrin.gif.d71a5d36fcbab170f2364c9f2e3946cb.gif

You must be new to the interwebz. No one can spell here, and even if they can they just don't give a fuck.